On 9th December, Palestinian psychiatrist, Samah Jabr MD, gave a talk in London in collaboration with SOAS and the UK-Palestine Mental Health Network.
Dr Jabr, who is based and works in Jerusalem, opened her talk by providing some context to thinking about mental health in Palestine, particularly from an external point of view. ‘The news presents Palestinians as numbers’ she argued, ‘but this doesn’t talk about the impact on the people’. Dr Jabr argued this was particularly true during the Gaza crisis when international audiences were bombarded with statistics detailing those killed, injured or displaced. When presented with such large numbers, she explained, it is difficult to imagine the individual psychological suffering people are experiencing.
However, Dr Jabr also pointed out that crises can be opportunities, both to improve awareness about the Palestinian plight and also to recruit solidarity among the international community.
Giving an overview of the picture of mental health in occupied Palestine, Dr Jabr argued that we must start with the Nakba, the original expulsion and dispossession of Palestinians in 1948. ‘The narrative of the Nakba’, she explained, ‘is passed on from one generation to another; from grandfather to grandchild.’ She described asking one young woman in her 20s living in Lebanon ‘what was the worst day of your life?’ and receiving the answer ‘the Nakba’. In other words, this event is as present in the lives of the second, third, fourth and fifth generation Palestinians as it is for those who lived through it.
The Nakba is also a repetitive event in the lives of Palestinians, according to Dr Jabr. If we define the Nakba as expulsion, this is a repetitive trauma experienced by almost all Palestinians. Dr Jabr herself for example, who has lived in Jerusalem all her life as have her father and grandfather before her, isn’t a citizen of any country, only a ‘resident’ according to Israeli law. The occupation too is an example of repetitive trauma. Dr Jabr argued that ‘occupation is not only about eliminating the possibility of Palestinian statehood, it is about damaging Palestinian personhood’.
Also damaging to the Palestinian psyche, according to Dr Jabr, is the impunity with which Israel acts which is a result of the clichés which shape public opinion. She argued that on the one hand Israel is painted as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’; as acting only in defence; as possessing the ‘most ethical army in the world’ and carrying out only ‘surgical strikes’ while Palestine is portrayed as a ‘culture of hate and death’; as not being ready for democracy and is accused of using its children as human shields.
But, like other experts working in the same field, Dr Jabr argued that resilience is the psychological effect arising from this situation: ‘resistance and resilience are the norm and pathology the exception in Palestine’. Palestinians do experience psychosocial or psychological problems but these do not necessarily lead to pathology. Their resilience depends on them being able to give meaning to their struggle, she argued. In the same way that an athlete is able to endure pain and suffering in order to excel in their sport, Palestinians can endure their own pain and suffering if they are able to see some meaning in it; this is why narrative and social cohesion are so important.
She argued that Palestinians are aware of their situation and are conscious of trying to make up for their economic and political problems by investing in education. In this way, Dr Jabr argued, despite their massive socioeconomic challenges, they are able to compete on the regional stage none the less through their high levels of education. Palestinian women are some of the most highly educated in the Middle East for example.
Dr Jabr argued too however, that if resistance is not allowed to flourish in Palestine, people risk ‘internalised oppression’. When their leaders are not able, or willing, to stand up for them on the local or world stage, or when resistance is put down by their own leadership, levels of internal oppression rise among the Palestinian people. Examples of this include President Abbas pledging support for Israel’s security or the perception among the Palestinian people that even their own police force are there to protect the Israeli people.
So what can we do? Dr Jabr argued that, in the face of so much suffering, international solidarity can be as important as humanitarian aid. ‘In Palestine today’ Dr Jabr argues ‘there is grief but not despair; disappointment but not bitterness at a world whose ignorance and moral numbness has permitted so much cruelty to come our way.'