| Palestinians in Gaza are literally left ALONE, FREEZING and STARVING in the winter storm. I keep asking how we became such monsters, incapable of stopping this nightmare. For them, for us, for whatever remains of the people in whose name this genocide is being committed. Francesca Albanese https://x.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1998830824184066515 UKPALMHN Solidarity Spaces Every Monday during January 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. The full report of the PVP conference Living Through the Unimaginable: Witnessing and Responding to the Genocide in Gaza now available This one-day conference on 8 November 2025 brought together mental health professionals and Palestinian colleagues to examine the realities of ongoing genocide, the collapse of services in Gaza, and the ethical challenges facing practitioners. The report summarises key themes from each section of the event, including the impact of colonisation on mental health, the limits of therapeutic work under conditions of mass violence, the silencing occurring within UK institutions, and the collective responsibilities of our professions.Full report (plus section by section overview of the conference): https://ukpalmhn.com/pvp/pvp-conference-living-through-the-unimaginable/ Call for Palestinian voices at the Association of Child Psychotherapists Conference (ACP) Source: Palestine-UK Child Psychotherapists Date: December 2025 The ACP Conference in June 2026 is around looked after, fostered, adopted children. Palestine-UK Child Psychotherapists would like to have our Palestinian friends and colleagues involved in a presentation about what is happening to orphaned children in Palestine, because their parents have been murdered in the genocide or so badly injured and disabled that they are unable to care for their children. This leaves thousands of children without parents and possibly with no surviving family members.We would like to ask our Palestinian colleagues if they might have the time and be willing to write something that could be recorded and presented at the conference or read aloud by one of us on any aspect of the community’s involvement with the orphans or children abandoned through the loss of parents in the chaos of forced displacement. We would like to make the most of this opportunity to bring the voices of the children and clinicians of Palestine into this conference. Teresa Bailey, Consultant Child Psychotherapist and UKPMHN Steering Group member Please write to Teresa via ukpalmhn@gmail.com if you can help with this initiative. Urgent call to social workers – ask your social work association to vote for expulsion of the Israeli Union of Social Workers from the IFSW Following the Social Workers for a Free Palestine (SW4FP) campaign for an IFSW Special General Meeting to consider the expulsion of the Israeli Union of Social Workers from the IFSW, it has now been agreed that this will take place on 18th February. SW4FP are now calling on social workers to ask their national associations to vote for expulsion of the Israeli Union given their continuing involvement in the genocide. Follow the link below for a model letter which you can email to your national association, and instructions on how to find their email address on the IFSW website https://forms.gle/FVzfy4uMtxQf1aTg9 Special issue: Psychotherapy and Politics International on PalestineSource: Psychotherapy and Politics International Date: December 2025 This special issue of Psychotherapy and Politics International brings together a substantial collection of peer-reviewed articles examining the psychological, political and ethical dimensions of Israel’s colonisation of Palestine. Contributors draw on decolonial theory, psychoanalysis and political psychology to explore how occupation, apartheid and ongoing violence shape subjectivity, gendered experience and mental health, while also questioning the role and responsibilities of psychology as a discipline under conditions of structural injustice. A central contribution is Samah Jabr and Maria Helbich’s article “Colonisation and Resistance,” which revisits Frantz Fanon to illuminate the psychological dimensions of occupation and resistance, setting the critical tone for the issue. Other articles reflect on the reaffirmation of humanity under extreme violence, the limits of conventional therapeutic frameworks, and what psychology might learn from Palestinian experiences of collective struggle, with several authors drawing comparative insights from Latin America and Brazil. Taken together, the issue challenges individualised and depoliticised approaches to mental health and calls for a more explicitly political, decolonial engagement with Palestine .https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/psychotherapy-politics-international/issue/view/70 Palestine, health and the limits of humanitarianism (1.5 hour webinar) Source: MedAct Date: The webinar took place on 11 November and the recording became available on 16 DecemberThe discussion frames health work in Gaza as inseparable from settler-colonial violence, arguing that clinical care becomes a form of resistance when care is deliberately denied and the health system is systematically targeted. A central theme is that mainstream humanitarianism and “neutral”, depoliticised professional norms can function as instruments of imperial power: they can normalise or “humanitarianise” mass violence, increase dependency, and erode Palestinian health sovereignty, including through donor-driven attempts to reshape or effectively “buy” ruined institutions. Speakers repeatedly emphasise that health outcomes depend on structural conditions (food, water, land, safety) and that Gaza exposes interconnected systems of warfare, surveillance, extractive capitalism and repression, including links to the UK context (austerity, policing, borders, and corporate incursions such as Palantir). The panel distinguishes mobilisation from organising, urging health workers to move beyond symbolic solidarity towards building collective power that can obstruct harmful policies, defend colleagues facing institutional reprisals, and pursue strategies grounded in unity of struggle rather than pity-driven “perfect victim” narratives. Finally, the discussion points to historical and contemporary models of politicised, community-rooted “liberation medicine” and internationalist practice (including Cuba and earlier Palestinian health organising), while warning about NGO-isation and academic “humanitarian” programmes that can depoliticise, professionalise, or hollow out resistance and clinical capacity. Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUJOrp8fJus Palestine, Health and the Limits of Humanitarianism – Speakers’ resource page https://www.medact.org/2025/blogs/palestine-health-and-the-limits-of-humanitarianism-resources/ Thousands of Palestinian political prisoners suffer severe crimes and extermination behind bars Source: Commission of Detainees’ Affairs & Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (briefing) Date: 25 December 2025 A new report by the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs (a Commission of the Palestine Authority) and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (a Palestinian civil society organisation) documents systematic and severe violations against Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli custody, describing widespread abuse, ill-treatment and policies amounting to physical and psychological extermination. The briefing highlights the extensive use of administrative detention without charge, brutal prison conditions and deliberate denial of medical care that have led to grave harm, while emphasising the authorities’ failure to provide transparency or accountability. The report calls for international recognition of these practices as part of broader patterns of violence and urges urgent measures to protect the rights and lives of Palestinian detainees. https://cda.gov.ps/index.php/en/51-slider-en/21602-palestinian-prisoners-report-dec-2025 Garbage is poisoning Gaza Source: Dropsite News Date: 16 December This report describes a growing environmental and public health crisis in Gaza as an estimated 900,000 tons of solid waste have accumulated across the enclave, largely because access to Gaza’s major landfill sites has been cut off and municipal waste-management infrastructure has been largely destroyed. Residents, including displaced families living near vast piles of rotting trash, are exposed to toxic fumes, infestations, contaminated water and increased risk of disease, while sanitation services struggle to function amid continuing barriers to equipment, fuel and access. (dropsitenews.com) https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/garbage-poisoning-gaza-landfills-inaccessible-waste-disease Rebranding genocide Source: GroundXero Date: 15 December In this commentary, Chris Hedges argues that the ongoing destruction in Gaza is effectively a genocide that has been obscured or softened in public discourse through euphemistic language such as “ceasefire” or “peace plans.” The article contends that, despite temporary pauses in overt hostilities and stipulations in recent agreements, violations of international law continue and the fundamental conditions of suffering, displacement and structural violence in Gaza persist. https://www.groundxero.in/2025/12/15/rebranding-genocide/ On the monotony of the checkpoint Source: The Call Date: 15 December The piece describes how daily encounters with Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank slowly turn from acute fear into a numbing, routinised experience, showing how constant control over movement reshapes perception of time, safety and normality. It highlights the psychological effects of “social atomisation” and chronic uncertainty—people’s social worlds shrink, plans are cancelled, and even acts of minor resistance are squeezed into narrow windows defined by soldiers’ moods and shift changes, making occupation feel both banal and inescapable. https://thecall.ps/p/on-the-monotony-of-the-checkpoint “Freedom” desalination plant in Gaza Source: Bisan Owda (wizard_bisan1 on Instagram) Date: 18 December What’s Ours Is Yours, a youth volunteer charity campaign, is launching the “Freedom” desalination plant, which will serve the northern areas of Gaza City and its camps. This achievement, accomplished during the genocide and without resources in such a short time, is truly “like digging into a rock”. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSaMORhCttc/ FEATURED EVENTS Finding the Creatura – a lecture by Dr John Beebe Source: Stand By The Mother series Date: Sunday 1 February This online fundraising lecture is part of the Stand By The Mother series, which brings depth-psychological perspectives to questions of care, suffering and human dignity in the context of Palestine. Led by Dr John Beebe, the talk draws on Jungian psychology to explore the concept of the Creatura and what it may offer practitioners and participants seeking meaning, ethical orientation and psychological grounding in times of collective trauma. Hosted by Heba Zaphiriou-Zarifi, the event is intended for clinicians, therapists and others interested in depth psychology, while also raising funds in support of Palestinian mothers.A link for the meeting will be provided in our next mailing. For further information, please write to: standbymother@gmail.com Bearing Witness in the Academy: Silence, Emotional Labour, and the Cost of Neutrality Source: Psychoanalytic Voices for Palestine (PVP) Date: Saturday 14 February from 10.30am – 12.30pm The speaker, Aneeza Pervez, is a Research Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. Her recent research examines how institutions respond to political violence and genocide, and how silence and emotional labour shape the moral life of universities. Link to the meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84435183882?pwd=kGtSYUgraPclnniDrhQXbv5CEnC18o.1 Aneeza also spoke at the recent PVP conference “Living Through the Unimaginable” leading to an interesting and engaged plenary discussion. A summary of her talk, slides and a recent open access paper she has written are available in the afternoon session of the full conference report: https://ukpalmhn.com/pvp/pvp-conference-living-through-the-unimaginable/ (scroll down to find the report and then scroll down the report to find the relevant section) FEATURED ACTIONS Councillor Pledge for Palestine In the run up to local elections in May 2026, Palestine Solidarity Campaign has launched an important new initiative asking local councillors to sign a Pledge for Palestine committing to:- Uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestine people- Stand up to Israel for its crimes of genocide and apartheid- Ensure their council isn’t complicit, including through divesting pension funds from complicit companies.On the action page, enter your postcode and you will see the names of your local councillors and a template letter (that you can alter if you wish) that will be sent to them automatically. Asking sitting councillors to sign the Pledge for Palestine will help to identify target seats in which councillors who do not support divestment could be replaced with those who do. Further information and the action page are available here: https://mailchi.mp/palestinecampaign/nov2025lobby-4931105?e=27bd721334 Stop FANUC: Together let’s end the Japanese company’s complicity in Israel’s genocide, apartheid and military occupation Source: Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement Date: December 2025 The BDS Movement has launched a new campaign against FANUC. FANUC has an office in the UK.FANUC is a Japanese-owned company which manufacturers robots used by Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems. FANUC robots are crucial in the manufacturing of 155mm shells, the ammunition most commonly used by Israel in its genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and its systematic destruction of Gaza. These weapons are also used by Israel in its aggression and massacres elsewhere. 155mm shells are one of the world’s most indiscriminate lethal weapons, exploding into two thousand pieces of shrapnel upon impact, able to kill or injure people in a 600 meter diameter. Israel has fired hundreds of thousands of these unguided shells into Gaza.Full information: https://bdsmovement.net/stop-fanuc Change.org petition: https://www.change.org/p/fanuc-stop-selling-robots-to-make-israeli-weapons-stopfanucnow 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).” Write to your MP: Support Divestment from Israeli Apartheid Write to your MP to demand they support Amendment 2 to the Pensions Scheme Bill which would direct pension funds to end investments that contribute to grave violations of international law. PSC’s research has found that Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds, administered by local councils, invest £12.2billion+ in companies with proven involvement in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians. Local divestment campaigns are active across Britain, and are achieving significant gains, with 23 local councils having passed a motion or issued a statement to support divestment. https://palestinecampaign.eaction.org.uk/support-divestment  Our mailing address is: Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe |
الشبكة البريطانية الفلسطينية للصحة النفسية 