RE: Fwd: GAZA

Thanks to the 4 of you that have responded.
I think Anna's suggestions are very helpful and wecould maybeparaphrase Chomsky's analyis, adding the points I make. We need to highlight the long term psychological damage as an important dimension.
But I don't have a sense of whether this list's members support doing something.
IF we are to do something this needs to happen within the next day or so.
Would anyone like to suggest aform of words?
Does anyone have major objections?
I assume we do this, as before, from the CP network.

Mark

From: Mark Burton

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-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Wengraf <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Fwd: GAZA

Re: The Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method: interviewing for lived experience

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We all know that ecocide happens – for example, we know along the Amazon in South America an area of forest the size of France is lost every day. (see www.eradicatingecocide.com). And planetary climate degradation to 4C and above is heralded: http://tinyurl.com/o7y5qol.

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-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anna Zoli
Sent: 13 July 2014 13:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fwd: GAZA

I agree that a statement would be a signal of our position towards the facts, both as community psychologists and as individuals. If research is still a socially relevant profession (living in Italy it happens to doubt it), as researchers, dealing with people and the globalized society, we have to take a stand and assert ourselves.

Moreover, we have to be aware of what is going on, not only at present, but framing the present in the historical process. This means considering that: "Europe for centuries was the most savage place in the world. The level of savagery was so extraordinary that they developed both the means and the culture to conquer the world. And a large part of the reason for the savagery was the attempt to impose the nation-state, which is extremely unnatural; it breaks up people who have natural connections, it imposes unity on people who are not unified, whether by language or culture or anything else. It takes a lot of violence and brutality to impose a rigid frame on complex, fluid organisms like human societies."

Noam Chomsky in Rabbani M., "Reflections on a Lifetime of Engagement with Zionism, the Palestine Question, and American Empire: An Interview with Noam Chomsky and Mouin Rabbani", Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol 41, no. 3 (Spring 2012), p. 92.

So, in taking a stand on the issue, it's foundamental not blaming only Israelis, but considering the political responsibilities of International Peace Corps, european and non-european countries:

"Demonstrating their passionate “yearning for democracy,” the US and Israel, backed by the timid European Union, at once imposed a brutal siege, along with intensive military attacks." See more on:

I'm quoting Chomsky a lot for the efficacy of his words, of course you can find many more witnesses, journalists and reporters.

It is not about stopping rocket fire into Israel, it is not about achieving peace.

The Israeli decision to rain death and destruction on Gaza, to use lethal weapons of the modern battlefield on a largely defenseless civilian population, is the final phase in a decades-long campaign to ethnically-cleanse Palestinians.

Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely-crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques, and slums to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanized armor, no command in control, no army… and calls it a war. It is not a war, it is murder.

When Israelis in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend themselves, they are defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to defend itself against the population they are crushing. You can’t defend yourself when you’re militarily occupying someone else’s land. That’s not defense. Call it what you like, it’s not defense.”

Human Sciences - Behavior and Social Relations Sciences Dep. of Political Sciences, Communication and International Relations University of Macerata, Italy

Fellowship 2013 at York St. John University, Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, York, UK