Israel/Palestine : Move this conference away from Jerusalem

We, psychotherapists, researchers and other mental health professionals, write to express our dismay at the decision of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) to hold its next international conference  in Jerusalem.
Israel’s policies in the Occupied Territories, including house demolitions, movement restrictions and imprisonment without trial, cause insecurity, despair, helplessness and humiliation. They create family tension and widespread traumatisation, and disrupt child attachment. The calamitous impact of Israel’s occupation on the psychological health of the Palestinians is well documented.
This conference would be taking place a short walking distance from neighbourhoods where Palestinians are currently being dispossessed of their homes to make way for Israeli settlements, one among many strategies that pose a threat to their very survival in Jerusalem. SPR’s collective denial – or indifference –is evident in the conference publicity published on its website. Jerusalem is here pictured as “a city suspended between heaven and earth, East and West, past and present – parallel universes of flowing caftans and trendy coffee shops”.
We are shocked that, replying to concerns already raised, the organisers consider it adequate to promise to assist Palestinian psychotherapy researchers to attend the conference. This may ease SPR consciences but it is as nothing weighed against the political message they will be sending by meeting in this beleaguered city.
SPR’s name ought to be synonymous with intellectual honesty, independence, and a courageous resolve to deal with the truth. Hence we call for the conference to be moved to another venue, following the lead given by the World Association of Infant Mental Health in similar circumstances.
Andrew Samuels
Professor of analytical psychology, University of Essex; former chair, UK Council for Psychotherapy
Rita Giacaman
Professor of public health, Birzeit University, West Bank, Occupied Palestine
Samah Jabr
Psychiatrist, psychotherapist, Jerusalem
Yasser Abu Jamei
Psychiatrist, director-general, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
Martin Kemp
Psychoanalyst, UK-Palestine Mental Health Network, UK
Ruchama Marton
Psychiatrist, founder Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
Susie Orbach
Psychoanalyst, UK
Khader Rasras
Executive director, Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, Ramallah Palestine
Jessica Benjamin
psychoanalyst, USA
Steven Botticelli
psychoanalyst, USA

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