Letter to members from Marit Joffe Milstein

Dear Members of GASi,

I am writing to inform the membership of GASi that I have stepped down from my position as Co-Chair at the June 22th meeting of the Management Committee. I will continue with my responsibilities as a trustee on the Management Committee, as the Financial Committee Acting Chair, and as the Summer school Co-Chair, as part of my role as chair of the International Development Committee, until the next AGM, when I will have completed my 6 year term.

I want to thank all the MC members for the lessons you have taught me. I also want to thank my two co-Chairs, Viv and Francesca, for everything we managed to achieve in the many hours of working both behind the scenes and in the public area. I also gained from confronting our difficulties. We did indeed “take the group seriously”. We spent many hours working together as Co-Chairs, and with the entire MC in supervision, with the help of David Glyn, David Armstrong, Teresa von Sommaruga, and Julian Lomas as CC specialist. I appreciate our combined efforts to contain the structure.

Although Francesca and I had disagreements and different ways of perceiving our roles and what happened, I am confident in her sincere wish to act according to her experience, beliefs and GASi constitution. We accomplished some very important steps together, of which I’m proud, in the best interests of GASi, operating under attacks from inside and outside during a time of war.

It has been a very difficult working group experience, but also a very instructive one.  I feel that I have gained much through “learning from experience” about the impact of the context on the ability of leaders in power, in an international Charity, based in the UK, to continue to function, while the world outside has been intensively engaged in destroying itself.

I tried with an open heart to build bridges over some very troubled waters. I resolved not to leave GASi as many of my colleagues did. I used my experience and did my best to hand over what I could to this new MC and to facilitate GASi’s communication challenges during this time. I also made mistakes. I was lucky enough to have received much love and support from many GASi members who appreciated my efforts to stay and to contribute in this leading role. In retrospect, I saw myself as a respected and trusted member of the former MC (2018-2023) which worked well meeting the challenges of the Covid pandemic. However, with the current MC group, the situation seemed to reverse itself and since the war that began on October 7th, my perception is that I have been tagged as the Israeli who is under suspicion for various reasons. The attacks on my integrity and on my loyalty to GASi eventually became unbearable and prompted my decision to resign as Co-Chair. I think that I stayed “on the bridge” till I felt that I needed to look after my health. Probably each MC member has their own version of the truth about these past months (“Rashomon”). We have not been able to coalesce around a shared narrative and a shared approach to the difficult situation we are facing.

I will continue to contribute to GASi and to GA clinical and communal work development, preferably in spaces where I feel trusted, and where I will have a chance to bring my creativity, experience, as well as my blind spots.

Warm wishes to Sanja Janovic who is stepping into the role of Co-Chair.

Best regards,

Marit Joffe Milstein

30th June 2024