Dear Members of the Executive Board of ENMESH:
Once again, the Palestine Global Mental Health Network respectfully requests that you reconsider locating your 2021 international meeting in Israel.
This request has a history: in June 2019, ENMESH first announced that its 2021 meeting was planned to take place in Israel. A few weeks later, however, the ENMESH Executive Board decided not to meet in Israel—a decision described as a "practical" choice to avoid controversy rather than a choice based on moral values. We then sent a public letter to ENMESH in July 2019 applauding the ENMESH decision not to meet in Israel and encouraging ENMESH to base this decision on an ethical position on human rights as well (see PGMHN letter).
There was a prompt firestorm of political outrage during the summer of 2019 aimed to force ENMESH to meet in Israel after all (see Middle East Monitor Report).
Now it appears that ENMESH has bowed to this political pressure, posting the agenda for its 2021 meeting in Israel featuring themes of trauma and multiculturalism.
We continue to request that ENMESH reconsider meeting in Israel.
Our objections are based in the centrality of human rights to our professionalism as mental health researchers and clinicians, based in our oath, "First, do no harm." The Israeli violations of fundamental human rights, abuse, and assaults on ordinary human decency are longstanding, severe, and well-documented by organizations such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Holding and attending conferences in Israel, be it virtually or in person, is equal to endorsing colonial and settler-colonial occupation and rewarding academicians and researchers who are silent witnesses to a fascist regime (see PGMHN letter).
In this context, a meeting in Israel to discuss “trauma” and “multiculturalism” is deeply ironic.
For all of these reasons, thousands of international colleagues in mental health have already petitioned to request that professional conferences, originally planned to be held in Israel, be located elsewhere; these colleagues are joined by an enormous global movement supporting human rights for the Palestinian people through non-violent protest.
Our ultimate goal is to ensure freedom, justice and dignity for all of humanity.
Respectfully yours,
Steering Committee, Palestine-Global Mental Health Network https://www.pgmhn.org/
Steering Committee, USA-Palestine Mental Health Network https://usapalmhn.org/
Steering Group, UK-Palestine Mental Health Network https://ukpalmhn.com/
Steering Committee, France-Palestine Mental Health Network https://www.facebook.com/frpalmhn