Routledge Peace Building Through Women’s Health: Psychoanalytic, Sociopsychological, and Community Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series)

This book is an examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through psychoanalytic, sociopsychological, and nationalistic lenses, highlighting the successes and the hurdles faced by one organization, Healing Across the Divides (HATD), in its mission to measurably improve health in marginalized populations of both Israelis and Palestinians. Peace Building through Women’s Health begins with a summary of the "peace building through health" field and a psychoanalytic, sociopsychological examination of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a series of informative case studies, the book concludes with an analysis of how this organization has evolved its "peace building through health" approach over the fifteen years since its founding. Working with community groups, HATD has measurably improved the lives of more than 200,000 marginalized Israelis and Palestinians. In the process, it also improves the effectiveness of the community group grantees, by offering experienced management consulting and by requiring rigorous ongoing self-assessment on the part of the groups. IHATD hopes that, in the long term, some of the community leaders it supports will be tomorrow’s political leaders. As these leaders strengthen their own capabilities, they will be able to increasingly contribute to securing peace in one of the longest running conflicts in the world today. Peace Building through Women’s Health will be invaluable to public and mental health professionals interested in international health, peace and conflict studies, and conflict resolution. Review Peace Building through Health (PtH), heard over a Skype call with the author, sounded like Peace Building through Hell. I did not attempt to question this, because what I heard applies to our reality under Israeli military occupation. After reading this amazing chronicle of an American organization trying to mitigate a hyper-sensitive political web for the sake of the health of both Palestinians and Israelis, I am confident that we all can be part of the solution if we so desire. One sentence in the book stood out, "PtH is a political process." HATD working at the community level is a clear confirmation of their politics of empowerment. This book goes behind the headlines and gives a hands-on taste of what so many must grapple with daily. - Sam Bahour, Palestinian-American businessman, writer, activist, Al-Bireh/Ramallah, Palestine As a health professional living and working in Israel all my adult life, I’ve been engaged in Peace through Health. Through the remarkable accomplishments of Healing Across the Divides, this book by Dr Goldfield highlights what are the possible roles of health professionals in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I highly recommend this book to all health professionals interested in this field and to all interested in knowing what is achievable in this challenging conflict. - Professor Raphael Walden, President Physicians for Human Rights – Israel; professor of medicine at Tel Aviv University Healing Across Divides, a U.S. nonprofit, provides small grants and back-up to small Palestinian and Jewish groups that face common health needs that lack government support. These low-overhead largely community groups run a variety of programs, e.g diabetes, nutrition and obesity, that help tens of thousands, and create uncommon rapport and collaboration. As Israel and Palestine wrestle endlessly, and sometimes violently, over how to make peace, their leaders should start thinking more about the potential of synergy between their two peoples in many areas, as an asset for moving from confrontation to peace making. This book provides both general readers and specialists alike with successful approaches that can be replicated in both this tragic conflict and beyond - Ambassador (ret.) Philip Wilcox, Former U.S. Consul General, Jerusalem Former President, Foundation for Middle East Peace, Washington DC Reading Norbert Goldfield’s Healing