The undersigned international mental health organizations condemn the professional conference Recalculating: Authority, Identity, & Belonging in Times of Tectonic Upheaval to be held in Israel on February 10-23, 2024 and encourage all mental health workers to refuse to attend, publicize, or participate in the conference either in person or virtually.
Responding to the longstanding nonviolent request arising from Palestinian civil society—the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS)—we join the call for international solidarity by refusing to participate in cultural, academic, and professional activities that endorse Israeli policy. We emphasize that neither our organizations nor the BDS movement criticize anyone for being Israeli—what is criticized is an action by an individual or a group that actively supports the Israeli government.
The “Recalculating” event clearly supports Israeli policy. Its bold invitation, ironically issued now in the midst of Israel’s heinous genocide in Gaza, promises to ponder subtle issues of cultural and national identity in a neutral, self-searching, and transparent manner. Alas, however, the list of conference planners excludes Palestinian voices—those human beings currently being uprooted through genocide and violent upheaval. What’s more, the invitation states with proud defiance that the “conference will be conducted according to the guidelines of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front Command to ensure the continued safety of residents.“ With this framework, how can the perspectives of Palestinians or their international supporters conceivably be heard?
To attend this conference either in-person or virtually only reinforces the fictional image of Israel as a lively tourist destination, a modern forward-looking democracy, and a proper forum for the free debate of intellectual opinions—although in fact a multitude of colleagues from many countries are barred from entering Israel and thought-leaders both within Israel and elsewhere who criticize Israel are being criminalized. At this moment, we observe free speech to be aggressively eradicated in Israel just as it is under attack globally. The recent success in the USA and Europe of anti-BDS policies and the increasingly legalized equation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism are both symptoms of dangerous pro-Israeli social control which threatens the very concept of a just democracy. The Israeli targeted assassination of Palestinian healthcare workers, journalists, intellectuals, and cultural leaders completes the picture of pervasive state terror, tolerated and endorsed by the power elites of wealthy nations.
Stand up to these outrageously unjust acts!
- “Don’t Go”
- Request that your colleagues “Don’t Go”
- Object to mental health organizations’ advertisements of this conference
- Explain to the conference organizers why you “Don’t Go”
- Demand that the conference organizers state clearly that the conference defends the actions of the Israeli government and omits viewpoints supporting the Palestinian people
Yours truly,
The Steering Committee of the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network
The Steering Group of the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network
The Steering Committee of the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network
The Steering Committee of the France-Palestine Mental Health Network
The Steering Committee of the Ireland-Palestine Mental Health Network
December 26, 2023
Download this document as PDF here:
