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| Dear friends, Colonial powers always claim the right to kill and plunder without consequences. They always label the resistance they encounter as ‘terrorism’. We see the results of this mindset in the wanton use of lethal force employed by Israeli occupation forces that has killed over 30 Palestinians this month and also led to seven Jewish Israeli deaths. Israeli politicians now openly demand more house demolitions, a collective punishment, and a crime under international law. The international community does nothing. It is time for us all to act, together, to stop settler colonialism in its tracks. Mental health professionals can, as a start, adopt a “don’t go, don’t support” position in regard to international mental health-related events held in Israel, as described in our Do No Harm statement. By doing so, we avoid gratuitously endorsing colonialism and apartheid, and give meaningful expression to the ethical principles by which we claim to live and work. In this newsletter: 1. Neuropsychoanalysts (NPSA) to hold Conference in Tel Aviv: the Networks ask that they reconsider. 2. Healing the Spirit and Instilling Hope: Yasser Abu Jamei, Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Live from USA 3. Ahmad Manasra Campaign: Physicians’ letter to Israeli President 4. Palestine Counselling Centre 2023 Conference: 20-21 March: call for papers 5. Health and Human Rights Journal: special issue on Palestine 6. A Story of Colonialism, Apartheid and Resistance: two new videos and one old one 7. Café Palestine 35 recording 1. International Neuropsychoanalytic Association (NPSA) to hold Conference in Tel Aviv This year the NPSA is to hold its annual congress in Tel Aviv, ignoring the request by Palesetinian civil society that international associations refrain from normalising apartheid and colonialism. The UKPMHN has posted an Open Letter to members of the NPSA, and has written to each of the NPSA’s regional groups, protesting this decision and requesting that it is reviewed and revoked. Please reinforce these actions by adding your voice, sending NPSA a message expressing your concerns. To find your local NPSA group, go to this link. If you have any connection with the NPSA: i) Circulate the Open Letter and the Do No Harm statement to your contacts, and seek their opinion as to the appropriateness of the conference location. ii) Call for a pause, creating an opportunity to review the AGM’s decision, and to consult Palestinian mental health professionals as to their views. iii) Ask individuals in your organisation who agree it should not take place in Israel to write to the NPSA conference committee stating their intention not to attend and giving the reasons why iv) Find any opportunity to inform other members (at workshops or other meetings) of the gross inappropriateness of Tel Aviv as a location and the affront to human rights it represents. If you are unsure of the reasons for joining the international boycott movement, please visit the BDS website; and read our ‘Do No Harm’ Statement. 2. Healing the Spirit and Instilling Hope: Yasser Abu Jamei, Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Live from the USA A tour co-sponsored by The Jerusalem Fund and the USA Palestine Mental Health Network, Washington DC Tuesday, February 14, 2023 – 4pm EST, 9pm UK, 11pm Palestine: this event will be livestreamed on facebook and youtube. For details of all Yasser’s appearances, go to this link. 3. Ahmad Manasra Campaign: Physicians’ letter to Israeli President The UKPMHN coordinated the collection of signatures from 149 Physicians, in a letter appealing to Isaac Herzog, President of Israel, to intervene in the case of Ahmad Manasra. The full text can be found here. With many thanks to all the medical practitioners from our list who added their names to the letter. It has been circulated in parliament and been sent to the UN Special Rapporteurs. To keep up the pressure on the UK government it would be helpful if you also forwarded it to your MP and to any media outlets you know. This recent webinar is of direct relevance to the free Ahmad Manasra campaign: Arbitrary by Default: Palestinian children in Israeli Military Detention presented by No Way to Treat a Child. 4. Palestine Counselling Centre 2023 Conference: 20-21 March “Pscychotherapy, the therapist and the therapeutic relationship in the context of Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine” See the attachment for information about, and an invitation to take part, in this conference. Apologies – this is a late notice: if you have a paper you would like to present do contact PCC soon. See this notice for contact details. 5. Health and Human Rights Journal: special issue on Palestine Seven up to date and in-depth papers, concluding with ‘A Call for Social Justice and for a Human Rights Approach with Regard to Mental Health in the Occupied Palestinian Territories’ by Maria Helbich and Samah Jabr. All recommended. https://www.hhrjournal.org/volume-24-issue-2-december-2022/#palestine 6. A Story of Colonialism, Apartheid and Resistance: two new videos and one old one: A new 5 minute video from Makan: ‘Palestine, a Story of Colonialism and Resistance’. And from Mondoweiss, a 22 minute video: Inside Israeli Apartheid Video from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: Resisting the Occupation on the Ground 7. Café Palestine 35 Recording Standing Together: International Activism and Solidarity with Palestine This Café Palestine was dedicated to the precious memory of Eamon McMahon 1951-2022 Chair: Victoria Brittain Tribute by Arlene Healey of the Ireland Palestine Mental Health Network to the activism and solidarity work of Eamon McMahon Elizabeth Berger and Lama Khouri on international solidarity initiatives from the USA-Palestine Mental health Network and the Palestine-Global Network including collaboration on the campaign for the release of Ahmad Manasra and other child prisoners. Gwyn Daniel on pushing back against the instrumentalisation of antisemitism to silence Palestinian activism Guy Shennan and Issa Rabadi on recent collaborative developments in Palestine-related social work activism within the UK, in Palestine and internationally |
Author: ukpalmhnadmin
Open letter to members of the International Neuropsychoanalytic Association (NPSA)
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| Open letter to members of the International Neuropsychoanalytic Association (NPSA)from the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network We write to protest the decision of the NPSA to locate its 2023 Conference in Tel Aviv. It is common knowledge that Palestinian civil society has courteously requested that the international community refrain from acts that collude in a denial of the social injustice, military occupation and oppression to which they are subject. To ignore this request is to side with a colonial system of ethnic erasure; a society that the international, Israeli and Palestinian human rights community have declared – in detailed and fully documented reports (see notes below) – to exemplify the crime of apartheid. Apartheid is a crime against humanity under international law: it is our collective responsibility to work to dismantle it. The NPSA’s decision means turning a blind eye to Israel’s deplorable record of human rights abuses and multiple infringements of international law. The NPSA is asking you to ignore reality: a regime that has for decades (through the use of torture, house demolitions, the plunder of land, the abuse of children, repeated massacres, the routine illegal use of lethal force etc) inflicted mass trauma on the Palestinian people. This is not a place to locate a ‘civilised’ conversation about ‘Play’. The NPSA may protest that it is neutral, that its presence in Tel Aviv should not be taken as supportive of the regime or its racist ideology: that the NPSA does not intend to ‘normalise’ apartheid. The evidence suggests otherwise, and is there on its website for everyone to see: https://npsa-association.org/events/npsa-congress-tel-aviv-yafo-israel-2023/ When we open this page, we are immediately presented with a series of photographs that, however naïvely or unwittingly, portray Israel as an unproblematic location for scientific work. The snapshots show a country of beauty, a multi-ethnic oasis with a rich cultural heritage, at the same time historic and spiritual, vibrant and forward-looking. This is illustrative of a profound splitting expressive of the regime’s supremacist fantasies. Israel is not a safe, law-abiding country. The privileges that the NPSA invites you to enjoy – of comfort and security, freedom to travel (and by the quickest and most economical means), access to the beach, of not being targeted due to your ethnicity or religion – are denied to millions of Palestine’s indigenous population. You will be enjoying the privileges afforded by apartheid. The reality is of relentless state violence and repression; racist laws; and a shocking toll in the maiming and killing of mainly young Palestinian civilians. To get a sense of how distorted a view is being offered to NPSA members, please spend some time exploring the Israel-Palestine Timeline website. We call on you, as a member or supporter of the NPSA: i) to protest to your regional associations and to the international leadership, calling for the postponement of this congress until such time as a full assessment of Israel as an appropriate location can be made. Please request that this assessment includes proper consultation with Palestinian mental health professionals and associations. ii) to refrain from attending this conference, should it go ahead, and to indicate to the organisation your reasons for taking this decision. The UKPMHN welcomes any contact with individuals or groups belonging to the NPSA, or enquiries from those considering attending this conference, or members of other organisations that are being asked to participate in similar events. Notes See: Human Rights Watch 2021; B’Tselem 2021; Amnesty International 2022; Al Haq 2022. |
Gaza webinar and book discussion Sat 17 Dec 5pm (UK)
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| Here are details of a forthcoming webinar and details of a new book: Palestine Trauma Centre (UK) https://www.palestinetraumacentre.uk “Talk to Gaza” returns with a webinar devoted to Palestinian thoughts about Gaza’s future. Saturday 17th December 2022 7pm Gaza time / 5pm UK time. Our webinar discussion will introduce the recently published Light in Gaza Writings Born of Fire Edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, and Mike Merryman-Lotze Jennifer Bing and some of the Palestinian contributors join our discussion on 17th December. Zoom link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81187103407 Meeting ID: 811 8710 3407 Order book from: HaymarketBooks.org Light in Gaza is a moving and wide-ranging anthology of Palestinian writers and artists. It constitutes a collective effort to organize and centre Palestinian voices in the ongoing struggle. |
Get To Know Us! Our Lives with Mental Illness in the Palestinian Community – Wed. Dec. 14, 2022 at 11am (UK)
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| Dear friends and supporters of UK Palestine Mental Health Network, Here are details of the launch of an extraordinary, new, illustrated storybook: Get to Know Us! Our Lives with Mental Illness in the Palestinian Community Book Launch in English: Wednesday, December 14, 2022 @ 11am UK / 1pm Palestine Click here to register for this meeting in English. Book Launch in Arabic: Tuesday, December 13, 2022 @ 11am UK/ 1pm Palestine Click here to register for this meeting in Arabic. The book explores the difficulties and limited opportunities for people with mental illness to live and participate in their communities with chapters focusing on the notions of community, life with mental illness, equity, spare time, and the rights to medication and work. It is fully co-produced by people with severe mental illness, with researchers from Birzeit University (Suzan Mitwalli, Dr. Yoke Rabaia), King’s College London (Prof. Hanna Kienzler) and staff of the Palestinian Counseling Center. Illustrations by the noted Palestinian artist Amer Shomali. A PDF copy of the book (Arabic and English) as well as audio recordings (Arabic) of all the chapters are freely available to you on this website: https://www.get-to-know-us.com If you have questions, please get in touch with Suzan Mitwalli at smitwalli@birzeit.edu You can also ask for hardcopies of the book: If you are based in Palestine, please contact Suzan Mitwalli from the Institute of Public and Community Health – Birzeit University. If you are based outside Palestine and would like English copies, please contact Hanna Kienzler from King’s College: hanna.kienzler@kcl.ac.uk |
Café Palestine 35 on 3rd December 2022 at 3:45pm (UK) / 5:45pm (Pal) Standing Together: International Activism and Solidarity with Palestine
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| Café Palestine 35 3rd December 2022 at 3:45pm (UK) / 5:45pm (Pal) Standing Together: International Activism and Solidarity with Palestine https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89763624365 This Café Palestine is dedicated to the precious memory of Eamon McMahon 1951-2022 Special note: Please try to arrive by 3.45pm. In place of live music, during the first 15 minutes we will remember the contribution of Eamon McMahon, who died earlier this year. Please, therefore, aim to arrive promptly. The meeting will open at 3.40pm (UK), 5.40pm (Palestine). Chair: Victoria Brittain 3.45pm Tribute by Arlene Healey of the Ireland Palestine Mental Health Network to the activism and solidarity work of Eamon McMahon 4pm Introduction to the three presentations 4.10pm Elizabeth Berger and Lama Khouri on international solidarity initiatives from the USA-Palestine Mental health Network and the Palestine-Global Network including collaboration on the campaign for the release of Ahmad Manasra and other child prisoners. 4.35pm Gwyn Daniel on pushing back against the instrumentalisation of antisemitism to silence Palestinian activism 4.50pm Guy Shennan and Issa Rabadi on recent collaborative developments in Palestine-related social work activism within the UK, in Palestine and internationally 5.15pm Discussion and Q and A 5.30pm Close https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89763624365 Speakers Elizabeth Berger is a child psychiatrist living in New York City and a member of the Steering Committee of the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network. Her work as an activist with colleagues in Palestine focuses on the impact of the occupation on health and well-being. Victoria Brittain is a British writer and journalist who has written widely on Human Rights and Politics in the Middle East and beyond. She has visited the West Bank and Gaza many times over the past thirty years. She is a founder member of the annual Palestine Festival of Literature and is trustee of the Palestinian Book awards. She has been closely associated with the UK Palestine Mental Health Network. Her most recent book is Love and Resistance in the films of Mai Masri published by Palgrave Macmillan New York. Gwyn Daniel is a consultant systemic psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer. She is on the steering group of the UK Palestine Mental Health Network. She is a patron of the Palestine Trauma Centre in Gaza. She has given presentations in the UK and Europe and published articles on the impact of Israeli settler colonialism on Palestinian family life. Arlene Healey is a consultant systemic psychotherapist and former Director of the Family Trauma Centre, Belfast. She is a founder member of the Ireland Palestine Mental Health Network Lama Khouri DPsa, LCSW-R is a Palestinian psychotherapist based in New York. She is one of the founders of the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network and is on its steering committee. Lama has a private practice and is a clinical supervisor at the Arab American Family Support Center. She comes to the field of mental health following a 14-year career at the United Nations, most of which she spent as a political affairs officer at the Department of Peace Operations. Issa Rabadi is a Palestinian social worker, member of the Palestinian Union for Social Workers and Psychologists (PUSWP), and of the Palestine-UK Social Work Network. Guy Shennan is a social worker and therapist based in London, UK. A founder member of the Palestine-UK Social Work Network, with colleagues in the UK, and Issa and other social work colleagues in Palestine, Guy is now a member of the steering group of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network. |
Café Palestine 35 – Saturday 3rd December! Plus: hear Samah Jabr online, and other news
Dear friends,
In this issue:
- Cafe Palestine no 35:
Standing together: International activism and solidarity with Palestine
Sat 3rd Dec – hold the date!! - Suffering, Sumud & Mental Health in Palestine: The Impact of the Israeli Occupation on Palestinian women. Thursday 24th November.
- Two short videos from the Palestine Trauma Centre
- Three responses to the results of the recent Israeli election
- The Convivencia Alliance for a Just Peace in Palestine: a new initiative of Muslims, Jews and Christians committed to building a new society.
1. Cafe Palestine no 35: International Solidarity
Saturday 3 December at 15.45 (17.45 Palestinian time, 10.45 EST)
Café Palestine will now be an occasional, rather than a regular, happening. In this next event we share some international solidarity initiatives in support of Palestine from the Mental Health field.
The meeting will be dedicated to the memory of Eamon McMahon, Irish Psychotherapist and activist and will include contributions from the UK, USA, Palestine Global and Irish networks.
Further details of speakers and topics will be announced in our next mailing.
2. Suffering, Sumud & Mental Health in Palestine: The Impact of the Israeli Occupation on Palestinian women
The Scottish Palestine Forum hosts Dr Samah Jabr (Palestine Global MH Network) and Gwyn Daniel (UKPMHN) to speak: Thursday 24th November 7pm (UK).
To register for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcpfuugqT8oHNPsuWAb50b4tVE57a3VTWH6
3. Palestine Trauma Centre
Two short videos illustrating the inspiring work of PTC. The first is a record of a unique trip made by two of the Days of Joy clowns to Italy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfzQRArYIrE
The second is about the project focusing on disabled people in Gaza.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flMbjTQr2Qc
Explore the work of PTC (and donate perhaps) at https://www.palestinetraumacentre.uk/
4. The Israeli Election
The latest election saw the ultra-right, those most openly opposed to Palestinian rights and the most supportive of settler violence, consolidating their hold on Israeli politics. In what is already set to be one of the deadliest years of the occupation, this is deeply worrying. While it supports the analysis of Zionism as a settler colonial project, we can only imagine that Western Governments, and social democratic parties, will continue to reconcile themselves to the regime. Here are some responses.
4a) Palestinian parents fear for their children as Israel’s far right rises, an article from the Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/11/israel-west-bank-ben-gvir/
4b) Prof. Haim Bresheeth-Zabner (author of a recently published history of the IDF), reflecting on the nature and implications of the election. A Left Horizons webinar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLRJq287Rlo&t=511s
4c) Prof. Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, gives his:
Report on the Israeli Election
5. The Convivencia Alliance for a Just Peace in Palestine
This is a new initiative convened by Prof. Haim Bresheeth (Jewish Network for Palestine), Mr. Massoud Shadjareh (Islamic Human Rights Commission) and Revd. Dr. Stephen Sizer (Peacemaker Trust). Drawing on historical experiences of creative co-existence, it offers a vision of a just, shared future for Palestine.
“In opposition to the current militarised ‘solutions’ on offer – based on racist oppression, brute force, denial of rights and colonial dispossession – it sets out to develop a proposal based on a history of shared values of the monotheistic faiths and on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
For more information see The Convivencia Project website, and this article, further outlining its approach: The Convivencia Alliance for a Just Peace in Palestine.
Palestinian mental health workers address their colleagues worldwide
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| Dear friends and colleagues, Please read this Position Paper from the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network called “Concerning the Recent Acts of Zionist Aggression, Brutal Siege and Killing Taking Place Across Palestinian Cities, Villages and Refugee Camps”. It provides their analysis of the recent intensification of repression and resistance in Palestine, and their call for our solidarity and support. Please consider how you might make use of this Statement within your professional associations and workplaces. UKPMHN “Concerning the Recent Acts of Zionist Aggression, Brutal Siege and Killing Taking Place Across Palestinian Cities, Villages and Refugee Camps” https://www.pgmhn.org/statements/position-paper |
Prisoners’ Rights and Protests; Challenging Professional Collusion – events and recordings
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| Dear friends and colleagues, 1. “Hunger Strikes, Human Rights, and the Health of Palestinian Political Prisoners” 2. Challenging Professional Collusion with Settler Colonialism a) “Necropolitics and Palestine” b) Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian in conversation with Ilan Pappé c) Questioning “diversity” in psychoanalysis 3. One Democratic State 1. “Hunger Strikes, Human Rights, and the Health of Palestinian Political Prisoners” MONDAY 3rd OCTOBER, 7pm-8pm (UK) 9pm-10pm (Palestine) With Dr Lina Qasem Hassan, Physician and Chairperson, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel; Sahar Francis, Director General, Addameer Prisoner’s Support and Human Rights Association; Moderator: Randa Wahbe, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University Institute of Community and Public Health, Birzeit University and the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, FXB-Harvard University. Register here. 2. Challenging Professional Collusion with Settler Colonialism 2a. “Necropolitics and Palestine” Monday 10th Oct 7.30pm-9pm (UK) 9.30pm-11pm (Pal) On the occasion of the publication of “Descent of the Soul: katabasis and depth psychology, Martin Kemp, Richard Seaford and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian will discuss aspects of the struggle in Palestine in relation to the classical concept of the Katabasis. Martin will talk on “Pseudo-humanism and Professional Responsibility in the context of Settler Colonialism”; Richard on ‘’Punishing the Dead: Katabasis in Palestine’’; Nadera sharing her thoughts in response to these contributions. Free Zoom meeting: Register here. 2b. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian in conversation with Ilan Pappé (Recording) A fascinating opportunity to hear Nadera respond to Ilan’s questions regarding her career and work. Watch here. 2c. Questioning ‘Diversity’ in Psychoanalysis: Lara Sheehi and Foluke Taylor (Recording) A brilliant discussion of the shortcomings of the discourse on diversity within psychotherapy, organised by the Race & Culture Committee at The Guild of Psychotherapists, London. Foluke Taylor, psychotherapist, author, feminist, on the staff of Metanoia, and Lara Sheehi, psychoanalyst, co-author of Psychoanalysis under Occupation… Watch here 3. One Democratic State? (Recording) Listen to a discussion by members of the One Democratic State Campaign, Jeff Halper – Director, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, author, anthropologist; Haim Bresheeth – Founder, Jewish Network for Palestine, author, member of Convivencia Alliance and BRICUP; and Ghada Karmi – Palestinian-born academic, physician and author, member of BRICUP: Watch here |
Eamon McMahon – a great loss. With news of fellowships, events to continue his work for the liberation of Palestine
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| Dear friends and colleagues, 1. Eamon McMahon With great sadness, we share the news of death of our dear friend Eamon McMahon. Our commiserations to his family and friends, his comrades in the trade union and Palestine solidarity movements, his professional colleagues and collaborators, and members of the Ireland-Palestine Mental Health Network (IPMHN). Eamon made an enormous contribution over many years. Most recently, and under the auspices of Trade Union Friends of Palestine – of which he was a founder – he organised a conference in Dublin in 2019 on the impact of settler colonialism on Palestinian children. His report can be read here. A podcast in which Eamon talks to conference participants Khaled Quzmar, Director of Defence of the Child International-Palestine, and lawyer Nery Ramati can be found here. Eamon was a staunch campaigner for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, as is represented in this video, ‘A strategy to liberate Palestine’. An interview with Eamon can be heard here. 2. Palestine Health and Human Rights Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Call for Applications The Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights (PPHHR), a cooperation of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University, has announced its inaugural postdoctoral fellowship for 2023-2024. For further information is available here 3. The practice of liberation psychology in Palestine: ‘Palestinians handle trauma better when we struggle together to survive’: interview with psychologist Asrar Kayal: https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-trauma-violence-asrar-kayyal/ ‘How a Palestinian psychologist helped explain my family’s trauma’ https://www.972mag.com/wp-content/themes/rgb/newsletter.php?page_id=8§ion_id=167235 4. The Climate Crisis and Palestine: two webinars September 21st and October 6th ‘Climate justice in the global South: Palestine, West Asia & North Africa’, presented by Makan and Tipping Point UK, with Dr. Muna Dajani, Dr Hamza Hamouchene & Tatiana Garavito: register here. ‘Ecocide as State Crime’ from The Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice and International State Crime Initiative, with Richard Falk, Steven Donziger and Mònica Pons-Hernández: register here`. 5. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian in conversation with Illan Pappe: September 21st An online event hosted by the Exeter Decolonising Network. Further details here. 6.Psychoanalysis Under Occupation by Lara and Stephen Sheehi Jeanine Hourani has published this excellent review of the Sheehis’ seminal work that has now been shortlisted for the Palestine Book Award 2022. 7. From the Archives: James Baldwin to Angela Davis James Baldwin responds to the incarceration of Angela Davis: a historical document of some relevance, thinking about the hundreds of political prisoners held in Israeli gaols: ‘An Open Letter to my sister, Miss Angela Davis’. |
International Social Work bureaucracy silences Palestinian Social Workers
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| Dear friends and colleagues, First BASW, now the IFSW, abandon the struggle against apartheid On 9th August 2022, the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) published on its website an invitation from the Israeli Union of Social Workers (IUSW), calling for “the Palestinian Social Workers to join them in dialogue to explore how the two unions can communicate and work together advancing the profession in the region”. Its statement, avoiding all reference to settler colonialism, apartheid, the occupation etc, implies that at the heart of the conflict lies misunderstanding and a lack of ‘trust’ to be resolved by ‘dialogue’. On 23rd August, the Palestinian Union of Social Workers and Psychologists (PUSWP) sent a letter in response to this to the IFSW, and asked for this to also be published on the IFSW’s website. In this response, PUSWP set out their reasons for declining the Israeli Union’s invitation, and called on the IFSW and IUSW “instead to act and call for the end of the colonization, recognize Israel for what it is, and advocate for Palestinian rights including our right to self-determination and our right to return.” In an extraordinary move, effectively boycotting PUSWP, the IFSW has refused to publish this letter on their website. Palestinian social workers have therefore asked those acting in solidarity with them to share their letter as widely as possible. The UK-Palestine Mental Health Network is pleased to be able to contribute to this by copying the text of PUSWP’s letter below, and placing it on our website. Please share this link widely among your networks and contacts. We have previously reported the capitulation of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) to the pressure to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that targets Palestinian resistance to oppression. The UKPMHM deplores this latest example of professional associations silencing the views of Palestinian colleagues, in their collusion with settler colonialism and apartheid. Letter from PUSWP to the IFSW, issued Aug. 23, 2022 A PDF copy of the letter is available here To: The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) From: Palestinian Union of Social Workers & Psychologists (PUSWP) Dear Colleagues, We Palestinian social workers believe that socio-political dispossession require social workers to defy it, and that social workers should place racialized others and the elimination of structural violence at the center of their practice. We believe that acting against domination, subordination and otherization, centering Palestinians own experienced and engendering resistance is crucial for a liberation social work practice. Based on our deep appreciation and gratitude to your ongoing efforts to advocate for the rights of social workers on an international level and particularly in Palestine we want to stress our disdain to the invitation by the Israeli Union of Social Workers (IUSW) calling for “dialogue” with the Palestinian Union of Social Workers & Psychologists which was published on your website on August 9, 2022. Nothing is more reprehensible, in our view, than the habit of Israeli social workers of avoiding over 70 years of their state’s violent racism and dispossession. Freire reminds us that concientization is especially important to the process of empowerment, for it signifies an awareness of oppression with all the psycho-social and political implications it carries. In Addition, Franz Fanon has contributed to our critical work by reminding us that the Israeli social work professionals should consider their role in the creation, perpetuation and consequences of racialized settler colonialism. We strongly believe that advocating for union rights can’t be accomplished without effective communication, partnerships and networking, which we continue to take part in to this day. However, we do not believe that the relationship between the colonizer and those colonized should be framed within a context of dialogue for the following reasons: 1. The IUSW is part of a bigger system of oppression that has debilitated and continued to dispossess our people for years, this imposes its discriminatory policies, ethnic cleansing and collective punishment on Palestinians, through changing laws confiscation of land and natural resources, displacing people and building an Apartheid regime, which is a war crime that we should all denounce and work together to end. This crime was highlighted and acknowledged in recent reports by leading human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights organization, Bt’selem,. The Israeli social workers are part of a system of colonisation one face of which is apartheid. It should be noted that the aforementioned human rights organizations are affiliated with the United Nations, international human rights organizations and some Israeli organizations 2. The members of IUSW are complicit in the oppression of our people through serving in the Israeli army which is the “administrative body” of the occupation of Palestine, which is illegal under international law. This army is systematically violating Palestinian human rights through home demolitions, attempts to ethnically cleanse and forcibly transfer civilians in occupied territory (Masafer Yatta, Sheikh Jarah,etc) and field executions of Palestinians and the besiegingand bombarding of Gaza. We don’t see any connection with an Israeli soldier committing crimes against children and a social worker fighting for the rights of children. 3. In 2018, during the general conference of the IFSW in Dublin, a statement was issued to condemn the silence of the IUSW towards the ongoing crimes in occupied Palestinian territory. This confirms our previous argument concerning the complicity of the IUSW members by serving in the army. Since then, what has changed? We strongly believe that the bigger picture is what matters. This is the occupation and colonization practised by the Israeli regime against the Palestinians, whether those defined as citizens of the Israeli state, said by critical scholars to hold “settler-colonial citizenship”, Palestinians within areas colonized in 1967, or those living in exile as refugees and non-entities or Stateless persons awaiting return. While the members of the IUSW enjoy the privilege of freedoms of movement, speech, action, and expression; our members have to pass through checkpoints on a daily basis to reach their work, they may face political arrest, and our organizations may face criminalization, closure and end up being defined as terrorist entities. Any “dialogue” that denies the founding violence of the state, and its un-ending dispossession and any “dialogue” that refrains from declaring clearly a commitment to ending colonization and recognizing the Nakba and its impact on the Palestinian people in the past present and future will just add insult to injury. Dialogue requires an equal footing and a maintenance of symmetries of power, otherwise it will be another mode of systematic violence that deviate the attention of the international community from what is happening on the ground and will whitewash the crimes of the colonization regime. More than 135 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli occupation forces since the beginning of 2022. 15th August, a 21-year-old Palestinian (Mohammad Al Shiham) was killed in front of his family in the suburbs of the occupied city of Jerusalem. We call on the IFSW & the IUSW to reexamine this invitation and instead to act and call for the end of the colonization, recognize Israel for what it is, and advocate for Palestinian rights including our right to self-determination and our right to return. We are gathered by the values of humanity, dignity and mutual respect. Our work as Palestinian social workers is concerned with anti-racism, anti-Palestinianism, and anti-colonialism, as central themes that expose the relations between the social, economic, and political oppression and our community’s welfare. Hence, our interventions are oriented to engaging and helping the distressed, identifying forces of oppression operating in their lives, and developing strategies to promote livability against the settler colonial state’s necropolitics. The relation or Issues in the relationship between two sets of people, where one set are part of a regime that is oppressing the other, cannot be solved through “dialogue” before the steps mentioned above are taken. Once they have been taken, our doors are open to co-resist together for the rights of all workers. Sincerely Yours, Palestinian Union of Social Workers & Psychologists (PUSWP) General Secretariat – PUSWP |
الشبكة البريطانية الفلسطينية للصحة النفسية 