Oh, Oh. It's Now Psychoactive

What is Psychoactive?

Behind the name "Psychoactive" stands a group of mental health men/women who have taken upon themselves to be involved in social-political subjects in general, and in the Jewish-Arab conflict in the territories in particular. The group acts out of recognition of the basic rights of a person, as a person, to spiritual well-being, alongside physical well-being.

We recruit the tools at our disposal as men/women involved in the treating professions, to deepen the understanding and awareness of the subject of occupation, and the continuing war between the two nations, and its repercussions in the populations on both sides of the conflict. These tools also serve us in advancing healing processes and advancing the psychological welfare of the individual, which is influenced by the societal-political reality in which he lives.

The group is made up of Israeli Arabs and Jews, and contacts are made with Arab mental health personnel from the Palestinian Authority. Members come from the social work professions, both from the field and from the academic community.

The group serves as a laboratory for developing initiatives in these subjects, according to the personal initiatives of the members of the group. The group meets every few weeks in different parts of the country, and is in constant touch through an Internet list.

They have varied activities, including:

• Joining the coalition of organizations opposing the siege of Gaza.
• Organization of tutorials, workshops, and lectures for Palestinian professional teams from the West Bank and Gaza.
• Organization of academic conferences that deal with the psychological and socio-psychological aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• Co-organizing a public event during the Israeli offensive on Gaza: A Gathering to Mourn and to Protest: Grieve together & reject the massive killing of civilians.

and they're sponsoring next week a conference on "The Psychological Influences of Service in the Territories":

Israeli society imposes on its soldiers serving in the army the role of control over another nation - the Palestinian people living in the Territories; these soldiers serve as the almost exclusive contact between Israeli society and Palestinian society. In this conference we will examine the psychological influences of the army service in the occupied territories, both on the soldiers themselves and on the Jewish society in Israel, that avoids direct contact with the Palestinians in the Territories, but sends and receives back its sons and daughters in their army service there. We will examine how open these influences are and how they are spoken about in our society, army, and mental health personnel.

My comments:

a) spiritual means religious, or an alternative faith-based system. this is psychological. someone's a nut here.

b) I am reminded of the all too repetitive excuse from Arabs after the many stabbing incidents we suffered in the first Intifida, but not exclusively. The perpetrator was majnun (مجنون). Majnun translates as 'madman'; 'crazy'. In other words, again and again, only mentally unbalanced Arabs could be killers and vicious attackers. They were, of course, not responsible for their dastardly deeds. And the general Arab commnuity thus distanced the,selves from this terror.