Over the past couple of months, we have watched the news with a sense of absolute horror and distress. We have witnessed and experienced many emotions; not least fear, intimidation, anger and grief. These emotions and the different perspectives each one of us on the Board brings to the table, have made It difficult to craft a statement. Yet we all agree that as a scholarly community committed to equity and social justice, and involved in the education of current and future generations, we are committed to a world where everyone can reach their full potential. CIES acknowledges that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict carries a historically complex and intricate legacy, profoundly and far too often tragically shaping the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians in the region and in the diaspora over many decades.
As members of the CIES board, we express our deep sadness at the major escalation of violence we have seen, and the terrible and ongoing loss of civilian life. We recognize that this escalation has happened within the context of the ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territories (including the current total blockade and siege of Gaza), and the ongoing attacks by Hamas that predate last October, both generating multigenerational trauma and complicated histories. As a diverse community of professional educators, researchers, and practitioners we are deeply concerned about the devastating loss of student and faculty lives, the deprivation of educational opportunities for a large number of students at all academic levels, and the damage to institutional places of teaching and learning in both the State of Israel and Gaza. We lament the dire consequences this massive and abrupt erosion of access to education will have on current and future generations of Israeli and Palestinian students and educators alike, which is all but certain to further compound the intertwined collective trauma and suffering of both peoples.
At this difficult time, we highlight the need to continue to work together and remain committed to ensuring that everyone can feel empowered to speak, be heard, be valued, and feel safe. For this, we build on our rich, diverse, and vibrant global education community. As a Society, we foreground our commitment to equity, justice, dialogue, and peace.
Over the coming months and years, CIES is committed to opening spaces for conversation, reflection, and dialogue among all our members about the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and other ongoing, seemingly forgotten conflicts and strife around the world. In following these events, it is our observation that institutional statements generally yield little to no tangible results in solving the situations they seek to address. Instead, a more productive approach entails dedicating space, time, and energy in our scholarly forums for a genuine exchange of informed perspectives that brings our community members together in facilitating a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of armed conflicts and other forms of violence, as well as their impacts on educators, learners, and education worldwide. We take the view that this represents a more constructive path forward in fostering sustained and substantive reconciliatory discourse within our Society and our field.
CIES Board of Directors