A response to an opinion paper in the NY Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/opinion/gaza-palestinians-mental-health.html
Dear Yara,
I am an Israeli child psychologist.
Recently retired from my private practice, as the War broke out, I considered returning to it, but felt that the really important work to be done was political and chose to put my efforts into my work with Women Wage Peace, the organization I joined 10 years ago, after the 2014 War with Gaza, when a group of women in Israel got together and said: The only solution to the ongoing wars with Palestinians is Peace.
I totally agree with all of your psychological statements as to the diagnosis of psychological states and to your statements as to the condition of psychological services in the West Bank and Gaza. The only real cure for the anxiety incurred by War is Peace.
I only wanted to bring to your attention, and to that of the readers of the New York Times, that the same situation exists in Israel, though to a lesser degree. Though the physical destruction of Gaza is incomparable to that in Israel, the very existence of Israel as a country which is a safe haven for Jews is threatened. We are, in the final analysis, a group of 7 million Jews in an area of many more Palestinians and 300 million Arabs.
And so I choose to put my efforts into peace work. Only a Peace Agreement can hold out the hope for a better future for Israel and Palestinians.
We also have a sister organization – Women of the Sun – in the West Bank and Gaza, with women who also think that a political agreement is the only way to provide their children with a safe future and instill in them this hope so they strive to build, not destroy.
I call to you to help all of us put our efforts together to bring a better future to all the children in the Land of Israel and Palestine.
Jo Even Caspi is an Educational and Developmental Psychologist, member of WWP
