Witnessing the Genocide in Gaza: A Collective Outcry of Speech-Language-Hearing Scientists and Language Scholars Around the World

Abstract

This paper is a collective statement from over 250 scholars and practitioners across the world in the speech-language-hearing sciences and related disciplines, who are responding to the profound suffering and ongoing genocide faced by Palestinians in Gaza. In our shared roles as advocates for communication and human rights, we confront the silence, complicity, and silencing tactics of major professional institutions, whose ostensible neutrality obscures the full scale of this humanitarian crisis. We center the experiences of Palestinians with communication disabilities in order to bear witness to their lives and to awaken our ethical and professional responsibilities. Through the stories of Muhammad, Omar, Moaz, and others, we urge a collective breaking of silence on behalf of all impacted by genocide in Gaza and around the world. We call for a commitment to professional ethics grounded in a moral clarity that aligns with anti-racist, anti-colonial, and disability justice principles. Our stance is both a protest against inaction and a plea for accountability, pressing the global community to recognize and support the humanity, dignity, and rights of Palestinians in Gaza.

Keywords: Genocide, human rights, communication and disability, Communication as human right, Palestine

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Rights: Copyright (c) 2024 The Languaging and Human Rights Collective