Mental suffering among Gazans on the rise
By Eyad El-Sarraj
 

The debacle of 1948 is considered a turning point in the mental state of the palestinian people and society. This event has left its mark on the generations born since.

So has the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Its effect on the social and economic structures of those areas is everywhere to be seen. So has the violation of human rights, the thousands imprisoned and rendered homeless: These events have deeply of the Palestinians.

If the Intifada was a popular expression of the Palestinian people's refusal to accept occupation, it was also an operation to cure themselves of the feeling of impotence and of the mental pains that had assailed them in the years before the Intifada began.

In the first years of the Intifada, Palestinians cultivated a positive image of themselves. More than merely giving vent to their anger, they were taking their fate into their hands.

For this freedom, they paid a high price: 1,474 killed; 150,000 incarcerated; 130,000 wounded, amongst them thousands maimed for life.

From the point of view of mental health, the oppressive measures used by the occupation forces have had a deteriorating effect at all levels of Palestinian society, bringing about an increase in mental problems.

A 1992 study by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program establishes that 12 percent of the adult population is suffering from severe depression.

The situation has had a damaging effect on the growth and development of children. A child is certainly affected by the sudden house search methods of Israeli occupation forces, and by the sight of his or her father being humiliated. These mental grievances are compounded by long stretches of school closures.

Besides, children have been shot at by live rounds and rubber bullets, leaving them more often than not with injuries difficult to heal.

Studying the cases of 2,590 children, the Gaza Community Mental Health Program established the following:

  1. 85 percent were exposed to cases of raids and house searches by the occupation forces.
  2. 4.5 percent suffered from broken bones.
  3. 42 percent were beaten.
  4. 55 percent had watched as their fathers were beaten and humiliated.
Another study reflects the following:
  1. 14 percent are suffering from various manifestations of mental deterioration (bed-wetting, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, loss of speech).
  2. 30 percent are suffering from behavioral outbursts that can be traced to the cumulative effect of the suffering of several generations.
 Women, on the other hand, have been exposed to an unexpected source of violence. Relegated to a secondary rank and still considered - just like every where in the Third World - as the source of warmth and tenderness and support for child and husband alike, women in the West Bank and Gaza are also now learning to bear the brunt of their husbands' wrath. Husbands humiliated by the occupation forces often take out their anger on their wives.
But on the whole, the occupation has called for more mental strength among women than ever before. With many husbands either killed, imprisoned or expelled, women have had to take on greater responsibilities and to cope with greater pressures.
 

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