NLP Practitioners’ Statement Against Torture and War Crimes
Gaza: The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is the single most significant attack on civilised values since the formation of the United Nations. Martin Griffiths, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, describes the destruction of Gaza as “the worst humanitarian disaster in his 50-year career”, worse than the Khmer Rouge genocide or any other events he has seen (Sky News, February 14, 2024). Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, says there are reasonable grounds for believing that genocide is occurring in Gaza, describing events there as “the worst of what humanity is capable of” (UN news, March 26, 2024). Professor Amos Goldberg, Holocaust and genocide researcher at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem says about the events in Gaza “Yes, It is Genocide…. As such, this is the way it will be viewed in history’s judgment for generations to come.” (Local Call [שיחה מקומית], April 17, 2024).
Israel: The events continue into the territory of Israel, where medical staff are placed in a morally impossible situation of saving lives by participating in torture, or letting patients die. Physicians for Human Rights in Israel [רופאים לזכויות אדם] describes the treatment of Palestinian prisoners (children, men, women, elderly) in hospitals such as Sde Teiman, where medical surgery is done without any anaesthetic, as ongoing torture by medical staff, saying “It is the duty of every doctor, medical staff, and organizations representing the health community to oppose what is taking place in Sde Teiman in general and, in particular in relation to the treatment given to prisoners there. The undersigned on this report believe that the facility should be closed and that the presence of medical staff in a place where the treatment and conditions amount to torture is forbidden.” (Position Paper April 18, 2024). Yoel Donchin, an anaesthesiologist at the centre, said medical staff at the field hospital sometimes gathered together to cry over the situation there and added “The moment our hospital closes, we’ll celebrate.” (BBC news, May 21. 2024).
Involvement of NLP: Marina Shorer-Zeltser and Galit M. Ben-Israel (2019) explain that Israeli “counter-terrorist” forces are already using NLP as part of the process of identifying anti-Israeli activists. The NLP community is involved in the genocide whether it likes it or not: “NLP techniques are proposed for use within police and Special Forces investigations (Sandoval & Adams, 2001). As such, they are no secret, their practicing is widely advertised (NLP Information Center, 2008) and as mentioned before, the usage of NLP techniques of gaining rapport and further manipulation are easily and fast achieved. The suggested usage of these techniques by terrorists for mobilization is not a theoretical one but rather is widely implemented in reality. As such, a Lebanese Hezbollah psychiatrist and mind control expert Aziz al-Abub, who graduated the Soviet Union’s People’s Friendship University, used mind control techniques, drugs and physical torture on hostage William Buckley during his captivity in Beirut (Gordon, 1989). Our research shows that Neuro-Linguistic Programming tools can be used with extreme efficiency for mobilization targets, utilizing it in conjunction with other digital and psychological tools. This tool can bring in fast behavior modification, which, as a consequence, can result in subliminal behavioral patterns and mind control. Although these technologies are disputable in the mainstream official psychology, our research shows that there are evidences of intended usage of these tools for terror mobilization.”. (2018, p. 102, “Analysis of Success of Mobilization to Terror Using Tools of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)”. 10.4018/978-1-5225-7119-3.ch006). While NLP Practitioners Shorer-Zeltser and Ben-Israel seem to have positive intentions in identifying and counteracting Hezbollah and Hamas “mobilization”, it is undeniable that they are part of the Israeli war machine which is engaged in extermination of a population in Gaza. I suggest that they, like the “terrorists” they study, are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to NLP complicity in war crimes.
USA: After it was revealed that prominent members of the American Psychological Association (Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell) had designed and participated in systematic CIA torture, James H. Bray, Ph.D., president of the APA stated “There is one ethical response to an order to torture: Disobey the order.” (APA, 2009 “Saying it Again: Psychologists May Never Participate in Torture”). This is also true for NLP.
NLP: The involvement of NLP Practitioners in torture, in war crimes, in supporting actions identified by the United Nations as likely genocide, is unethical, is unacceptable, and is a contradiction to the core values that we believe NLP was set up to promote. John Grinder, co-developer of NLP, says that his aim was to create “a challenge to the processes by which ideologies were promoted in the world and the congruity (or lack thereof) of the people promoting these ideologies….” (Grinder and Pucelik eds., 2013, The Origins of Neuro Linguistic Programming, p. 184-5). In this statement he specifically refers to challenging this incongruity in ideologies “whether based in fundamentalist Christian/Muslim/Jewish or far-left or right-wing politics”, and describes NLP as the creation of a “healthy antidote”. We maintain that NLP Practitioners stray from this mission, when they support by their actions, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by any party: Hamas, the Israeli IDF, or any other agency whatsoever.
We affirm:
- Ethical NLP Practitioners refuse to commit war crimes, to commit crimes against humanity, or to participate in torture.
- Ethical NLP Practitioners refuse to collude with and support organisations which commit war crimes, commit crimes against humanity, or participate in torture.
- Ethical NLP Practitioners aim to be good citizens of the world community, and to support the United Nations, ICC and ICJ in their attempt to bring to justice those who commit war crimes, commit crimes against humanity, or participate in torture.
Reference for this article: Richard Bolstad on behalf of ethical NLP Practitioners across the world, 23 May, 2024, NLP Practitioners’ Statement Against Torture and War Crimes, Auckland: Transformations International, online at https://transformations.org.nz/statement-against-torture-and-war-crimes/
For comparison: