A Palestinian shows his ID to security officer at an Israeli checkpoint, May 2018. Luay Sababa//Press Association. All rights reserved.Turmoil has erupted in the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP), following the board’s decision to hold its 2019 annual meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, as some members charged the organization of discriminatory practices, in violation of its own principles.
IARPP is one of the fastest growing psychotherapy organizations in the world, famed for its commitment to social justice and a style of clinical work that recognizes the patient as a co-creator of the psychoanalytic work along with the analyst. Most IARPP members reside and practice in the US. The Israeli chapter is the organization’s second largest.
“It is unreasonable to hold an international professional conference in a country where it will not be accessible to some of the professionals interested in attending it, on grounds such as the clinician’s’ ethnicity or political opinions,” an Israeli IARPP member said, under condition of remaining anonymous. “Palestinian clinicians residing in the West Bank and Gaza are highly unlikely to receive permits to enter Israel at this time, and even the process of applying for these permits is so degrading, that it is illegitimate for IARPP to subject the Palestinian attendees to this ordeal.”
