Since October 7th, Germany and France have issued orders prohibiting pro-Palestinian protests, US corporate media have fired reporters, and universities have sent professors packing and denounced college students demanding an end to Israel’s collective punishment in Gaza. 

In the Middle East and North America, mental health clinicians are also being targeted for challenging the Israeli occupation and genocide–with Palestibnian clinicians in Israel prohibited from using “Palestinian” in their organization’s names and communications.

Censorship intensifies as the US Senate unanimously passes a resolution “condemning Hamas and antisemitic student activities on college campuses” and backers of Israel’s occupation dox supporters of Palestine.

The voices for liberation, however, will not be silenced or censored.

Featured Guests

Dr. Osama Abuirshaid is the Executive Director and board member of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). He is also a board member of the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), an umbrella for eight major national American Muslim organizations. A frequent commentator on Al Jazeera, Dr. Osama co-authored the controversial study: “Hamas: Ideological Rigidity and Political Flexibility,” which was published by the US Institute for Peace in 2009. Dr. Osama completed his PhD in political science at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.

Lara Sheehi, PsyD (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at the George Washington University’s Professional Psychology Program where she is the founding faculty director of the Psychoanalysis and the Arab World Lab. Lara’s work takes up decolonial and anti-oppressive approaches to psychoanalysis, with a focus on liberation struggles in the Global South.  After StandWithUs (SWU), a pro-Israel group, named only her in a discrimination complaint against GW with the US Department of Education (DoE), the American Psychoanalytic Association barred her from speaking on a panel titled “Psychotherapy in Conditions of War.” Following an exhaustive third-party investigation, the university exonerated Lara of all wrong-doing.

Soetkin Van Muylem works for Vrede, a Belgian peace organization in support of the Palestinian struggle for liberation and the campaign to boycott, divest and sanction Israel. Vrede is one of the main organizers in Belgium of protests against the current massacres in Gaza, which she last visited in 2017. Soetkin has a masters degree in history and conflict and development from Ghent University in Belgium.

Zahra Billoo serves as the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA) office, the oldest CAIR chapter office. Since joining in 2009, Zahra has led the organization through a period of six-fold growth. Today, she manages one of the largest CAIR offices in the country with a team of civil rights and social justice advocates dedicated to the empowerment of American Muslims through legal services, legislative advocacy, and community organizing.

Take Action!

CODEPINK calls on the US to call for an immediate ceasefire and to cease all military aid to Israel and support Palestinian’s legal right to return to their homelands. Help us move towards peace by sending a letter to your representatives.

Google Group & Local Leaders

Join our CODEPINK Congress Google Group, a space for sharing events and actions. Request to be added here!

Become a CODEPINK Congress liaison in your district to mobilize support for demilitarization and progressive foreign policy! Sign up here as a volunteer organizer.

Finally, if you missed our last meeting, you can view it here on YouTube. View the entire CODEPINK Congress archives here.

Onward toward peace and justice,
Medea, Marcy and the entire CODEPINK team