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On September 13th, 1993, the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) hosted an international conference on "Mental Health and the Challenge of Peace". The timing was impeccable - it coincided with the signing of the Declaration of Principles (DOP) between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.

While Arafat and Rabin were reluctantly shaking hands in the White House garden, the participants in the Gaza conference were enthusiastically joining the jubilant crowds in the streets of Gaza. It was a historic occasion, one which will never be forgotten.

As if by magic Gaza underwent a sudden transformation. The Palestinian flag, banned for twenty seven years by the Israeli military occupation, flew from every roof in the overcrowded Strip. The streets and alleys were turned into waves of celebrants, cheering, dancing and singing to Palestine. What transformed Gaza was the sudden surge of hope that the too long days and years of the oppression were coming to an end. The Palestinians were celebrating their anticipated freedom.

Palestinians were not alone in their excitement and hope. Israelis too were celebrating a long awaited peace, and the world joined the party with disbelief as the apparently perpetual conflict and fifty years of uninterrupted fighting seemed finally to be coming to a stop.

In the following weeks Gaza and the West Bank were turned into a dynamic beehive. Debates and discussions were buzzing in every hall, every center, every house and every taxi. People asked questions, expressed their approval or their opposition, their hopes and their apprehensions. Businessmen and speculators poured into Gaza talking about projects, new industries, and investment. The price of land rocketed.

But gradually opposition to the agreement grew as people became anxious that their questions remained unanswered and their hopes might be turning out, yet again, to be illusions. Their fears were confirmed when the Israelis did not begin to withdraw as agreed on the 13th of December and the peace process as a whole seemed doomed.

Now, while both peoples are embracing the DOP as a historic chance for reconciliation, their interpretations of peace are fundamentally different. The Israelis are concerned to the extent of obsession about the question of security. The Palestinians want justice and acknowledgment of their right to establish their own state and regain their dignity. Both need the land to realize their objectives, yet the land is becoming increasingly scarce.

The Middle East conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis is a deadly battle between two victims. The Israelis, survivors of a long history of persecution and discrimination, are still bearing the scars of victimization. They are trapped in their collective memories of brutal suffering which culminated in the horrors of the Holocaust. In their attempt to escape their history and to create a better future, they were led by the Zionist pioneers to establish a Jewish home and a Jewish nation.

Over the years the Israelis have created a culture of fear and paranoia with a violent projection of aggression while keeping an inner image of the victim. Their paranoia was continuously nourished by the surrounding Arabs whose demagogic leaders vowed impotently to liberate Palestine.

The Palestinians on the other hand are physically dispersed in exile and are emotionally traumatized. Their feeling of victimization is deep. Their experience of trauma is overwhelming and their inner psyche is injured. Their mood therefore is labile, quickly swayed to extremes and their reactions rapidly swing between euphoria and despair. They will never forget their suffering and perhaps may never forgive.

In the course of their history, the Palestinians have found themselves becoming the Jews of the Middle East. They suffer persecution and discrimination in every corner of the Middle East and most painfully in their own country. Their uprooting in 1948 from their homes and villages in Palestine has left an inner focus of fear and helplessness. Victims of a grand scheme of colonial Zionism and imperialism, they suddenly found themselves

In the first few years of their catastrophe they were bewildered, unable to comprehend why they had to pay the price for the European persecution of the Jews and why they were not allowed to return to their houses. Now, many years later these homes are occupied by Russian and Polish Jews. More baffling to the Palestinians were the many occasions when the Security Council of the United Nations passed resolution after resolution

demanding their repatriation to be met with Israel's flat refusal. As if to make the point more clearly, Israel had passed the "law of return" allowing only Jews from any part of the world to "return" to the Biblical land.

Gradually the Palestinians realized that it was because of their backwardness, weakness and ignorance that the "civilized" Western world was able to exploit them. The aim of every father thereafter was to educate his children to the highest level. Acknowledging their helplessness, the Palestinians relied on the Arab states to liberate Palestine and they championed the cause of Arab unity. To their shock and surprise, the Arabs were utterly defeated in the 1967 Six Day War when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in addition to the Egyptian desert of Sinai and the Syrian Golan Heights.

From the early days of the Occupation, Israeli intentions were made clear; to keep the land and to exploit the Palestinian work force. By military orders the Israelis curbed all forms of freedom to ensure a tight grip on the Palestinians. All expressions - of - Palestinian identity, - even - waving a flag, - or - forming political parties, were considered an anti state offence. Travelling, meeting, or forming professional syndicates were only allowed by military orders. Thousands of Palestinians were not - permitted to be united with their families, while land

In the first five years of the Occupation the Palestinians put up a stiff resistance and took to armed struggle, but at a heavy price. Throughout the Occupation approximately 400,000 people have been detained and the majority of them tortured.

In December 1987 a spontaneous popular revolt, the Intifada, was ignited. The Palestinian uprising was in essence a defiant cry of a people who could no longer endure the suffering of humiliation. But six years of their Intifada was to bring them even more suffering. In confronting the Intifada the Israelis used tear gas, house raids, detention without trial, house demolitions, deportation, extended curfews, school closure, shooting and killing and various economic measures against the defiant Palestinians.

The Palestinian young activists, the "children of the stone" as they were to be known, paid the highest price. Acting in rebellion against all forms of authority and identifying with the national cause of liberation, they were defending their right to be free. From over-crowded dwellings in the refugee camps they broke into the streets chasing and challenging the Israeli soldiers with their stones . The same children who witnessed their helpless parents collapsing at the hands of the soldiers during house raids controlled the streets and defied the

aggressors. The demeaning language of the Occupation which told them of their weakness and unworthiness transformed them into daring and fearless martyrs conquering death by glorifying the life hereafter. Thousands lost their education, and many have been physically or psychologically damag. Some of them, especially those who were tortured, have identified with the Israeli aggressor as the symbol of power. In turn they projected

During the first two years of the Intifada, the Palestinians regained a positive self image and self respect which prepared the moral platform for Arafat to launch his 1988 peace initiative in which the PLO recognized the state of Israel and renounced all forms of "terrorism" . The Palestinians were then ready to accept that peace was a victory and not a surrender. But the Israeli government of Shamir was quick to dismiss the PLO offer of peace,

The effect of the first two years of the Intifada on the Israelis was dramatic. They agonized over the existence of the Palestinians and Israeli colonial rule. They were further disturbed by the increasing number of reports of their army's brutality against the civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territories. Living in a civilized and democratic society, as they like to believe, they started to ponder and question the validity of their Jewish morality and its erosion.

The Occupation began to be seen in many Jewish eyes as corrupt and immoral. Gradually the momentum was building to end the Occupation and to work for mutual recognition and reconciliation. As time passed despair drove the Intifada activists to take up arms, escalating violence and denying the Intifada its popular support and communal base. In reality the Intifada was turned into a dictated and oppressive military operation. Political and

tribal loyalty was fragmented and people lost direction. The general population was gradually alienated from the leadership in, and outside the Occupied Palestinian Territories OPT; identification with the PLO was steadily eroding. Palestinian intra-communal violence was becoming commonplace and the populace were forced to adhere to tribal and family frameworks for their security.

Palestinian use of arms has damaged the original spirit of the Intifada and hampered the process of reconciliation. The Israelis immediately regressed to the comfortable position of seeing themselves as the eternal victims whose existence is threatened. Their immediate concern was their security. Those who felt the guilt of occupation in Gaza opted for the "getting rid of it" solution as expressed by Mr. Rabin's public wish to see Gaza drowned in the Mediterranean.

The Declaration of Principles is an economic package with the declared aim of attempting to solve a political problem. It was signed by a PLO leadership which has been starved into submission since the Gulf War following the debacle of Arafat's support for Saddam Hussein. That position naturally angered the Gulf sheikhs who reacted by cutting their governments'subsidies and the Palestinian workers contributions to the PLO. The DOP in fact has rescued Arafat who was rapidly losing popular backing.

But while the DOP has recognized the PLO as representing the Palestinians, it did not acknowledge the political and national rights of the Palestinians. Furthermore, the Dop did not recognize Israel as an occupying power but gave it a joint decision making role in the future of the Palestinians and their plans for rebuilding their life. In effect the DOP keeps Israel as an occupying power in all but name. More seriously, the DOP allows Israel to keep settlements on Palestinian land while avoiding the issue of sovereignty, and it excludes Jerusalem from the interim period of negotiations.

Palestinian opposition to the DOP is mounting because of their increasing awareness that the agreement denies them their fundamental rights. More people are becoming suspicious that the Israelis have every intention to stay as an occupying power,and that the Israeli settlers are not going to leave. Serious doubts are emerging in the current debate on the prospects of establishing a Palestinian state or even allowing the Palestinians the right to self determination.

These doubts and suspicions grew stronger when the Israelis did not begin to withdraw from Gaza and Jericho on December 13, 1993 though they were committed to do so. The Israeli action has thrown the Palestinian back into a state of frustration and despair. The fundamentalist movement is gaining new support every day at the expense of the PLO leadership. The Declaration of Principles is in trouble and the prospects of peace in the area

The DOP was hailed as a great victory for American foreign policy. A major American interest in the area is access to oil. The Israelis are most concerned about their security and are waiting for the economic benefits the DOP would bring when the Arab market opens its doors to Israeli goods and services. Israeli security is relevant to the Americans in as much as it serves their interests in protecting the oil and the dozen dictators who sit on the thrones of power. The Palestinians figure very low, if at all, in the American global strategy. They are more or less a source of irritation and have to be contained.

Their human or political rights are as insignificant as those of the Kurds, in other words they can be used in the political game but never acknowledged or respected. Both the Americans and the Israelis have won with the DOP a position which largely obstructs the fulfillment of the repeated UN resolutions which ask for the repatriation of the Palestinians and their right to self determination. To achieve such goals the PLO was forced to starve. The Europeans were not allowed to participate in the peace process, but forced to suppress their collective position as maintained in the Venice declaration which supported the Palestinian position. Israel was given a free

But all told, the agreement is seen by some Palestinian pragmatists as an opportunity and a challenge to be seriously confronted. They see in it a chance to rejuvenate their political and national movement which has been weakened by disunity, lack of democracy and corruption. There is a deep resolution that justice will be done one day even though the DOP has no spirit of justice. But fatalistic resignation on its own will not miraculously bring to the Palestinians the desired goals. Hard work in every aspect of life is what is called for. For the first time in their modern history they will have a chance to decide for their own what future life they want to lead and to experience living without foreign domination.

If after all, the DOP is realized, the Palestinians may still jump and stumble along the road of growth and development. Certain ingredients, however, are essential for a reasonable degree of success. They will need a credible political leadership with whom they can identify, democratic constitution, a layer of professional managers, and enormous funding. At the moment none of these ingredients is evident. Funding is perhaps the least problematic in view of promises and pledges from the World Bank, the European Community, and others. The evolution of a national political leadership is more vital and complex. The Palestinian people have placed their faith, hopes and aspirations in the PLO leadership but their relationship was characterized by dependency

and compliance. Yasser Arafat posed for the last thirty years as the leader and the symbol of the Palestinian emerging national identity. The Palestinian people's relation with him was more of a romance than a partnership. Upon his entry to Palestine as the head of the new Palestinian entity, a new relation with the masses will take place. If he is to be accepted as a leader, he will have to know that the romance is over. Only through trust,

The Palestinians are a nation coming out the rubble. They are heading towards challenging times. They have suppressed debate on all aspects of their cultural life and social development as their energy was invested in combatting the occupation. The call for freeing the land from the Israelis was the utmost priority.

In any case attempts to organize intellectual, political or popular movement were crushed in their infancy by the Israelis. At the communal level, the Palestinians are still in the tribal stage of development where the clan is the main source of security and form of identity. Their political organizations who have replaced the tribe did not further the national identity, instead they deepened the tribal divisions through ideological or religious polarization. Authoritarian and oppressive disciplines continue to be the accepted concept within the family

and the community, including political institutions. Intellectual and cultural life is poor and women continue to be oppressed. They have to address taboos and bring into the open ideological, cultural and political weaknesses which have infiltrated their national movement and seriously damaged their individual and collective awareness. They have to address their dependency on the outside world, their self-indulgent image of the victim, their own cycle of violence and oppression, their conflict between religious and secular identity, and the erosion of their

Palestinian growth as a people and a nation was stunted due to the long history of foreign rule and particularly because of the twenty seven years of Occupation. Paradoxical relation with the alien rulers had developed into both dependency and defiance. Centuries of alienation, defiance and tribal identification will certainly impede the transition towards the identification with the national Palestinian authority. They will have to exercise

The economic infrastructure is devastated, health and educational services are rudimentary, water resources are depleted and the local security is almost none existent. The generation of children who lost six years of education need to be reeducated. The effects of violecne, trauma and torture will have to be addressed. Effective professional management of their institutions should be installed.

Palestinian intellectuals and human rights activists are openly voicing their concern about the nature of the future PLO regime and whether it will be just another of the Arab World's dictatorships. Many expect that the transitional period will be usurer by US dollars and political chaos. Palestinians long for a future in which people can be dignified and free. The DOP has further ignited new divisions in the national scene and power struggle inside Fatah, the largest political group within the PLO. All indications today point to a further escalation of this

process which could indeed turn violent. This would undoubtedly expand the already wide support for the Islamic movement, which has gained ground in any event as tales of moral and financial corruption of the PLO were rumored.

Israel has yet to handle serious problems and to confront fundamental issues which have been denied, avoided or suppressed. The contradiction between Zionism and democracy has become clear over the years by the practice of racism and discrimination at all levels. Israelis have to deal with suppressed guilt and projected aggression, as well as the conflict of identity in being Jewish, Zionist and Israeli. The collective Israeli psyche

in part has grown to become one of fear and paranoia. If peace is ever to become a reality, it must be based on the mutual recognition of rights and aspirations not on brutal suppression of the Palestinians and obliteration of their legitimate rights.