November 13, 2025.

The Palestine-Global Mental Health Network and the International Collective of the Palestine Mental Health Networks, representing mental health professionals across 20 countries, condemn the ethical bankruptcy revealed by the 2025 Sigourney Award to Professor Dana Amir of Haifa University. Professor Amir receives international recognition for “pioneering work” on how trauma is conveyed through language, for analyzing victims’ and perpetrators’ testimonies, for identifying “new pathways for therapeutic intervention” in trauma — 25 months into what the United Nations Commission of Inquiry has concluded is genocide against Palestinians.

On September 16, 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that “Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” and that “Israeli authorities at the highest echelons have orchestrated a genocidal campaign” with “specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza.” This follows months of warnings from UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, Amnesty International, and human rights organizations worldwide using the same term: genocide. Notably, in July 2025, two prominent Israeli human rights organizations–B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel–became the first Israeli organizations to conclude that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, shattering a taboo in Israeli society.

This is not simply poor timing. This is structural hypocrisy that reveals everything broken in Western mental health institutions.

The Obscenity of Expertise Without Application

Professor Amir’s celebrated work examines “how trauma is conveyed in language”, analyzing “word choice, tone, rhythm, and inflection” in testimonies. She studies “the traumatic lacuna,” the gaps and absences in how people speak about unspeakable violence. Her research delves into “both perpetrators’ and victims’ testimonies.”

Meanwhile, in real time:

Over 66,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, the majority women and children. The UN Commission found Israel has committed “killing and seriously harming unprecedented numbers of Palestinians.”

Gaza’s children face systematic destruction. At least 13,319 children have been confirmed killed, including 786 infants under one year old, likely four times higher when indirect deaths from starvation and disease are included. Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita in the world. Ten children lose one or both legs every day. Over 9,200 children have lost limbs. Children undergo amputations without anesthesia, pain relief, or rehabilitation support in bombed hospitals. They are registered as WCNSF: Wounded Child No Surviving Family, a term unique to the Gaza Strip.

Famine is confirmed. As of August 2025, 100% of Gaza’s population experiences “high levels of acute food insecurity.” Famine has been confirmed in Gaza governorate, with 640,000 people facing catastrophic starvation. At least 440 people have died from starvation, including 147 children. Over 65,000 children suffer acute malnutrition. Infants cannot access formula or special milk. Children are “unable to develop speech and meet language milestones” due to malnutrition and face potential long-term cognitive damage. Mothers miscarry on forced displacement journeys. Premature babies discharged from hospitals weigh half what they should.

Systematic sexual torture has been documented. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights released testimonies in November 2025 revealing “an organized and systematic practice of sexual torture, including rape, forced........

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