The world changed on 7th October 2023 when Hamas made incursions into Israeli territory, resulting in 1200 deaths and 251 hostages. The response by Israel's government and military has since brought terrible destruction to Gaza, killing over 60,000 people, with 2.3 million forced from their homes. How have we allowed it to happen? What can we say?
One group of twelve child psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists - with children's welfare much in mind - met fortnightly to discuss the insurmountable difficulties of the Palestine-Israel conflict and their feelings about the horror streaming daily on their media. Can such matters be discussed in a group? Can minds be changed? Deep disagreement and pain - yet nothing near the pain experienced in Gaza. Silence can't be the response.
Some of the collection's contributors come from Palestinian or Jewish heritage, others from different but divided, conflicted backgrounds. Their history goes back to the Balfour Declaration and to the Holocaust. A mother who lived through Kristallnacht; a father from Jaffa with shrapnel head injuries during the Nakba. The group shares memories, reflections, essays and poems in a courageous effort to urge us all towards sense, empathy and a more complex understanding of the catastrophe before our very eyes.
About the Author :
Nadia Taysir Dabbagh is an Anglo-Palestinian child psychiatrist who trained at the Tavistock in the 2000's. Dubai Health's Chief of Division for Paediatric Mental Health in the UAE, she led Dubai's first Mental Health Strategy (2017) and Palestine's first Ministry of Health Child and Adolescent Mental Health Strategy, 'Every child deserves a childhood, every child deserves a future;' a Royal College of Psychiatrists and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) project (2023). She wrote Suicide in Palestine: Narratives of Despair based on 1990's fieldwork. Nadia's father and father-in-law, both born in Palestine, were ten-year-old 'Nakba' refugees. Her husband's extended family live (and die) in Gaza.Kathryn Hollins is a Tavistock trained child psychiatrist and psy-chotherapist. As a student she volunteered in India and Cameroon, further developing her understanding of global inequalities with a Medical Anthropology Masters and travelling as a Churchill Fellow. Her commitment to equality began sharing childhood with her disabled brother, World War II-injured grandfather and changemaker parents. Together with a local authority team she leads collaborative work with health, education, social care and voluntary sector colleagues to build trusted relationships with babies, children and families and develop healthier, happier communities. In her clinical practice, she offers specialist psycho-therapy and consultation during pregnancy, parenthood and family life. Cathy Troupp is a Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist who trained at the Tavistock Clinic 2001-2005, having started her career as a staff writer on Cosmopolitan Magazine. Cathy worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital and was a leader of the NHS England funded National Training in Eating Disorders (2015-18), and later, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist in the National Gender Identity Development Service. Cathy is currently Clinical Lead at the Refugee Council. Her own mother came to England as a refugee in 1939 on the Kindertransport. As a second-generation survivor of the genocide of the Jews, Cathy has long been a passionate activist for Palestine. Mona Freeman is a British-born child psychiatrist of Pakistani heritage. She trained at the Tavistock and stayed on as a consultant until 2016. She was awarded the Laughlin Prize in 2003. She has written extensively for the public about mental health, contributing to books including The Young Mind (2009) and was a previous Series Editor of the Mental Health and Growing Up factsheets produced by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. She now works in independent clinical practice.
Review :
A phenomenon. Please read this book BEFORE it's too late.
Michael Mansfield KC
A brave and thoughtful attempt to stay in conversation when so many others have gone silent.
Dr Samah Jabr, formerly at the Palestinian Ministry of Health
Stands as a plea to end dehumanisation, to side with the child over the gun.
Mary Adams, British Psychoanalytic Association
A book to search for deeper understanding of this catastrophe, to envisage a better future for the people living in Palestine and Israel.
Professor Ilan Pappé, Department of History, University of Exeter
This book makes these invisible wounds visible, giving voice to what is often unheard, and our suffering in silence, a complement to counting the dead, broken bodies and missing limbs.
Professor Rita Giacaman, Head of Public Health Department, Birzeit University, West Bank, Palestine
I have never read a more thoughtful yet passionate and anguished reflection on the present reality of mass killing, without neglecting the context of much-disputed Jewish and Arab history.
Carne Ross, former British diplomat who resigned during Iraq war
For us it's not about equating or excusing, but struggling to stay human to challenge systematic depravity. For the children's sake.
Sir Vincent Fean, Trustee, Britain Palestine Project
A unique therapeutic attempt to grapple with the trauma of Gaza.
Charlie English, author and former head of international news at The Guardian
