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.

Preface, acknowledgments, and organization of this book PART I - Introduction and overview of the first fifteen years of Healing Across the Divides 1. Peace Building Through Health – A Review with Specific Attention to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 2. Psychic Trauma and Competing Nationalisms in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict PART II - Case studies 3. AhliBalatah Al-Balad Club: Impacting Diabetes Control with a Focus on Chronic Disease Self-Management 4. Al-Maqdese : Drug Abuse Prevention Among Palestinian Youth in East Jerusalem 5. ASSAF/Israel AIDS Task Force: Promoting Equal Rights for HIV-positive Refugee Asylum Seekers in Israel 6. Beterem: Grandmothers for Social Change in an Arab Town in Northern Israel 7. Family Defense Society – Decreasing Obesity and Early Detection of Domestic Violence in Refugee Camps and Metropolitan Nablus, Occupied Palestinian Territory 8. Hadassah Optimal: Exercise and Nutrition in the Immediate Postpartum Period in Israel – a successful intervention accompanied by government adoption 9. Kayan: Sustainable New Leadership and Health Improvement for Palestinian Women in Northern Israel 10. Ma’An – Impacting Domestic Violence Against Bedouin Women in Southern Israel 11. One in Nine: Community Based Breast Cancer Initiatives 12. Palestinian Working Women’s Society for Development – Building Resilience in the Hebron Hills in Occupied Palestinian Territory 13. White Hill Farm: Desert Farming, Improving Nutrition and Communication between Israeli Jews and Bedouin in Southern Israel 14. Strengthening Women Leaders since Healing Across the Divides was Founded in 2004 PART III - Is peace building through health possible in a setting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Past, presemt, future 15. Can Health Professionals Effectively Engage in "healing across the divides" in a Setting of Ongoing Conflict? 16. The Impact of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on Palestinian Health Care Professionals Working in Occupied Palestinian Territory 17. Looking Forward: Peace Building through Health Options for Healing Across the Divides Appendix: List of organisations that Healing Across the Divides has worked with and a brief decription of their intervention Contributing authorsIndex

Norbert Goldfield is founder and executive director of the American not-for-profit Healing Across the Divides. He is a practicing physician, editor of the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management, and has authored more than 50 articles and books. He believes that health professionals can and do play an important role in society beyond direct care.