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| 1. UKPALMHN Action Half-Hour on Friday 5 January at 13:00 2. National March for Palestine – Saturday 13 January 3. Don’t Go to the Recalculating Conference! 4. As genocide rages, doctors must choose: Care or collaboration 5. Doctors Against Genocide 6. International committee “must investigate Israel’s holding of dead bodies in Gaza” 7. Meta censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale, report claims 8. Visualisation of the progressive destruction of medical infrastructure in Gaza 9. No Human Being Can Exist 10. I am not Palestinian. But if you are not grieving, something is wrong 11. Act now against companies profiting from the genocide of the Palestinian people plus I will not look away by Caitlin Johnstone (extract) and Organisations providing mental health services that are seeking financial support in 2024 1. UKPALMHN Action Half-Hour on Friday 5 January at 13:00 The Action Half-Hours are intended to provide a space for mutual support and action. Please contact ukpalmhn@gmail.com if you would like a link to the meeting. 2. National March for Palestine – Ceasefire NOW – Saturday 13 January at 12:00 noon in Central London The assembly point and route have not been announced at the time of writing. https://palestinecampaign.org/events/national-march-for-palestine-ceasefire-now-january-13/ 3. Don’t Go to the Recalculating Conference! The 36th OFEK International Group Relations Conference called RECALCULATING: Authority, Identity & Belonging in Times of Tectonic Upheaval is being organised in Israel in February 2024. https://ofekgrouprelations.org/en/intgrc2024/. Disturbingly, the conference is being organised in association with the London-based Tavistock Institute https://www.tavinstitute.org/ The conference brochure gushes that: “The questions of the day, while in many ways collective, are also deeply personal. We experience them in our own bodies, in the eyes of our children, in spontaneous encounters with strangers in town squares and in sudden bursts of emotion that overcome us as we drive alone in the car.” The US-Palestine Mental Health Network, along with the UK, French and Irish networks are urging people not to attend either in-person or virtually stating: “The “Recalculating” event clearly supports Israeli policy. Its bold invitation, ironically issued now in the midst of Israel’s heinous genocide in Gaza, promises to ponder subtle issues of cultural and national identity in a neutral, self-searching, and transparent manner. Alas, however, the list of conference planners excludes Palestinian voices—those human beings currently being uprooted through genocide and violent upheaval. What’s more, the invitation states with proud defiance that the ‘conference will be conducted according to the guidelines of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front Command to ensure the continued safety of residents’. With this framework, how can the perspectives of Palestinians or their international supporters conceivably be heard?” A link to the open letter can be found on this page: https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/dont-go-to-the-recalculating-conference/ Further information about this action will be added to this page as it becomes available. 4. As genocide rages, doctors must choose: Care or collaboration Healthcare workers in Gaza are refusing to abandon their patients and communities. American doctors should be doing all we can to protect them. Why aren’t we? https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/11/25/as-genocide-rages-doctors-must-choose-care-or-collaborationism 5. Doctors Against Genocide We are a global coalition of healthcare workers dedicated to succeeding where global governments have failed in confronting and preventing genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Our mission includes identifying, opposing, preventing, and eradicating genocide by uniting Healthcare Professionals in action. https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org/ 6. International committee “must investigate Israel’s holding of dead bodies in Gaza” Euro-Med report states that the Israeli army has been holding the bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed during its genocide in the Gaza Strip beginning on 7 October, and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has called for the creation of an independent international investigation committee into organ theft suspicions. https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/5982/Int%E2%80%99l-committee-must-investigate-Israel%E2%80%99s-holding-of-dead-bodies-in-Gaza%E2%80%8B 7. Meta censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale, report claims Meta has engaged in a “systemic and global” censorship of pro-Palestinian content since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war on 7 October, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW). https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/21/meta-facebook-instagram-pro-palestine-censorship-human-rights-watch-report You can fight back against this. In the course of producing these newsletters we have seen ample, circumstantial evidence that Palestinian voices on social media – particularly on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) – are being demoted. For example, powerful, direct-to-camera testimonies from Dr Abu Jamei of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme that, mysteriously, gained only a handful of views. When you see an interesting link, do not assume that your friends and contacts will most likely see it too. Forward interesting links directly to your friends and contacts. You can find a record of links to campaigns and actions that UKPALMHN has been promoting on this page: https://ukpalmhn.com/gaza-crisis/ 8. Visualisation of the progressive destruction of medical infrastructure in Gaza. Forensic Architecture (https://forensic-architecture.org/) have produced an informative visualisation by cross-referencing hundreds of reports from Al-Jazeera, Alaraby and Shehab News that describe attacks on, or near to, hospitals and medical infrastructure in the north of the Gaza strip. https://gaza-hospitals.forensic-architecture.org/ 9. No Human being can exist How can a person make up for seven decades of misrepresentation and willful distortion in the time allotted to a sound bite? https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/no-human-being-can-exist/ 10. I am not Palestinian. But if you are not grieving, something is wrong The global powers divide lives into those who can be mourned and those who cannot; those whose mourning justifies the killing machine and those whose mourning undermines it. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-gaza-war-reject-censorship-grief-must 11. Act now against companies profiting from the genocide of the Palestinian people One of the founding Aims 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)”. This link from the Palestinian-led BDS campaign provides a detailed guide to targeted consumer boycotts, divestment and pressure campaigns https://bdsmovement.net/Act-Now-Against-These-Companies-Profiting-From-Genocide I will not look away by Caitlin Johnstone (extract) No matter how horrific it gets, I will not look away. No matter how many children I see killed and injured in the most gruesome ways imaginable, I will not look away. No matter how much human suffering I see by keeping my gaze on Gaza, I will not look away. No matter how many nightmares I have, I will not look away. No matter how many tears I shed, I will not look away. No matter how many reasons the propagandists and manipulators come up with for me to turn my gaze elsewhere, I will not look away. No matter how many insults and accusations I am tarred with for refusing to look away, I will not look away. No matter how much easier it would be to look away, I will not look away. I will not avert my gaze. I will not become distracted. I will not lose myself to the sedated stupor of escapism. I will not do my best to pretend that everything is normal and that life is basically fine. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/11/caitlin-johnstone-i-will-not-look-away/ ORGANISATIONS PROVIDING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES THAT ARE SEEKING FINANCIAL SUPPORT IN 2024 Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) https://www.palestinetraumacentre.uk/ Medical Aid for Palestinians https://www.map.org.uk/ Palestine Red Crescent Society https://www.palestinercs.org/en Palestinian Counseling Center https://pcc-jer.org/en Gaza Community Mental Health Programme https://www.gazamentalhealth.org/support/ Hope and Play https://hopeandplay.org/ |
الشبكة البريطانية الفلسطينية للصحة النفسية 