The Struggle for Palestinian Liberation is Antiracism Work

As antiracist health scholars, practitioners, and advocates, our fundamental mission is to dismantle structural racism and actively challenge social injustices that undermine population health. We follow in the praxis of our predecessors who identify that the remedy to inequities in health is political. Our disciplines have overtly stood in solidarity with various forms of oppression. We have formally declared — and made careers around — racism as a public health crisis. Yet, we have collectively hesitated to do the same for Palestinians. This is misguided.

Structural racism is not separate from imperialism and national projects of settler-colonialism. The harm created by these oppressive forces is driven by white supremacy and unfettered capitalism and creates a reality in which the United States, the Global North, and their allies believe they are entitled to the land, people, and resources all over the world. All three of these systems are inherently connected to each other; they create and sustain racialized hierarchies and produce the inequities antiracism work seeks to eliminate.

US “intervention” in the Global South, via war and economic policies (e.g. NAFTA, sanctions etc.), serves to maintain the status of the US as a global power, and subjugates racialized people abroad, as evident across contexts including Sudan, Afghanistan, Haiti, Vietnam, Venezuela, Congo, Cuba, and (of present focus) Palestine. To authentically engage in antiracism health scholarship and practice is to explicitly name injustices tied to white supremacy and maintain an unapologetic commitment to antiracism praxis that transcends US borders. To recognize how borders and nations are themselves colonial constructions is part of what distinguishes antiracist health commitments from others.

As such, we, the undersigned,* unequivocally support a free Palestine and Palestinians’ right to return. Our understanding of white supremacy as a global threat to the safety, survival, and self-determination of all people locates Palestinian liberation as a racial justice issue.

Photo by Geeth Image on Shutterstock

The global nature of white supremacy informs how we understand the violence in Palestine, which did not begin on October 7. Palestinians have been resisting occupation, state- and internationally sanctioned violence, and hyper-surveillance for 75 years since the establishment of Israel and the Nakba in 1948. What is happening now in Gaza is genocide. Like Black, Indigenous, and other racialized communities in the US, Palestinians are suppressed through police violence, mass incarceration, and resource deprivation. Their suppression is legitimized through rhetorical dehumanization (e.g., “children of darkness,” “human animals,” etc.), a tactic employed across racialized communities throughout US history.

The silence of and censorship within our institutions, professional organizations, and among our colleagues who espouse values of antiracism and equity is reprehensible. It is an act of complicity. But more insidious, is speaking in circumscribed or system-approved language with attempts to “both-sides” what is happening, legitimizing, and emboldening white supremacist systems and structures to enact further violence.

For over a month, the American Public Health Association (APHA) failed to acknowledge the genocide. At the conference, APHA finally passed a ceasefire resolution, they significantly redacted the original proposal and did not promote it on the public facing side of their website–a stark contrast to their Nov. 3 statement and their promotion of their condemnation of Russia over Ukraine. This trend of linguistic hedging, selective solidarity, and moral cowardice is by no means limited to APHA, as the American Medical Association (AMA) recently voted down a resolution to call for a ceasefire.

Because white supremacy is global, the technologies of repression and control — police training, weaponry, surveillance, profiling, and the logics of incarceration — are exported, exchanged, and used to suppress, criminalize, and punish protest and dissent. Antiracism work has never been safe — politically, personally, or professionally. True engagement requires risk and resistance. Despite these threats, we must not lose sight of our commitment to antiracism praxis to create transformative and sustainable structural change. We must be unambiguous in our language and steadfast in our work focusing on, and in solidarity with, communities impacted by white supremacy.

Reimagining Antiracist Work: Calls to Action

The US’s investment in the maintenance and expansion of Israel is antithetical to health equity. We denounce the US government’s continued military aid to Israel and its use of Israel to expand US hegemony in the region. We demand a permanent ceasefire and provision of financial reparations to support both the immediate needs of healthcare, food and water security, and housing, and the long-term process of restoring Palestinians’ right to return.

As we reimagine a world free from white supremacy and colonialism, we recognize that a fully free Palestine requires the end of an occupational and apartheid regime. We call on our colleagues to actively disrupt the dominant position and participate in the sustained efforts to:

► Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel at your institutions. The BDS movement provides guidelines for effective participation, including strategic targets to boycott as individuals and how to organize academic boycott campaigns (e.g. research your institution’s ties to Israel in retirement investments, academic partnerships, and funding from military-industrial and war profiteering companies)

• Vocally oppose efforts to censure BDS and advocate for the repeal of anti-BDS policies

► Organize for the protection of students, staff, & faculty (especially adjuncts, postdocs, visiting fellows, and other contingent personnel) who speak in support of Palestine. This includes opposing efforts to harass, blacklist, intimidate, harm, doxx, or threaten those that advocate for Palestine.

• Connect with student organizations already doing this work (e.g. Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace). Amplify their efforts, stand with them, and organize within your unions to put pressure on administrators to protect academic freedom and prevent efforts to police and punish

► Commit to deepening your knowledge of the connections between the U.S. and Israel and its impacts on Palestinians and other communities of color in the U.S.

• A starting point from a Black Feminist perspective: webinar & reading list
• Learn about and support efforts to End the Deadly Exchange between the U.S. and Israel; plug into your campus and community police abolition movements (e.g. Cops off Campus, Stop Cop City) to end the broader surveillance state

*Disclaimer: the views expressed here do not represent the views of our respective institutions

If you are in the health sciences and want to sign this statement, please email antiracistsatwork@gmail.com and we will review your request. Indicate how you would like to be acknowledged as a signee.

1. A. Keiko
2. Aarti Bhatt, MD
3. Adrian M. Bacong, PhD, MPH; Stanford University School of Medicine
4. Alane Celeste-Villalvir, DrPH, MPA
5. Alejandra Cabral, MPH, PhD Student, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
6. Amy C. Finnegan, PhD; University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota
7. Angie Denisse Otiniano Verissimo, Ph.D., M.P.H.
8. Anna Hing, PhD, MPH; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
9. Annie Le, MD, MPH; University of California, San Francisco
10. Anny Viloria Winnett, MPH, PhD Student; UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
11. Ariel Hart, MA, MPH; Charles R Drew University of Medicine and Science and UCLA
12. Asha Hassan, MPH; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
13. Ayomide Ojebuoboh, MD-PhD Student; University of Minnesota Twin Cities
14. Bita Amani, PhD, MHS; Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
15. Bram Wispelwey, MD MPH; Harvard Medical School
16. Brigette Davis, PhD, MPH; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
17. Claire Valderama-Wallace, PhD, MPH, RN, California State University East Bay
18. Corelle Nakamura, MPH; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
19. Cydni Baker-Odelugo, MD Candidate; DGSOM/UCLADavid Geffen School of Medicine
20. Elizabeth Flores MD/MPP Candidate; UCLA
21. Elle Lett, PhD, MA; (An earlier version of this document erroneously listed Dr. Lett as having completed her MD. Her MD is in progress and expected to be completed in 2025. Notably, this error occurred in typesetting the letter and Dr. Lett did not misrepresent her credentials in the assembly of signatures)
22. Emma A. Blackson, MPH, MS
23. Erin Manalo-Pedro, MPH, UCLA
24. Hadija Steen Mills, MPH; CARHE & Healthcare Reparations Cooperative
25. Hafifa Siddiq, PhD, MSN, MPH, RN; Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
26. Halima Hamud; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
27. Healthcare Reparations Cooperative; Minnesota, MN
28. Héctor E. Alcalá, PhD, MPH
29. James Huynh, MA, MPH; UCLA Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice & Health
30. Jé Judson, PhD, MPH; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
31. Jennifer J. Garcia, PhD, MPH
32. J’Mag Karbeah, PhD, MPH
33. Julia Fleckman, PhD, MPH
34. Katherine Theall, PhD, MPH; Tulane University
35. Kene Orakwue, MPH; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
36. Khameer Kidia MD MPhil; Harvard Medical School
37. Kristin Aquino, MD, MPH, Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)
38. Lane Kantor, MD, MPH; Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Resident, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
39. Leane Nasrallah, MPH, MD; UCLA FSPH, DGSOM
40. Lizeth Carrillo, MD/MPH student; UCLA DGSOM, UCLA FSPH
41. Matthew Hing, MD-PhD student; University of California, Los Angeles
42. Mariam Khan, MPH, MD Candidate; David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA
43. Michael Westerhaus MD, MA; EqualHealth
44. Mienah Z. Sharif, PhD, MPH; UCLA Center for the Study of Racism, Social Justice and Health
45. Nasreen Quadri, MD, Physician
46. Natalie J. Bradford, PhD, MS, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
47. Nicole Quinones, MPH; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
48. Priscilla Vásquez, PhD, MPH, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science
49. Rafik Nader Wahbi, MPH, PhD Student, UCLA and AltaMed Program Coordinator
50. Rebekah Israel Cross, PhD; Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago
51. Roon Makhtal, MPH; Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity
52. Samantha Mohammad, MD, MPH; PGY-3 Long Beach Memorial Family Medicine
53. Sana Siddiqui, MPH UMN Health Sciences Libraries
54. Sarah El-Azab, M.S., University of Michigan School of Public Health
55. Shamsher Samra, MD, MPhil; Assistant Clinical Professor David Geffen School of Medicine
56. Shiv Nadkarni, MA, MD (exp 2025)
57. Sirry Alang, PhD; University of Pittsburgh
58. Stephanie Clavijo, MD MPH
59. Sudipta Saha, SM; Harvard University
60. Viviane Leuche, MD; Minneapolis
61. Whitney Pirtle; Associate Professor of Sociology, University of California Merced
62. Wilson H. Hammett, MPH, PhDc; UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
63. Zoha S. PhD Candidate; McMaster University
64. Felipe Findley, PA-C, Watts Healthcare Corporation
65. Ariana Abayomi, MD; Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)
66. Joyce Nzengolo Malanda, Medical Student; Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)
67. Sarah Almusbahi, Medical Student; Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)
68. Jiddou Sirker, Medical Student; Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM)
69. Ellen Isaacs, MD
70. Holly Tan Playsted, MPH
71. Linda Green, MD
72. Yusra Murad, PhD student, University of Minnesota School of Public Health
73. Keelia Silvis, MPH; CARHE
74. Jaquelyn Jahn, PhD, MPH
75. Nikhil Rao, PhD Student; Harvard University
76. Paige J. Erickson, MPH