| Cafe Palestine: The normalisation of genocide and ecocide Saturday 15 November from 4pm – 6pm (UK) / 6pm – 8pm (Palestine) 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 UKPALMHN Solidarity Space Monday 17 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. National Demonstration for Palestine Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign Date: Saturday 29 November from 12:00 noon to 4:30pm Location: From Park Lane to Whitehall End the Occupation – Stop Arming Israel – End Apartheid On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, we will be marching again in London to demand an end to Israel’s genocide, military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians. https://palestinecampaign.org/events/national-demonstration-for-palestine-29-november/ Nasser Abu Srour: Life, literature, and the struggle of Palestinian prisoners Source: Palestine Will Be Free Date: 9 November Nasser Abu Srour, a poet and novelist from Bethlehem, was released and exiled to Egypt last month after thirty-three years in Israeli prisons. His account of endurance, education, and creativity under severe confinement highlights the systematic brutality faced by Palestinian detainees and the resilience of their cultural life. https://palestinewillbefree.substack.com/p/nasser-abu-srour-life-literature-struggle-palestinian-prisoners Palestine Mental Health Networks Statement about Sudan Source: The International Collective of the Palestine Mental Health Networks(which includes the UK Network) Date: 12 November The international collective of the Palestine Mental Health Networks, including UK-Palestine-Mental Health Network, write from a place of rage and grief. For nearly two years, Sudan has endured systematic violence while the international community has chosen deliberate abandonment. Over twenty-one million people face famine. October marked the deadliest month for civilians since the war began. More than half of the internally displaced are children. This is not neglect. It is active, calculated choice. […] https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/sudan-statement-november-2025/ Purging Palestinian Solidarity from the NHS The UK-Palestine Mental Health Network has signed the following open letter. (The letter is open to signature by organisations rather than individuals.) Government press release indicates anti-Palestinian racism to become official policy, while worsening antisemitism in health care. The 16 October 2025 press release, “Government takes urgent action to tackle antisemitism and other forms of racism in the NHS” issued by the Department of Health and Social Care, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is deeply concerning: it is a threat to equality, human rights and the mental well-being of the 1.5 million workers in the NHS. Not content with its ongoing political, diplomatic and military support for Israel, and its widespread repression of pro-Palestine protest, the government now seeks to entirely outlaw expression of support for Palestine within the NHS, with a series of divisive and authoritarian measures.[…] https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1OXrblm6kFDZS7CVb_7gy07JM2TQmFRxB/mobilebasic Updated Statements from Dajani and Rozmarin Speaking of Home: An Intimate Exchange on Israel-Palestine is a filmed hour-long conversation between psychoanalysts Eyal Rozmarin (Israeli) and Karim Dajani (Palestinian), moderated by an organisation called ROOM. The two psychoanalysts (both resident in the USA) engage in a powerful and tender conversation showing how unconscious process underlies political-cultural realities and individual misunderstandings. It was recorded on 14 July 2024 https://analytic-room.com/speakingofhome/ In September 2025, the British Psychotherapy Foundation arranged an online discussion of the film for their members. Dajani and Rozmarin were asked if they might wish to contribute their current thoughts since the original conversation was filmed in July 2024. Both provided statements that were much appreciated in the discussion, and have kindly agreed to make these freely available. Eyal’s Statement: Karim and I taped this conversation last summer. It made sense for us to engage in it, because we could each place ourselves in relation to each other and at the same time to a sense of belonging – even if, in my case, a deeply ambivalent belonging – with some collectivity: for him Palestinian, for me Jewish-Israeli, and speak from there. The situation was already beyond horrifying. It has gotten exponentially worse since then. We would not have the same conversation today. Because if it has been debatable before, it is no longer – Israel is perpetrating a premeditated, organized genocide on the Palestinian people, and the so called civilized world is either supporting it, or standing by. They did not bomb the railroads to Auschwitz, and they are not bombing the runways from which the American made, Israeli manned extermination machines have been taking off for two years. My identity as an Israeli-Jew has become lethal. Whatever sense of belonging I have had, is being destroyed together with Gaza. The Israeli part is a black hole, the Jewish part wonders if it could be rescued from the Israeli, or whether it has already been destroyed by it. What I have, is a clear knowledge of the absolute evil being perpetrated in my name. Karim and I talk regularly, but now it is mostly about keeping each other sane vis-a-vis the insane violence and lies and indifference. We are also trying to understand how something like this can happen, again. There has been a great deal of thinking after the Nazis, but now we have industrial mass-murder being declared and executed live. We can see what Hannah Arendt called “the banality of evil” played out on TV and on social media. We can see in real time a collective going mad. I am now attached to the worst kind of crime in the dictionary of human civilization, forever. I don’t know yet what to say from that place. Except this: we must stop the extermination by any means, we must rescue as many people and as much Palestinian heritage as possible, and we must work towards different kinds of belonging and political organisation in Palestine. Karim’s Statement: Thank you for writing to me and offering an opportunity to address the audience. I would like to make three brief and condensed points for consideration.The first is that the film is an attempt at a dialogue between two individuals. We do speak about our collectives but we are speaking as individuals. We cannot dialogue as representatives of our respective collectives for many reasons. The most important is that the Israeli collective is in control of everything and the Palestinian collective is being oppressed and erased by all available means. The asymmetry in the positions between the two large groups makes dialogue impossible. Furthermore, in a dialogue between individuals, if it is sincere, the positions articulated change because learning something new requires loosening existing conceptual frames. Nothing new has really emerged between the two large groups. We are in a new phase now. The genocide is on-going, and the suppression of any efforts to stop it by western governments has reached a level that can best be described as evil. All people of conscience should demand humane and sane actions from their governments and institutions. How many more children must starve? As psychoanalysts, there are two pressing issues that I suggest we try to address within our groups and as a social phenomena of great analytic interest. The first is how do we understand the lack of empathy in the Israeli collective towards the murder of children, and the displacement of millions of people. How is it that 82% of the Israeli collective supports the Genocide in Gaza. How do we understand that? The second, is the way our institutions, particularly the IPA, has suppressed any mention of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and any effort to speak about it honestly. How do we understand that? If we fail as a group to even mention the reality of the genocide and suppress all avenues of inquiry into its psycho-social determinants then we must ask ourselves the questions: who are we serving and what are we working towards? FEATURED EVENT For all events see: https://ukpalmhn.com/events/ Effective Mental Health Interventions in Humanitarian Settings Source: Colombia Global Date: Monday 17 November at 3:00 pm Mental health is a critical yet often under-resourced priority in humanitarian settings. As crises and displacement intensify, the psychological toll on affected communities grows deeper and more complex, eroding the foundations of individual well-being and human dignity. […] https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/events/effective-mental-health-interventions-humanitarian-settings 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/ Tell your Councillors: Divest from Companies Enabling Israel’s Genocide Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign Date: November 2025E-mail your councillors today to demand that the council ends its financial ties to companies complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.PSC has sent a legal notice to every council in England & Wales administering a Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) fund, outlining that they are under a legal obligation to take steps to divest from companies enabling and profiting from Israel’s genocide, military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians. https://palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/divestmentduty 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).” Netherlands pushes ahead to ban imports from illegal Israeli Jewish settlements Source: Palestine Chronicle Date: 10 November The Netherlands is advancing legislation to prohibit imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, citing escalating settler violence and threats to a two-state solution. Foreign Minister David van Weel said the move follows the International Court of Justice’s ruling that Israel’s occupation is illegal and aligns with actions already taken by several EU states. The measure, though limited by EU trade law, reflects growing European pressure for accountability over Israel’s human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza. https://www.palestinechronicle.com/netherlands-pushes-ahead-to-ban-imports-from-illegal-israeli-jewish-settlements-report/ |
الشبكة البريطانية الفلسطينية للصحة النفسية 