Universal Ethical Framework for Mental Health Practitioners
Group Analysts for Palestine and Psychoanalytic Voices for Palestine invite colleagues from a range of disciplines and modalities to join a continuing discussion on the Universal Ethical Framework for Mental Health Practitioners.
The next online meeting will take place on Sunday 12 July from 3.30–5pm.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88647822358?pwd=HCagZwhZ6ZbbhguEBko13M7RbDF1te.1

The framework addresses silencing, structural determinants of mental health, and the responsibilities of mental health practitioners in a changing world. It is offered as a living document to support ethical clarity, protected dialogue and global professional solidarity. The framework is available on the PVP webpage, alongside a discussion forum for comments and reflections:
https://ukpalmhn.com/pvp/universal-ethical-framework-for-mental-health-practitioners/

There is also a Google Group for those who would like to take part in the discussion:
uef4mhp@googlegroups.com

Update: Israel’s violence in the West Bank
Source: Medical Aid for Palestinians
Date: 10 June
Medical Aid for Palestinians warns that life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is deteriorating rapidly, highlighting intensified settlement expansion, forced displacement, demolition orders against Khan al-Ahmar, and increasing settler attacks. The update links these developments to worsening barriers to healthcare, including road closures, checkpoints, intimidation of health workers and blocked ambulance access, and calls on the UK government to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
https://mailchi.mp/map.org.uk/update-israels-violence-in-the-west-bank?e=de1c58d78a

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of West Bank Bedouin and herding communities
Source: Amnesty International
Date: 10 June
Amnesty International’s report examines the forced displacement of Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities in Area C of the occupied West Bank, focusing on Israeli state policies, settler violence, home demolitions, restrictions on movement and access, and the expansion of settlements and outposts. The report argues that these practices amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and form part of a state-driven campaign to ethnically cleanse Palestinian communities from parts of the West Bank and advance annexation.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2026/06/israel-west-bank-ethnic-cleansing/

Family “deeply concerned” for Gaza doctor’s health after transfer to solitary confinement
Source: Arab News
Date: 9 June
The family of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, say they are deeply concerned for his health after he was moved to solitary confinement in Nafha Prison following a legal appeal to Israel’s Supreme Court over his continued detention without charge. His son Elias Abu Safiya told Arab News that the family had hoped the appeal would lead to fairness and accountability, but instead felt their calls for basic rights had been met with harsher measures, raising fears for a doctor who is already ill and in need of medical care.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2646553/amp

Israel intensifies the killing in Gaza as the world looks away
Source: Drop Site News
Date: 9 June
Drop Site News reports that Israeli attacks in Gaza have continued and intensified despite the widespread perception of a ceasefire, opening with the killing of eight-year-old Jad Suleiman as he returned home from school in Jabaliya. The article describes continuing airstrikes, shootings, restrictions on humanitarian aid, acute food insecurity and fear among Palestinians living near the “yellow line”, where Israel has expanded its control over large parts of the Gaza Strip.
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-genocide-yellow-line-israel-killing-palestinians-ceasefire

How rats and ruins are taking over life in Gaza
Source: We Are Not Numbers
Date: 4 June
Rama Hussain Abu Amra reports on the spread of rodents in Gaza’s displacement camps, where destroyed infrastructure, sewage leaks, overcrowding and disrupted waste collection have left families struggling to protect food and sleep safely at night. The article links these conditions to worsening health risks, especially for malnourished children and people with chronic illnesses, as hospitals face shortages of basic medical supplies.
https://wearenotnumbers.org/how-rats-and-ruins-are-taking-over-life-in-gaza/

Palestinian Prisoners’ Society: Israeli court ruling on Red Cross prison visits remains meaningless without implementation
Source: Wafa
Date: 4 June
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said the Supreme Court ruling would remain without practical effect unless it was translated into concrete measures guaranteeing the immediate resumption of Red Cross visits to Palestinian detainees. Its head, Abdullah Al-Zaghari, said the ruling should not serve as cover for overlooking the Israeli judicial system’s role in giving legal legitimacy to occupation policies and violations, arguing that Israeli courts continue to provide legal cover for arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and denial of fair trial guarantees.
https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/171189

Almost 140 Labour MPs call for ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements
Source: Melanie Ward MP on X
Date: 7 June
In a letter to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Melanie Ward MP and other Labour MPs called for urgent action against escalating violations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements. The letter argues that existing UK sanctions against individual settlers and ministers are insufficient, and says the UK should follow the International Court of Justice’s direction not to enter into trade dealings with Israel concerning the occupied Palestinian territory.
https://x.com/melanie_ward/status/2063661737576944081

The approach adopted by the Government fell well short of these demands:

Sanctions announcement: nowhere near enough
Source: Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Date: 9 June
Palestine Solidarity Campaign says the UK government’s new sanctions against six companies and individuals involved in financing, enabling or carrying out settler violence are “tiny and piecemeal” measures that fall far short of what is needed. PSC argues that the government should ban trade with illegal settlements rather than merely advise British businesses against illegal activity, and says the limited announcement reflects pressure from public opinion and grassroots campaigning but does not meet the UK’s obligations.
https://palestinecampaign.org/sanctions-announcement-nowhere-near-enough/

“What the wounds are telling us” wins European Press Prize 2026
Source: De Volkskrant (Dutch newspaper) / European Press Prize
Date: June 2026
De Volkskrant’s investigation What the wounds are telling us (published in September 2025) has won the 2026 European Press Prize Distinguished Reporting Award, announced in June. The investigation is based on extensive interviews and documentation providing evidence of a pattern of gunshot wounds strongly suggestive of deliberate targeting of children.
https://www.europeanpressprize.com/article/what-the-wounds-are-telling-us/

On the Fifty-Ninth Year of the Naksa
Source: Palestine-Global Mental Health Network
Date: 5 June
This piece marks the 59th anniversary of the Naksa (the 1967 defeat and occupation) by arguing that Palestinian displacement should be understood not only as a historical event but as an ongoing structure of dispossession, occupation and psychological harm. The article connects this continuing displacement to Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Israeli prisons and professional institutions, calling on mental health workers to name genocide, apartheid and institutional silence rather than treating these as matters of neutral debate.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/05/on-the-fifty-ninth-year-of-the-naksa/

How do global conflicts impact you as a healthcare professional?
Source: Hull University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Hull
Date: June 2026
There has been an escalation in global conflicts, particularly in Ukraine and in Palestine, which healthcare workers have been exposed to, due to the accessibility of news through various media in a way never seen before. In light of the professional oaths taken by them, the survey will investigate how witnessing harm to human beings in other parts of the world affects healthcare workers in the UK and examine whether they experience moral injury. If you are a UK healthcare professional, this is your chance to express how you feel.
Further information and link to survey:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DY9qcKIjH5B/

FEATURED ACTIONS

Email your MP: Demand the UK bans trade with settlements
Source: Medical Aid for Palestinians
Date: June 2026
Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank are forcing Palestinians off their land and worsening an existing healthcare crisis. This week, the Foreign Secretary advised British businesses not to trade with illegal settlements. But the action calls for the UK to introduce an outright ban. We need to send a clear message: this is not enough. MAP asks supporters to email their MPs to demand the UK ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements. 
https://mailchi.mp/map.org.uk/urgent-demand-the-uk-ban-settlement-trade

FEATURED EVENTS

Together against the death penalty
Source: International Centre of Justice for Palestinians
Date: Friday 19 June, 5.30–8.30pm
Speakers include Dr Mustafa Barghouti and Tayab Ali
ICJP and the Red Ribbons Campaign are hosting an in-person panel discussion in central London on the crisis inside Israeli detention facilities and the threat of the death penalty against Palestinian detainees. The event brings together legal, political and activist perspectives, including testimony on detention, torture, solitary confinement, restrictions on legal rights and the denial of Red Cross visits.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/together-against-the-death-penalty-tickets-1989923453617

Critical Collective and HW4P present Gaza: Doctors Under Attack – Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah Speaks
Source: Rich Mix
Date: Sunday 21 June, 3pm
Critical Collective and Healthworkers4Palestine present a screening of Basement Films’ Bafta-winning documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack at Rich Mix, followed by a discussion with Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Dr Moosa Qureshi and a representative from Basement Films. The event is a fundraiser for Dr Abu-Sittah to defend his case after he was cleared by a tribunal and must now defend himself in the High Court.
https://richmix.org.uk/cinema/doctors-under-attack-dr-ghassan-abu-sittah-speaks/

What Occupation Does to the Soul:
Global reverberations of Palestinian historical trauma
Source: Science and Nonduality
Date: Friday 26 June at 6pm (UK time)
This online community gathering marks the launch of Radiance and Pain in Resilience, a collection of essays by Palestinian psychiatrist and psychotherapist Dr Samah Jabr, who will be joined by Dr Gabor Maté and Dr Jennifer Mullan, with Dr Jess Ghannam facilitating. The event will discuss the psychological consequences of colonisation, displacement and historical trauma for Palestinians, and consider decolonial and liberation-centred approaches to mental health rooted in dignity, collective care, resistance and truth.
https://we.scienceandnonduality.com/offers/sAAAXSk3/checkout

Decolonial Mental Health Practice Part 2:
Clinical and ethical insights from Palestine
Source: Science and Nonduality
Date: Sundays 5, 12, 19 and 26 July at 5-7pm (UK time)
This four-part online course with Dr Samah Jabr, Clinical & Ethical Insights from Palestine, Part 2, explores decolonial mental health practice through clinical, ethical and political insights drawn from her psychiatric work in Palestine. The course examines trauma caused by humiliation and degradation, clinical approaches to torture and its aftermath, gendered experiences of political violence, and the mental health of children and adolescents living under chronic instability. It is intended for mental health professionals, clinicians in training, social workers, humanitarian practitioners, academics and human rights advocates, and includes clinical vignettes, video excerpts, plenary discussion, small-group analytical work and facilitated dialogue.
https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/decolonial-mental-health-practice-part-2/
If you missed Part 1 with Dr Samah, you can access the recording here:
https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/decolonial-mental-health-practice/

Working with families and wider systems in contexts of continuous and complex trauma: The case of Gaza
Source: Association for Family Therapy (AFT)
Date: Monday 13 July
Speakers: Gwyn Daniel, Hind Khalifeh and Danny McGowan
This online workshop will explore collaboration with Palestinian mental health workers in Gaza and describe evolving practices to support colleagues who are themselves living through the same traumas as those they are helping. The presenters will discuss support for children and families, training initiatives, “ethical loneliness”, and systemic questions concerning power, racism and colonialism in contexts of continuous war and occupation.
https://www.aft.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?group=&id=2028611

UK-Palestine Mental Health Network Mental Health Study Tour
Monday 26 October to Wednesday 4 November
This autumn we are offering a 10-day study tour for practitioners from the fields of mental health and social work who are keen to explore the complex interface between politics and psychological well-being in the particular circumstances of Palestine/Israel. The tour provides excellent access to clinicians, academics, community groups and political analysts with 25 encounters, plus additional cultural opportunities. It will be facilitated by a small UK company established in 1999 that has provided alternative tours to the area. Hotels will be in Bethlehem and Nazareth with additional visits to Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramallah and Jaffa/Tel Aviv […]
Full details here:
https://ukpalmhn.com/resources/autumn-tour-2026/
For an application form please write including your name, address, contact information, and professional qualifications to:
ukpalmhn@gmail.com

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, divestment and sanctions (BDS).”

Shake the Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV):  new joiners event
Source: Shake the CIV
Date: Wednesday 1 July from 6.30 – 7.30pm
Shake the CIV campaigns around the more than £7 billion invested in companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza. The campaign targets the London-wide pooled fund, the London Collective Investment Vehicle. With the recent local elections it is an exciting and fast-moving time for the campaign and  would love to build our capacity!
Check out our report outlining our campaign, detailing complicit funds and the way itforward to creating an ethical fund: https://tinyurl.com/p4t8zjtu
https://actionnetwork.org/events/shake-the-civ-new-joiners-event-2

How activists pushed the UK’s largest pension megafund to divest from Israel
Source: Middle East Eye
Date: 22 May
This long read examines how local government workers and campaigners pushed Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, the UK’s largest public sector pension pool, after discovering that pension money had been invested in Israeli government bonds during the war on Gaza. It describes a continuing tug of war between campaigners seeking divestment, pension bodies concerned with legal and financial duties, external asset managers making decisions at a distance, and a UK government reluctant to give clear guidance on Israel-linked investments. Middle East Eye reports that Border to Coast bought $29.2m of Israeli government bonds through Pimco in 2024 and early 2025, later sold them without public explanation, and remains under pressure over other holdings linked to illegal Israeli settlements.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/how-activists-pushed-uk-largest-pension-megafund-divest-israel