UKPALMHN Solidarity Space
Monday 14 July 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.

CAFE PALESTINE: LISTEN TO GAZA
SATURDAY 12 JULY
11:00-12:30 (UK) / 13.00-14.30 (Palestine)
Cafe Palestine: Listen to Gaza
A joint event between the Palestine Trauma Centre UK (https://www.palestinetraumacentre.uk/) and the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network
Hosted by Mohamed Altawil, David Harrold and Gwyn Daniel

In this event we aim to provide you with live updates from our Mental Health colleagues in Gaza on the impact of nearly two years of genocide on them, the community and the families they work with. We will hear first-hand about the profound suffering that bombing, killing, infrastructure destruction, displacement and starvation are causing. Together with the Gaza team we will also share news about some of the ongoing psychological support they continue to provide for parents and children even in these utterly dire and dangerous conditions.

This event will be dependent on the internet connection our colleagues in Gaza can obtain on the day so we will not give in advance the names of the participants from Gaza and neither can we give a detailed programme. But we will have many testimonies to share directly or indirectly. We hope you will join to give the widest possible audience for our steadfast and heroic colleagues in Gaza. They must know they are not alone.

Please write to ukpalmhn@gmail.com if you would like a link to this meeting.

A new poem by Dr. Saeed Mohammed Al-Kahlout of the Palestine Trauma Center (UK)

We deserve a more dignified death.
A death that grants time for mourning —
time to weep,
to pause by the grave —
I refuse to call it a hole —
to cry for the ones lost,
to scold them gently for leaving too soon,
to beg them to return,
even for a moment,
so we might rewrite a few pages of the story.
[…]

Full poem: 
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/we-deserve-a-more-dignified-death/

UKPALMHN FAST FOR GAZA
Now in its second week
From 1 July – 14 July daily from 9am to 7pm
outside Parliament
#FASTFORGAZA

The FAST FOR GAZA started outside Parliament on Tuesday 1 July and will last for 14 days from 9am – 7pm with a group of 4 volunteers fasting for ten hours. The purpose of this symbolic fast is to show solidarity with the people of Gaza and to highlight that the situation remains absolutely catastrophic. Gwyn Daniel, a member of the UKPMHN Steering Group has recorded a video providing more information about the event. The first week of the fast has been very positive. The fasters and activists have engaged with the public and been visited by a number of MPs, activists and other well-known supporters. On our website there are photos of each daily group of fasters. There are also currently 24 short videos of the fasters, activists and well-known supporters recording their message to the people of Gaza and explaining why they are supporting the fast. UPDATE! On Monday 14 July, the last day of the fast, we will walk together from Parliament (Carriage Gate) to the Foreign Office to deliver a letter to David Lammy urging the resumption of aid through trusted channels and for the dismantling of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. We will do this between 4.30pm and 5pm. Please come and join us if you can! You can find daily updated photos and videos on: Website: https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/fast-for-gaza/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ukpmhn/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UKPMHN Hashtag: #FASTFORGAZA WHAT YOU CAN DO: Write to your MP and encourage them to demonstrate their solidarity by visiting the fasters outside Parliament. Urge them to record a 1-minute video with a message to the people of Gaza that we will publish on our website and social media.We recommend this moving introduction to the FAST FOR GAZA by Gwyn Daniel, a member of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Steering Group. She introduces the fast and then reads an up to date message from a contact in Gaza. National March for Palestine Saturday 19 July – Assemble 12 noon at Embankment station As our government seeks to repress the movement for Palestine and Israel continues to commit genocide in Gaza its more important than ever that we continue to show solidarity with Palestine and pressure our government to #StopArmingIsrael. Join us as we march in London for Palestine once more. https://palestinecampaign.org/events/national-march-for-palestine-stop-starving-gaza/ The UK-Palestine Mental Health Network banner will be at the march. We will assemble at 11:45 in Charing Cross Station close to Platform 1. All are welcome to join us. An excerpt from Dr. Samah Jabr’s lecture for the American University of Beirut, reflecting on the difference between therapy and healing in the context of collective trauma Source: Dr Samah Jabr Date: 3 July https://www.linkedin.com/posts/samah-jabr-25509883_an-excerpt-from-dr-samah-jabrs-lecture-activity-7346164559650418688-w13O/ ACTIONS Our Featured Action is available below and also on our dedicated Actions page. In the past 4 weeks we have added 7 new, relevant actions to our Action page. https://ukpalmhn.com/gaza-crisis/ FEATURED ACTION A call to boycott the Society of Psychotherapy Research (SPR) for its complicity in Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine Source: USA-Palestine Mental Health Network Date: 7 July Since its inception, the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network has initiated and supported the “Don’t Go” (https://usapalmhn.org/about-dont-go/) and “Do No Harm” (https://usapalmhn.org/portfolio-item/the-do-no-harm-campaign/) campaigns that expose the complicity of an identified mental health organisation with institutions of Israeli settler colonial apartheid. We endorse the call to boycott the Society of Psychotherapy Research (SPR) for its complicity in Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine. We urge you to read this statement and add your endorsement. https://mailchi.mp/444a10dd37f7/call-to-boycott-spr EVENTS Our Events page is updated weekly with events related to Palestine and mental health. As of 9 July, there are 14 up to date events listed. https://ukpalmhn.com/events/ FEATURED EVENTS Teresa Bailey, UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Steering Committee member, is speaking at a Britain Palestine Project webinar on Thursday 10 July at 3pm (UK time)

Human Rights Defenders: Resisting Settler Terrorism
Tuesday 15 July at 6:00pm (UK)
Organised by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (webinar)
With Issa Amro, Youth Against Settlements, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Torat Tzedek
Settler violence in the West Bank has surged since 7th October 2023 while the world’s attention has focused on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Palestinians living in the rural parts of Area C are most vulnerable. […] But setter violence does not only occur in Area C. Extreme religious settlers seek to displace Palestinians living in Hebron where the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, near the Ibrahimi Mosque (the Tomb of the Patriarchs) is located).[…] Attend this one-hour webinar to receive the latest updates on settler violence, why it has intensified, and how this phenomenon is being resisted.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/BPI7Fb2QTzW4uG8ebbXANw

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).”

Conference – Free Palestine: BDS at 20
Saturday 12 July
Palestine Solidarity Campaign are hosting a landmark conference in central London to mark 20 years since the Palestinian call for BDS, and to chart the way forward for our campaigning in Britain after nearly 21 months of protest against Israel’s genocide. We’ll be joined by a range of inspiring speakers, including Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement, to discuss how to ramp up our boycott campaigns against complicit corporations like Barclays, continue to win divestment from councils and universities, and push for sanctions on Israel.
https://shop.palestinecampaign.org/products/conference-free-palestine-bds-at-20