National March for Palestine – Tell the new PM – End the genocide Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign Date: 18 July at 12 noon Location: Russell Square, central London Following Keir Starmer’s resignation, PSC is calling on the next Prime Minister to break with the previous government’s support for Israel and take concrete action. Join the march to send a powerful message to the next Prime Minister to stand up for Palestine and take all possible action, including sanctions, to end Israel’s genocide. https://palestinecampaign.org/events/national-march-for-palestine-tell-the-new-pm-end-the-genocide/ The UK-Palestine Mental Health Network banner will be at the march. We will assemble at 12.30pm in the south-west corner of Russell Square, opposite Montague Street; please note that this is different from our usual meeting point. All are welcome.

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network mental health study tour Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November Limited places remain. Applications close on Friday 21 August. Applications are open for UKPALMHN’s 10-day study tour for mental health and social work practitioners interested in the relationship between political realities and psychological wellbeing in Palestine/Israel. The tour includes meetings with clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts, with visits planned to Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv. Full details: https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/ For an application form, please email ukpalmhn@gmail.com, including your name, address, contact details and professional qualifications.

“This is the last time you will see me. They brought me here to kill me. I don’t see myself surviving. This is the end.” Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, who is held without charge in the Rakefet underground prison, speaking to his lawyer on 2 July Source: Physicians for Human Rights Israel Date: 5 July During a visit on 2 July, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya told his lawyer that he believed this would be their final meeting and that he had been brought to the underground Rakefet facility to be killed. He reported that guards had beaten him with a hammer and batons and that the abuse had become a daily occurrence, while his lawyer observed severe injuries, extreme weakness, breathing difficulties and signs that he was close to losing consciousness. https://www.phr.org.il/en/save-dr-abu-safiya/?pr=22935

In Israel’s prisons, torture and death have become a norm that it barely tries to hide Source: The Guardian Date: 13 July In this opinion piece, Nesrine Malik uses the detention and torture of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya to illustrate the longstanding system of administrative detention without trial, abuse, enforced disappearance and deaths in custody affecting thousands of Palestinians, including children. She argues that these practices are extensively documented and increasingly carried out in plain sight, yet continue because they are treated as normal within Israel and provoke little meaningful action from its western allies .https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/13/israel-prison-torture-death-hussam-abu-safiya-palestine

Most documented. Least protected. Source: Lama Khouri writing on Substack Date: 3 July Dr. Khouri co-founded the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network Drawing on the Palestinian Feminist Collective’s report A predatory state, Lama Khouri examines eight decades of sexualised and gender-based violence against Palestinians, arguing that humiliation and torture are deliberately used to damage family bonds, communal identity and trust in the world. She describes the psychological effects as extending beyond those directly assaulted to children, relatives and witnesses, with trauma repeatedly reproduced through fear, shame, disrupted attachment and the lasting effects of being forced to watch loved ones degraded. Khouri argues that extensive documentation has failed to secure protection or accountability, and calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions, as well as sustained pressure on mental health organisations to confront torture, institutional complicity and silence. https://substack.com/home/post/p-204970477

The man who walked toward the “yellow line” in Gaza – and the son he carried with himSource: Drop Site NewsDate: 11 July The report describes how Osama Al-Shafi’s mental health deteriorated under relentless fear, deprivation and loss until, in an apparently dissociated state, he walked towards Israeli soldiers carrying his 22-month-old son, Jawad; Osama was shot in the shoulder and remains detained, with his fate unknown. Jawad was returned with blood, puncture wounds and marks that a doctor reportedly considered consistent with deliberate cigarette burns used as torture, and now wakes in terror and speaks in fragments as Gaza specialists describe the population’s anguish as “continuous trauma” because the violence and threat have never ended. https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-yellow-line-psychological-trauma-maghazi

Iterations of Hell: Settler colonialism as societal abuse Author: Martin Kemp Source: International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, Volume 23, Issue 2 Date: June 2026 Martin Kemp is a member of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Steering Group. This paper examines the ethical responsibilities of the psychoanalytic profession in the context of the Gaza genocide. It considers how the crisis in Palestine has prompted wider mobilisation and raised questions about the responsibilities of health professionals as citizens and members of civil society institutions. The paper explores a perceived divide between responses to harm in private settings, where moral responsibility and agency are more readily recognised, and responses to comparable harm in the public sphere, where these implications may be denied or avoided. It develops this argument through a discussion of child sexual exploitation and settler colonialism, and calls for psychoanalytic ethics to move beyond symbolic commitments to human rights towards standards consistent with established medical ethics https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/F7YZRJNKYSIP9TJJKJQS?target=10.1002/aps.70057

A home for liberatory mental health Source: Palestine-Global Mental Health Network Date: 4 July Palestinian mental health professionals are inviting colleagues worldwide to help establish an international professional body for liberatory mental health practice, organised through independent chapters under a shared charter. The proposed body would provide clinicians across countries, languages and disciplines with a place for professional belonging, mutual support, supervision and collective thought, while refusing to separate clinical work from the political and material conditions affecting patients’ lives. The initiative responds to the alienation experienced by practitioners whose existing institutions require political silence or have marginalised them, and extends beyond Palestine to those working with communities facing oppression, displacement and state violence. https://www.pgmhn.org/statements/a-home-for-liberatory-mental-health

Genocidal politics of settler psychopathology and Palestinian liberation as healthy becoming – An extended interview with Dr Samah Jabr Source: Interventions – International Journal of Postcolonial Studies Date: 3 July https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369801X.2026.2681430 The article is not open access, but Dr Jabr provides an overview in a LinkedIn post: In the interview with researcher Anissa Haddadi, Dr Samah Jabr examines Palestinian mental health through the intersecting realities of settler colonialism, genocide and the politics of psychological knowledge, criticising approaches that strip suffering of its political context and reduce it to individual diagnoses such as PTSD. Drawing on Frantz Fanon, faith, spirituality, sumud, language, testimony and memory, she argues for a liberation-oriented psychology grounded in the experience of colonised peoples, in which justice, narrative reclamation and bearing witness are essential conditions for mental health. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7481360277012226050/

Annihilated Families and the Politics of Mass Graves: Testimonies of Gazan women after the loss of entire kin networks Authors: Veronese, G., Hamamra, B., and Mahamid, F. Source: Journal of Interpersonal Violence Date: 2026 The article is not open access and the following summary is based on the published abstract. This study draws on interviews and testimonies from 30 displaced women in Gaza to examine the psychological effects of losing entire family networks, alongside the destruction of homes and neighbourhoods and the inability to recover and identify bodies, hold funerals, bury relatives with dignity and grieve collectively. It argues that trauma in Gaza is cumulative, relational and rooted in the destruction of collective life, requiring community-based and justice-oriented responses rather than solely individual clinical treatment. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08862605261463258

Fearing cultural erasure, a Palestinian literary movement takes root Source: Publishing Perspectives Date: 18 June The article surveys a growing international movement to preserve and promote Palestinian literature, memory and cultural life in response to the destruction of libraries, universities, bookshops and other cultural institutions in Gaza. It highlights initiatives including archives of killed writers, projects documenting destroyed cultural sites, new Palestinian bookshops and magazines, and Gaza’s Phoenix Library, created from thousands of books salvaged from the rubble. https://publishingperspectives.com/2026/06/fearing-cultural-erasure-a-palestinian-literary-movement-takes-root/

“Every post you write that refuses the official silence, every conversation you refuse to drop, every moment you say the word genocide in a room that wants you not to: that is a stream finding another stream.” Lama Khouri 11 actions that you can take for Palestine…

ACTIONS FOR DR ABU SAFIYA AND ALL PALESTINIAN PRISONERS / DETAINEES / HOSTAGES Amnesty International Release Dr Hussam Abu Safiya! https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/release-dr-hussam-abu-safiya/ Doctors Against Genocide Letters to Free Dr Hussam Abu Safiya https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org/actions/abu-safiya-letters Dr Abu Safiya action website https://savedrabusafiya.com/ Palestine-Global Mental Health Network From Australia to Indonesia, Ireland to Chile, Sweden to Abya Yala, and across the shatāt, clinicians and mental health workers are holding one line: free Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, and free every detained Palestinian health worker. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DawWBfZu4ci/ Red Ribbons Campaign – Free Palestinian Hostages (#FreePalHostages) An urgent humanitarian appeal to the International Committee of the Red Cross for the immediate restoration of ICRC access to Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli custody https://www.instagram.com/p/DalcxHMCBQd/?img_index=1 Open letter to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health re: Unlawful Detention of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyP4fDnfu0AX3z07KcLHv7tm4QTcRkeSr9H2hXOGtIHrGMIg/viewform Background and evidence United Nations Human Rights Council (Background information) Israel must release Dr Hussam Abu Safiya and all Palestinian medical personnel arbitrarily detained and adhere to international law, UN Commission of Inquiry says. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/07/israel-must-release-dr-hussam-abu-safiya-and-all-palestinian-medical?sub-site=HRC

OTHER FEATURED ACTIONS

Challenge the use of the IHRA definition to suppress criticism of Israel Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign Date: July 2026 This appeal seeks donations towards a legal challenge arguing that the use of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism is incompatible with the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association guaranteed by the Human Rights Act. The case concerns Bea Foster, who was accused of antisemitism after sharing posts condemning Israel’s actions, and aims to protect advocacy for Palestinian rights from being silenced through the application of the definition. https://donate.palestinecampaign.org/oppose-the-IHRA

Thank you and congratulations to the British Medical Association Source: Public for BMA campaign on Action Network Date: July 2026 This action asks members of the public to email the British Medical Association to thank it and its members for rejecting the IHRA definition of antisemitism at its June 2026 annual representative meeting. Organisers describe the vote as a principled defence of freedom of expression on Palestine and invite supporters to demonstrate public backing as the BMA faces pressure to reverse the decision. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/thank-you-and-congratulations-to-the-bma

Petition: Suspend the IMA from the WMA Source: People’s Health Movement, Doctors for Gaza/Artsen voor Gaza and Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council Date: 30 June This petition calls on the World Medical Association to suspend the Israeli Medical Association, arguing that it has failed to uphold medical ethics or oppose attacks on Palestinian healthcare workers, the destruction of health services and reported abuses in detention. It asks healthcare workers, students and health institutions to sign, share the petition and press their national medical associations to support action ahead of the World Medical Association’s General Assembly in Rotterdam in October. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfe3SfFvOo2pgaEX6c5FAbsPivkQ2eNVMilxwMSQcAnjX64pQ/viewform

Email your MP: demand the UK bans trade with settlements Source: Medical Aid for Palestinians Date: June 2026 Medical Aid for Palestinians says Israel’s illegal settlements are forcing Palestinians from their land and worsening the healthcare crisis, and argues that government advice discouraging British businesses from settlement trade is insufficient. The action asks supporters to email their MPs demanding a legal ban on UK trade with illegal Israeli settlements. https://mailchi.mp/map.org.uk/urgent-demand-the-uk-ban-settlement-trade

Tent of Nations – Early Day Motion 502 Source: Friends of Tent of Nations UK Date: 2 July The Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent visit has brought renewed attention to the Tent of Nations, the Nassar family’s educational and ecological farm south-west of Bethlehem, known for its Christian-rooted commitment to non-violence and its message: “We refuse to be enemies.” The family have spent 35 years trying to protect and re-register their land through legal means, while facing restrictions on access, road construction through the farm, development of a nearby outpost, surveillance and harassment. Please write to your MP and ask them to sign Early Day Motion 502, which calls on the UK government to raise the Nassar family’s case with the Israeli authorities. https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/66221 An action pack, including a template letter, a briefing for MPs, an updated legal briefing and a booklet about the farm, is available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gw3sOr251O1G24D3WA_H0GAcpMURUnQc?usp=sharing

FEATURED EVENTS

ICAHD UK Annual Conference – Empowering the Palestinians in their struggle for justice Source: ICAHD Date: Saturday 17 October from 9.30am – 4.45pm Location: Porter Hall, The Wesley Hotel, London NW1 2EZ The conference will consider how Palestinians can be supported as Israel advances its settler-colonial and apartheid policies. It will also examine responses to the criminalisation of people and organisations demonstrating solidarity with Palestinians. https://icahd.org/2019/10/01/upcoming-events/

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS)A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).”

Palestinian civic movement and civil society position on so-called “people-to-people” and “peacebuilding” initiatives Source: Al-Haq Date: 11 July Al-Haq is a leading independent Palestinian human rights organisation, founded in 1979. A broad coalition of Palestinian civil society organisations rejects “people-to-people” and “peacebuilding” initiatives that bring Palestinians and Israelis together without confronting occupation, apartheid, settler colonialism and genocide, arguing that such projects normalise oppression and marginalise Palestinian agency. The statement calls on governments, international organisations and donors to stop supporting these initiatives, end state, corporate and institutional complicity, and instead enforce international law and support Palestinian-led efforts for accountability, self-determination and return. https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/27696.html

National March for Palestine – Tell the new PM – End the genocide
Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Date: 18 July at 12 noon
Location: Central London (exact location to be confirmed)
Keir Starmer has finally been forced to resign – brought down in no small part by his shameful support for Israel’s crimes. Whoever comes next must break with this moral bankruptcy, or they will face a similar fate. Join our march to send a powerful message to the next Prime Minister to stand up for Palestine and take all possible action, including sanctions, to end Israel’s genocide.
https://palestinecampaign.org/events/national-march-for-palestine-tell-the-new-pm-end-the-genocide/

Israel continues to commit genocide and other atrocity crimes by deliberately targeting Palestinian children
Source: The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel
Date: 23 June
Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and war crimes in the West Bank, the UN Independent International Commission said in a new report. The Commission concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip. It has now found that the intense scale and systematic nature of the Israeli military operations have continued – resulting in unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children. The Commission reiterates that the deliberate targeting of children is one of the key elements establishing genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group, in whole or in part, in Gaza.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/israel-continues-commit-genocide-and-other-atrocity-crimes-deliberately

“The child whose death struck me most in the West Bank was in a different situation. He was in Al-Far’a refugee camp, in the town of Tubas. He was a 14-year-old boy.
He was shot by an Israeli military patrol as he was leaving his house. The patrol had been in the area, but at the time there had been no fighting taking place.
He was shot, badly injured, and left lying on the ground. He was surrounded by a company of Israeli soldiers for 45 minutes while this 14-year-old boy bled to death.
Early on, he was still able to move a little. He pushed his cap out to indicate that he was still alive and needed attention. A soldier kicked the cap back at him. On another occasion, he was crying out, and again the response was to kick towards him.
Later, a soldier came up and dropped a stone next to him, trying to frame this innocent child as a stone-thrower, when there is no evidence whatsoever that he was doing anything more than going out to play.
As the mother tried to leave the house to reach the child, to rescue him or attend to him, she was shot at by the Israeli military patrol.
There was a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance nearby, and whenever the ambulance tried to approach the scene, a laser-targeted weapon was aimed at the driver. The laser was hitting the driver in the middle of the head, and the driver of course withdrew in fear of being shot.
For 45 minutes, this child bled to death while surrounded by Israeli soldiers who not only showed no concern for him, and not only did nothing themselves to assist him, but actively prevented the child’s mother from reaching him and the ambulance from assisting him.”
Commission member Chris Sidoti, at the press conference to launch the report
Source: Defence for Children International
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_xLsK5ZpUc8

Ms Rachel, the popular children’s educator and YouTube creator, also hosted an online discussion following the release of the report. She spoke with Commission member Chris Sidoti, emergency physician Dr Mimi Syed and others about the UN Commission’s findings on the targeting of Palestinian children and the responsibilities of states to act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yoq-PtfJKHg

There are tens of thousands of Hind Rajabs
Source: Lama Khouri on Substack
Date: 26 June
Lama Khouri responds to the UN Commission’s report on crimes against Palestinian children by asking readers to see Hind Rajab’s case as one visible instance of a much wider reality, in which tens of thousands of Palestinian children have been killed, wounded or traumatised without comparable public recognition. Writing as a Palestinian mother and psychoanalyst, she links the deliberate targeting of children to the destruction of childhood itself: the loss of play, safety, imagination and hope under conditions of genocide, occupation and continuing military violence.
https://lamakhouri1.substack.com/p/tens-of-thousands-of-hind-rajabs

Link to the If This Were Your Child campaign:
https://www.instagram.com/if_this_were_your_child/

UN inquiry: Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian children as part of genocide
Source: Middle East Eye
Date: 23 June
Middle East Eye provides an overview of the UN Commission’s report, focusing on how the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children is linked to the Commission’s finding of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The article highlights evidence cited in the report, including direct killings and injuries, attacks on healthcare and neonatal care, denial of education, detention abuse, severe psychological trauma, and the wider destruction of the conditions necessary for Palestinian children’s survival and development.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-deliberately-targeted-palestinian-children-part-genocide-un-inquiry-finds

Palestinian prisoners’ institutions issue urgent appeal to World Health Organization to intervene to stop spread of scabies among Palestinian political prisoners in occupation’s prisons
Source: Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
Date: 17 June
Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs have sent an urgent appeal to the director-general of the World Health Organisation, calling for immediate intervention over deteriorating health conditions among Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons. The appeal focuses on the spread of scabies, including among child prisoners, and links the crisis to prison policies and conditions that the organisations say have turned a treatable disease into a serious health threat affecting thousands of detainees.
https://addameer.ps/news/5688

Israel bombs Palestinians in beach tents in Gaza
Source: Drop Site News
Date: 25 June
Mohamed Ahmed and Abdel Qader Sabbah report on Israeli attacks on displaced Palestinians sheltering in tents along Gaza’s coastline, including a strike in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, that killed 11-year-old Ahmed al-Raqab and severely wounded other children. The article links these attacks to the UN Commission’s finding that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted, while also documenting the continuing realities of displacement, destroyed shelters, heat, water scarcity, insects, rodents and the absence of any meaningful ceasefire for families living on the beach.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-bombs-gaza-coastline-tents-beach-displaced-palestinians

UK doctors reject IHRA definition and back protections for staff speaking on Palestine
Source: Middle East Eye
Date: 25 June
Middle East Eye reports that doctors at the British Medical Association’s annual conference voted to drop the IHRA definition of antisemitism, citing concerns that it has had a chilling effect on legitimate political speech and professional expression about Palestine/Israel. The article links the vote to wider concern over the Lord Mann review, NHS England’s adoption of the definition, and cases in which healthcare workers have faced reprimand or professional detriment for showing support for Palestine.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-doctors-reject-ihra-definition-and-back-protections-staff-speaking-palestine
BMJ article (partly behind a paywall):
https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj-2026-100085
The full text of motions 55 (IHRA definition) and 1002 (Mann review) are on this page:
https://bma-dag.org/

The Archbishop of Canterbury calls for a just peace while visiting Tent of Nations
Source: ICAHD
Date: 25 June
Archbishop Sarah Mullally visited the Tent of Nations farm south of Bethlehem, where she met and prayed with the Nasser family and planted an olive tree as a sign of hope for justice and peace. The visit highlighted the family’s long struggle to protect land held for more than 100 years, their commitment to non-violent resistance under the motto “We refuse to be enemies”, and the wider pressures facing Palestinian Christians in the occupied West Bank.
https://icahd.org/2026/06/25/she-gets-it-the-archbishop-of-canterbury-calls-for-a-just-peace-while-visiting-tent-of-nations/

FEATURED ACTIONS

Tent of Nations – Early Day Motion 502
Source: Friends of Tent of Nations UK
Date: 2 July
The Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent visit has brought renewed attention to the Tent of Nations, the Nassar family’s educational and ecological farm south-west of Bethlehem, known for its Christian-rooted commitment to non-violence and its message: “We refuse to be enemies.” The family have spent 35 years trying to protect and re-register their land through legal means, while facing restrictions on access, road construction through the farm, development of a nearby outpost, surveillance and harassment. Please write to your MP and ask them to sign Early Day Motion 502, which calls on the UK government to raise the Nassar family’s case with the Israeli authorities.
https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/66221
An action pack, including a template letter, a briefing for MPs, an updated legal briefing and a booklet about the farm, is available here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gw3sOr251O1G24D3WA_H0GAcpMURUnQc?usp=sharing

Write to your MP: debate to ban trade with illegal settlements
Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Date: Thursday 9 July
Abtisam Mohamed MP will sponsor a backbench debate in the House of Commons on Thursday 9 July, calling for a ban on British trade with illegal Israeli settlements. This is an opportunity to push MPs, including the incoming Prime Minister, to take a meaningful step against Israel’s criminal actions. Please take two minutes to email your MP demanding action for comprehensive sanctions against Israel, including a complete ban on all trade with illegal settlements.
https://palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/MPdebatesettlements

FEATURED EVENTS

Working with families and wider systems in contexts of continuous and complex trauma: The case of Gaza
Source: Association for Family Therapy (AFT)
Date: Monday 13 July
Speakers: Gwyn Daniel, Hind Khalifeh and Danny McGowan.
This online workshop will explore collaboration with Palestinian mental health workers in Gaza and describe evolving practices to support colleagues who are themselves living through the same traumas as those they are helping. The presenters will discuss support for children and families, training initiatives, “ethical loneliness”, and systemic questions concerning power, racism and colonialism in contexts of continuous war and occupation.
https://www.aft.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?group=&id=2028611

Decolonial Mental Health Practice Part 2: Clinical and ethical insights from Palestine
Source: Science and Nonduality
Date: Sundays 5, 12, 19 and 26 July at 5-7pm (UK time)
This four-part online course with Dr Samah Jabr explores decolonial mental health practice through clinical, ethical and political insights drawn from her psychiatric work in Palestine. The course examines trauma caused by humiliation and degradation, clinical approaches to torture and its aftermath, gendered experiences of political violence, and the mental health of children and adolescents living under chronic instability. It is intended for mental health professionals, clinicians in training, social workers, humanitarian practitioners, academics and human rights advocates, and includes clinical vignettes, video excerpts, plenary discussion, small-group analytical work and facilitated dialogue.
https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/decolonial-mental-health-practice-part-2/
If you missed Part 1 with Dr Samah, you can access the recording here:
https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/decolonial-mental-health-practice/

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network mental health study tour
Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November
Applications are open for UKPALMHN’s 10-day study tour for mental health and social work practitioners interested in the relationship between political realities and psychological wellbeing in Palestine/Israel. The tour includes meetings with clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts, with visits planned to Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv.
Full details:
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/
For an application form, please email ukpalmhn@gmail.com, including your name, address, contact details and professional qualifications.

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS)
A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).”

End UK complicity in genocide: sanction Israel
Source: Labour & Palestine
Date: Tuesday 7 July
Labour & Palestine is hosting an online discussion with Richard Burgon MP and live links from Palestine and South Africa on next steps in campaigning for justice for Palestinians and meaningful sanctions against Israel in line with international law. Listed speakers include Giorgia Gusciglio, Ryvka Barnard, Hugh Lanning and Rachel Garnham, with further guests from Palestine and South Africa to be announced.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/end-uk-complicity-in-genocide-sanction-israel-tickets-1990974363918

Email your MP: demand the UK bans trade with settlements
Source: Medical Aid for Palestinians
Date: June 2026
Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank are forcing Palestinians off their land and worsening an existing healthcare crisis. The Foreign Secretary advised British businesses not to trade with illegal settlements. However, MAP calls for the UK to introduce an outright ban. MAP says supporters should send a clear message: this is not enough. MAP asks supporters to email their MPs to demand the UK ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements. 
https://mailchi.mp/map.org.uk/urgent-demand-the-uk-ban-settlement-trade

Universal Ethical Framework for Mental Health Practitioners
Group Analysts for Palestine and Psychoanalytic Voices for Palestine invite colleagues from a range of disciplines and modalities to join a continuing discussion on the Universal Ethical Framework for Mental Health Practitioners.
The next online meeting will take place on Sunday 12 July from 3.30–5pm.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88647822358?pwd=HCagZwhZ6ZbbhguEBko13M7RbDF1te.1

The framework addresses silencing, structural determinants of mental health, and the responsibilities of mental health practitioners in a changing world. It is offered as a living document to support ethical clarity, protected dialogue and global professional solidarity. The framework is available on the PVP webpage, alongside a discussion forum for comments and reflections:
https://ukpalmhn.com/pvp/universal-ethical-framework-for-mental-health-practitioners/

There is also a Google Group for those who would like to take part in the discussion:
uef4mhp@googlegroups.com

Update: Israel’s violence in the West Bank
Source: Medical Aid for Palestinians
Date: 10 June
Medical Aid for Palestinians warns that life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is deteriorating rapidly, highlighting intensified settlement expansion, forced displacement, demolition orders against Khan al-Ahmar, and increasing settler attacks. The update links these developments to worsening barriers to healthcare, including road closures, checkpoints, intimidation of health workers and blocked ambulance access, and calls on the UK government to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
https://mailchi.mp/map.org.uk/update-israels-violence-in-the-west-bank?e=de1c58d78a

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities
Source: Amnesty International
Date: 10 June
Amnesty International’s report examines the forced displacement of Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank, focusing on Israeli state policies, settler violence, home demolitions, restrictions on movement and access, and the expansion of settlements and outposts. The report argues that these practices amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and form part of a state-driven campaign to ethnically cleanse Palestinian communities from parts of the West Bank and advance annexation.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2026/06/israel-west-bank-ethnic-cleansing/

Family “deeply concerned” for Gaza doctor’s health after transfer to solitary confinement
Source: Arab News
Date: 9 June
The family of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, say they are deeply concerned for his health after he was moved to solitary confinement in Nafha Prison following a legal appeal to Israel’s Supreme Court over his continued detention without charge. His son Elias Abu Safiya told Arab News that the family had hoped the appeal would lead to fairness and accountability, but instead felt their calls for basic rights had been met with harsher measures, raising fears for a doctor who is already ill and in need of medical care.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2646553/amp

Israel intensifies the killing in Gaza as the world looks away
Source: Drop Site News
Date: 9 June
Drop Site News reports that Israeli attacks in Gaza have continued and intensified despite the widespread perception of a ceasefire, opening with the killing of eight-year-old Jad Suleiman as he returned home from school in Jabaliya. The article describes continuing airstrikes, shootings, restrictions on humanitarian aid, acute food insecurity and fear among Palestinians living near the “yellow line”, where Israel has expanded its control over large parts of the Gaza Strip.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-genocide-yellow-line-israel-killing-palestinians-ceasefire

How rats and ruins are taking over life in Gaza
Source: We Are Not Numbers
Date: 4 June
Rama Hussain Abu Amra reports on the spread of rodents in Gaza’s displacement camps, where destroyed infrastructure, sewage leaks, overcrowding and disrupted waste collection have left families struggling to protect food and sleep safely at night. The article links these conditions to worsening health risks, especially for malnourished children and people with chronic illnesses, as hospitals face shortages of basic medical supplies.
https://wearenotnumbers.org/how-rats-and-ruins-are-taking-over-life-in-gaza/

Palestinian Prisoners’ Society: Israeli court ruling on Red Cross prison visits remains meaningless without implementation
Source: Wafa
Date: 4 June
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said the Supreme Court ruling would remain without practical effect unless it was translated into concrete measures guaranteeing the immediate resumption of Red Cross visits to Palestinian detainees. Its head, Abdullah Al-Zaghari, said the ruling should not serve as cover for overlooking the Israeli judicial system’s role in giving legal legitimacy to occupation policies and violations, arguing that Israeli courts continue to provide legal cover for arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and denial of fair trial guarantees.
https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/171189

Almost 140 Labour MPs call for ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements
Source: Melanie Ward MP on X
Date: 7 June
In a letter to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Melanie Ward MP and other Labour MPs called for urgent action against escalating violations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements. The letter argues that existing UK sanctions against individual settlers and ministers are insufficient, and says the UK should follow the International Court of Justice’s direction not to enter into trade dealings with Israel concerning the occupied Palestinian territory.
https://x.com/melanie_ward/status/2063661737576944081

The approach adopted by the Government fell well short of these demands:

Sanctions announcement: nowhere near enough
Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Date: 9 June
Palestine Solidarity Campaign says the UK government’s new sanctions against six companies and individuals involved in financing, enabling or carrying out settler violence are “tiny and piecemeal” measures that fall far short of what is needed. PSC argues that the government should ban trade with illegal settlements rather than merely advise British businesses against illegal activity, and says the limited announcement reflects pressure from public opinion and grassroots campaigning but does not meet the UK’s obligations.
https://palestinecampaign.org/sanctions-announcement-nowhere-near-enough/

“What the wounds are telling us” wins European Press Prize 2026
Source: De Volkskrant (Dutch newspaper) / European Press Prize
Date: June 2026
De Volkskrant’s investigation What the wounds are telling us (published in September 2025) has won the 2026 European Press Prize Distinguished Reporting Award, announced in June. The investigation is based on extensive interviews and documentation providing evidence of a pattern of gunshot wounds strongly suggestive of deliberate targeting of children.
https://www.europeanpressprize.com/article/what-the-wounds-are-telling-us/

On the Fifty-Ninth Year of the Naksa
Source: Palestine-Global Mental Health Network
Date: 5 June
This piece marks the 59th anniversary of the Naksa (the 1967 defeat and occupation) by arguing that Palestinian displacement should be understood not only as a historical event but as an ongoing structure of dispossession, occupation and psychological harm. The article connects this continuing displacement to Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Israeli prisons and professional institutions, calling on mental health workers to name genocide, apartheid and institutional silence rather than treating these as matters of neutral debate.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/05/on-the-fifty-ninth-year-of-the-naksa/

How do global conflicts impact you as a healthcare professional?
Source: Hull University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Hull
Date: June 2026
There has been an escalation in global conflicts, particularly in Ukraine and in Palestine, which healthcare workers have been exposed to, due to the accessibility of news through various media in a way never seen before. In light of the professional oaths taken by them, the survey will investigate how witnessing harm to human beings in other parts of the world affects healthcare workers in the UK and examine whether they experience moral injury. If you are a UK healthcare professional, this is your chance to express how you feel.
Further information and link to survey:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DY9qcKIjH5B/

FEATURED ACTIONS

Email your MP: Demand the UK bans trade with settlements
Source: Medical Aid for Palestinians
Date: June 2026
Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank are forcing Palestinians off their land and worsening an existing healthcare crisis. This week, the Foreign Secretary advised British businesses not to trade with illegal settlements. But the action calls for the UK to introduce an outright ban. We need to send a clear message: this is not enough. MAP asks supporters to email their MPs to demand the UK ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements. 
https://mailchi.mp/map.org.uk/urgent-demand-the-uk-ban-settlement-trade

FEATURED EVENTS

Together against the death penalty
Source: International Centre of Justice for Palestinians
Date: Friday 19 June, 5.30–8.30pm
Speakers include Dr Mustafa Barghouti and Tayab Ali
ICJP and the Red Ribbons Campaign are hosting an in-person panel discussion in central London on the crisis inside Israeli detention facilities and the threat of the death penalty against Palestinian detainees. The event brings together legal, political and activist perspectives, including testimony on detention, torture, solitary confinement, restrictions on legal rights and the denial of Red Cross visits.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/together-against-the-death-penalty-tickets-1989923453617

Critical Collective and HW4P present Gaza: Doctors Under Attack – Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah Speaks
Source: Rich Mix
Date: Sunday 21 June, 3pm
Critical Collective and Healthworkers4Palestine present a screening of Basement Films’ Bafta-winning documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack at Rich Mix, followed by a discussion with Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Dr Moosa Qureshi and a representative from Basement Films. The event is a fundraiser for Dr Abu-Sittah to defend his case after he was cleared by a tribunal and must now defend himself in the High Court.
https://richmix.org.uk/cinema/doctors-under-attack-dr-ghassan-abu-sittah-speaks/

What Occupation Does to the Soul:
Global reverberations of Palestinian historical trauma
Source: Science and Nonduality
Date: Friday 26 June at 6pm (UK time)
This online community gathering marks the launch of Radiance and Pain in Resilience, a collection of essays by Palestinian psychiatrist and psychotherapist Dr Samah Jabr, who will be joined by Dr Gabor Maté and Dr Jennifer Mullan, with Dr Jess Ghannam facilitating. The event will discuss the psychological consequences of colonisation, displacement and historical trauma for Palestinians, and consider decolonial and liberation-centred approaches to mental health rooted in dignity, collective care, resistance and truth.
https://we.scienceandnonduality.com/offers/sAAAXSk3/checkout

Decolonial Mental Health Practice Part 2:
Clinical and ethical insights from Palestine
Source: Science and Nonduality
Date: Sundays 5, 12, 19 and 26 July at 5-7pm (UK time)
This four-part online course with Dr Samah Jabr, Clinical & Ethical Insights from Palestine, Part 2, explores decolonial mental health practice through clinical, ethical and political insights drawn from her psychiatric work in Palestine. The course examines trauma caused by humiliation and degradation, clinical approaches to torture and its aftermath, gendered experiences of political violence, and the mental health of children and adolescents living under chronic instability. It is intended for mental health professionals, clinicians in training, social workers, humanitarian practitioners, academics and human rights advocates, and includes clinical vignettes, video excerpts, plenary discussion, small-group analytical work and facilitated dialogue.
https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/decolonial-mental-health-practice-part-2/
If you missed Part 1 with Dr Samah, you can access the recording here:
https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/decolonial-mental-health-practice/

Working with families and wider systems in contexts of continuous and complex trauma: The case of Gaza
Source: Association for Family Therapy (AFT)
Date: Monday 13 July
Speakers: Gwyn Daniel, Hind Khalifeh and Danny McGowan
This online workshop will explore collaboration with Palestinian mental health workers in Gaza and describe evolving practices to support colleagues who are themselves living through the same traumas as those they are helping. The presenters will discuss support for children and families, training initiatives, “ethical loneliness”, and systemic questions concerning power, racism and colonialism in contexts of continuous war and occupation.
https://www.aft.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?group=&id=2028611

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Mental Health Study Tour
Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November
This autumn we are offering a 10-day study tour for practitioners from the fields of mental health and social work who are keen to explore the complex interface between politics and psychological well-being in the particular circumstances of Palestine/Israel. The tour provides excellent access to clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts with 25 encounters, plus additional cultural opportunities. It will be facilitated by a small UK company established in 1999 that has provided alternative tours to the area. Hotels will be in Bethlehem and Nazareth with additional visits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv […]
Full details here:
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/
For an application form please write including your name, address, contact information, and professional qualifications to:
ukpalmhn@gmail.com

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS)
A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).”

Shake the Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV):  new joiners event
Source: Shake the CIV
Date: Wednesday 1 July from 6.30 – 7.30pm
Shake the CIV campaigns around the more than £7 billion invested in companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza. The campaign targets the London-wide pooled fund, the London Collective Investment Vehicle. With the recent local elections it is an exciting and fast-moving time for the campaign and  would love to build our capacity!
Check out our report outlining our campaign, detailing complicit funds and the way itforward to creating an ethical fund: https://tinyurl.com/p4t8zjtu
https://actionnetwork.org/events/shake-the-civ-new-joiners-event-2

How activists pushed the UK’s largest pension megafund to divest from Israel
Source: Middle East Eye
Date: 22 May
This long read examines how local government workers and campaigners pushed Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, the UK’s largest public sector pension pool, after discovering that pension money had been invested in Israeli government bonds during the war on Gaza. It describes a continuing tug of war between campaigners seeking divestment, pension bodies concerned with legal and financial duties, external asset managers making decisions at a distance, and a UK government reluctant to give clear guidance on Israel-linked investments. Middle East Eye reports that Border to Coast bought $29.2m of Israeli government bonds through Pimco in 2024 and early 2025, later sold them without public explanation, and remains under pressure over other holdings linked to illegal Israeli settlements.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/how-activists-pushed-uk-largest-pension-megafund-divest-israel

Futuricide
The term seemed necessary to me to name something that the word genocide alone was insufficient to describe. It allows us to consider several forms of destruction together: the destruction of lives, of course, but also of infrastructure, culture, the environment, education, health, and the very conditions for a possible future. Destroying schools, universities, hospitals, farmland, or memorial sites strikes at a society’s capacity to plan for the future.
“Futuricide” also means the imposition of radical uncertainty and the occupation of the imagined future by external, Israeli-American plans that leave no room for Palestinian self-determination. It is therefore a multi-temporal violence: it targets the present, erases the past, and seeks to confiscate the future.
From Prison to Futuricide: Interview with Stephanie Latte Abdallah
Institute for Palestine Studies, 16 April 2026
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1658922

“I refuse to tell the story of myself that I never was”
A child in Gaza, one of his limbs amputated, is asked what he wants to be. A doctor, he says, so that he can find a solution for his own amputated hand.
You can hear that sentence in two ways. A clinic trained in the dominant psychology might hear a symptom: denial, or the magical thinking of trauma, something to be assessed and managed.
The people who gathered on the thirtieth of April to speak about Gaza’s children heard something else. They heard an act of resistance, and the making of meaning.
The whole evening turned on the distance between those two hearings. By its end the dialogue had become the thing it set out to describe: an act of liberatory, anti-colonial psychology, performed rather than explained.
From a Palestine-Global Mental Health Network event
Chaired by Ms Fida Elian with Dr Rania Jawad, Dr Sama Dawani, and writer Bisan Nateel
Comments by Lama Khouri, Palestine-Global Mental Health Network
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/i-refuse-to-tell-the-story-of-myself-that-never-was/ 

Genocide in Gaza: An ethical challenge for systemic therapists
Source: Journal of Family Therapy, Volume 48, Issue 2
Authors: Gwyn Daniel, Chris Mannings, Joanne Early, Caroleen Bray, Amy Timms
Date: May 2026
The authors argue that the war on Gaza represents a profound ethical and professional rupture which requires systemic therapists to critically re-examine established concepts of neutrality, trauma and therapeutic practice. They explore how systemic approaches can both illuminate and obscure the political realities of genocide, oppression and collective suffering, while highlighting the limitations of conventional trauma frameworks in the context of ongoing violence. Drawing on the experiences and practices of Palestinian colleagues in Gaza, the paper advocates forms of witnessing, solidarity and liberation-focused therapeutic work grounded in justice, collective survival and resistance.
Abstract: 
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-6427.70023

Notes of meeting with the PTC team in Gaza (May 2026)
Source: Palestine Trauma Centre (UK)
Date: Saturday 23 May (date of online meeting)PTC (Gaza) was set up in 2007 in Gaza City to help train therapists in mental health skills. It was also a referral centre for those with mental disorders and PTSD symptoms. The support group, PTC (UK) was set up in 2010. PTC (UK) provides support and training on the ground in Gaza both in-person and via technology, ensuring that help is never too far away.
These notes are from the most recent, public, online call with the team, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Gaza.
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/notes-of-meeting-with-the-ptc-team-in-gaza-may-2026/

Hope against the odds
Source: Sea of Faith Network
Date: June 2026
Christine van Duuren is a member of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Steering Group. She volunteered at the Tent of Nations for the second time in January 2026.Her article reflects on volunteering at the Palestinian hilltop farm “Tent of Nations” near Bethlehem, describing the daily pressures placed on the Nassar family through settler expansion, legal obstruction, restrictions on infrastructure and ongoing psychological intimidation. It argues that the family’s commitment to non-violence, cultivation of the land and continued tree planting embody an active form of hope and resistance grounded in solidarity, dignity and the refusal to surrender to despair.
https://sofn.uk/library/hope-against-the-odds/ 

Survival outside Gaza was a lie
Source: Palestine Deep Dive
Date: 26 May
“A year since I left Gaza for survival and freedom, I am now, however, trying to survive a mental occupation and emotional death.”Abubaker Abed reflects that leaving Gaza brought physical safety but not psychological freedom, describing exile in Dublin as a state of alienation, numbness and “emotional death” in which his mind and soul remain bound to Gaza. The article powerfully frames survival as more than bodily escape, showing how trauma, separation from family, cultural dislocation and the burden of advocacy can create a continuing “mental occupation” outside the war zone.
https://www.palestinedeepdive.com/p/survival-outside-gaza-was-a-lie 

Israel, Russia among new additions on UN sexual violence “blacklist”
Source: Al Jazeera
Date: 29 May
A new UN report documents nearly 10,000 verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence worldwide in 2025 and adds both Israel and Russia to its blacklist of parties responsible for patterns of abuse. The report details allegations including rape, genital violence, torture and degrading treatment, while warning that the documented cases represent only a fraction of the true scale of violations.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/29/israel-russia-un-conflict-related-sexual-violence-report 

A bomb fell closer to Bisan than ever before
Source: wizard_bisan1 on Instagram
Date: 26 May
Bisan Owda is an award-winning Palestinian citizen journalist and filmmaker reporting on everyday life in Gaza. She continues to file short videos from Gaza “even though” (her Instagram tagline) it is immensely dangerous. Her eye witness account in the aftermath of two bombings in a crowded,residential area is a direct challenge to the idea that there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY0AovXq1Cq/ 

“I saw even more closely the darkest, most violent things human beings can produce”
Source: Investig’Action
Date: 26 May
The interview is in French but most modern browsers should be able to provide an English translation.
Moroccan volunteer Yassine Benjelloun, who took part in the Sumud flotilla in September 2025 and May 2026, describes severe violence allegedly inflicted on flotilla participants after the May voyage was intercepted in international waters. His testimony includes accounts of beatings, electric shocks, rubber bullets, sexual assault, fear and humiliation, and reflects on the role of the flotilla in exposing forms of violence that Palestinians have experienced on a far greater scale for decades.
https://investigaction.net/yassine-benjelloun-jai-vu-dencore-plus-pres-ce-que-lhumain-peut-produire-de-plus-sombre-de-plus-violent/ 

FEATURED ACTION

Stop UK arms sales to Israel
Source: Oxfam
Date: June 2026
Oxfam is asking supporters to sign a petition demanding that the UK government end all arms sales and military support to Israel, arguing that continuing military cooperation makes the UK complicit in Israeli attacks in Palestine and Lebanon. The appeal highlights the displacement of civilians in Lebanon, including the testimony of Lina, who describes repeatedly losing homes to bombing and facing further uncertainty. Oxfam says the UK has stopped some arms sales since the petition began, but insists that pressure must continue until all arms sales and military support are ended.
https://view.news.oxfam.org.uk/?vawpToken=R63ZHCVWKQAUPF5X74AX52QCZ4.100218

Delete Genocide Tech – Public Meeting Tour
Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Dates:
15 June – Liverpool
16 June – Cardiff
17 June – LondonThis public meeting tour launches PSC’s new Delete Genocide Tech campaign, which seeks to challenge the role of technology companies whose products and services are used in Israeli systems of surveillance, targeting and control of Palestinians. The meetings will examine the links between major technology firms and Israeli military and security infrastructure, and invite participants to become involved in campaigns aimed at ending public-sector contracts with companies alleged to be complicit in apartheid and genocide.
https://palestinecampaign.org/events/delete-genocide-tech-public-meeting-tour/ 

FEATURED EVENTS
Death and Palestinian Prisoners
Source: Institute for Palestine Studies
Date: Thursday 4 June
Speakers: Smadar Ben-Natan, Muna Haddad, Suhad BisharaThis online webinar will examine Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners and the withholding of Palestinian bodies, alongside discussion of the March 2026 Knesset Death Penalty Law and its implications for Palestinians accused of terrorism. Drawing on legal scholarship and human rights advocacy, the speakers will address the use of imprisonment and death as mechanisms of control, the legal and political ramifications of the new law, and the broader context of settler-colonial violence and genocide in Gaza.
https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1659061

Who is Philemon? Who is Ka?
Source: Stand By The Mother lecture series
(conceived and produced by Palestinian Jungian Analyst Heba Zaphiriou-Zarifi)
Date: Sunday 7 June at 5pm (UK time) (online)
Speaker: George Bright
This fundraising lecture in support of Palestinian mothers will feature analytical psychologist George Bright discussing Jung’s figures of Philemon and Ka, and their significance for understanding Jung’s psychology, world view and later thinking on synchronicity. There is no registration fee, but voluntary donations are encouraged for the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, supporting mental health interventions for women and children, emotional healing, community rebuilding, and people in temporary shelters and vulnerable environments.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyq49_svu4x2dDcnCdS5qzGoVc8sOWRwDmzo9OxHhmydlPjA/viewform

Dardāsheh with Lara Sheehi
Source: International Palestine Mental Health Networks
Date: Monday 8 June at 6pm (UK time)
Shatāt-USA Palestine Mental Health Network, whose name comes from shatāt, the Palestinian diaspora, has been founded by Palestinians living in diaspora and mental health practitioners committed to Palestinian liberation, and is launching this event as the newest affiliate of the International Collective of the Palestine Mental Health Networks. Dardāsheh, Arabic for “chitchat”, will be a series of gatherings for mental health workers and organisers to build critical connections, exchange knowledge and build community, beginning with a discussion with Lara Sheehi about her new book, From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures.
https://www.pmhn-international.org/calendar/dardsheh-with-lara-sheehi
A recording of the event will be made available on the Shallāl Substack account:
https://pmhnintl.substack.com/

Working with families and wider systems in contexts of continuous and complex trauma: The case of Gaza
Source: Association for Family Therapy (AFT)
Date: Monday 13 July
Speakers: Gwyn Daniel, Hind Khalifeh and Danny McGowan
This online workshop will explore collaboration with Palestinian mental health workers in Gaza and describe evolving practices to support colleagues who are themselves living through the same traumas as those they are helping. The presenters will discuss support for children and families, training initiatives, “ethical loneliness”, and systemic questions concerning power, racism and colonialism in contexts of continuous war and occupation.
https://www.aft.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?group=&id=2028611 

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Mental Health Study TourMonday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November
This autumn we are offering a 10-day study tour for practitioners from the fields of mental health and social work who are keen to explore the complex interface between politics and psychological well-being in the particular circumstances of Palestine/Israel. The tour provides excellent access to clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts with 25 encounters, plus additional cultural opportunities. It will be facilitated by a small UK company established in 1999 that has provided alternative tours to the area. Hotels will be in Bethlehem and Nazareth with additional visits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv […]
Full details here:https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/
For an application form please write including your name, address, contact information, and professional qualifications to:ukpalmhn@gmail.com 

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS)

A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS).”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has intervened to stop a £50 million Met Police contract with Palantir
Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign on X (referencing a Guardian article)
Date: 21 May
https://x.com/PSCupdates/status/2057430738207711240?s=20

Tell Keir Starmer: Cancel All Contracts with Palantir
Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Date: June 2026
The British government is awarding lucrative contracts to Palantir, which provides AI and surveillance technology used as an essential part of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and wider regime of military occupation and apartheid. The government is pushing ahead with the rollout of the NHS Federated Data Platform, which is being developed and maintained by Palantir. This is despite major objections on both data privacy and human rights grounds raised by health workers, patients and civil society organisations. In addition, last December, the Ministry of Defence awarded Palantir a £240 million contract without a tender process, its largest ever contract awarded by the department.
https://palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/cancelpalantircontracts

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Mental Health Study Tour
Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November
This autumn we are offering a 10-day study tour for practitioners from the fields of mental health and social work who are keen to explore the complex interface between politics and psychological well-being in the particular circumstances of Palestine/Israel. The tour provides excellent access to clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts with 25 encounters, plus additional cultural opportunities. It will be facilitated by a small UK company established in 1999 that has provided alternative tours to the area. Hotels will be in Bethlehem and Nazareth with additional visits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv […]
Full details here:https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/
For an application form please write including your name, address, contact information, and professional qualifications to: ukpalmhn@ukpalmhnadmin

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network (UKPALMHN) Study Tour Bursary
The UK Palestine Mental Health Network has been organising study tours to Palestine for mental health and social workers since 2016. During this time a diverse range of mental health practitioners and social workers have been on the tours. All the participants have told us they found the tours personally life changing and the experience of listening to Palestinian colleagues talk about their work both humbling and a unique learning experience. Colleagues also told us that encountering different issues whilst visiting different locations over the course of the busy 10 day tour, has been supporting them to be far more confident in their advocacy for Palestine.
Our next study tour is taking place from October 26th to November 4th 2026; we would like to offer the opportunity to trainee mental health practitioners to join the study tour, by asking colleagues who support the UK Palestine Mental Health Network to donate to the bursary scheme we are setting up. The cost of the tour is £1350, which includes accommodation, tour leader and local guides.
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/
By donating to the bursary you will be joining us in supporting the next generation of mental health practitioners to meet and to learn from our colleagues in Palestine; an experience they will carry forward in their work.
Please make donations to: Experience Travel Tours Acc 68187942 Sort code 09-01-26. Reference UKPALMHN ST For enquries, please write to ukpalmhn@ukpalmhnadmin

How modern psychology is turning a genocidal army into a “morally injured” one
Source: Mondoweiss
Date: 6 May
The article argues that modern psychiatry has moved from trauma and PTSD frameworks towards “moral injury”, a concept used to describe the distress that arises when people’s actions violate their deepest moral beliefs. In Israel, the term has rapidly caught on among clinicians, journalists and scholars as a way of understanding soldiers’ guilt, shame and psychological collapse after participating in or witnessing mass killing, civilian targeting and systematic destruction. The author argues that this approach risks reframing perpetrators as patients, recentring Israeli soldiers’ suffering and pushing Palestinian suffering further out of view, while translating crimes into injury and replacing accountability with treatment.https://mondoweiss.net/2026/05/how-modern-psychology-is-turning-a-genocidal-army-into-a-morally-injured-one/

The silence that meets the rape of Palestinians
Source: New York Times opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof (two‑time Pulitzer Prize winner)
Date: 11 May
The article reports interviews with 14 Palestinian men and women alleging sexual violence and torture in Israeli custody, including rape with objects, beatings targeting genitals, threats of rape, humiliation, and allegations that detainees were sexually assaulted using dogs. The report argues that Israeli authorities have created a system in which sexual violence has become, citing a UN report, one of Israel’s “standard operating procedures”. Israeli officials have threatened libel action but the New York Times has prominently defended the reporting as carefully fact-checked and based on victim accounts, witnesses, lawyers, human-rights groups and independent documentation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opinion/israel-palestinians-sexual-violence.html
The New York Times article is behind a paywall but this article provides further information:
New York Times [opinion piece] confirms Israel using dogs to rape
Source: Battle Lines with Owen Jones
Date: 12 May
https://www.owenjones.news/p/new-york-times-confirms-israel-using

It’s Bisan from Gaza, this is life after “ceasefire”
Source: AJ+
Date: 7 May
Bisan reports from Gaza six months after the ceasefire, saying that although “a lot has changed”, the reality is still the same: bombings, shootings, displacement, destroyed lives and around 60% of the Gaza Strip under occupation. She speaks with children and adults who say plainly that the war is not over, describing schools turned into shelters, the lack of water, food and medical treatment, and the sound of gunfire and shelling as part of daily life. The report challenges claims that the war has ended, with Gaza residents saying that those who believe are this are not living in Gaza and do not see the continuing bombardment, deprivation and suffering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=853pDQ21DGs

Testimonies of Gaza detainees: The most prominent evidence of the ongoing extermination of prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons
Source: Palestinian Authority Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club NGO
Date: 11 May
A short report summarises recent visits by lawyers to Gaza detainees held in Naqab prison and Ramla prison clinic. It set out testimonies alleging torture, starvation, denial of treatment and humiliating treatment. The report states that 1,283 Gaza detainees are held under the “unlawful combatant” classification without charge, shielding their detention from international oversight. The two organisations call for urgent intervention to stop the systematic crimes against prisoners and detainees, and to reveal the fate of Gaza detainees, many of whom the occupation continues to forcibly disappear.https://www.ppsmo.ps/home/studies/18277?culture=ar-SA

“The settlers are in control”: How the West Bank is being ethnically cleansed
Source: Middle East Eye
Date: 15 May
Peter Oborne reports from the occupied West Bank, describing how armed settlers, backed by Israel’s far-right government and supported by the army, are using violence, land seizure, road expansion and illegal outposts to drive Palestinians from their communities. The article presents this as an accelerating process of ethnic cleansing, linking daily settler attacks to wider Israeli policy under Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, while also highlighting Palestinian sumud in villages such as Burqa.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/settlers-are-control-how-west-bank-being-ethnically-cleansed

Atta loses his last plot of land – 3 May 2026
Source: ICAHD (formerly Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
Date: 6 May
The video description provides a detailed background to the case. Atta Jaber, a Palestinian farmer from the Baq’a Valley near Hebron, has spent decades trying to remain steadfast on family land that has been repeatedly expropriated, attacked by settlers, and reduced to one small strip beside Highway 60, where JCB bulldozers arrived on 3 May to clear land for road widening. The case is important because the threatened destruction of Atta’s remaining farmland, alongside land belonging to other Palestinian farmers along a 12-kilometre stretch of the valley, is presented as part of a wider process of settlement expansion, forced displacement and the destruction of Palestinian agricultural life under occupation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9nrSvSaI4E

Israeli settlers block Palestinian children from playing football
Source: Middle East Eye
Date: 10 May
A video circulating on Palestinian outlets and social media shows Israeli settlers blocking Palestinian children from using a football pitch in Umm al-Khair, in the Masafer Yatta area of the occupied West Bank; the incident has also been reported by Times of Israel, which said settlers sat and stood on the pitch while children in football shirts watched.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYKMiPWDUgD/

Israeli settlers force Palestinian family to exhume and rebury their father
Source: U.S. National Public Radio (NPR)
Date: 10 May
Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank dug up the grave of Hussein Asasa shortly after his burial near Jenin and forced his family to remove his body from the village cemetery, according to his relatives. His son Mohammed Asasa told NPR that the family had coordinated the burial with the Israeli military, but that settlers threatened to use a bulldozer to remove the body, while Israeli soldiers were present and did not force the settlers to leave. The story was first reported by Reuters on 9 May and a subsequent report from NPR includes its own interview with the family.
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/10/nx-s1-5817496/israeli-settlers-palestinian-exhume-grave-west-bank-jenin

Gaza’s Phoenix library rises
Source: The Key
Date: 7 May
You need to create a free account to access the full article. Gaza City, Palestine – After the destruction of the missiles, after the destruction of building after building, people had no choice but to sift through the rubble for the remains of their lives – for what they would need to survive. For Omar Hamad, what he needed to survive was books. While others searched through the ruins of their homes, he sought out the ruins of libraries destroyed by Israel’s bombs. With little more than a donkey cart, he searched. His mission: to prove that the written word could endure; that it would survive this genocide. This search would grow over time into the Phoenix Library of Gaza, which has just opened its doors to the public.
https://www.thekeymagazine.com/p/phoenix-library-gaza-omar-hamad-genocide-israel
Phoenix library
https://x.com/phoenixlibrary1

The letter Starmer should write to Netanyahu, ending Britain’s blind support for Israel
Source: Gwyn Daniel writing in Middle East Eye
Date: 11 May
This ironic fictional letter imagines Keir Starmer bemoaning the fact that Britain’s attempts to protect Jewish communities have been undermined by his Government’s adopting a definition that conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel, by suppressing pro-Palestine protest, and by offering only muted criticism of Israel’s violence in Gaza and the West Bank. The author argues that antisemitic attacks remain the responsibility of those who commit them, but that Britain’s refusal to impose meaningful consequences on Israel helps sustain a climate of anger and fear in which outrage at Israeli state violence is sometimes wrongly and dangerously displaced onto Jewish communities.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-starmer-serious-stamping-out-antisemitism-must-end-blind-support-israel

Palestinians forced to demolish own homes to make way for Israeli theme park
Source: The Guardian
Date: 16 May
It sounds like something from a dystopian sci-fi novel … but it’s real.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/16/palestinians-demolish-family-homes-jerusalem-kings-garden-theme-park

FEATURED ACTION

Open letter to Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
Unlawful detention of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya
Source: Health Workers 4 Palestine (HW4P) and 9 other organisations
(signatories of the original letter)
Date: May 2026
This petition is open for everyone to sign
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, a Palestinian paediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in North Gaza, has been detained by the Israeli military without charge since 27 December 2024 after refusing to leave his patients during the siege of the hospital. Released detainees describe witnessing prolonged torture, starvation, severe weakness, repeated beatings and an imminent risk of death. The letter calls on the RCPCH to issue a public statement demanding his immediate release and that of all detained healthcare workers, press the Israeli Medical Association, Israeli Paediatric Association, other national paediatric bodies and the World Medical Association to intervene, and urgently raise the case with the FCDO, the Foreign Secretary and the Middle East minister.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyP4fDnfu0AX3z07KcLHv7tm4QTcRkeSr9H2hXOGtIHrGMIg/viewform

Urgent appeal for the release of Doctor Abu Safiya
Source: European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine
Date: 15 May
The appeal is now closed but it contains further background information.
44 European organisations and around 150 medical doctors, academics and healthcare professionals issued an urgent call to the EU officials and European leaders for an immediate release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the former director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Northern Gaza, who is facing death as a result of extremely brutal torture.
https://www.eccpalestine.org/urgent-appeal-for-the-release-of-doctor-abu-safiya/

These are two separate, recent investigative reports from different sources:

New testimonies reveal Dr Abu Safiya stripped, beaten, and set upon by dogs in Israeli detention
Source: Dropsite News on X
Date: 6 May
Three recently released Palestinian prisoners have provided harrowing testimony about the condition of Dr. Hossam Abu Safiya.
https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2051905416544588287

Four Gaza doctors (including Dr Abu Safiya) face starvation, dire conditions in Israeli jails, rights group says
Source: Anadolu Agency
Date: 12 May
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/4-gaza-doctors-face-starvation-dire-conditions-in-israeli-jails-rights-group-says/3935273

FEATURED EVENTS

Meeting the Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) team in Gaza
Saturday 23 May at 11am
PTC(Gaza) was set up in 2007 in Gaza City to help train therapists in mental health skills. It was also a referral centre for those with mental disorders and PTSD symptoms. The support group, PTC(UK) was set up in 2010. PTC UK provides support and training on the ground in Gaza both in-person and via technology, ensuring that help is never too far away.
https://www.palestinetraumacentre.uk/what-we-do
Palestine Trauma Centre UK (PTC UK) will host a public zoom meeting with their team in Gaza. It is a great opportunity to hear directly from Gaza. Do join us and please share with your contacts.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83366557984

Webinar with Gérard Haddad
Source: The Francophone Palestine Mental Health Network
Date: Saturday 30 May at 1pm (UK time)
Captions will be available in a number of languages, including English.
The webinar is a conversation between Gérard Haddad, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and writer, and Georges Federmann, a psychiatrist from Strasbourg and an active member of the Francophone network. “As mental health professionals, we are particularly sensitive to the function of language in its connection to truth, whether individual, social, or collective. Our political stance as citizens resonates, sometimes unconsciously, in the transference, and patients traumatised by violence are especially vulnerable to this.  Untangling the threads of geopolitical, historical, religious, and ideological dimensions is an essential task, for which the work of G. Haddad offers invaluable support.”
https://forms.gle/dHqVvj6B4rNQPHr39

Who is Philemon? Who is Ka?
Date: Sunday 7 June at 5pm (UK time) (online)
Source: Stand By The Mother lecture series
(conceived and produced by Palestinian Jungian Analyst Heba Zaphiriou-Zarifi)
Speaker: George Bright
This fundraising lecture in support of Palestinian mothers will feature analytical psychologist George Bright discussing Jung’s figures of Philemon and Ka, and their significance for understanding Jung’s psychology, worldview and later thinking on synchronicity. There is no registration fee, but voluntary donations are encouraged for the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, supporting mental health interventions for women and children, emotional healing, community rebuilding, and people in temporary shelters and vulnerable environments.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyq49_svu4x2dDcnCdS5qzGoVc8sOWRwDmzo9OxHhmydlPjA/viewform

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS)
A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS).”

Britain quietly approves $11.85m arms licence to Israel despite Gaza ban
Source: Middle East Monitor
Date: 8 May
The UK Department for Business and Trade has granted two new licences for military exports to Israel, including an £8.7m licence for “components and technology for targeting equipment”, despite the government’s September 2024 suspension of exports judged at risk of use in Gaza. The article argues that the licence exposes the glaring weakness of re-export exemptions, because the UK is relying on end-user declarations it does not verify or enforce, leaving open the risk that equipment supposedly destined elsewhere could be diverted for Israeli military use.https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260508-britain-quietly-approves-11-85m-arms-licence-to-israel-despite-gaza-ban/

WHAT CAN WE DO?
IN THE ELECTIONS TOMORROW (Thursday 7th May)
CONSIDER VOTING FOR CANDIDATES WHO HAVE SIGNED
THE PLEDGE FOR PALESTINE
A list of all candidates and councillors seeking re-election who have signed the Pledge for Palestine is available here:
https://www.votepalestine.co.uk/councillor-pledges-signatures

Type in your postcode and you will see all the candidates who have signed the Pledge who will be on your ballot paper.
You can also view all of the candidates who have signed the Pledge in any given electoral area.
(We have been made aware that a small number of current Councillors who are seeking re-election have signed the Pledge but were not supportive of recent divestment campaigns, so you may wish to do some further research when reviewing the Pledge signatories.)

UKPALMHN Solidarity Spaces
Monday 11 and 18 May at 1pm (UK time)
There will not be a meeting on Monday 25 May (UK Bank Holiday)
This is an open space where people share their emotional responses with a view to remaining resilient amidst a constant stream of distressing news.
Please email ukpalmhn@ gmail.com if you would like to attend this meeting

National March for Palestine: Nakba 78
United against Tommy Robinson and the far right
Date: Saturday 16 May at 12 Noon
Location: Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DB
“On Saturday May 16th we need everyone who can make it to be in London for this crucial demonstration. We will march to commemorate the Nakba – for 78 years, Palestinians have been subjected to a racist system of oppression including ethnic cleansing, settler-colonialism, apartheid and genocide.  We march to reaffirm our commitment to the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the refugees’ right to return home. We march against the far right in Britain who glorify Israel’s racism and brutality.”
https://palestinecampaign.org/events/nakba-78-march-for-palestine-2
Statement by PSC in the wake of the horrific antisemitic attack in Golders Green
https://palestinecampaign.org/the-right-to-protest-is-a-fundamental-freedom

The UK-Palestine Mental Health Network banner will be at the march and all are welcome to join us.
We will assemble at 12 noon at South Kensington tube station at street level opposite the Thurloe Street exit from the station.
(Do not follow the underground walkway from the station but instead exit the station).
It is about a 10 minute walk from here to the starting point of the march.

Silent suffering: Why children in Gaza are losing their ability to speak
Source: Al-Jazeera
Date: 24 April
The article reports that increasing numbers of children in Gaza are developing speech loss or severe speech difficulties, which clinicians attribute to prolonged exposure to trauma, fear, and extreme stress during the ongoing war. Health professionals describe this as a psychological response linked to shock and anxiety, warning that limited access to treatment and continuing instability are likely to worsen long-term mental health outcomes.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/4/24/silent-suffering-why-children-in-gaza-are-losing-their-ability-to-speak

This is not a ceasefire
Source: Dr Ezzideen on Instagram (scroll through the images for the full story)
Date: 1 May
A Gaza-based doctor describes ongoing conditions during the ceasefire period, reporting cases of patients being bitten by rats and framing the situation as a continuation of war in altered form. The post conveys fear and deteriorating living conditions, noting that “rats roam the camp at night,” leaving residents unable to sleep and living in constant anxiety alongside wider deprivation and disease.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXsL-dYCFvm/?img_index=1

Rats infest Gaza’s tent camps, biting children and spreading disease
Source: Reuters
Date: 30 April
Rats and parasites are spreading through Gaza’s tent camps for ​displaced Palestinians, biting children’s fingers and toes as they sleep, gnawing through people’s few remaining treasured possessions, and spreading disease.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/rats-infest-gazas-tent-camps-biting-children-spreading-disease-2026-04-30

Dispatches from Catastrophe
Source: Jewish Currents
Date: Spring 2026
There is an introducion by Tareq Baconi, president of the board of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
The article presents a series of follow-up interviews conducted in late 2025 with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who had previously been interviewed by Jewish Currents, documenting how their lives have changed since October 2023. It conveys a range of reflections marked by grief, disillusionment, and divergent political views, while also noting the absence of voices from those who have been killed during the period covered, as well as those unable to speak due to imprisonment or surveillance. The piece offers a moving and emotional portrayal of the lived realities, losses, and suffering of the Palestinian interviewees.
https://jewishcurrents.org/dispatches-from-catastrophe

All they will find is sand
Source: London Review of Books
Date: 23 April
Eyal Weizman analyses the destruction of Gaza through the framework of genocide, focusing on the deliberate degradation of the built and natural environment, including homes, hospitals, agriculture, water systems, schools and cultural infrastructure. The article argues that the “Yellow Line” and associated military infrastructure are becoming instruments of occupation, while reconstruction plans risk further displacing Palestinians and remaking Gaza according to external political and economic interests.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/eyal-weizman/all-they-will-find-is-sand

Healing Under Occupation: Dr Samah Jabr on Palestinian trauma, resilience, and the limits of psychiatry
Source: The New Arab
Date: 23 April
This interview with Palestinian psychiatrist Dr Samah Jabr explores the psychological impact of occupation, genocide, detention, settler violence and chronic insecurity on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Jabr argues that Palestinian distress should not be reduced to individual pathology, but understood as a response to sustained structural violence, while also emphasising collective resilience and community-based forms of care.
https://www.newarab.com/features/dr-samah-jabr-what-palestinian-psyche-can-teach-world

Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank: It’s even worse than you think
Source: Voices from the Holy Land
Date: 4 April
Recording of a YouTube meeting (the actual meeting starts at about 7:45)
Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man: former Editor-in-Chief, +972 Magazine
Mazin Qumsiyeh: Director, Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability;
Mai Shahin: Specialist, nonviolent communication and trauma therapy
The meeting discusses:
Settler violence and impunity: The speakers describe escalating settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, often carried out with the protection or inaction of Israeli soldiers and police.
Settlement expansion and annexation: The discussion presents settler violence, land seizure, movement restrictions and infrastructure control as part of an accelerating process of de facto annexation.
International responsibility and action: The panel argues that US and international support help sustain these dynamics, while urging action through BDS, divestment, advocacy, media work and protective solidarity.

Smashed pipes, blocked off wells: Taps run dry in the West Bank as Israeli settlers target Palestinians’ water
Source: CNN
Date: 28 April
CNN reports on attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian water infrastructure in the occupied West Bank, including damage to the Ein Samia pumping station, which serves around 100,000 Palestinians in more than 20 communities. The article situates these attacks within wider water inequality, settler violence and restrictions on Palestinian access to wells, farmland and essential infrastructure.
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/28/climate/settler-attacks-water-inequality-west-bank-israel-palestine

Cafe Palestine 39: Introduction to a new music therapy-informed programme for music teachers in Gaza
A resource page and video extracts from the meeting are now available.
This Café Palestine session introduced a new online support programme for music teachers in Gaza, developed in response to the urgent need for practical ways to support children experiencing severe trauma. The initiative has been developed by the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, a leading Palestinian cultural institution, in collaboration with international partners. Dr Lukas Pairon, Chair of the Centre for Social Action and Music-Making at the University of Ghent, presented the programme alongside music therapist Hala Hamdan, who is facilitating the weekly online sessions. The approach is deliberately modest and pragmatic, focusing on shared reflection and practical techniques for observation and stabilisation rather than formal clinical training or trauma treatment.

Cafe Palestine 39

FEATURED EVENTS

The Right to Health: A (US) Mother’s Day webinar honouring the Balata Health Center in Nablus
Date: Sunday 10 May at 4.30pm (UK time)
Source: USA Palestine Mental Health Network
The USA Palestine Mental Health Network is hosting a live-streamed Mother’s Day webinar in honour of the Balata Health and Youth Centre in Nablus, which serves more than 50,000 people and has reportedly been without funding since January. The event will highlight the centre’s role in providing counselling, group activities and stress-relief tools to Palestinian families, with donations invited to support its work and the mothers and healthcare workers who sustain it.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/SBwDQTDvSSOHsNfFSrU2Iw

Webinar with Gérard Haddad
Source: The Francophone Palestine Mental Health Network
Date: Saturday 30 May at 1pm (UK time)
Captions will be available in a number of languages, including English.
The webinar is a conversation between Gérard Haddad, psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and writer and Georges Y Federmann, a psychiatrist from Strasbourg and an active member of The Francophone network.

“As mental health professionals, we are particularly sensitive to the function of language in its connection to truth, whether individual, social, or collective. Our political stance as citizens resonates, sometimes unconsciously, in the transference, and patients traumatized by violence are especially vulnerable to this. Untangling the threads of geopolitical, historical, religious, and ideological dimensions is an essential task, for which the work of G. Haddad offers invaluable support.”
https://forms.gle/dHqVvj6B4rNQPHr39

Who is Philemon? Who is Ka?
Date: Sunday 7 June at 5pm (UK time) (online)
Source: Stand By The Mother lecture series
Speaker: George Bright
This fundraising lecture in support of Palestinian mothers will feature analytical psychologist George Bright discussing Jung’s figures of Philemon and Ka, and their significance for understanding Jung’s psychology, worldview and later thinking on synchronicity. There is no registration fee, but voluntary donations are encouraged for the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, supporting mental health interventions for women and children, emotional healing, community rebuilding, and people in temporary shelters and vulnerable environments.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfyq49_svu4x2dDcnCdS5qzGoVc8sOWRwDmzo9OxHhmydlPjA/viewform

Mental Health Study Tour Autumn 2026
Source: UK-Palestine Mental Health Network
Dates: Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November.
This autumn we are offering a 10-day study tour for practitioners from the fields of mental health and social work who are keen to explore the complex interface between politics and psychological well-being in the particular circumstances of Palestine/Israel.
The tour provides excellent access to clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts with 25 encounters, plus additional cultural opportunities. It will be facilitated by a small UK company established in 1999 that has provided alternative tours to the area. Hotels will be in Bethlehem and Nazareth with additional visits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv […]

Full details here:

Autumn Tour 2026

For an application form please write including your name, address, contact information, and professional qualifications to:
ukpalmhn@gmail.com

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS)
A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS).”

Open Letter to the Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society (PCS) Editorial Board
From: 20 member of the Editorial Board
Date: April 2026
PCS is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Springer Nature.
The open letter explains that the signatories have advocated within the PCS Editorial Board during 2025 for the journal to adopt Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), noting that an internal anonymised poll showed majority support, but that the Editors declined to implement this policy or establish a dedicated BDS-aligned section and have censored references to genocide. The letter calls for Editorial Board members to publicly support BDS and for the journal to require authors affiliated with Israeli universities to include a specified statement acknowledging their institutional context, presenting this as part of a wider internal debate within psychoanalytic institutions.

Open Letter to the PCS Editorial Board – April 2026

Former UK envoys issue warning on Israel’s West Bank annexations
Source: Britain Palestine Project
Date: 24 April
Letter to the Financial Times from Sir Vincent Fean and 60 other former British Ambassadors and former High Commissioners
The letter argues that Israel is in breach of its trade and association agreements with the EU and UK on human rights grounds, and endorses calls from European officials for measures including suspending agreements, banning trade with settlements, and imposing sanctions—steps that align with key principles of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). It urges the UK government to adopt similar actions, particularly ending all trade with Israeli settlements and reviewing bilateral agreements, presenting these measures as necessary to uphold international law and avoid supporting the ongoing occupation.

Former UK envoys issue warning on Israel’s West Bank annexations

Technofacism? Why Palantir’s pro-West “manifesto” has critics alarmed
Source: Al Jazeera
Date: 21 April
This article examines criticism of Palantir following the publication of a 22-point statement linked to Alex Karp and Nicholas Zamiska’s book The Technological Republic, including concerns about its defence of hard power, AI weapons, national service, and cultural hierarchy. It also places the controversy in the context of Palantir’s work with defence, policing and immigration agencies, and its support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/21/technofacism-why-palantirs-pro-west-manifesto-has-critics-alarmed

UKPALMHN Solidarity Spaces
Monday 11 and 18 May at 1pm (UK time)
There will not be meetings on UK Bank Holidays (4 and 25 May)
This is an open space where people share their emotional responses with a view to remaining resilient amidst a constant stream of distressing news.
If you would like a link to this meeting then please write to ukpalmhn@gmail.com

National March for Palestine: Nakba 78
Saturday 16 May at 12 noon in central London
Further details to follow
https://palestinecampaign.org/events/nakba-78-march-for-palestine/

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Action:
Please help defend Palestinian Children
April 2026

Defence for Children International has been forced to suspend its operations after thirty five years of supporting, advocating for and documenting crimes against Palestinian children. The UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Steering Group has written a letter of support and appreciation to its Director in Palestine, Khaled Quzmar
https://palestinecampaign.org/events/nakba-78-march-for-palestine/

Here is an interview with Khaled in which he speaks about the closure:
News Desk: How the Israeli Army Silenced a Palestinian Watchdog (Jewish Currents, 20 April 2026)
https://jewishcurrents.org/newsletter/news-desk-how-the-israeli-army-silenced-a-palestinian-watchdog

ACTION

We, together with our colleagues in the International Palestine Mental Health networks, are launching a campaign to highlight the devastating impact of this closure on Palestinian children and their families and to make specific demands for action.
We have prepared a powerful, detailed joint statement approved by DCI-P which is here:
https://www.pmhn-international.org/new-page-93

It CONDEMNS the systematic criminalisation of Palestinian human rights organizations such as DCI-P;

Calls for the ENFORCEMENT of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child — without exception and without the double standard that has allowed Palestinian children to be categorically excluded from the protections the world claims to extend to all children everywhere.

Demands CONSEQUENCES following the International Court of Justice finding it plausible that genocide is being committed, calling on all states and institutions to heed the call of Palestinian civil society to support their non-violent resistance through Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.

We ask you to write to:
Government Minister for Children and Families, Josh MacAlister josh.macalister.mp@parliament.uk

with a copy to the FCDO fcdo.correspondence@fcdo.gov.uk

and a copy to your own MP

It should not take long to write a brief personalised letter and attach the link to our joint statement:
https://www.pmhn-international.org/new-page-93

We also ask you to do the same for any children’s organisations/charities with which you are familiar and share the statement with colleagues and friends

Thank you so much
UKPMHN Steering Group

He had to stand and watch as they destroyed his shop
Source: Dr. Omar Suleiman
Date: 6 April
Footage reported to be from a Palestinian textile shop in the area of Fandaqumiya near Jenin in March 2026. Multiple sources report that on 21 March Israeli settlers carried out a series of coordinated raids in this village and surrounding areas while security forces stood by, resulting in homes and vehicles being set on fire and several Palestinians being injured.
Israeli settlers carry out series of West Bank attacks as security forces stand by (Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/22/israeli-settlers-carry-out-series-of-west-bank-attacks-as-security-forces-stand-by

The West Bank is witnessing the most intense oppression since the days after Oct 7
Source: Good Shepherd Collective
Date: 10 April
This data-led analysis argues that Israeli restrictions across the West Bank have sharply intensified, with routine checkpoints, road closures, arrests and settler attacks fragmenting daily life. Using figures attributed to the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department, it says more than 5,300 violations were recorded between 1 January and 8 April 2026, with a marked rise in checkpoints and closures during the most recent month.
https://thecall.ps/p/the-west-bank-is-witnessing-the-most

15 families. Forcibly thrown out of their homes in Silwan
Source: I witness Palestine
Date: 1 April
This is a one-minute video documenting the plight of Palestinian families in Silwan who have been forcibly evicted from their homes in recent weeks.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWmBwrUEYOb/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

What’s happening in the West Bank?
Source: Oxfam GB
Date: 10 April
This Oxfam explainer outlines the current situation in the West Bank, including recent displacements, killings, settler attacks and access restrictions. It also provides background information on the geography, population, refugee camps and the expansion of Israeli settlements, which it describes as illegal under international law.
Oxfam calls on the UK government to act for meaningful statehood for Palestinians: full self-determination, economic sovereignty and an end to brutal occupation. […]
The UK must end all arms sales and military support to Israel, and end all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.
https://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam-in-action/current-emergencies/whats-happening-in-the-west-bank/

Children are being shot in what the world, with its usual cold disregard, calls a “ceasefire”
Source: Dr Ezzideen in Gaza, wriring on X
Date: 19 April
[…] In recent days, the military presence has intensified. Gunfire is no longer an event. It is routine. People are wounded inside their tents. Inside the final scraps of what remained to them. […]
https://x.com/ezzingaza/status/2045973636503241025/photo/1

Ecocide in Gaza: Colonialism, environmental destruction, and the struggle for life
Source: Brennpunkt Drëtt Welt
Date: 9 April
This article by Mazin Qumsiyeh argues that the destruction of ecosystems, agricultural land, water infrastructure and biodiversity in Gaza should be understood as ecocide rather than incidental wartime damage. It places that destruction within a longer history of settler-colonial environmental transformation in Palestine, highlights Palestinian environmental resilience and calls for accountability.

Ecocide in Gaza: Colonialism, Environmental Destruction, and the Struggle for Life

“Another genocide behind walls”: New report documents testimonies of rape and sexual violence in Israeli prisons
Source: Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor
Date: 12 April
“Sexual violence against Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centres constitutes a de facto state policy, used as a tool of subjugation and destruction, with a sharp escalation and the removal of prior restraints since 7 October 2023”.
This press release reports on a new Euro-Med Monitor publication documenting testimonies from former Palestinian detainees who describe rape, sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence in Israeli prisons and detention centres. The report presents these abuses as systematic practices that have intensified since 7 October 2023 and that have caused severe physical and psychological harm.
https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/7022/%E2%80%9CAnother-genocide-behind-walls%E2%80%9D:-New-report-documents-testimonies-of-rape-and-sexual-violence-in-Israeli-prisons

Visual violence as a tool of humiliation and domination over Palestinian youth
Source: 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media
Date: 20 April
The paper examines how photographs, videos and biometric surveillance are used against Palestinians, particularly young people, as tools of humiliation, domination and control rather than neutral forms of documentation. In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, it links this to arrests, checkpoints, home raids and facial-recognition surveillance that undermine privacy, dignity and everyday social life. In Gaza, it focuses more on the circulation of images of killing, destruction and abuse, arguing that these practices inflict deep psychological harm, including digital trauma, fear and damage to collective memory.
https://7amleh.org/post/position-paper-visual-violence-as-a-tool-of-humiliation-en

From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for revolutionary futures by Lara Sheehi
Source: Pluto Press
Date: April 2026
Psychoanalysis is experiencing renewed popularity, but the book argues that in its current form it often fails to address the harms of modern capitalism and can reinforce oppressive structures and state power. It makes the case that psychoanalysis can instead be reclaimed as one tool among many for social and political change, helping to examine how psychological and emotional processes are shaped by capitalism, oppression and violence. It calls for a more liberatory form of psychoanalysis that links therapeutic practice with wider struggles for justice.
https://www.plutobooks.com/product/from-the-clinic-to-the-streets/

FEATURED EVENTS

PalMed annual meeting and scientific meeting
Source: PalMed Academy
Date: 24–25 April (dates of the event)
This two-day event at King’s College London brings together healthcare professionals, researchers and students for panel discussions, a charity dinner and a scientific meeting focused on medical education and healthcare in Palestine. The programme includes sessions on healthcare education in Gaza, ethics and international law in war zones, acute care, public health, rehabilitation and the psychological impact of conflict.
https://palmed-conference.com/

Storytelling as Resistance
Source: Australia-Palestine Mental Health Network
Date: Saturday 2 May at 2pm (UK time)
This live event explores the importance of stories for the children of genocide, displacement, and violence. The panelists will discuss storytelling as a means of collective healing, empowering voices, cultural resistance, and the practice of being in sumud.
Submit your questions to the panelists to: reyelle@happyminds.com.au

Mental Health Study Tour Autumn 2026
Source: UK-Palestine Mental Health Network
Dates: Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November
This autumn we are offering a 10-day study tour for practitioners from the fields of mental health and social work who are keen to explore the complex interface between politics and psychological well-being in the particular circumstances of Palestine/Israel.
The tour provides excellent access to clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts with 25 encounters, plus additional cultural opportunities. It will be facilitated by a small UK company established in 1999 that has provided alternative tours to the area. Hotels will be in Bethlehem and Nazareth with additional visits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv […]
Full details here:
https://ukpalmhn.com/
For an application form please write including your name, address, contact information, and professional qualifications to:
ukpalmhn@gmail.com

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS)

A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS).”

Meta monetises settlements and violence against Palestinians
Source: 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media
Date: 13 April
This new report says Meta has allowed Israeli far-right, settler-linked and extremist accounts to earn revenue from content containing anti-Palestinian racism, incitement and support for settlement expansion. It argues that this goes beyond weak moderation, claiming the company’s monetisation systems actively reward and spread harmful material despite breaching Meta’s own policies and wider human rights obligations. It also says Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are broadly excluded from monetisation eligibility based on location, denying journalists, creators and civil society groups access to the same economic tools. The report concludes that this creates a dual system in which Palestinian digital participation is restricted while accounts promoting violence, displacement and settlement activity are financially enabled.
https://7amleh.org/post/meta-monetizes-settlements-and-violence-en

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Cafe Palestine 39: Introduction to a new music therapy-informed programme for music teachers in Gaza Saturday 18 April from 4–6pm (UK) This Café Palestine session will introduce a new online support programme for music teachers in Gaza, developed in response to the urgent need for practical ways to support children experiencing severe trauma. See the Featured Events section in this mailing for full details https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82206250113?pwd=nrOre2eYzCgkcG6QOEmLxMnAT7LWNb.1

UKPALMHN Solidarity SpacesEvery Monday during April at 1pm (UK time)This is an open space where people share their emotional responses with a view to remaining resilient amidst a constant stream of distressing news. Please write to ukpalmhn@gmail.com if you would like to attend these meetings

National March for Palestine: Nakba 78 Saturday 16 May at 12 noon in central London Further details to followhttps://palestinecampaign.org/events/nakba-78-march-for-palestine/

“[The settlers] use every tactic they can think of. They have pepper-sprayed us, beat us, detained us, taken my children’s IDs, beaten women, and stolen our sheep. They threatened to kill me and my family recently and told me I have a couple of days to leave to Mecca or Jordan as these lands have been promised to them by God.”
Palestinians in the West Bank are now experiencing multiple settler attacks per dayDropsite News, 27 March
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/palestinians-west-bank-israeli-settlers-attacks-iran-war

Palestinian child likely starved to death in Israeli prison Source: Jasper Nathaniel on X/substack Date: 24 March 2026 17-year-old Walid Ahmad died in Israeli military detention on 22 March 2025. According to recently released court papers, the judge ruled that he likely starved to death in Israeli military detention, but closed the case anyway. Israel never charged Walid with a crime and still holds his body. The allegations are corroborated in part by AP reporting and the subsequently unsealed Haaretz-linked court ruling. https://x.com/infinite_jaz/status/2036506611091390833 The shocking circumstances of the Walid’s death were described by another child prisoner called Mohammed Ibrahim and published in December 2025 by the same journalist. https://www.infinitejaz.com/p/mohammed-ibrahims-stolen-year

When they come for the homes Source: Mondoweiss Date: 4 April The article describes the lived experience of home demolitions in Palestine, emphasising their psychological impact as families endure not only material loss but the destruction of stability, memory, and identity. It argues that demolitions function as a broader mechanism of control, generating chronic anxiety and insecurity that shape both individual and collective mental health. https://mondoweiss.net/2026/04/when-they-come-for-the-homes/

Psychological burdens during genocide: A psychocartographic qualitative study of civilian experiences in Gaza, December 2024–February 2025 Source: Social Science & Medicine, Volume 399, June 2026, 119227 Date: 24 March – Examines the intertwined psychological, material, and spatial burdens of displaced Palestinians during ongoing genocide in Gaza. – Introduces a psychocartographic, rhizomatic framework for understanding trauma as spatially and relationally embedded. – Identifies three core themes: psychological toll of war, survival challenges, and pervasive unsafety. – Highlights the ethical responsibility of mental health research and advocates for collective, community-based interventions. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953626003035

Thrown out onto the streets – Evictions escalate in Silwan Source: Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Date: 27 March Fifteen Palestinian families were displaced from their homes in the Baten al-Hawa area of Silwan, East Jerusalem, following court rulings transferring the properties to a settler organisation, with most evictions carried out under heavy police presence. The article situates these evictions within broader Israeli policies and legal frameworks that favour Jewish property claims while denying equivalent rights to Palestinians, contributing to demographic changes in East Jerusalem. It highlights the wider scale of displacement in Silwan and beyond, with hundreds of Palestinians facing imminent eviction or demolition as part of ongoing settlement expansion. https://icahd.org/2026/03/27/thrown-out-onto-the-streets-evictions-escalate-in-silwan/

Why Western mental health practice fails in Palestine Source: TRT World (20 minute interview with Dr Jabr) Date: 31 January  (only recently found this link) Dr Samah Jabr argues that Western mental health practice fails in Palestine because it is built on assumptions—trauma as a past event, the existence of safety, and the possibility of a stable future—that do not hold under ongoing occupation and violence. Standard therapeutic models and diagnoses such as PTSD are therefore inadequate, as trauma is continuous, basic needs are unmet, and clinical questions are often secondary to immediate survival concerns.She further explains, drawing on Frantz Fanon, that international interventions cannot function without safety and must be rethought in a context of structural violence, where communities develop their own collective coping mechanisms that professionals must learn from rather than replace. Western frameworks also depoliticise suffering and focus on individual adaptation, whereas in Palestine mental health is inseparable from political conditions, collective experience, and the need to sustain agency and resist imposed helplessness. There is a succinct explanation of the difference between “resilience” and “sumud” at 7.00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYmECI8G2Us Dr Jabr’s website:  https://drsamahjabr.com/

UK government’s inaction fuelling Israel’s takeover of Palestinian land in the West Bank Source: Medical Aid for Palestinians (Instagram) Date: 18 March This video highlights that UK government inaction is contributing to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and calls for concrete measures rather than statements alone. Medical Aid for Palestinians urges the UK to ban trade with settlements, suspend arms transfers to Israel, and take legal, economic and diplomatic action to ensure accountability. https://www.instagram.com/medicalaidpal/reel/DWCPnKlh9AR/

Global Sumud Flotilla 2026 – Collective Care Volunteers Date: April 2026 […][Global Sumud Flotilla 2026] are building a team of anti-oppressive, decolonial and context-rooted psychotherapists, counsellors, somatic, and trauma-practising practitioners to provide a range of collective care and mental health support structures, that will be available to 3,000 sea and land volunteers. The care structures vary depending on the stage of the mission, i.e. pre-mission preparation, in-person support at European ports, care during the sea voyage to Palestine, and post-mission support. Dates and operational details may change depending on circumstances[…] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddlhbmHh_HgVfRmc9JQ9nYq9QrhWG-4KYdKjqBWwKTQwl8Zg/viewform

ICAHD statement condemning Israel’s “death penalty for terrorists” law Source: The Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) Date: 1 April ICAHD  condemns with outrage, if not surprise, the Israeli parliament’s passing of the Death Penalty for Terrorists Bill on March 30. Drafted by Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, himself a convicted terrorist, it was supported by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, his entire Likud party and 70% of the Israeli Jewish public. This racist law mandates the death penalty – specifically by hanging – for a “terrorist” defined in terms that could only apply, in our context, to a Palestinian. […] Full statement: https://icahd.org/2026/04/01/icahd-statement-condemning-israels-death-penalty-for-terrorists-law/

Institute of Group Analysis (IGA) Statement in Solidarity with Palestine Source: Group Analysts for Palestine (GA4PAL) Date: 2 April A motion to publish GA4PAL’s Statement in Solidarity with Palestine on the IGA website was passed at its AGM on 7 March, despite resistance and ongoing appeals, marking a significant opening for engagement with the political realities affecting mental health. The letter highlights the importance of collective action within the profession, acknowledges the support of anti-Zionist Jewish colleagues, and frames the development as a source of encouragement for those challenging silence and advocating for ethical accountability. Full announcement: https://ukpalmhn.com/group-analysts-for-palestine/

I am not a number A visual tribute to the 72,000+ Palestinians killed in the Israeli genocide in Gaza Each light represents a life. Hover to remember them. https://bkhmsi.github.io/i-am-not-a-number/

FEATURED EVENTS

From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for revolutionary futures Source: The Relational School Date: Saturday 11 April from 4pm – 5:30pm This online event centres on a discussion of From the Clinic to the Streets: Psychoanalysis for Revolutionary Futures by Lara Sheehi, examining how psychoanalytic thinking can be extended beyond clinical settings into political and collective struggles. The session features responses from clinicians and theorists including Foluke Taylor, Avgi Saketopoulou and Robert Downes, focusing on the implications of the book for therapeutic practice and social transformation. https://www.tickettailor.com/events/therelationalschool/2003398

Bearing witness in the West Bank: Mental health and life under occupation Source: St John’s Church, Waterloo Date: Monday 13 April at 7pm Location: St John’s Church, Waterloo, 73 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TY (this is an in-person event)Two volunteers share reflections from recent time in the West Bank, combining contextual overview with personal testimony about life under occupation. The session explores the impact of occupation on mental health—particularly for children and young people—alongside insights from local professionals and community initiatives, and includes perspectives on everyday life and faith in Palestine. The event aims to bear witness to lived realities, amplify local voices, and open space for discussion on how participants can offer support, with donations directed to grassroots and humanitarian organisations. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bearing-witness-in-the-west-bank-mental-health-and-life-under-occupation-tickets-1984229614190

Women, prison and sumud Source: Palestine Mental Health Networks International Date: Tuesday 14 April at 5pm (UK)This webinar focuses on the experiences of Palestinian women in prison, examining the psychological and social impacts of detention and incarceration. It highlights themes of resilience (sumud), collective struggle, and the role of mental health in understanding and supporting those affected. https://www.pmhn-international.org/calendar/women-prison-sumud

Cafe Palestine 39: Introduction to a new music therapy-informed programme for music teachers in Gaza Saturday 18 April from 4–6pm (UK) This Café Palestine session will introduce a new online support programme for music teachers in Gaza, developed in response to the urgent need for practical ways to support children experiencing severe trauma. The programme recognises that many musicians are already working closely with traumatised children and offers a music therapy-informed framework to strengthen this work through accessible, ethically grounded tools. The initiative has been developed by the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, a leading Palestinian cultural institution, in collaboration with international partners.Dr Lukas Pairon, Chair of the Centre for Social Action and Music-Making at the University of Ghent, will present the programme alongside music therapist Hala Hamdan, who is facilitating the weekly online sessions. The approach is deliberately modest and pragmatic, focusing on shared reflection and practical techniques for observation and stabilisation rather than formal clinical training or trauma treatment. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82206250113?pwd=nrOre2eYzCgkcG6QOEmLxMnAT7LWNb.1

Besiege Your Siege with Madness: Collective liberation and the psychoanalysis of world-making Source: USA-Palestine Mental Health Network, BADIL, Eyewitness Palestine Date: Sunday 19 April from 4.30 – 6 pm (UK) A special presentation and dialogue with Dr Reem Abu Hweij, a clinical psychologist and academic based in Jerusalem. Amid genocide and protracted colonial trauma, what psychic processes enable a people not only to survive but to imagine anew? Drawing from her essay “Besiege Your Siege with Madness” (forthcoming in Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society), Dr. Reem Abu Hweij deftly examines the Palestinian collective psyche as a site of world-making and spiritual revolt. She introduces the concept of liberation madness – a psycho-spiritual rupture through which the oppressed transcend the coloniser’s “Dominant Reason” and reclaim meaning, love, and collective purpose. https://mailchi.mp/41bfc486574d/besiege-your-siege-with-madness-mar-6-52392?e=f02f8a3048

On Thursday 14 May, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is presenting a major cultural commemoration of the Nakba at the Troxy in London, with Health Workers for Palestine (HW4P) and Marsm, to mark over 78 years of Palestinian resistance to erasure and to fundraise for Palestinian health workers in Gaza. https://dice.fm/event/dkmxdo-voices-of-solidarity-ii-14th-may-troxy-london-tickets

Mental Health Study Tour Autumn 2026 Source: UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Dates: Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November. This autumn we are offering a 10-day study tour for practitioners from the fields of mental health and social work who are keen to explore the complex interface between politics and psychological well-being in the particular circumstances of Palestine/Israel.The tour provides excellent access to clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts with 25 encounters, plus additional cultural opportunities. It will be facilitated by a small UK company established in 1999 that has provided alternative tours to the area. Hotels will be in Bethlehem and Nazareth with additional visits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv […] Full details here: https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/ For an application form please write including your name, address, contact information, and professional qualifications to:ukpalmhn@gmail.com

FEATURED ACTIONS

VOTE PALESTINE ON 7th MAY! The Candidate and Councillors’ Pledge for Palestine In the run-up to the local elections on 7 May, candidates and councillors who are standing for re-election are being asked to sign the Pledge for Palestine. Full information, including a list of current councillors who have signed the Pledge is available from: Vote Palestine website: https://www.votepalestine.co.uk/ PSC website: https://palestinecampaign.org/campaigns/councillor-pledge-for-palestine/ A list of candidates who have signed the Pledge will be made available on the same pages after the nomination deadline for candidates on Thursday 9 April. What you can do: 1. Check which councillors have signed the pledge and check which candidates have signed the pledge when this information is available. 2. Contact prospective candidates who you might vote for and ask them if they will sign the Pledge (if they have not already done so) 3. Raise the issue of the Pledge in hustings and other local meetings 4. Make your own pledge to vote only for candidates who have signed the Pledge!

Global Sumud Flotilla 2026 Source: Global Sumud Flotilla Date: 19 March This spring, the Global Sumud Flotilla returns with its largest mission yet: more than 100 boats in parallel with land mobilisations, representatives from over 100 countries, all united to challenge the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza and the complicity that enables it.⁠ A brief video featuring some prominent supporters introducing the 2026 Flotilla https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWCKKZMlKgV/ You can donate or apply to join the Flotilla here: https://linktr.ee/globalsumudflotilla

Support Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah: Write to the General Medical Council today Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign Date: April 2026 Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a British-Palestinian reconstructive surgeon who has for decades been treating patients in Palestine, Lebanon and beyond, including children who have been horribly injured in Israel’s attacks. He is being targeted by anti-Palestinian groups, and now Britain’s medical regulator, the General Medical Council (GMC), is trying to stop him practising. This is an outrageous attempt to try and silence Palestinians like Dr. Abu-Sittah, and to prevent them from advocating for their own people’s safety and for the wider principles of justice. It will not work. Already thousands of doctors have called on GMC leadership to resign over this spurious attack, but we need to increase the pressure.https://palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/complaint-gmcRecent Guardian article providing background to the case: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/02/uk-surgeon-cleared-antisemitism-criticises-gmc-challenge-ruling

“This report will help cement the government’s legacy as an active participant in one of the greatest crimes of our time.”

Jeremy Corbyn MP writing in the Foreword of The Gaza Tribunal Report
https://thegazatribunal.uk/report

Torture at the core of genocide accusations in the Palestinian Territories Source: Al-Quds (Palestinian newspaper) Date: 22 March The latest report from Francesca Albanese, “Torture and Genocide”, has been presented to the UN Human Rights Council. The report’s central claim that torture is not incidental but a “structural pillar” of Israeli control over Palestinians, extending beyond prisons into everyday life through checkpoints, raids, movement restrictions, and systemic coercion. A key concept highlighted is the idea of a “torturous environment”, where policies collectively create continuous psychological and physical pressure on the population, contributing to displacement and the erosion of Palestinian social life. The report explicitly links these practices to genocide under international law, arguing that widespread harm and destruction of living conditions may meet the threshold of intent to destroy a protected group. https://www.alquds.com/en/posts/232494

UK Palestine Mental Health Network statement on the US/Israel assault on Iran and its impact on Gaza and the West Bank Source: UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Date: 23 March (date of statement) The statement condemns US and Israeli attacks across the region and warns that, as international attention shifts, violence and dispossession against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have intensified. It describes worsening conditions in Gaza, including ongoing killings, severe restrictions on aid and infrastructure, and pervasive trauma. In the West Bank escalating violence, movement restrictions, and economic strangulation are severely disrupting daily life and wellbeing. The network calls for urgent attention to these conditions, emphasising their profound mental health impacts and urging continued witness, solidarity, and collective protest. https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/ukpmhn-statement-on-the-us-israel-assault-on-iran-and-the-impact-on-gaza-and-the-west-bank/

The Gaza Tribunal Report The final report of the Gaza Tribunal which took place in September 2025 was published on 16 March. It appears that there has not been significant coverage of the Report in either the mainstream or Middle Eastern press, with the exception of The Guardian. The Guardian reports that the Gaza Tribunal argues the UK has legal obligations to act following the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 advisory ruling, particularly in relation to preventing complicity in violations of international law. The tribunal’s findings suggest that continued UK arms exports, intelligence cooperation, and diplomatic support for Israel risk breaching these obligations.The article notes that the UK government has maintained that it complies with international law, while limiting or avoiding substantive policy changes, including by relying on existing licensing frameworks and emphasising diplomatic engagement rather than suspension of ties. It also highlights that the tribunal’s conclusions may carry political implications, with the issue of UK policy on Gaza expected to feature in debates ahead of the local elections in May 2026. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/15/uk-complicit-desecration-international-law-gaza-says-corbyn-led-tribunal Full Gaza Tribunal Report:https://thegazatribunal.uk/report

The Conscripted Container: How to reach beyond the psychoanalytic erasure of the Palestinian Source: Lama Khouri published in The Key Date: 19 March Lama Khouri is co-founder of the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network. The article traces how the author’s psyche was shaped by early experiences of dispossession, silencing, and institutional conditioning, producing what she calls the “conscripted container” — a self that absorbs and manages erasure while remaining outwardly compliant. Through psychoanalytic reflection, she recognises how this formation was reinforced in professional and clinical settings, where racism, projection, and “unfindability” prevented her from being seen as a fully particular subject and led her to misname or suppress her own experience. The turning point comes in the context of the Gaza genocide, which reconnects previously split-off knowledge and enables a psychological break from accommodation, allowing her to name racism, complicity, and her own prior self-erasure. This awakening leads to a more embodied and assertive form of activism, marked by refusal to participate in spaces that require her silencing and by a commitment to speak as a fully “findable” subject rather than a container for others’ projections. https://www.thekeymagazine.com/p/psychoanalysis-palestine-un-jordan-racism (You need to create a free account to read the article)

West Bank resident recounts sexual assault amid rising settler violence Source: CNN World Date: 18 March A Palestinian resident describes being sexually assaulted during a wider attack by Israeli settlers on his property in the West Bank. The report situates the incident within a broader pattern of escalating settler violence, including attacks on homes and communities. It also notes the context of recent controversy following the release of Israeli soldiers previously charged with rape, highlighting lack of accountability. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/18/middleeast/west-bank-resident-sexual-assault-violence-intl

Therapy in the time of genocide Source: Gestalt Centre Belfast Date: 9 February 2026 The article is a critical reflection on how the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT) has responded to the war in Gaza and the wider question of Palestine. It takes issue with the EAGT, in the context of its forthcoming global conference, and with its Human Rights and Social Responsibility (HRSR) committee, whose public statement on Gaza the authors consider insufficient.The article argues that professional concepts such as neutrality and dialogue can obscure structural violence and asymmetry, eg a false equivalence between oppressor and oppressed. It questions how therapeutic institutions frame responsibility in situations of war crimes and genocide. It combines organisational critique with broader reflections on ethics and the role of therapists, ultimately calling for the EAGT and its HRSR committee to adopt a clearer and more explicit public position. https://www.gestaltbelfast.org/blog/therapy-in-the-time-of-genocide

Interview with the mother of Hind Rajab Source: BBC Radio 4 Date: Tueday 17 March A moving 7-minute interview broadcast on the main BBC radio morning news programme. The interview starts at approximately 2 hours and 47 minutes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002sn3j

Every moment is a life Source: bookshop.org Date: 12 March (publication date) Compiled by bestselling author Susan Abulhawa, an Arabic-English bilingual anthology of essays from eighteen young Palestinian writers trying to survive the genocide in Gaza. https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/every-moment-is-a-life-gaza-in-the-time-of-genocide-susan-abulhawa/f2d5f9f5d504ca65

FEATURED EVENTS

The Erasure of Palestine (book tour) The photography book documents Ahmad Al-Bazz’s three-year project tracing the remains of depopulated Palestinian villages, combining visual and historical evidence to argue that the events of 1948 form part of an ongoing process of colonisation and erasure, which he reflects on in relation to the current situation in Gaza. Thursday 26 March – Belfast https://themaclive.com/book?instanceId=723901ASRVCKJVCTBVRGQVRTDNQDNKPRH Friday 27 March – Brighton https://www.tickettailor.com/events/post/2109430 Saturday 28 March – London https://ibraaz.org/whats-on/the-erasure-of-palestine

Palestinian Land Day: Global mental health solidarity event Source: Palestine Mental Health Networks International Date: Saturday 28 March at 6pm (UK) This online event marks Palestinian Land Day, bringing together mental health professionals and activists to reflect on land, dispossession, and their psychological impacts. It will explore the ongoing significance of Land Day in the Palestinian context and consider how mental health frameworks can support solidarity and resistance. https://www.pmhn-international.org/calendar/da-de-la-tierra-palestina-palestinian-land-day

Bearing witness in the West Bank: Mental health and life under occupation Source: St John’s Church, Waterloo Date: Monday 13 April at 7pm Location: St John’s Church, Waterloo, 73 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8TY (this is an in-person event) Two volunteers share reflections from recent time in the West Bank, combining contextual overview with personal testimony about life under occupation. The session explores the impact of occupation on mental health—particularly for children and young people—alongside insights from local professionals and community initiatives, and includes perspectives on everyday life and faith in Palestine. The event aims to bear witness to lived realities, amplify local voices, and open space for discussion on how participants can offer support, with donations directed to grassroots and humanitarian organisations. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bearing-witness-in-the-west-bank-mental-health-and-life-under-occupation-tickets-1984229614190

Women, prison and sumud Source: Palestine Mental Health Networks International Date: Tuesday 14 April at 5pm (UK) This webinar focuses on the experiences of Palestinian women in prison, examining the psychological and social impacts of detention and incarceration. It highlights themes of resilience (sumud), collective struggle, and the role of mental health in understanding and supporting those affected. https://www.pmhn-international.org/calendar/women-prison-sumud

Cafe Palestine 39: Introduction to a new music therapy-informed programme for music teachers in Gaza Saturday 18 April from 4–6pm (UK) This Café Palestine session will introduce a new online support programme for music teachers in Gaza, developed in response to the urgent need for practical ways to support children experiencing severe trauma. The programme recognises that many musicians are already working closely with traumatised children and offers a music therapy-informed framework to strengthen this work through accessible, ethically grounded tools.The initiative has been developed by the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, a leading Palestinian cultural institution, in collaboration with international partners.Dr Lukas Pairon, Chair of the Centre for Social Action and Music-Making at the University of Ghent, will present the programme alongside music therapist Hala Hamdan, who is facilitating the weekly online sessions. The approach is deliberately modest and pragmatic, focusing on shared reflection and practical techniques for observation and stabilisation rather than formal clinical training or trauma treatment. https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82206250113?pwd=nrOre2eYzCgkcG6QOEmLxMnAT7LWNb.1

Besiege Your Siege with Madness: Collective liberation and the psychoanalysis of world-making Source: USA-Palestine Mental Health Network, BADIL, Eyewitness Palestine Date: Sunday 19 April from 4:30 – 6 pm (UK) A special presentation and dialogue with Dr. Reem Abu Hweij who is a clinical psychologist and academic based in Jerusalem. Amid genocide and protracted colonial trauma, what psychic processes enable a people not only to survive but to imagine anew? Drawing from her essay “Besiege Your Siege with Madness” (forthcoming in Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society), Dr. Reem Abu Hweij deftly examines the Palestinian collective psyche as a site of world-making and spiritual revolt. She introduces the concept of liberation madness—a psycho-spiritual rupture through which the oppressed transcend the coloniser’s “Dominant Reason” and reclaim meaning, love, and collective purpose. https://mailchi.mp/41bfc486574d/besiege-your-siege-with-madness-mar-6-52392?e=f02f8a3048

Mental Health Study Tour Autumn 2026 Source: UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Dates: Monday 26 October finishing on Wednesday 4 November. This autumn we are offering a 10-day study tour for practitioners from the fields of mental health and social work who are keen to explore the complex interface between politics and psychological well-being in the particular circumstances of Palestine/Israel. The tour provides excellent access to clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts with 25 encounters plus additional cultural opportunities scheduled. It will be facilitated by a small UK company established in 1999 that has provided alternative tours to the area. Hotels will be in Bethlehem and Nazareth with additional visits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv ][…] Full details here: https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/ For an application form please write including your name, address, contact information, and professional qualifications to:ukpalmhn@gmail.com

FEATURED ACTIONS

VOTE PALESTINE ON 7th MAY! Vote Palestine 2026 is a coalition that includes Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Palestinian Youth Movement Britain, The Muslim Vote, the British Palestinian Committee, and the Palestinian Forum in Britain. It has launched a Councillors’ Pledge for Palestine and is urging supporters only to vote for councillors or candidates who have signed the Pledge.Research by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has found that local council administered pension funds invest more than £12 billion in companies complicit in Israel’s violations of international law. Palestine is a relevant issue in the local elections. A video from PSC explaining more about the campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECirAypbYto Further information about how to promote the Councillor Pledge for Palestine: https://palestinecampaign.org/campaigns/councillor-pledge-for-palestine/ Vote Palestine 2026: https://www.votepalestine.co.uk/

Psychoanalysis of Conscience: A call to resign The Collective of Palestine Mental Health Networks recently issued a call for psychoanalysts to resign from the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). In response to this call seven analysts have resigned.This page carries the resignation letters from these analysts and also include a link to the original call to resign. The action is also open to therapists who are not members of the IPA .https://www.pmhn-international.org/they-resigned

Global Sumud Flotilla 2026 Source: Global Sumud Flotilla Date: 19 March This spring, the Global Sumud Flotilla returns with its largest mission yet: 100+ boats in parallel with land mobilizations, representatives from over 100 countries, all united to challenge the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza and the complicity that enables it.⁠A brief video featuring some prominent supporters introducing the 2026 Flotilla https://www.instagram.com/reels/DWCKKZMlKgV/ You can donate or apply to join the Flotilla here: https://linktr.ee/globalsumudflotilla

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS) A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS).” Shake the CIV Source: shaketheciv Date: 17 March Shake the Civ is a city-wide campaign to force the London Collective Investment Vehicle to divest from genocide On Tuesday 17 March, the campaign handed a letter signed by over 150 councillors and assembly members from across the capital to the London CIV telling it to divest from genocide.Shake the Civ: https://linktr.ee/shaketheciv Councillors delivering the letter: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWMyVkdjSuS/ Israeli Apartheid Week Source: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement Date: Saturday 21 March – Saturday 28 March (and beyond) Web: https://bdsmovement.net/iaw Share your events and actions online! #IsraeliApartheidWeekPlease share your activism with the wider movement. Take photos and videos, write short reports, and share them all using the hashtags #IsraeliApartheidWeek, #DismantleApartheid, #GazaGenocide and #UnitedAgainstRacism. We’ll be sharing on social media on the accounts: Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/IsraeliApartheidWeek.IAW Twitter:  https://twitter.com/apartheidweek Instagram:  https://instagram.com/israeli_apartheid_week Message from BDS Movement about Israeli Apartheid Week Source: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement Date: 21 March https://www.instagram.com/p/DWJIr4bAVqh/

Cafe Palestine 39: Introduction to a new music therapy programme for music teachers in Gaza
Saturday 18 April from 4-6pm (UK)
This Café Palestine session will focus on a new online music therapy support programme for music teachers in Gaza, addressing the urgent need for practical ways to support children experiencing severe trauma.
See the Featured Events section in this mailing for full details.
Zoom link to follow in the next mailing

UKPALMHN Solidarity Spaces
Every Monday during February and March at 1pm (UK time)
This is an open space where people exchange their emotional responses with a view to remaining resilient amidst a constant stream of distressing news.
Please write to ukpalmhn@gmail.com if you would like a link to this meeting

POSTPONED
The UKPALMHN Mental Health Study Tour has been postponed until the Autumn
Due to the US and Israel’s ongoing, illegal military attack on Iran, we have decided to postpone the Spring Study tour until the autumn. The tour will now be from:
Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November
We know that our tours to meet and learn from our Palestinian colleagues are appreciated by them and this strengthens our commitment to continue with the tour at a later date.
Please contact us now at ukpalmhn@gmail.com for an application form to be completed prior to an online meeting.

“The situation is deteriorating rapidly, and yet it unfolds in near silence. The world is occupied with other urgencies. Gaza no longer interrupts the global conscience. It no longer qualifies as breaking news. And so it becomes easier to look away.
Yesterday, the Israeli army announced an extension of the closure of Gaza’s border crossings until March 13. No goods. No supplies. No aid. For at least thirteen more days. For nowThese phrases, bureaucratic and bloodless, conceal what they mean.
Even when the crossings are open, what enters is not generosity but calculation. The quantities are tightly controlled, measured according to daily caloric limits defined by the very authority that enforces the closure. Survival here has been reduced to arithmetic. Not dignity, not life as it is meant to be lived, but the minimum required to postpone death.
And now the crossings are sealed again.
It will take only days before organizations such as the World Food Programme are forced to suspend their operations for lack of supplies. Bakeries will close. Shelves will empty. Families who have already been living on the narrowest margin will find that even the margin has disappeared.
Gaza is being pushed toward hunger while the world directs its gaze elsewhere, and history has shown us what happens when suffering is permitted to proceed quietly. Starvation does not require spectacle. It does not need the noise of bombs. It advances in increments, in administrative language, in closed gates.
One gate. Then another.
Until hunger becomes policy, and policy becomes ordinary.“
Dr Izzideen on X
https://x.com/ezzingaza/status/2028496226480537979

Between 27 February and 5 March 2026, it is estimated that only about 25–30 truck‑loads of UN‑coordinated aid per day actually entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom, compared to the 500 or more trucks a day that UN agencies say are needed to meet basic needs.

Indifferenz
Source: Parapraxis Magazine
Date: 6 March
Lama Khouri is co-founder of the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network.
This essay by Palestinian psychoanalyst Lama Khouri is addressed to the organisers of the European Psychoanalytic Federation’s 2026 conference titled “Neutrality”. It criticises psychoanalytic institutions for invoking “neutrality” while remaining silent about the mass violence in Gaza. The author revisits Freud’s concept of Indifferenz, noting that while it was historically translated as “neutrality”, Freud used the term to describe a technical stance within the analytic consulting room rather than a broader institutional or political position. Khouri argues that psychoanalytic organisations have gradually extended and reshaped this clinical concept into an organisational doctrine that enables institutional self-preservation through political silence. Framed as a protest to the conference organisers, the article endorses calls for psychotherapists to leave the umbrella organisation called the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA). It argues that continued membership legitimises the misuse of neutrality in the face of Palestinian suffering.
https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/indifferenz

Sport counselling training in Gaza
Source: Palestine Trauma Centre UK
Date: 1 March
A recent, 3-minute video showcasing current work of PTC (UK) in Gaza.
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/ptc-uk-sport-counselling-in-gaza-march-2026/
PTC (UK) website:
https://www.palestinetraumacentre.uk/

Exercise and freedom: Inside a children’s mental health centre in Gaza
Source: The Guardian
Date: 5 March
A Palestine Red Crescent Society mental health centre provides one of the few places left where children in Gaza can play and feel safe
A collection of 10 photos and commentary from the children’s centre.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2026/mar/05/childrens-mental-health-centre-gaza

Mental health and primary care in Gaza: The ceasefire opportunity and imperative
Source: The Lancet Psychiatry (Correspondence)
Date: 9 February (Epub) / March issue
This commentary argues that the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system has created an urgent need to integrate mental health services into primary care as part of reconstruction and humanitarian response. It emphasises that the scale of psychological trauma across the population requires rapid expansion of community-based mental health and psychosocial support.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(26)00022-2/fulltext

Gaza remains a crisis of children’s mental health
Source: Los Angeles Times
Date: 15 February
In this recent op‑ed, psychologist Nisreen Qawas of the Palestine Red Crescent Society – the real operations‑room responder whose experience inspired The Voice of Hind Rajab – describes being in the PRCS control room in Ramallah, speaking with Hind and her family as colleagues desperately tried to reach them by ambulance. Qawas writes that Gaza’s children are not only surviving bombardment and displacement but enduring an overwhelming, cumulative psychological trauma that is destroying any sense of safety or future, amounting to a full‑scale mental health crisis for an entire generation.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2026-02-15/gaza-remains-crisis-of-childrens-mental-health

Mental health of children in Gaza: A call for global action
Source: ScienceDirect
Date: 29 January
This article examines the severe psychological impact of the war in Gaza on children, focusing on the effects of continuous traumatic stress, mass bereavement and large-scale displacement. It argues that the destruction of homes, schools and healthcare infrastructure has compounded the mental health crisis by removing many of the social supports that normally help children cope with trauma. The authors call for urgent international action to expand mental health and psychosocial services for children in Gaza and to prioritise long-term recovery and protection.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S3050713826000069

Trauma and mental health burden of Gaza’s displaced children during war: A cross-sectional study
Source: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health
Date: 27 January
This research study reports extremely high levels of trauma exposure and psychosocial difficulties among displaced children in Gaza. The authors conclude that the war is likely to produce long-term and intergenerational mental health consequences and call for large-scale psychosocial interventions.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13034-026-01024-5

The Gaza we want: Children’s voices on life, recovery and the future of the Gaza Strip
Source: UNICEF / UNISPAL
Date: 24 February
This report presents testimonies and surveys from children in Gaza describing the psychological effects of war, displacement and loss on their daily lives. It highlights widespread anxiety, grief and uncertainty among children while calling for sustained mental health and psychosocial support as part of recovery planning.
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/unicef-report-the-gaza-we-want-childrens-voices-on-life-recovery-and-the-future-of-the-gaza-strip-24feb26/

Francesca Albanese on being sanctioned by the United States
“… its a judgement without appeal that skips the trial”
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/E0JCNSTUN8c

FEATURED EVENTS

Decolonial Mental Health Practice
Clinical and ethical Insights from Palestine
A four-part webinar with Dr. Samah Jabr (two modules remaining)
Source: Science and Nonduality
How do we offer genuine healing when trauma isn’t in the past, but an ongoing reality?
In times of ongoing structural violence and protracted conflict, how do standard mental health frameworks hold up? Often, traditional models of “neutrality” and “post-traumatic” care fail to capture the reality of distress that is a daily, lived experience.
SAND are honoured to announce a crucial interactive workshop developed by Dr. Samah Jabr, based on her extensive frontline psychiatric practice in Palestine. This four-part training challenges us to move beyond mainstream psychology and explore decolonial frameworks, Liberation Psychology in action, and the vital human rights dimensions of clinical practice. This is essential learning for anyone seeking ethical pathways to healing in highly politicised environments.
Sunday 15 March, 4:00pm–6:00pm (UK)
Module IV: Mental Health, Human Rights, and Professional Responsibility
Sunday 22 March, 4:00pm–6:00pm (UK)
https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/decolonial-mental-health-practice/

Scottish Palestinian Health Partnership Conference
Speaking up against injustice: Addressing Intimidation of UK Health Workers Supporting Palestine
Date: Saturday 21 March from 1 pm to 4:30 pm
Location: University of Glasgow, James McCune Smith Learning Hub, University Avenue, Room 641, Glasgow G12 8QW
In parts of the UK, health care workers speaking up for the basic human rights of Palestinians have been subjected to threats, intimidation and formal disciplinary action. Join us as we hear from prominent clinicians and a legal expert on the right to express Palestinian solidarity.
Invited Speakers:
Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon
Dr Ang Swee Chai, Orthopaedic Surgeon and Co-founder MAP
Dr Tamara Ali, Glasgow Trainee GP
Mr Franck Magennis, UK Barrister
Dr James Smith, ER medic and Lecturer in Humanitarian Studies
The conference is free to attend but booking is required.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/speaking-up-against-injustice-tickets-1982770430733

Health under siege
Date: 22 March at 5pm (UK)
Source: USA-Palestine Mental Health Network and Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council
This webinar organised by the Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council will examine the impact of the war in Gaza on health systems and civilian wellbeing, focusing on the destruction of healthcare infrastructure and the wider public health consequences of the siege. The speaker, Dr Zeena Salman, is a Palestinian-American psychologist and mental health advocate whose work focuses on trauma, community mental health and the psychological effects of war and displacement in Palestinian communities.
https://mailchi.mp/130505c71b7a/jvp-hac-webinar-health-under-siege-march-22-2026?e=f6d53898b3

Cafe Palestine 39: Introduction to a new music therapy programme for music teachers in Gaza
Saturday 18 April from 4-6pm (UK)
This Café Palestine session will focus on a new online music therapy support programme for music teachers in Gaza, addressing the urgent need for practical ways to support children experiencing severe trauma. The programme recognises that many musicians in Gaza are already working closely with traumatised children and seeks to provide them with simple, ethically grounded tools to strengthen this work.
The initiative has been developed by the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, a leading Palestinian cultural institution, in collaboration with international partners.
Dr Lukas Pairon, Chair of the Centre for Social Action and Music-Making at the University of Ghent, will introduce the programme alongside music therapist Hala Hamdan, who is facilitating the weekly online sessions. The approach is deliberately modest and pragmatic, offering shared reflection and practical techniques for observation and stabilisation rather than formal therapist training or trauma treatment.
Zoom link to follow in the next mailing

NOTE THE NEW DATE
Besiege Your Siege with Madness:
Collective liberation and the psychoanalysis of world-making
Source: USA-Palestine Mental Health Network, BADIL, Eyewitness Palestine
Date: SUNDAY 19 APRIL from 4:30 – 6 pm (UK)
A special presentation and dialogue with Dr. Reem Abu Hweij who is a clinical psychologist and academic based in Jerusalem.
Amid genocide and protracted colonial trauma, what psychic processes enable a people not only to survive but to imagine anew? Drawing from her essay “Besiege Your Siege with Madness” (forthcoming in Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society), Dr. Reem Abu Hweij deftly examines the Palestinian collective psyche as a site of world-making and spiritual revolt. She introduces the concept of liberation madness—a psycho-spiritual rupture through which the oppressed transcend the coloniser’s “Dominant Reason” and reclaim meaning, love, and collective purpose.
https://mailchi.mp/41bfc486574d/besiege-your-siege-with-madness-mar-6-52392?e=f02f8a3048

POSTPONED
The UKPALMHN Mental Health Study Tour has been postponed until the Autumn
Due to the US and Israel’s ongoing, illegal military attack on Iran, we have decided to postpone the Spring Study tour until the autumn. The tour will now be from:
Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November
We know that our tours to meet and learn from our Palestinian colleagues are appreciated by them and this strengthens our commitment to continue with the tour at a later date.
Please contact us now at ukpalmhn@gmail.com for an application form to be completed prior to an online meeting.

FEATURED ACTIONS

Israeli Apartheid Week
Source: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement
Date: Saturday 21 March – Saturday 28 March (and beyond)
Web: https://bdsmovement.net/iaw
Share your events and actions online! #IsraeliApartheidWeek
Please share your activism with the wider movement. Take photos and videos, write short reports, and share them all using the hashtags #IsraeliApartheidWeek, #DismantleApartheid, #GazaGenocide and #UnitedAgainstRacism. We’ll be sharing on social media on the accounts:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsraeliApartheidWeek.IAW
Twitter: https://twitter.com/apartheidweek
Instagram: https://instagram.com/israeli_apartheid_week

Framing Israeli Apartheid: Uses and Limitations for Palestine Advocacy – for Israeli Apartheid Week
Source: Makan
Date: Tuesday 24 March 2026, 6.30pm to 8.30pm (workshop)
Deadline for applications: Wednesday 18 March by 6pm
Activist training: speaking about Palestine in hostile environments
This online training session, organised during Israeli Apartheid Week, is aimed at activists who want to feel more confident speaking about Palestine in challenging or hostile settings. The session focuses on equipping participants with practical tools, arguments and strategies for responding to common narratives and objections. It is designed to help activists communicate more effectively and feel better prepared when engaging in public discussions, campaigning or advocacy work on Palestine.
https://www.makan.org.uk/event/framing-israeli-apartheid-uses-and-limitations-for-palestine-advocacy-online/

Report UK Lawyers for Israel Charitable Trust to the Charity Commission
Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Date: March 2026
In our last mailing it was reported that UK Lawyers for Israel had challenged both the British Museum and the Open University over use of the term “Palestine”. Furthermore, it was reported that both institutions had partially conceded to these demands. Palestine Solidarity Campaign has now launched a letter writing campaign to the Charity Commission voicing concerns that UK Lawyers for Israel Limited (UKFLI) is using its charitable trust as a cover for activities by its non-charitable wing to promote discriminatory and racist positions towards Palestinians. It is understood that the Charity Commission has already opened a compliance case looking into this relationship and the letter urges the Charity Commission to include evidence from the recent incidents at the British Museum and the Open University in the investigation.
https://palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/uklfi-charity-commission
Other news:
UK charity regulator found ‘mismanagement’ by Campaign Against Antisemitism
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-uk-charity-regulator-found-mismanagement-campaign-against-antisemitism

Psychoanalysis of Conscience: A call to resign
Source: The Collective of Palestine Mental Health Networks
Date: February 2026
The Palestine Mental Health Networks (PMHN) is a collective of mental health professionals, including many psychoanalysts from twenty-three nations, brought together by a commitment to psychoanalytic principles and to the fundamental dignity of all human beings.
PMHN are calling on psychoanalysts to resign from the International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) in response to its complicity with the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The full text of the statement is in the link below.
It is not necessary to be an IPA member to sign this letter. This call is open to all psychoanalysts and mental health professionals, whether holding an IPA membership, having already resigned, belonging to other psychoanalytic societies, or working outside institutional psychoanalysis entirely.
https://www.pmhn-international.org/psychoanalysis-of-conscience-a-call-to-resign

BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS (BDS)

A founding aim of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is to “encourage our colleagues individually and collectively to consider their response to the Palestinian call for boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS).”

“Complicity has consequences”
A brief introductory video about the new Vote Palestine 2026 initiative.
https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVGpiVOCCYI/

Recording of the Vote Palestine 2026 launch event on 24 February
https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/m932en-UJ63dlJWGq-g3naHn_hEktwk7wtiUTCthN2-16HR4t–SUiBsp2OUsnOt.bqcXzbqWYsA3SRlx?startTime=1771963034000
Please write to ukpalmhn@gmail.com if you would like the password for this restricted access video.

“So, what exactly does Palestine even have to do with Lambeth? Quite a lot actually …”
Source: Lambeth Votes Palestine
Date: 6 March
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DViY9SsCLFE/

New tools aim to stop tourism industry’s complicity with genocide
Source: The Canary
Date: 27 February
Two new digital tools have been launched to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s “No Room for Genocide” campaign, which seeks to challenge the tourism industry’s links to Israeli settlements and alleged war crimes. The initiative includes a website inviting hospitality businesses to pledge that their venues will not host individuals implicated in war crimes and an online petition urging tourists to avoid platforms such as Booking.com and Airbnb that list properties in illegal settlements. The campaign calls on civil society and businesses to pressure governments and travel companies to end forms of complicity with Israel’s actions against Palestinians.
https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2026/02/27/israel-tourism-partners-no-room-for-genocide/