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The following additional editorial is from the following members of the ANZSW Journal Editorial Collective: Neil Ballantyne, Liz Beddoe, Kerri Cleaver, Yvonne Crichton-Hill, Ian Hyslop, Eileen Joy, Emily Keddell, Deb Stanfield and Shayne Walker. It has been written to express unconditional solidarity with the people of Palestine at this pivotal time in history. We are horrified by the indiscriminate death and suffering, as Gaza, walled off from a watching world, is (once again) bombarded by the Israeli military machine. There are no adequate words. Homes, refugee camp apartment blocks, bakeries, hospitals, schools, and ambulances have all become sites of screaming children and bloody suffering: unnecessary, pointless, heartbreaking terror. These are war crimes as defined by international law, through conventions, treaties, and customary law (Médecins Sans Frontiers, nd; International Community of the Red Cross [ICRC], nd).

We condemn the disproportionate horror perpetuated by the Zionist Netanyahu regime and we condemn the tepid response of social work bodies locally and globally. Statements from the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW, 2023) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW, 2023) do not appear to recognise that this is a struggle between an occupied people and an oppressive colonial state. We don’t condone the violent incursion, killings and kidnappings carried out by Hamas which unleashed the current fury of the Israeli state, but we unreservedly condemn the genocidal collective punishment of the Palestinian nation. We condemn the collusion of Western Europe, particularly …