Open letter from Mental Health Professionals: NZ GOVT MUST ACT FOR PALESTINE

We implore the New Zealand government to take a stronger stance against the government of Israel for its inhumane treatment of the people of Palestine. We believe that New Zealand must conduct itself to the highest ethical standards and use whatever influence it has as an international voice for peace and justice. We must draw on our legacy of punching above our weight as a nation, as we did for apartheid South Africa.

As mental health professionals, we are cognisant of the profound inter-generational (multi-generational) trauma that is resulting and will result from the violent military attacks, the illegal occupation, annihilation of civilian populations, decimation of healthcare and educational infrastructure and homes, and the weaponisation of water, food and aid supplies being enacted by Israel’s leadership in Palestine, and in Gaza particularly.  

These impacts are particularly brutal on developing children, and will negatively influence multiple Palestinian generations to come. A study of children in Gaza reported that, among other highly concerning findings, 96% of the children sampled believed that their death was imminent, and 49% expressed a wish to die themselves. Predictably the trauma resulting from the Israeli government’s militarised violence will lead to a spiralling mental health crisis, both chronic and acute in nature. Trauma studies indicate that high rates of suicide, self harm, post (and chronic) traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders can result from these experiences.  These psychological phenomena will exacerbate co-existing physical health conditions and will be more or less untreatable within a systematically demolished healthcare environment.

These impacts are entirely preventible. They are the result of the Israeli government’s Zionist policies that drive such violent oppression of the Palestinian people. We reject any notion that anti-Zionism is antisemitic and we stand against all forms of racism and religious discrimination.  

We believe that everyone who has perpetrated war crimes should be held to account. We also condemn Hamas’ attacks on civilian Israeli populations in October 2023 and we express sincere sympathy for all those families and communities devastated by those war crimes. Understanding the context for those attacks does not confer condoning of them. For decades under Israeli occupation, countless communities have been displaced, ethnically cleansed, and continually forced to remake a home in a land whose shifting borders are violently imposed and policed. These conditions of apartheid, colonisation, and erasure of the Palestinian people have inevitably resulted in people using violence in what feels like a hopeless and horrifying situation.

We appeal to the New Zealand government to provide desperately needed leadership and to act compassionately and offer visas to those in Palestine who have family living here. We believe in the principle of care being extended to such extremely vulnerable people and do not agree with any argument, as has been suggested, that scarce healthcare resources justifies withholding such care. Indeed, we maintain that New Zealand’s privilege as a wealthy, stable country behoves us to act generously to those in such desperate circumstances.

We, the undersigned, implore the New Zealand government to take concrete action in opposing Israel’s occupation of Palestine, including its war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. We urge the New Zealand Government to:

The signatories to this letter are mental health professionals who provide (or have provided) mental health care to New Zealand populations.  

Given the devastating mental health effects of the Israeli government’s unrelenting assault on the Palestinian people, and the secondary harm it is also causing to populations here in New Zealand, we ask for your urgent consideration to this matter.  

We strongly believe that history will judge New Zealand on its action and inactions with regard to Palestine and Israel, and we ask you to move swiftly and decisively on this matter.

Yours sincerely,