The statement that follows has been long in the making. It originated with a working group within the IGA-UK’s Power, Position and Privilege Committee, comprised of a core group of women, the late Claire Bacha, Erica Burman, Farideh Dizadji, Viv Harte and Reem Shelhi who, together with other colleagues, took on the task of formulating a public call for solidarity with Palestine, taking inspiration from the Black Lives Matter statements that organisations, including the IGA, had adopted in recent years.
One offshoot of this working group was the ‘Can We Talk about Palestine?’ workshop that took place over three sessions at the Group Analytic Society International Symposium of August 2023, in Belgrade. Viv and Farideh were joined by Julia Borossa, Angelika Golz, Philippa Marx, Sally Skaife and Jud Stone and in planning and delivering these spaces for dialogue (for an account, see Contexts Sept. 2023 https://groupanalyticsociety.co.uk/contexts/102-2/ [groupanalyticsociety.co.uk]). The Steering Group which finalised the statement below was born out of our involvement in both these projects. The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, lends urgency to this statement, which gives voice to our ethical position and explores our responsibility as Group Analysts.
We invite all interested group analysts, associates and individuals to join us.
Please contact us at: GA4Palestine@alloneworld.org
Socio-Political injustice permeates our world, bringing with it the associated dynamics of privileging those in power and acts of turning away. Breaking silence and speaking truth to power shifts this pattern. In the current world climate, and with specific reference to events in Palestine/Israel and the enabling complicity of large swathes of the Western world, we believe it is vital and incumbent upon us to now speak out. As Group Analysts and citizens of the world, we join the resounding call to uphold the rights of the Palestinian people as enshrined in international law and make a clear statement in unequivocal solidarity with Palestinians and for Palestine.
Group Analysis is a long-established, radical, personal, and socio-political enterprise
underpinned by ‘an open-ended list of ethical and political values’[1]. Our approach draw inspiration from psychoanalytic traditions, emphasizing the importance of truth-seeking,
introspection, and perseverance in the face of contentious subjects and difficult emotions. We recognize the necessity of grappling with discomfort and pain to access deep-seated truths within the personal and social unconscious, working towards the alleviation of suffering and the healing of fractured people and societies. Motivated by its radical beginnings, Group Analysts uphold values of fairness, democracy, social responsibility, and the sense that ‘we are all each other’s consequences’[1] .
It is in this context that now we find the socio-political voice of group analysis in relation to the Palestine/Israel conflict:
We have been distraught and perturbed by historical, recent, and ongoing events concerning Israeli state violence against Palestine and its people. A combination of warfare, territorial theft, harassment, and forcible displacement has devastated millions of Palestinian lives.
Group Analysis is a long-established, radical, personal, and socio-political enterprise
underpinned by ‘an open-ended list of ethical and political values’[1]. Our approach draw inspiration from psychoanalytic traditions, emphasizing the importance of truth-seeking,
introspection, and perseverance in the face of contentious subjects and difficult emotions. We recognize the necessity of grappling with discomfort and pain to access deep-seated truths within the personal and social unconscious, working towards the alleviation of suffering and the healing of fractured people and societies. Motivated by its radical beginnings, Group Analysts uphold values of fairness, democracy, social responsibility, and the sense that ‘we are all each other’s consequences’[1] .
It is in this context that now we find the socio-political voice of group analysis in relation to the Palestine/Israel conflict:
We have been distraught and perturbed by historical, recent, and ongoing events concerning Israeli state violence against Palestine and its people. A combination of warfare, territorial theft, harassment, and forcible displacement has devastated millions of Palestinian lives.
From a group analytic perspective, Palestine as a Location of Disturbance encapsulates common dilemmas concerning human conflict and suffering. Themes pertinent across all nations, societies, and individuals are reflected – the pernicious effects of occupation, colonialism, oppression, splitting and fragmentation along with greed, envy, and the victim/perpetrator/bystander cycle. Through engaging with these issues Group Analysis can work towards ending the silencing that has surrounded this situation for too long and produce change.
We therefore call on all of us, and in particular group analysts nationally and internationally, to engage with the Palestinian/Israeli situation politically and clinically, consciously, and actively, without shying away from addressing sensitive issues pertaining to traumas past and present. We recognise the unique sensitivity of Group Analysis’ historical beginnings, being in some key ways born out of Jewish responses to the traumas of antisemitism, genocide, and geographical displacement. We make this call precisely out of a consciousness that the creation of the State of Israel was accelerated by an extraordinary trauma and loss, itself subject to political handwashing by the West. This history, however, does not and cannot justify pursuing the present violent colonial, apartheid and oppressive policies regarding the Palestinians and their land.
Therefore, we make a clear stand in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues and the people of Palestine in saying:
We call on the IGA-UK, GASi and other relevant communities to organise, sponsor, and promote workshops on Palestine/Israel and for the IGA & GASi community to help promote discussion and debate and counter the general climate of silence, paralysis, negation and disavowal.
We call for better understandings of antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as clarifying the differences between antizionism and antisemitism.
We welcome all members of the IGA-UK to join us as well as group analysts and individuals across the world.
We urge the IGA-UK, GASi and other relevant communities to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and steadfastly make this position widely known, as well as creating opportunities for education and
We recognise that the situation in Palestine particularly affects our Arab, North African and Muslim colleagues and call on the IGA-UK and GASi to find ways of supporting them to have their voices heard.
We encourage debating what adopting a BDS position might mean in Group Analysis and how we can respond to demands from Palestinian civil society organisations for economic and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions.
Benjamin, A., & Tucker, S. (2021). We’ve all got skin in the game: National Diversity Working Group: Power, Privilege and Position. Group Analysis, 54(3), 437-459.
Stegner, W. (2013). All the little live things. Penguin UK.
Steering Committee: Erica Burman, Julia Borossa, Farideh Dizadji, Reem Shelhi
Email: GA4Palestine@alloneworld.org
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