{"id":2324,"date":"2024-05-21T11:03:29","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T18:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/?p=2324"},"modified":"2024-05-21T19:18:57","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T02:18:57","slug":"an-open-letter-to-nasw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/?p=2324","title":{"rendered":"Trauma in Gaza: An Open Letter to NASW"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). As a trauma therapist, I value NASW\u2019s advocacy on policy issues like gun violence and anti-LGBTQ legislation. My work helps one person at a time; sound social policy helps whole communities. Human rights activist and Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously said, \u201cThere comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they\u2019re falling in.\u201d My work keeps me downstream, helping people who have already been hurt. I am grateful to the members of my profession who work upstream.<\/p>\n

It is bizarre for NASW to be silent on the genocide currently happening in Gaza. Israeli military actions have killed more than 13,000 children and 9,000 women. Airstrikes and snipers have killed and injured civilians following safe routes or sheltering in safe zones as directed by the IDF. There are 17,000 unaccompanied children, orphaned or separated from their families. Over half of all buildings have been damaged, and 80% of the population has been displaced (1.7 million people). Israel shut off electricity and water to Gaza over six months ago; 70% of the people are drinking salty, contaminated water. More than half of the hospitals have been destroyed, and those that remain have inadequate electricity, sterile supplies, and medication. Doctors frequently perform emergency amputations and c-sections without anesthesia; preventable infections are widespread. Many children are dangerously sick with diarrhea due to contaminated water, malnutrition, and lack of sanitation.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be a mental health expert to understand every child in Gaza is experiencing trauma. Kids tend to assume trauma is their own fault. It\u2019s too painful to face the cold truth there was nothing they could have done to prevent the trauma; self-blame gives an illusion of control. This self-blame turns into lasting beliefs about themselves and the world. An adult survivor of childhood trauma operates from their trauma-based belief without even realizing it\u2019s there. With time and painful effort, they can uncover it: \u201cI guess deep down, it feels like my needs aren\u2019t important. Like if I\u2019m upset, I\u2019m just being dramatic and need to get over it.\u201d After recognizing the false assumption, they can do the work of grieving their experiences, developing self-compassion, and adopting a new belief (\u201cMy needs are as important as anyone\u2019s\u201d). Trauma therapy is a grueling treatment for an often-preventable condition. This work inspires a sense of profound urgency to make society better and safer for kids.<\/p>\n

Every day, I read about Palestinian homes being bombed while families sleep inside, civilians killed while trying to obtain food aid, and a medical system on the brink of collapse. I open Instagram and see harrowing images of devastation, pain, and death. I can\u2019t help but imagine how the kids in Gaza are internalizing their experiences:<\/p>\n

When an airstrike flattens a boy\u2019s home, he hears his sister screaming for help but can\u2019t find her. He is pulled from the rubble alive; she is found days later. Watching his mother cradle his sister\u2019s shrouded body, he thinks, \u201cI should have stayed until I found her, instead I let them take me away.\u201d He develops a new belief: I\u2019m weak.<\/p>\n

A girl is living in a tent with her family. She is sick from contaminated water, and weak from malnutrition. Her father is shot and killed trying to reach air-dropped food. She is heartbroken. \u201cIt\u2019s my fault. If I\u2019d been a better daughter, if I hadn\u2019t cried so much, he wouldn\u2019t have gone.\u201d Her grief turns into self-loathing: I don\u2019t deserve to be loved.<\/p>\n

Families are sheltering in a school. The building is bombed, injuring a toddler\u2019s arm beyond repair. There isn\u2019t enough pain medication to make her comfortable after the amputation (which may have been done without anesthesia). Her experience of the world is that it will hurt and scare her. The little one is too young to form conscious memories, but the trauma embeds a belief in her mind: I can\u2019t trust anyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While children in Gaza are developing trauma-based beliefs about themselves and the world, there is another harmful, false belief we in the US must unlearn\u2014this one promoted by elected leaders and pundits in the US and Israel. They say we cannot distinguish between Palestinian civilians and Hamas combatants, the Palestinians are so aligned with Hamas\u2019s mission to annihilate Israel they have forfeited their human rights, and it is the Palestinians themselves who put their kids in harm\u2019s way. This narrative is easy to dismantle with a little humility and critical thinking. I don\u2019t know how the average Palestinian in Gaza feels about Hamas right now, and I don\u2019t need to\u2014palatable opinions are not a prerequisite for human rights. I do know humans as a species protect their own children. If Palestinians were truly willing to endanger their children out of hatred for Israel, they would be the most uniquely depraved people in the world. Whenever it is said one ethnic group is morally worse than others, that is a racist lie. In this case, it is propaganda deployed to dull our natural empathy: \u201cOf course, any<\/em> loss of innocent life is tragic<\/em>, but these people brought it on themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASW should be talking about this. NASW represents social workers across the United States, and our country is major funder of, and arms supplier to, the Israeli military. They should be refuting the racist propaganda. They should be naming our government\u2019s complicity in this genocide. They should be educating our leaders and policy makers on the deep, lasting harm being done to Gaza\u2019s children. It is a mockery of social work values and principles for the body which sets the standards of practice in the US to be silent on this matter.<\/p>\n

In trauma therapy, facing brutal and ugly truths is an essential first step. We cannot heal what we refuse to see. Many trauma survivors understandably avoid facing their experiences: not only is it painful, but often there is pressure from others to ignore what happened. (\u201cI don\u2019t understand why you can\u2019t be civil for one holiday dinner.\u201d) My work has persuaded me that the very least we can do is to see and be honest about what is happening and who is being harmed. It will take an estimated $18.5 billion and decades of work to repair and rebuild what has been destroyed physically in Gaza. The invisible damage will be much harder to fix. I call on NASW to acknowledge and oppose this horrific injustice.<\/p>\n

Header photo by Emad El Byed<\/a><\/h6>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a member of the National Association of SocialRead More<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2324"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2331,"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions\/2331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shapirocounseling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}