Photo by Levi Meir Clancy

Shatat-USA-Palestine Mental Health Network Calls on US Social Work to Demand the National Federation of Social Workers Vote to Expel the Israeli Union of Social Workers From the International Association of Social Workers

Israeli social workers serving as “combatants” in Gaza

In June of 2024, the Palestinian Union of Social Workers and Psychologists (PUSWP) wrote to the International Federation of Social Workers that, “the occupation kills our people in the most horrific ways, and your fellow social worker in the occupying state are participating in the killing of our people” (IFSW 2024). The PUSWP letter is in reference to the Israeli Union of Social Workers (IUSW), the primary social work association for Israeli social workers and member of the International Federation of Social Workers, the main international body for the social work profession representing social workers from 141 countries (Gal, Weiss-Gal, Binder-Eilat, 2025). Since Israel began its genocidal campaign on the people of Gaza, the IUSW has provided material support to the Israeli regime, providing its social worker members as combatants for the Israeli Defense Forces (IFSW 2025). This is not conjecture. It is a fact openly admitted to by the IUSW (IUSW 2025). Throughout this genocide, IUSW members have been on the front line in Gaza and the West Bank committing atrocities (PUSWP 2024; IFSW 2025; IUSW 2025). Social workers the world over should see this as an affront to the social work discipline.

As of January 6th, 2026, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that Israel has killed 71,391 Palestinians in Gaza (OCHA 2026). Of those included in the total deaths of Palestinians, Israel has killed 20,179 children, 10,427 women, and 4,813 elderly. However, evidence points to a far greater death toll of the Israeli genocide (Khatib et al. 2024). In addition to deaths, Israel has injured 171,279 Palestinians, many of whom are now permanently disabled (OCHA 2026; HROHC 2025). Since 2024, Gaza has the highest rate of child amputees in the world (Devi 2024). After more than two years of onslaught, the IDF has waged a total war on the Palestinian people leaving Gaza without housing, without access to adequate nutrition, without hospitals, and without sanitation (UNRWA 2026). Furthermore, outside of Gaza, Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people has accelerated state violence through settlers’ violence in the West Bank (Kubovich 2026).

International Federation of Social Workers Will Vote on Whether to Expel in 2026

In their June 2024 letter, the PUSWP called on the IFSW to expel the IUSW for its role in genocide, occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid, stating “You must move immediately to condemn what is happening, and demand the freezing and expulsion of this institution from a leading organization in social and humanitarian work.” Now, nearly two years later, on February 18th, 2026, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) will hold a vote on whether to expel the Israeli Union of Social Workers (IUSW). This historic vote was proposed through a motion by the Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW), the Consejo General del Trabajo Social (CGTS, Spain), and the Hellenic Association of Social Workers (HASW) at the IFSW Europe Delegates Meeting on October 8th, 2025 (IASW 2025). With explicit focus on Israeli social workers’ participation as “combatants” in Gaza, the IASW, CGTS and the HASW propose the IUSW’s expulsion for its role in the genocide of Palestinian people.

Censures of Israeli Social Work

This is not first time that the IUSW has faced scrutiny in the IFSW for its support for the genocide, occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid (Garret 2025). Previously, in 2018, the IUSW was also censured by the IFSW (IFSW 2018; 2025). Following Israel’s pattern of killings, arrests, and detentions of Palestinian social workers (PUSWP 2018), on March 26th, 2018, the IFSW voted to censure the IUSW for its inability to “exercise an independent social work voice,” and “complicity in ongoing violence against Palestinian people” (IFSW 2018). Despite the fact that neither the IUSW nor the Israeli regime had changed anything materially, the IFSW lifted the 2018 censure in 2022. During the four years of IFSW censure, the IUSW never renounced Israeli occupation, settler colonialism, or apartheid. In fact, just one year after the IFSW lifted its sanctions from the IUSW, Israel began its genocide in Gaza with the support of and participation by the IUSW.

In response to the accelerating human toll of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, on January 9th, 2025, a plurality of IFSW associations voted to censure the IUSW, leaving it under censure ever since (IFSW 2025). In a response dated June 11th, 2024, the IFSW explained in a letter to the IUSW that the IFSW Statement of Ethical Principles specifies that “social workers support peace and nonviolence,” that this “requires all IFSW members to call on their governments/authorities to make social workers exempt from military service,” and that “failure to do so would be a breach of the ethical principles and would result in action affecting their membership status” (IFSW 2025). In response, the PUSWP confirmed their support for peace and self-determination (IFSW 2025). The PUSWP further made clear that “its members are not engaged in military combat........

© CounterPunch