A Call to Boycott The 1st. International Conference on Cultural Psychiatry in Mediterranean Countries to be held in Tel Aviv 5-7 November 2012
The Gaza community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) has been very disturbed by the news about holding the 1st. International conference on cultural Psychiatry in Mediterranean countries sponsored by the World Psychiatric Association's Trans- cultural Psychiatry Section (WPA-TPS) in Tel Aviv, from 5-7 Nov. 2012.
This very important conference which should be a platform for discussing and promoting dialogue and understanding between different cultures and communities in the Mediterranean countries is taking place where violation of human rights and international law, including discrimination and apartheid is a daily practice.
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme join the global calls of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), and the Divestment and Sanctions Movement of Israel (BDS) and many other professionals and groups working in mental health worldwide, and appeal to the international mental health community and professionals who plan to participate in this conference to re-consider their decision and to boycott this conference unless it is organized elsewhere in the region. It is a moral duty to all the mental health professionals to advocate for respecting the international principles of human rights and humanitarian law, the values that we all share, and boycott any scientific and cultural activities held in Israel, until it ends its occupation of the Palestinian land and violations of the Palestinian human rights.
This act of solidarity is not only to support the just cause of Palestine, but also to the collective effort of the international civil society to non- violently advocate for the principle of democracy and the struggle for freedom, justice and equality.
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