We Demand the Disability Establishment End Its Relationships with War Profiteers

Disability Divest

We Demand the Disability Establishment End Its Relationships with War Profiteers

July 1, 2024

“Disability justice cannot exist under settler colonialism, military occupation, imprisonment, and apartheid. We write this in support of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, dignity, and self-determination.”

– The Abolition and Disability Justice Coalition, 2021

We are a collective of disabled individuals who have joined together to call for a free Palestine and the end to the U.S. disability establishment’s partnership with war profiteers and complicity with genocide and colonialism. Some of us are affiliated with organizations in the U.S. disability advocacy space and some of us are not. We come together as comrades and reject the elitist and ableist idea that critiques from disabled people who are affiliated with disability advocacy organizations carry more validity than critiques from disabled people who are not affiliated with them.

During Disability Pride Month, we call on disabled individuals to recognize that there is no disability justice and no disability pride without a free Palestine.

According to Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a Palestinian surgeon who had to perform amputations on wounded Gazan children, Palestine now has the largest cohort of child amputees in history. The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has estimated that “half of the population of Gaza, more than one million people, is expected to face death and starvation by the middle of July.” According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Israel’s offensive in Rafah cut off almost 3,000 children from receiving treatment for malnutrition, putting them at imminent risk of death. 

Disabled Palestinians in Gaza, already suffering from lack of access to medical care and assistive technology due to Israel’s 16-year illegal blockade of Gaza, are disproportionately at risk of dying. The Israeli blockade has cut off access to food, water, medication, and assistive devices. People with mobility, chronic illness, visual, hearing, mental health, or developmental disabilities may not be informed about evacuation orders or be unable to evacuate quickly enough to avoid further disablement or death. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have systematically targeted and bombed critical infrastructure including hospitals, schools, and roads, leading to a total collapse of Gaza’s health system and the decimation of Gaza’s education system. 

Many disability organizations and their appointed leaders have been silent about the mass disabling event and genocide that has been happening since last October. Silence is complicity. 

In the months since the escalation of the genocide of Gaza began, many U.S. disability rights organizations have continued to foster financial and collaborative relationships with companies that profit from the oppression and genocide of Palestinians. Several disability rights organizations, which advocate for equal rights and treatment for disabled Americans, accept funding and have fostered partnerships with major war profiteers and weapons manufacturers including Northrop Grumman, Booz Allen, Boeing, RTX/Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, and Google. These companies manufacture and profit from the weapons, vehicles, aircraft, and technology that Israel is using to wage its genocidal campaign to kill and maim as many Palestinians as possible. The United Nations has called on weapons manufacturers to cease the sale and transfer of weapons to Israel or risk being complicit in violations of international human rights laws. We cannot build a movement for disability equality on funding that comes from the genocide of our disabled peers in Palestine and elsewhere in the Global South. 

Disability rights organizations go further than accepting money from war profiteers: they honor them with disability inclusion awards. For instance, The 2023 Disability Equality Index, presented by Disability:IN, awarded HP, Siemens, Barclays, Chevron, Intel, and eleven weapons manufacturing companies with the top score 100 of “Best Places to Work.” All 16 companies are corporate partners with Disability:IN. The companies give Disability:IN their sponsorship money. Meanwhile, Disability:IN and its state affiliates award them the title of “best places to work” for disabled people, all while those exact same companies build and send their weapons and technology to the governments and militaries committing genocide against disabled Palestinians, Congolese, Sudanese, Tigrayans, and Haitians. In light of the central role student movements on college campuses have played in organizing actions for Palestine, it is essential to note that Disability:IN has a program for disabled college students, NextGen Leader Initiative, that matches them with mentorships at these companies, thus directly guiding many disabled youth into working at companies profiting from the colonization of Palestine and the Global South. This years-long pattern is just one example of several disability rights organizations having connections with exploitative corporations in the name of advancing disability inclusion. These relationships are a feature of the systems, not a bug.

Disability Pride Month ushers in the 2024 Disability Equality index on July 15 and the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26. Disabled individuals must recognize it is our collective responsibility to protest and reject the weaponization of disability for profit at the cost of disabled lives in Palestine and Global South, and at home on Turtle Island, particularly in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. 

In order to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people and all people of the Global South:

1. We demand disability advocacy organizations refuse donations, sponsorships, and partnerships from corporations that:

• Create, finance, and sell the weapons and technology used to perpetuate the mass-disabling and genocide of Palestinian infants, children, and adults.
• Invest in the exploitation of Palestinian land
• Are otherwise complicit in or profiting from Israel’s war crimes

2. We demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestine.
3. We demand that disability rights organizations end the practice of honoring war profiteers with disability inclusion awards, as this practice uses the idea of workplace equality to manufacture disabled people’s complicity and consent with the mass disablement and genocide of our disabled peers in Palestine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tigray, Sudan, Haiti, and elsewhere in the Global South. 

It is imperative that we center the lives of disabled Palestinians and disabled people in the Global South, listening to them and following their lead. 

A better world is possible if we realize all of our struggles are interconnected and recognize the humanity inherent in all people.  

With respect and solidarity, 

Disability Divest

To sign on in support of this letter, visit DisabilityDivest.org.

About Disability Divest: We are a collective of disabled individuals who have joined together to call for a free Palestine and the end of the U.S. disability establishment’s partnership with war profiteers and complicity with genocide and colonialism. Learn more at DisabilityDivest.org and follow us on social media.

Further Reading: Palestine X Disability Justice Syllabus