![]() ![]() While this conflict is geopolitical and historical in nature - and really, there’s no way of understanding what is transpiring without acknowledging this history - it’s also essentially about human psychology and how we respond when we have histories of complex, intergenerational trauma, or when we feel backed into a corner, desperate and alone.Īll sides of this conflict - Israeli people, Jewish people, Palestinians, Arab and Muslim people - have extensive histories of embedded, intergenerational trauma. I have found, however, that I’ve been able to allow and express this emotion and then step away from it so I can observe this conflict through the lens of a psychologist who wants to understand the forces at play in the world. This has been almost impossible, as I’ve experienced the intense emotion that comes with images of death and devastation flooding our screens daily. ![]() When this current round of conflict began, I resolved to approach it as a psychologist would - with neutrality and compassion for all, without needing to be political and pick a side. I must be aware of this history so I am not swayed by it, so I can try and stand against harm.” Histories of complex, intergenerational trauma It says: “This is who I am, and this is the history I carry as I live this time. This positional statement is also for me. It says: “This is who I am, and this is the history which is influencing my words.” Without this positional statement and regular acknowledgement of my own history and biases, I am finding it hard to stand fast against the tides in the world and to remain as objective and empathetic as possible. I don’t usually provide a positional statement as I just did, but the current polarisation in the world necessitates it. I am deeply grieved and devastated: for the world, for Israelis and Jewish people, for Palestinians and Muslim people, and for everyone caught in this cycle of hate and bloodshed. I see the tragic history of the Palestinian people, the harm caused by an aggressive and rapacious settler state, and I don’t excuse or minimise the sadistic acts committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians. I want the Israeli hostages to return home unharmed. I want the genocidal violence against Palestinians to stop. I am anti-war, anti-hatred, anti-terror, anti-murder, and anti-rape. I come from a country which overthrew a colonial power and was once proud and secular, but which is now caving in to far-right forces and engaging in heinous acts toward its Muslim citizens. I never expected this promise to feel as complicated as it does now, when there is hatred, sadness and harm everywhere, from everyone. In adolescence, I read Anne Frank’s Diary and promised myself to always stand against hatred and harm directed at the innocent, no matter where it came from. I remember climbing wooden stairs to the attic and listening to my mother tell me the story of Anne’s life. Each time I entered a shop or mall in Delhi, I was scanned and searched to see if I had a bomb or weapon on me, because terrorist attacks were so common.Īt the age of six, I visited the Anne Frank Museum with my parents. My father was missing for a few hours after a huge terrorist attack in Mumbai, sending the family into a state of panic. My sister was briefly caught in a terrorist attack at a market. My grandfather died after receiving a tainted blood infusion after injuries caused by a terrorist bomb blast in Calcutta. In childhood and adolescence, I witnessed the aftermath of many terrorist attacks in India, and a brief war between India and Pakistan. They witnessed the butchering of both Hindus and Muslims by baying mobs, and fled this carnage with the clothes on their back, and gold jewellery sewn into their hems to help them build their new lives. My grandparents were forced across the India-Pakistan border during the partition in 1947, and settled in a suburb for those displaced from East Pakistan. I am a South Asian person who grew up in India. ![]()
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