{"id":319390,"date":"2026-08-17T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=319390"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:15:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:15:59","slug":"the-mask-comes-off-the-psychologists-protecting-israel-not-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/08\/the-mask-comes-off-the-psychologists-protecting-israel-not-jews\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mask Comes Off: The Psychologists Protecting Israel, Not Jews"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Gaza-image-in-the-public-domain-courtesy-of-Heidi-Levine-and-The-Washington-Post<\/p><\/div>\n

12 Aug 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Sometimes\u00a0the mask comes off. That seems to be what happened last week, just before the American Psychological Association (APA) held its annual convention in Washington, DC. A group called\u00a0Gesher Community Care<\/a>\u00a0(GCC) published an online open letter to APA leaders demanding that they do more to ensure the \u201csafety\u201d of Jewish attendees. The letter was introduced with this photo (please see update at the bottom of this piece<\/em>):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

To be clear, that is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0the \u201cJewish flag,\u201d as some want you to believe. No, it\u2019s something very different: the official flag of the state of Israel which, according to leading\u00a0human<\/a>\u00a0rights<\/a>\u00a0organizations<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0scholars<\/a>, is engaged in the\u00a0ethnic<\/a>\u00a0cleansing<\/a> and\u00a0genocide<\/a>\u00a0of the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

Overall, there\u2019s a distorting hall-of-mirrors quality to the GCC letter\u2019s elevation of concerns about the \u201cpsychological safety\u201d of Israel-defending convention attendees. Despite the fact that over 20,000 Palestinian\u00a0children<\/a>\u00a0have been slaughtered in Gaza (with several times that number\u00a0injured<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0orphaned<\/a>), APA is told that expressions of distress and outrage over Israel\u2019s documented\u00a0war<\/a>\u00a0crimes<\/a>\u00a0must be suppressed. Why? Because otherwise\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0Jewish conference-goers may feel uncomfortable.\u00a0Consider too that the open letter promotes the importance\u00a0of \u201cviewpoint diversity\u201d while simultaneously calling for the APA to silence voices of opposition to Israel\u2019s actions. This all sounds a lot like\u00a0traumatic invalidation<\/a> to me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting as well that\u00a0several members of GCC\u2019s\u00a0advisory board<\/a> are among those who\u2019ve contributed in various ways to weaponizing antisemitism charges against the APA, leading to unwarranted government investigations of the Association. Antisemitism is indeed a very serious problem, but support for Palestinian rights and freedom is\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>antisemitic.<\/p>\n

GCC is also aggrieved that its supporters might experience discomfort from Palestine-focused convention events, from the sight of keffiyehs, and from hearing a land acknowledgment that includes this truth:<\/p>\n

\n

We must also recognize \u2014 with sorrow and outrage \u2014 that this presentation takes place amid the ongoing violent dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their lands across the globe, particularly the genocide in Palestine that is actively supported by the United States government. As psychologists, we have a responsibility to speak out and actively resist systemic oppression and violence wherever they occur, both here and globally.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But despite the GCC letter\u2019s alarmist language, there was no silencing of Jewish voices at the APA convention. There was no assignment of \u201ccollective guilt to Jews.\u201d And there were no \u201cideological tests on Jewish participation.\u201d That misleading narrative may play well within the Israel-supporting echo chamber, but it\u2019s quite simply false.<\/p>\n

I am among the\u00a0many Jewish psychologists<\/a>\u00a0who are thankful for the growing and broadening awareness that Palestinian liberation is a matter of urgent justice, long denied and long overdue. And we recognize that the rights, dignity, and freedom of the Palestinian people are ultimately essential for the safety and well-being of Jews worldwide. In contrast, it seems the foremost priority for advocacy groups like Gesher Community Care is defending the state of Israel rather than protecting the Jewish people \u2014 and they apparently hope none of us will notice the difference. But the photo they\u2019ve chosen for this latest misguided attack on the APA certainly lifts the veil, and that should dispel any lingering doubts.<\/p>\n

********<\/p>\n

Update: Apparently in an effort to put the mask back on after the publication of this piece, Gesher Community Care has removed the Israeli flag from their letter to the APA. Fortunately, I took several screenshots before they did so, and here is one of them:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

_______________________________________________<\/p>\n

Note: This opinion piece reflects my personal views and not those of any group with which I am affiliated.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Roy Eidelson is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network<\/em><\/a> and was a member of the American Psychological Association for over 25 years, prior to his resignation. He is a clinical psychologist and the president of <\/em>Eidelson Consulting<\/em><\/a>, where he studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is a past president of <\/em>Psychologists for Social Responsibility<\/em><\/a>, former executive director of the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, and a member of the <\/em>Coalition for an Ethical Psychology<\/em><\/a>. Roy is the author of <\/em>Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What\u2019s Happening, What\u2019s Right, and What\u2019s Possible<\/a> and can be reached at <\/em>reidelson@eidelsonconsulting.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 royeidelson.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

12 Aug 2026\u00a0–\u00a0Sometimes\u00a0the mask comes off. That seems to be what happened last week, just before the American Psychological Association held its annual convention in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":319391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[2755,1854,87,865,88,2552,427,1025],"class_list":["post-319390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-american-psychological-association-apa","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-jews","tag-palestine","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319390"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319392,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319390\/revisions\/319392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}