Editor’s Note: The following statement was issued in support of Dr. Lara Sheehi on January 27, 2023 by the Palestine-Global Mental Health Network, USA-Palestine Mental Health Network, UK-Palestine Mental Health Network, Ireland-Palestine Mental Health Network, and France-Palestine Mental Health Network. Mondoweiss occasionally publishes press releases and statements from organizations in an effort to draw attention to overlooked issues.
Statement in Defense of Dr. Lara Sheehi at George Washington University
January 27, 2023
The Palestine-Global Mental Health Network is joined by international solidarity mental health networks in the USA, the UK, Ireland, and France in defending our colleague, the psychologist Dr. Lara Sheehi, who currently faces a storm of criticism for her political views. Dr. Sheehi is a longtime member of the Advisory Council of the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network and the co-author (with historian Stephen Sheehi) of the much-praised recent volume, Psychoanalysis under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine (Routledge, 2022).
Dr. Sheehi initially came under attack in the Fall of 2022 for statements made at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in her role as Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology within the Professional Psychology Program, while addressing doctoral students in a class focused on “diversity.” The topic under immediate discussion was the state of Israel. Apparently, students complained of Dr. Sheehi’s alleged “anti-Semitism” and a roiling sea of claims and counterclaims then arose involving the self-described pro-Israel political organization Stand With Us, the GWU administration, the USA federal Department of Education, and a large number of news media. Dr. Sheehi in addition had invited the Palestinian socio-legal scholar, Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, to deliver a guest lecture and Dr. Kevorkian—a founding member of the Steering Committee of Palestine-Global Mental Health Network—also came under attack for alleged “anti-Semitism.”
The Networks vigorously protest these allegations against Drs. Sheehi and Kevorkian, which revolve around the specious equation of “anti-Semitism” with opposition to the policies and practices of the state of Israel. The Networks oppose all forms of anti-Semitism just as we oppose all forms of discrimination based on religion, race, ethnicity, nation, beliefs, or gender. The Networks acknowledge that the Jewish people have suffered historically from discrimination, hatred, and violence—most catastrophically in the European Holocaust of the twentieth century. At the same time, we observe that the state of Israel through the political agenda of Zionism has long violated the rights of the Palestinian people and inflicted an apartheid system of state terror upon them. Clearly, many Jewish people worldwide and many Jewish organizations—including notable Jewish Israelis—are vigorously opposed to Zionism for these very reasons.
We view the equation of anti-Zionist views to “anti-Semitism”—codified, for example, by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)—as a political manipulation launched by Israel and its supporters to silence criticism and to malign critics of Israel. Indeed, the intentional conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of the Israeli state has resulted in Jewish people everywhere being held unjustly accountable for the human rights abuses perpetuated by the state of Israel and is thus itself a major source of anti-Semitism. The IHRA statement in fact whips up mistrust of Jewish people by implying their selfishness and disloyalty to the common good—the core of anti-Semitic tropes.
The Networks thus hold the state of Israel guilty of exploiting the crimes of anti-Semitism to justify the ethnic cleansing of the homeland of the Palestinian people. We stand against anti-Semitism, and we stand for Palestinian human rights.
Meanwhile, support for Dr. Sheehi is growing. The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee has agreed to represent Dr. Sheehi in the investigation initiated at GWU of the claims against her. Additional support is manifested in the appearance of a variety of formal public letters and statements, including a declaration from the Board of Directors of Division 39 of the American Psychological Association and an open letter protesting the attacks on Dr. Sheehi signed by a multitude of Jewish mental health clinicians. Students and alumni at GWU have circulated a petition demonstrating wide support of Dr. Sheehi within her own institution.
But it must be recognized that the case of Dr. Sheehi is unfortunately but one of many similar cases, in which critics of Israel are subject to personal and professional attack—often as here orchestrated through media campaigns spearheaded by overtly political pro-Zionist organizations. Academics, professional people, and people in all walks of life are being targeted by a silencing-machine aiming to obliterate free speech in academic life and open discussion of the state of Israel in professional circles, the workplace, schools, and our communities. Renewed efforts to identify and unmask this silencing are indispensable, and principled solidarity among all of us must be strengthened as our only defense.
Issued by: Palestine-Global Mental Health Network, USA-Palestine Mental Health Network, UK-Palestine Mental Health Network, Ireland-Palestine Mental Health Network, France-Palestine Mental Health Network
