Pearls and Irritations

From nighttime detentions without a court order, to blindfolding and beatings: the silence of Israeli mental health therapists in the face of severe harm to Palestinian children is particularly alarming.

Among the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have been taking part in the ongoing massive protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul, the thousands of mental health workers who left their clinics to demonstrate may be the most unexpected group.

For these workers, accustomed to neutrality and protecting the boundaries of their professional realm, this is a significant shift in perspective. It takes courage to voice a professional opinion beyond the familiar confines of their comfort zone. They’re articulating a professional responsibility to warn against measures that could worsen mental health in the country.

But such courage shouldn’t be restricted only to safeguarding a separation of powers and the Supreme Court’s independence. While these are fundamental elements of a democratic system, they don’t ensure a framework that promotes the values of equality, freedom and human dignity — one that cares for the well-being of all citizens.

The protest movement, now asserting that threats to democracy are directly intertwined with mental health, must broaden its scope. It has to address the absence of democracy for entire communities living under this government.

Many mental health professionals still hesitate to protest the negative impact on the mental health of minority groups wrought by deliberate policies of discrimination and deprivation of rights. They remain silent despite the damage caused to millions of Palestinians in the West Bank by denial of their personal and collective rights for 56 years.

Above all, this silence attests to the psychological shackles that trap mental health institutions, many professionals, and the general public. In an environment of oppression, every person’s mental health is restricted and undermined.

Given the alarming approach to human rights in the bills being considered by the Knesset, it’s crucial that mental health professionals sound the alarm. These individuals must draw attention to the personal and societal psychological dynamics that led to an Israel dominated by aggression and xenophobia.

They must share with the public their deep understanding of how repressed and projected emotions can lead to racism and a dynamic of supremacy, on both the individual and societal scales. They need to convey how easily such emotions can be triggered and exploited. And their understanding of how remaining silent and silencing others drives destructive social dynamics should, in turn, further spur the protest.

“The only democracy in the Middle East and the most moral army in the world in action”!

Particularly alarming is the silence of mental health therapists in the face of severe harm to Palestinian children. These children suffer lives under occupation, knowing that at any moment, day or night, they might be placed in detention.

Every year, Israeli security forces detain about 1,000 Palestinian children from the West Bank and another 1,000 from East Jerusalem. The children are taken from the street, their schools and even their beds. The methods used in these detentions are extremely damaging to children and youths, both physically and mentally. In fact, they’re prohibited under both Israeli law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [which Israel only applies to Jewish children], which Israel has signed.

These methods include nighttime detentions, yanking of “wanted” children from their beds; detentions without a court order or explanation; handcuffing and blindfolding; a ban on parents, relatives or lawyers from accompanying the children; and beatings and cursing and more, all of which cause the children to suffer physical pain and emotional stress. They experience harsh loneliness, intense fear, disorientation, humiliation, helplessness and often a sense that their lives are in danger.

These are traumatic experiences that are etched into memory and affect personality, risking mental illness to the children, their families and the entire community. These experiences can gravely and irreversibly damage the children’s development, and their ability to adjust in later life and live with a basic sense of security.

Sure enough, many of these children report severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that persist after their release. Mental health professionals who treat psychological harm in childhood understand this better than anyone. The details of these detentions are known are now also reported in the Israeli media. It’s time that mental health institutions and professionals spoke out against them in the name of their profession.

I grew up in the United States when opposition to America’s involvement in the accursed Vietnam War was voiced as “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.” Indeed, the silence of mental health professionals and institutions, given all the harm to girls and boys, reflects the rift that Israel has slid into and the power of silencing opposing voices. These constitute a grave danger to both democracy and mental health.

It’s precisely the professionals, who understand the power of the repressed to unleash destructive forces, who must address the fear, pain and shame that paralyse us as individuals and a nation. They must end the tacit assent to the damage to human rights, and thus to people’s souls.

Two organisations – Parents Against Child Detention and PsychoActive: Mental Health Professionals for Human Rights – have obtained the signatures of 300 mental health professionals calling for an end to sweeping detentions of Palestinian children and an honouring of the right to dignity from childhood to old age for everyone between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

We can only hope that the publication of this plea will rouse thousands of other professionals who have been protesting in recent months. Hopefully they’ll listen to their inner and professional voices and cry out in unison against these soul-damaging policies.

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