The Palestinian experience

Abstract

The state of mental health in Palestine is bound up in a combination of factors so interlinked that it is difficult to consider their effects separately. Therefore, they remain indivisible when their impact on the human psyche, on individual lives and on the community as a whole is considered. Behind the specific traumatic upheavals of the past decades (1948 uprooting, 1967 War, Occupation, the first Intifada, Al-Aqsa Intifada, etc.) lies the amalgamation of the stressors, frustrations and humiliations present in everyday life in Gaza and the effect that this constant tension and frustration has had on the mental health of its population. The disaster of uprooting left a strong influence on the Palestinian community and it is known from the literature that traumatic events are harmful for the development of the individual. For this reason it is important, when exploring the impact of specific types of human rights abuses on victims and on Palestinian society, always to take into consideration the global context in which they are occurring and to which they are adding a new element of suffering. It follows, naturally, that any intervention designed to improve mental health, and to prevent further human rights abuses, must acknowledge and incorporate the significance of the intertwined elements of past and present experience, as well as attitudes towards the future. Even the impact of the peace process on Palestinians cannot be comprehended without understanding the initial meaning of the Oslo Agreement itself and what it represented. In turn, this cannot be understood without a clear picture of what the first Intifada (1987-1994) as well as Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000) meant …