LETTERE APERTE PER LA PACE

LETTERE APERTE PER LA PACE

Nei giorni scorsi sono arrivate all’IAGP (International Psychodramatists & Group Psychotherapists), di cui AiPsiM fa parte, due lettere aperte, da parte dei membri dell’Istituto Israeliano di Gruppo Analisi  e  dei membri dell’Istituto di Psicoanalisi Contemporanea di Tel Aviv.

Sono importanti dichiarazione di posizionamento rispetto alla necessità immediata di porre fine all’oppressione subita dai popoli palestinese e israeliano. 

Come associazione sosteniamo  e condividiamo questi accorati appelli e ci facciamo cassa di risonanza per far arrivare il loro messaggio al maggior numero di persone,

By Members and candidates of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis for ending the war in Gaza

Dear friends and colleagues,                                                                                

We, members and candidates of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis, write to you with great pain following the situation in Gaza. We feel that we must leave no doubt about our absolute opposition to the positions and conduct of the Israeli government.

To our great regret, this is the government that decided to escalate the war in Gaza after tens of thousands of civilians were killed under its leadership. Hundreds of thousands of others are still at risk of starvation, the danger to the lives of the hostages has become much greater, and proposals for a regional solution are not being met. This is a government that polarizes people and nations and stirs up hatred towards us and within us.

Unfortunately, we have personally experienced survival anxieties as citizens, since the brutal massacre by Hamas on 10/7/23 (Who are still imprisoning and torturing the kidnapped) and subsequently, following the Hezbollah and Iran’s missile fire on our homes. It is precisely because of this that we sympathize with the prolonged suffering of civilians in Gaza. The war in Gaza painfully exceeds our concepts of self-defense. 

We are appalled by both sides’ violation of humane and moral values. Still, we are especially appalled by the continued infliction of physical and mental suffering by Israeli leaders, whom we expected to seek every path to ending this war. 

As human beings and as Israelis and professionals, we adhere to the values that we all share.

Hoping for better days for all of us,

Members of the Israel Institute for Group Analysis.

By Members of the Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis

We, members of the Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis, feel a deep ethical obligation to raise our voices in light of the current devastating reality in Israel and the entire region. We seek to address the deepening damage to the fabric of our society, and the moral breakdown we are experiencing. The hostages, whose lives hang by a thread, and the soldiers who continue to risk
their lives daily, are open wounds in our collective heart. Each day that passes without resolution adds layers of despair, anxiety, and helplessness—both for their families and for society as a whole. Our soldiers, who serve out of a sense of duty and protection, bear the burden of injury, loss, and trauma on their bodies and souls, with no possibility of healing—caught in an ongoing war, lacking
broad consensus, and with no end in sight.
At the same time, in Gaza, the continuation of the war is causing massive destruction and ongoing damage to essential infrastructure—water, electricity, medical services, schools, and homes. Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in unbearable heat, without shelter, without adequate food, without clean water, without access to vital medical care, and without the basic conditions for survival. This reality exacts an unbearable toll, physically and emotionally, on innocent civilians—many of them children—and creates a collective trauma that will mark this region for generations.
In the West Bank, since the outbreak of the war, Jewish settler militias have been given nearly free rein, to abuse and attack local Palestinian residents through daily acts of violence and harassment—most of which pass in silence.
Palestinians in the occupied territories have been barred from work for nearly two years, suffering a dire economic situation for which they bear no blame.
Both the war in Gaza and the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank represent a profound violation of the most basic human rights. They deepen feelings of humiliation and powerlessness and generate increasing unrest, rage, and collective trauma—within both Jewish and Palestinian societies. We can no longer remain silent or turn our gaze away from this devastating reality.
The harm inflicted on both sides is corroding the foundations of morality. It undermines our capacity to see the lives of others as inherently valuable and threatens the ethical backbone on which every human society must rest.
As psychoanalysts and intellectuals, artists, and interdisciplinary thinkers, we witness how unresolved trauma, unacknowledged pain, and the dehumanization of the “other” foster emotional numbness and justify further harm. Unless interrupted, this cycle will only deepen the mutual destruction and hinder any possibility of repair.
We call for immediate action—both by individuals, and especially by industry leaders and people with influence in Israel and abroad—that will place the value of life—all life—at the center: the return of the hostages, protection for our soldiers, an immediate end to the targeting of civilians, an end to starvation and the destruction of infrastructure in Gaza, and the urgent delivery of humanitarian aid to all affected populations. These steps are not only a moral imperative; they are essential to the psychological well-being of our society and to the future possibility of life here.
In the name of our shared humanity—we must end the war. In doing so, we will protect life throughout the region, acknowledge the suffering of all sides, and act to stop the destruction, starvation, and harm inflicted upon human beings—wherever they may be.