| UKPALMHN Solidarity Space Monday 10 November 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, Mental Health Conference for Palestine: Living through the Unimaginable Source: Psychoanalytic Voices for Palestine Date: Saturday 8 November from 9:30am – 4:30pm Location: Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX Speakers: Dr Yasser Abu Jamei, Dr Yoa’d Ghanadry-Hakim, Martin Kemp This is a hybrid (in-person/online) event but seating is limited, so advanced booking is recommended. Join us for a day dedicated to updating on the present situation, bringing together professionals working in Palestine and allied Mental Health groups in the UK organising around Palestine. The conference is aimed at all mental health professionals who want to make an ethical response to the destruction of ordinary human life in Palestine and spearhead a collective mental health response. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mental-health-conference-for-palestine-living-through-the-unimaginable-tickets-1744401304259 Cafe Palestine: The normalisation of genocide and ecocideSaturday 15 November from 4pm – 6pm (UK time) At this Cafe Palestine we reflect on a world that sponsors genocide, and indulges a cynical disregard for the ecological disasters that have been unleashed on Gaza and which threaten further mass death, particularly in the global South. Speakers: Prof Mazin Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian scientist and author, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University where he teaches. Over the course of his career he has published well over 150 scientific papers on topics ranging from cultural heritage to biodiversity in addition to several books. Prof Paul Hoggett is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of the West of England, Bristol. His research spans social policy, community life, and the emotional dynamics of politics, with notable expertise in the intersection of psychoanalysis, group relations, and social systems. He co-founded the Climate Psychology Alliance and served as its first chair in 2012. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86208116892?pwd=Pz6ne1TazWleakZUVcBPfJaC1DQl3f.1 Torture Journal: Special issue on Israel and Occupied Palestine Source: Torture Journal (open access) Publisher: International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims Date: 15 October This double issue presents one of the most extensive academic and field-based examinations of genocide and torture in Israel and Occupied Palestine, exposing how systematic violence and dehumanisation have become integral to Israeli state policy. The articles document genocidal torture and exterminatory violence in Gaza, including first-hand testimonies, analyses of starvation and sexualised abuse as tools of domination, and the targeting of children and medical personnel. Legal and psychological studies trace the colonial and apartheid structures that institutionalise arbitrary detention and collective punishment, framing these as mechanisms of genocide and social control. Collectively, the issue demonstrates how Israel’s prolonged occupation and warfare constitute a coordinated system of torture and annihilation sustained through law, ideology, and international complicity. https://tidsskrift.dk/torture-journal/issue/view/12453 Silenced there, silenced here: How NHS medics are being punished for speaking the truth about Gaza Source: Substack (Omar Abdel-Mannan) Date: 28 October Omar Abdel-Mannan describes how UK doctors who speak publicly about Israel’s assault on Gaza face complaints, investigations, and even arrests, reflecting a growing campaign to intimidate medical professionals into silence. He contrasts the physical silencing of Gaza’s health workers under bombardment with the bureaucratic and political suppression of their British colleagues, arguing that both aim to erase testimony about atrocities. The piece warns that this climate of fear is corroding medical ethics itself, replacing compassion and truth-telling with complicity and self-censorship. https://substack.com/inbox/post/177413418 Civic needs assessment of Palestinians in the UK Source: British Palestinian Committee (38 page report) Date: 30 October The report identifies mental health as one of the most urgent needs of Palestinians in the UK, with nearly 80 percent reporting high levels of anxiety and distress since October 2023. It finds that British mental health services are often culturally and politically ill-equipped—patients encounter hostility, long waits, and therapists who misunderstand or pathologise their collective trauma, which is inseparable from ongoing violence and displacement in Palestine. The study calls for Arabic-speaking, trauma-informed professionals familiar with the political context of Palestinian suffering, and for community-based, peer and online support networks to provide safe, empathetic spaces for healing. https://britpalcommittee.co.uk/civicneedsassessment Therapy for Palestine UK Source: EMDR Therapists for Palestine Date: November 2025 (EMDR = Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) Therapy for Palestine UK is a growing network of clinicians offering pro bono, trauma-informed therapy for Palestinians in the UK. We provide safe, affirming, and culturally grounded support, recognising that Palestinian trauma stems from war, genocide, displacement, and decades of oppression and denial of statehood. Our service is open to all Palestinians living in the UK, and we extend our welcome to all the students recently arrived from Gaza. […] Follow the link below for: • Further information about Therapy for Palestine UK • Invitation to Palestinians in the UK seeking mental health support (in English and Arabic) https://ukpalmhn.com/emdr-therapists-for-palestine/therapy-for-palestine-uk/ “Antisemitism in medicine: As Wes Streeting vows sweeping changes, how did we get here?” Source: British Medical Journal – Rapid Response letter Date: 15 October A “Rapid Response” letter written by Fareed Bashir, a member of UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Steering Group, to the BMJ concerning the article called Antisemitism in medicine: As Wes Streeting vows sweeping changes, how did we get here?The letter condemns UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting for weaponising antisemitism to silence doctors speaking about Israel’s genocidal crimes in Palestine, arguing that such tactics align him with Netanyahu’s regime and contribute to the ongoing extermination of Palestinians. https://www.bmj.com/content/391/bmj.r2140/rr-4 Palestinians in Gaza struggle to retrieve their dead with little more than hammers Source: Drop Site Date: 21 October Abdel Qader Sabbah reports from Gaza on families desperately digging through rubble by hand to recover the bodies of thousands of loved ones killed and left unretrieved due to Israel’s blockade on rescue equipment. Through testimonies from grieving mothers and survivors, the article exposes how Israel’s destruction, mass killings, and torture of detainees—combined with international indifference—have created a landscape where the dead are desecrated and the living endure unrelenting psychological torment. https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/palestinians-gaza-bodies-buried-rubble-missing-ghf-israeli-captives-prison Over 3 million life-years lost in Gaza Source: The Lancet Correspondence (from Sammy Zahrana and Ghassan Abu-Sittah) Date: 31 October A statistical analysis of Gaza’s Health Ministry data estimates that as of July 31, 2025, Israel’s assault has caused over 3 million life-years lost among 60,199 recorded deaths—an average of 51 years per person—showing that the overwhelming loss falls on civilians, including more than one million life-years lost among children under 15. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)02112-9/fulltext A torturous sanitation disaster is unfolding in Gaza’s displacement camps Source: Truthout Date: 25 October Sara Awad describes the unbearable living conditions in Gaza’s displacement camps, where open sewage, scarce water, and the absence of toilets have created a deadly sanitation crisis for families surviving in tents after Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. Speaking from within the camps, she portrays this as a form of ongoing, silent torture—an assault on dignity and health that continues even after the bombs have stopped. https://truthout.org/articles/a-torturous-sanitation-disaster-is-unfolding-in-gazas-displacement-camps/ There is no peace in Gaza Source: The New Yorker (elements of a recent essay are reproduced on the Dutch Palestine Solidarity website) Date: 24 October Palestinian poet and essayist Mosab Abu Toha won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for essays published in The New Yorker chronicling life in Gaza.Poet Mosab Abu Toha recounts his family’s repeated displacement, the killing of his relatives, and the torture endured by those detained in Israeli prisons, describing how personal grief and hope coexist amid Gaza’s devastation. His narrative follows the release of relatives from Israeli detention, their brutal treatment, and the hollow relief of reunion in tents surrounded by ruin. Even from exile in the United States, Abu Toha portrays the anguish of watching loved ones live and die under bombardment, revealing how the so-called ceasefire has brought neither safety nor peace to those he loves. https://palestina-komitee.nl/there-is-no-peace-in-gaza/ FEATURED EVENT For all events see: https://ukpalmhn.com/events/ Break the Silence: Trauma therapists talk about Gaza Source: EMDR Therapists for Palestine Date: Saturday 29 November at 8pm This is an online event and it will be recorded. Have you felt powerless, frustrated, gaslit and shut down when trying to talk about the Palestinian genocide in therapeutic spaces? Confused as to why trauma therapists want to talk about healing trauma, both collectively and intergenerationally, yet avoid mentioning Gaza? Join Gabor Maté and Palestinian friends including experienced therapists Nada Khader and Heba Zaphiriou-Zarifi to explore the implications of what Maté calls “the unspeakable collective trauma that has been for decades inflicted on the people of Palestine,.. A trauma witnessed and grieved by millions around the world”. Please buy a ticket, your donations will support the recovery of children from Gaza. https://events.humanitix.com/breaking-the-silence-trauma-therapists-talk-about-gaza FEATURED ACTION For all actions see: https://ukpalmhn.com/gaza-crisis/ Gaza: Keep the conversation going (a Pledge to have a conversation about Gaza) Source: Oxfam UK Date: November 2025 If we act together, we can keep the world’s focus on Gaza – and increase the pressure on the UK government to take meaningful action. A simple and powerful thing each of us can do right now is talk to the people closest to us about what’s going on. Will you pledge to talk to someone you know about Gaza, to keep the situation in people’s hearts and minds? https://survey.alchemer.eu/s3/90920406/Gaza-Conversation-Pledge |
الشبكة البريطانية الفلسطينية للصحة النفسية 