The Dignity of Palestinian Resistance: Ashira Darwish on Trauma, Imprisonment & Healing

Ashira Darwish is a Palestinian investigative journalist, trauma healer, and former human rights activist whose work explores the relationship between occupation, resistance, trauma, and collective healing. After years working in journalism and advocacy, and following a spinal injury in 2012 that temporarily left her paralyzed, she developed Ashira Active Meditation, a trauma-integration practice rooted in somatic healing, ancestral wisdom, and liberation psychology.

I first encountered Ashira as a producer and one of the central voices in the extraordinary documentary Where Olive Trees Weep, alongside Dr. Gabor Maté. The film explores the deep psychological and spiritual wounds carried by Palestinians living under occupation.

In this powerful conversation, Ashira reflects on being detained and tortured by Israeli forces, interviewing Palestinian resistance fighters during the Second Intifada, the dignity she associates with Palestinian resistance, and the psychological impact of imprisonment and occupation. We also discuss Gaza, Palestinian prisoners, Western power and colonialism, and what healing can mean when the conditions producing trauma are still ongoing.

Through Catharsis Holistic Healing, Ashira now works with Palestinians and other communities affected by genocide, displacement, and intergenerational trauma.

Ashira Darwish & Catharsis Holistic Healing

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Where Olive Trees Weep Film

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