A Fractured History: Social Work Imaginaries of Palestine

Social work has history had intimate connections with both national and international events. Social workers and the field of social work have not failed to respond to global issues including human rights, global conflict, and much more. Given that Palestine’s history has been fraught with conflict since the British Mandate until today. Moreover, due to current and ongoing Palestine-Israel events as well as the silence and erasure around the ongoing events, both within and outside the field of social work, we sought to answer the question: What are the imaginaries of Palestine in social work, historically?

This paper utilized a critical discourse lens and thematic analyses to explore the social work imaginaries of Palestine, historically. Text selection centered around finding articles pre- and post-professionalization of social work that would overlap Palestine’s history from British Mandate Palestine until 2024. Selected texts included records from the annual national proceeding of the Conference of Charities (1875-1879), Conference of Charities and Correction (1880-1881), National Conference of Charities and Correction (1882-1916), the National Conference of Social Work (1917-1956), and National Conference on Social Welfare (1957-1982). We also included articles from the International Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics (2004-2024), Social Service Review (1927-2024), The Compass (1920-1948), Social Work Journal (1948-1955), and Social Work (1956-2018). Other archival texts included documents from the Max Lowenthal Collection and Fred Hoffer papers from the University of Minnesota Archives and the University of Minnesota Social Welfare History Archives, predominantly used for background data. We then searched through the proceedings and articles for the term “Palestine.” We use the term Palestine as part of our critical lens to explore the discourse surrounding a term, land, and people.

The results were organized by date as pre-British Mandate (8), 1918-1948 (35), and 1949-2024 (39). Utilizing thematic analysis, we found themes that social work imageries of Palestine in the pre-British Mandate centered around religion, Palestine being Jesus’s (PBUH) place of birth. Themes between 1918-1948 centered around the Jewish condition predominantly, followed by references to war brides, war relief, and battles in Palestine. Other themes, evident on a much smaller scale include references to European immigrants and refugees; Zionism; Britain; religion, and important people in social work. Themes between 1949-2024 centered around 3 main themes 1) the Jewish condition, Jewish social work, and social policy; 2) United Nations relief agencies centering European Jews, Palestinian refugees, and other European countries; and 3) Palestinian Mental Health and well-being. Most articles that centered on Palestinian mental Health and well-being were written by Palestinian or Arab authors/researchers.

This paper has significant implications for social work education, practice, and research. In education, we must increase education around Palestine as well as those from diverse backgrounds who have experienced oppression and occupation. In Practice, we see similar implications in working with diverse clients including those of Palestinian descent. Lastly, more research is required in this area as currently, no research explores the connection between U.S.-based social work and Palestine.