We, as BARWE core, are feeling overwhelmed, saddened, enraged, and stuck as we witness horrific violence unfolding daily. We stand against the genocide of the Palestinian people that is being carried out through violence, displacement, and inhumane conditions. We join the call for a permanent ceasefire and a free Palestine, with a long-term political solution led by Palestinian people. We stand with Jews, Israelis, Palestinians, Muslims and all those worldwide who are calling for an end to decades-long violence, occupation, and apartheid.
Much of our past and current work in BARWE can help us understand this moment. We can identify anti-Arab racism in the dehumanization of Palestinian people by political leaders and the media, which is used as rationalization for the reinforcement of oppressive structures. We can see how this moment is being used to sow disinformation and hate through both Islamophobia and antisemitism. We can feel the culture of censorship and fear created by those opposed to teaching truth who target educators and students standing up for the freedom of Palestinian people. We are inspired by the bravery of Palestinian activists, the boldness of student organizing, and the examples of co-conspiratorship and risk-taking on the part of Jewish activists worldwide.
Why are we making this statement? One of our core tenets is that white people need to be able to more adeptly recognize manifestations of white supremacy so that we can take impactful action. We believe this action needs to both respond to the immediate needs of those harmed while also working to shift the root causes that keep us stuck in inequitable and unjust relationships to one another. As BARWE, we believe that this involves working to end Islamophobia, antisemitism, genocide, and occupation. Islamophobia and antisemitism are both manifestations of white supremacy, both rooted in white Europeans' attempts to consolidate power for themselves. We all live in the world created by those attempts. We are all connected and all responsible for building a more just world, one based in valuing humanity over power and greed. By having your BARWE meeting every month, we hope you are steadily increasing your capacity to help build that world.
In practice, what does that look like? Today and everyday we need to step up and become co-conspirators. Find your way to engage: attend a protest, call your representatives, and support the actions of others financially. What about in our schools? Many of us feel underprepared and discouraged from teaching lessons that contextualize the conflict in Palestine/Israel. Even though we inherited an education system that discourages critique and critical discourse, we are now the ones responsible for continuing that legacy or disrupting it. Educate yourself about the history of Israel and Palestine and raise the idea of including it in your school’s curriculum. Include Palestinian authors and stories about Palestinian families in your classrooms. Representation always matters. Encourage students to analyze power dynamics when exploring historical events. Disrupt Islamophobia and antisemitism if/when they arise in your classroom or community. Making these choices in our classrooms comes with risk. Taking risks as white folks in support of global freedom and liberation is not easy, but is imperative.
This is not easy. Some of us have found that we may have different views, opinions, or experiences than our friends and people we have long been in solidarity with. Some of us have found that we have a lot of learning to do. Processing and learning is messy; it has been for us as we wrestled together to craft this statement. At BARWE, we have tried to practice the principle that no one is disposable in the ongoing work of organizing for collective liberation. We are holding the pain Israeli people and Jewish people have experienced since the attacks on October 7 and the pain Palestinian people are experiencing as the Israeli government imposes collective punishment on Gaza. We believe all Palestinian and Israeli people deserve to live in safety and freedom.
Rather than providing in-depth analysis, this month we are offering a framework with two options for folks to process, connect, and imagine during times of crisis. We are also providing several resource lists from organizations that BARWE has partnered with in the past. This work is ongoing, and we are finding ourselves leaning into the norm to accept non-closure while not allowing it to immobilize us.
Primary Resource: Rather than sharing one particular resource this month, we are using several quotes from the book Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, which BARWE Core is reading together throughout this year.
Option 1: Connect with others
“Organizing gives us the opportunity to do more than map out the monstrosity that is the system; it allows us to build bonds between people in unique and powerful ways. By expanding our relationships and embracing interdependence, we can leverage power against the threats we face and extend care amid crisis. We can courageously reach out and connect with other people, even if we feel like we don’t have much in common with them.”
Whether your group chooses to discuss the crisis in Palestine/Israel, anti-CRT attacks, or some other relevant issue you are facing, here are a few questions that can help guide your discussion. You might arrange these questions on large post it sheets arranged around the room and invite participants to write answers to each question on a small post-it. Once individuals post-its are placed on the sheets, you might hold a quiet gallery walk followed by a discussion.
Option 2: Give space for bold imagining.
Break from the regular BARWE conversation structure and offer a sustained space for quiet reflection which need not be shared. Start by reading the following passage from Let This Radicalize You, which tells a story of the power of bold imagining.
“In March 2022, activist and professor Dean Spade was having a conversation with his class about the climate crisis. Some of Spade’s students expressed that the topic was painful for them because they had relatives in prison, and imprisoned people are routinely abandoned by authorities during climate catastrophes. Rather than simply acknowledging their feelings and pushing forward with the conversation, Spade chose to make room for what the students were experiencing. When describing the moment to Kelly on the Movement Memos podcast, Spade indicated that he wanted to honor “how deep that abandonment is” and “how heartbreaking and wrong that is.” So, Spade led his class in a thought exercise, saying, “What if we just sat down and just imagined in the most complex way we can, a plan for breaking people out of prison?” Spade asked students to consider catastrophic scenarios: “If the lights go out, if the earthquake comes, if the fire comes … what would we have to research that we don’t know now?” Spade asked students to consider what skills they would need to develop, what conditions at the prison might be like, and how the staff might respond to their actions. Spade encouraged them to be bold in their imaginations. “How else would that plan ever happen if a lot of people didn’t take time to try to dream it and try to imagine it? Which is true of every bold plan.”
Regardless of whether Spade’s students ever participate in a prison break, the activity of imagining what a refusal to abandon imprisoned people might look like is generative. As a teacher, Spade was asking his students to discuss a difficult subject, and when that topic caused some of his students pain, Spade suggested an activity that helped ground the students in their values. This also reminded them of their power and encouraged them to imagine how they might express that power collectively in order to rescue people whom society might otherwise leave behind. It was an anchoring moment that allowed students to inhabit a difficult reality together, rather than retreating or despairing.
In a world where we are steadily being splintered apart, where so much of our social lives have been reduced to commercial interactions, and where fellowship and belonging are desperately lacking, we must relearn how to hold space and belief together in ways that anchor us to each other and to our collective moral commitments. This is not simply a task of educating ourselves but the ongoing work of charting and experiencing reality together and sharing our joy and grief over the wonders and tragedies of our times. Our atomized and alienated society leaves little organic space for political communion or even shared compassion. And in the spaces between us, fear grows.”
Using the passage above as inspiration, give sustained time for individuals to write a “bold plan” which addresses a community need or concern.
Much of our past and current work in BARWE can help us understand this moment. We can identify anti-Arab racism in the dehumanization of Palestinian people by political leaders and the media, which is used as rationalization for the reinforcement of oppressive structures. We can see how this moment is being used to sow disinformation and hate through both Islamophobia and antisemitism. We can feel the culture of censorship and fear created by those opposed to teaching truth who target educators and students standing up for the freedom of Palestinian people. We are inspired by the bravery of Palestinian activists, the boldness of student organizing, and the examples of co-conspiratorship and risk-taking on the part of Jewish activists worldwide.
Why are we making this statement? One of our core tenets is that white people need to be able to more adeptly recognize manifestations of white supremacy so that we can take impactful action. We believe this action needs to both respond to the immediate needs of those harmed while also working to shift the root causes that keep us stuck in inequitable and unjust relationships to one another. As BARWE, we believe that this involves working to end Islamophobia, antisemitism, genocide, and occupation. Islamophobia and antisemitism are both manifestations of white supremacy, both rooted in white Europeans' attempts to consolidate power for themselves. We all live in the world created by those attempts. We are all connected and all responsible for building a more just world, one based in valuing humanity over power and greed. By having your BARWE meeting every month, we hope you are steadily increasing your capacity to help build that world.
In practice, what does that look like? Today and everyday we need to step up and become co-conspirators. Find your way to engage: attend a protest, call your representatives, and support the actions of others financially. What about in our schools? Many of us feel underprepared and discouraged from teaching lessons that contextualize the conflict in Palestine/Israel. Even though we inherited an education system that discourages critique and critical discourse, we are now the ones responsible for continuing that legacy or disrupting it. Educate yourself about the history of Israel and Palestine and raise the idea of including it in your school’s curriculum. Include Palestinian authors and stories about Palestinian families in your classrooms. Representation always matters. Encourage students to analyze power dynamics when exploring historical events. Disrupt Islamophobia and antisemitism if/when they arise in your classroom or community. Making these choices in our classrooms comes with risk. Taking risks as white folks in support of global freedom and liberation is not easy, but is imperative.
This is not easy. Some of us have found that we may have different views, opinions, or experiences than our friends and people we have long been in solidarity with. Some of us have found that we have a lot of learning to do. Processing and learning is messy; it has been for us as we wrestled together to craft this statement. At BARWE, we have tried to practice the principle that no one is disposable in the ongoing work of organizing for collective liberation. We are holding the pain Israeli people and Jewish people have experienced since the attacks on October 7 and the pain Palestinian people are experiencing as the Israeli government imposes collective punishment on Gaza. We believe all Palestinian and Israeli people deserve to live in safety and freedom.
Rather than providing in-depth analysis, this month we are offering a framework with two options for folks to process, connect, and imagine during times of crisis. We are also providing several resource lists from organizations that BARWE has partnered with in the past. This work is ongoing, and we are finding ourselves leaning into the norm to accept non-closure while not allowing it to immobilize us.
Primary Resource: Rather than sharing one particular resource this month, we are using several quotes from the book Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, which BARWE Core is reading together throughout this year.
Option 1: Connect with others
“Organizing gives us the opportunity to do more than map out the monstrosity that is the system; it allows us to build bonds between people in unique and powerful ways. By expanding our relationships and embracing interdependence, we can leverage power against the threats we face and extend care amid crisis. We can courageously reach out and connect with other people, even if we feel like we don’t have much in common with them.”
Whether your group chooses to discuss the crisis in Palestine/Israel, anti-CRT attacks, or some other relevant issue you are facing, here are a few questions that can help guide your discussion. You might arrange these questions on large post it sheets arranged around the room and invite participants to write answers to each question on a small post-it. Once individuals post-its are placed on the sheets, you might hold a quiet gallery walk followed by a discussion.
- What are you seeing?
- What are you feeling?
- What are you wondering/asking?
- What action are you feeling called to?
- What is the conversation you fear having about this topic if any? What is the question you are anxious to raise if any? And why?
Option 2: Give space for bold imagining.
Break from the regular BARWE conversation structure and offer a sustained space for quiet reflection which need not be shared. Start by reading the following passage from Let This Radicalize You, which tells a story of the power of bold imagining.
“In March 2022, activist and professor Dean Spade was having a conversation with his class about the climate crisis. Some of Spade’s students expressed that the topic was painful for them because they had relatives in prison, and imprisoned people are routinely abandoned by authorities during climate catastrophes. Rather than simply acknowledging their feelings and pushing forward with the conversation, Spade chose to make room for what the students were experiencing. When describing the moment to Kelly on the Movement Memos podcast, Spade indicated that he wanted to honor “how deep that abandonment is” and “how heartbreaking and wrong that is.” So, Spade led his class in a thought exercise, saying, “What if we just sat down and just imagined in the most complex way we can, a plan for breaking people out of prison?” Spade asked students to consider catastrophic scenarios: “If the lights go out, if the earthquake comes, if the fire comes … what would we have to research that we don’t know now?” Spade asked students to consider what skills they would need to develop, what conditions at the prison might be like, and how the staff might respond to their actions. Spade encouraged them to be bold in their imaginations. “How else would that plan ever happen if a lot of people didn’t take time to try to dream it and try to imagine it? Which is true of every bold plan.”
Regardless of whether Spade’s students ever participate in a prison break, the activity of imagining what a refusal to abandon imprisoned people might look like is generative. As a teacher, Spade was asking his students to discuss a difficult subject, and when that topic caused some of his students pain, Spade suggested an activity that helped ground the students in their values. This also reminded them of their power and encouraged them to imagine how they might express that power collectively in order to rescue people whom society might otherwise leave behind. It was an anchoring moment that allowed students to inhabit a difficult reality together, rather than retreating or despairing.
In a world where we are steadily being splintered apart, where so much of our social lives have been reduced to commercial interactions, and where fellowship and belonging are desperately lacking, we must relearn how to hold space and belief together in ways that anchor us to each other and to our collective moral commitments. This is not simply a task of educating ourselves but the ongoing work of charting and experiencing reality together and sharing our joy and grief over the wonders and tragedies of our times. Our atomized and alienated society leaves little organic space for political communion or even shared compassion. And in the spaces between us, fear grows.”
Using the passage above as inspiration, give sustained time for individuals to write a “bold plan” which addresses a community need or concern.
- Encourage participants to write about a concern which is coming up most for them. Some of us might be thinking about racist incidents in our school buildings. Some of us may be thinking about Israelis and Palestinians. Some of us may be thinking about laws constraining our ability to teach the truth. Some of us may be thinking about the whole education system and how it does not support Black and Brown students.
- Encourage participants to write freely, to draw if they like, and to allow themselves to imagine as boldly as possible.
- To conclude your session, you could have an optional share-out of what people wrote, or a brief ending ritual such as everyone sharing one word for how they are feeling after writing.
A Few Resources Related to the Israel/Palestine Conflict:
Facilitation Reference Guide:
Feedback Form:
As we grow in year six, we hope that one person in your group can take a few minutes to fill out our feedback form to let us know how it went.
Facilitation Reference Guide:
- Set a day and time for your group to meet - Make sure to send reminders. If you’re meeting in person, snacks are always a good idea!
- Send this month’s Primary Article to your group. Look through the additional readings to see if there is another reading that might be better suited to your group and its interests.
- Prepare yourself to facilitate by reading through our Norms and Discussion Protocol.
- Pass the Hat and call your representatives this month using scripts like this one for email and this one for phone.
- Complete the Feedback Form.
- Prepare yourself for next month by setting a date and time, inviting colleagues, and looking out for our next Discussion Guide on January 1st.
Feedback Form:
As we grow in year six, we hope that one person in your group can take a few minutes to fill out our feedback form to let us know how it went.
Pass The Hat:
Instead of sharing a donation suggestion this month, we encourage you to call your representatives and urge them support a permanent ceasefire and to stop funding weapons and Israeli military operations in Gaza. You can use scripts like this one for email and this one for phone.
Instead of sharing a donation suggestion this month, we encourage you to call your representatives and urge them support a permanent ceasefire and to stop funding weapons and Israeli military operations in Gaza. You can use scripts like this one for email and this one for phone.