I am delighted to feature two soulful revolutionaries on this episode: Katherine Bogen and Dr. Hani Chaabo. Bogen is an antizionist Jewish woman and Chaabo is the grandson of a Palestinian refugee. Both work in the field of mental health, both are queer, and together, they are the hosts of the Super Humanizer podcast (@superhumanizer on Instagram), where they unpack Israel-Palestine and seek to promote empathy and understanding across polarizing viewpoints through the power of story.
Our conversation delves into the difficulty of healing moral injury amidst an ongoing genocide. We talk about the spirituality that gives these activists strength. And we cover the sensitive topic of humanizing those who are actively doing harm.
Chaabo and Bogen, drawing from their training in healing trauma, are clear on the difficulty and necessity of this humanizing work. They speak with tremendous moral clarity about Israeli apartheid, occupation, and genocide of Palestinians. They convey immense compassion for and solidarity with the Palestinian people. At the same time, they also invite us to see those engaged in oppression as soul-sick, their humanity compromised by immersion in a system requiring dehumanization of others.
Healing is only possible when the truth is brought to the surface. Chaabo and Bogen are providing a tender place for us to see reality, together.
Meet this month’s Soulful Revolutionaries:
Raised in an American Jewish household by the son of a Holocaust survivor, Katherine Bogen has spent a decade interrogating Zionism and building community with anti-carceral human rights activists worldwide. Katie holds a BA in Political Science with a focus on comparative politics and is currently a doctoral student in clinical psychology, with a focus on evidence-based treatments for posttraumatic stress. Katie integrates anti-carceral, anti-racist, and anti-colonial feminist principles into her activism, clinical work, and scholarship. She is committed to the full political enfranchisement of Palestinians and Jews, from every river to every sea and around the globe.
Follow her on Instagram: @k.w.bogen and on TikTok: @sexualityscholar.
Dr. Hani Chaabo is specialized in Family, Integrative, Psychiatric and Addiction Medicine. His clinic focuses on mental health and lifestyle change working with individuals, couples and groups on mindfulness based treatments.
He has worked with displaced and marginalized LGBTQ communities and refugees in the Middle East, and steered national scale public health projects.
He is medical director of Well-being at Ridgecrest Regional Hospital which has been awarded by the American Medical Association’s Joy in Medicine Healthcare System recognition program. He has also been recognized as a national leader by the American Academy of Family Physicians and is core faculty at the Leading Physician Well-Being Program.
Follow him on Instagram: @thestressdoc
The two organizations mentioned in this episode are Children Not Numbers and Standing Together.
In addition to the free audio version above, paid subscribers can access the full video conversation below! Soulful Revolutionaries who contribute $5/month allow me to devote more time and energy to this work at the intersection of spiritual transformation and social change. Thanks for making it all possible.
On Palestine with SuperHumanizers Katie Bogen and Hani Chaabo