Digital Kav OFEK #3

Editorial

In Kav OFEK, is “the despair becoming more comfortable”? The papers and collections in this third edition of Kav OFEK move between despair and hope and everything in between. So has been the editorial movement in our production work. We have found ourselves sea-soring back and forth, up and down, between frustration and despair, to hope and action. Our action is articulated through talking, thinking, opening up spaces where we can reflect on our experiences and memories.

The Kav includes two papers which had been written before 7th October 2023. In the first of these, Sarah Metzer and Corinne Zeevi-Weil explore the phenomenon of silencing and shame around the detention of Palestinian children. The second paper, a thought-piece by Gilad Ovadia, inquires into the sources of authority in Group Relations organisations and looks critically at the state of authority in OFEK.

A second paper by Gilad Ovadia also explores issues regarding work in GR organisations, which are based on psychoanalytic and socio-systemic thinking. This paper, which aims to understand the “analytic condition” in psychoanalytic-systemic work, discloses that it has been written in early 2024 and refers to the polarised situation in Israel, whilst stating the importance of the workspace, and the necessity of preserving the vitality of the analytic state.

The rest of the contributions directly relate to the events on – and following from – the 7th October 2023:

Simi Talmi shares her ‘live’ journal reflecting on the entry and integration of displaced survivors from the Otef Gaza communities into her own kibbutz community.

A recorded conversation with Leila Djemal on her contribution to the response effort and rehabilitation work with the Thai workers from the Otef sheds understanding about relationships between groups and other circles of influence that are shifting and expanding Israeli society’s borders.
A collection of thoughts and reflections from members of the Tavistock Community following an evening they called “Many Wars, One Peace – Many Lands, One Home”. The writers are from a range of countries including South Africa, Italy, USA, Canada, The Netherlands, Lithuania, UK and Israel. They bring various perspectives on their experience of borders, rights and conflict, both in preparation and during the event.

The pair of articles by Orly Aflalo-Kamil and Gabi Bonwitt refers to an OFEK evening entitled “draw me a dream please” that took place in May 2024, which hosted the illustrator and activist Zeev Engelmayer. The evening was a second meeting in a series dealing with the connection between Art and Society, inquiring into the role and functions of Art in various social contexts as a channel into the collective unconscious.

Most of this edition’s illustrations are by Engelmayer, which he calls “postcards”, and which reflect – we feel – a similar movement between hope and despair as we have felt and as is expressed in the various contributions.

Our deep gratitude to all the writers and contributors, to Ilan Kirschenbaum for placing so aptly this third digital edition, and to Zeev Engelmayer for allowing us to use his vivid postcards to connect our written words with Art.
Best wishes
Shely, Yermi and Eliat
The Editorial team
August 2024