Beyond Neutrality, Normalization, and Complicity at Times of the Genocide: Psychologists for Palestine

We have been witnessing the perpetuation of violent and cruel aggression against the Palestinian people by Israel. At the international level, there have been sparse individual or collective initiatives within the field of psychology to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine and against the genocide in Gaza, yet the question of Palestine remains ambiguous, and the possible stance of psychology as a research field and scientific institution on the matter is still unclear. This ambiguity and uncertainty about the position of psychology reflects neutrality claims. However, this neutrality normalizes and silences the current violations of human rights and the suffering of the Palestinian people, rendering psychology a silent complicit actor in the genocide. In this contribution, we address this silence of psychology by looking at the international juridical norms on the violation of human rights. Following the juridical concept of jus cogens, we discuss the responsibility of psychology in relation to the question of Palestine. With this juridic diagnosis, we continue by presenting how psychology can advocate for human rights. We propose to rethink and redefine psychology from the perspective of protecting human rights, to situate psychology for Palestine. This work is our humble form of resistance, and we hope that our paper can encourage reflections on the role of psychology in the context of emerging global conflicts and genocides.

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Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Human Arenas
Published
2026-04-03
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-026-00570-w
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
47.14

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Beyond Neutrality, Normalization, and Complicity at Times of the Genocide: Psychologists for Palestine

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article

Beyond Neutrality, Normalization, and Complicity at Times of the Genocide: Psychologists for Palestine

Giuseppina Dell’Aversana, Silvio Carlo Ripamonti, Silvia Gilardi, Davide Giusino, Angelo Benozzo, Armando Toscano, Milica Vukelić, Margherita Brondino, Margherita Pasini, Mara Gorli, Sven George, Sandiso Bazana, Chiara Volpato, Chiara Destefanis, Roberto De Vogli, Matthijs Bal, Giada Mignolli, Hilda Du Plooy, Luca P. Vecchio, Guido Veronese, Daniela Converso, Andreina Bruno, Camilla Ponti, Ambra Natati, Laura Galuppo, Francesca Esposito, Chiara Corvino, Francesco Tommasi
article en
1 citations

Abstract

We have been witnessing the perpetuation of violent and cruel aggression against the Palestinian people by Israel. At the international level, there have been sparse individual or collective initiatives within the field of psychology to demonstrate solidarity with Palestine and against the genocide in Gaza, yet the question of Palestine remains ambiguous, and the possible stance of psychology as a research field and scientific institution on the matter is still unclear. This ambiguity and uncertainty about the position of psychology reflects neutrality claims. However, this neutrality normalizes and silences the current violations of human rights and the suffering of the Palestinian people, rendering psychology a silent complicit actor in the genocide. In this contribution, we address this silence of psychology by looking at the international juridical norms on the violation of human rights. Following the juridical concept of jus cogens, we discuss the responsibility of psychology in relation to the question of Palestine. With this juridic diagnosis, we continue by presenting how psychology can advocate for human rights. We propose to rethink and redefine psychology from the perspective of protecting human rights, to situate psychology for Palestine. This work is our humble form of resistance, and we hope that our paper can encourage reflections on the role of psychology in the context of emerging global conflicts and genocides.

Human Arenas
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT), University of Foggia (IT), University of Bergamo (IT), University of Verona (IT), University of Padua (IT), University of Milan (IT), Rhodes University (ZA), University of Aosta Valley (IT), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano (IT), University of the Sacred Heart (JP), University of Lincoln (GB), University of Turin (IT), University of Milano-Bicocca (IT), University of Genoa (IT), University of Bologna (IT)
Università degli Studi di Milano
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
47.14
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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