Girl with balloons by Bansky on the Israeli West Bank wall at the Qalandiya checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, Sunday, Dec.,2016. Mick Tsikas/Press Association. All rights reserved.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognised mental health as an essential component of health since 1946. Yet, around the world, mental wellbeing is an underfunded, under-resourced and largely misunderstood area of health provision. In extreme environments such as war, the detrimental impact on civilian’s mental health is one of the most significant consequences. Following recent events in Gaza and with the Israel-Palestine conflict now in its seventieth year, Palestinian’s need for adequate mental health services is a growing imperative.
Over fifty years of occupation enforced by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has exposed Palestinians to perpetual traumatic events including humiliation, imprisonment of youth, torture, house demolitions, land confiscation, movement restrictions and unemployment. These routine human rights abuses are continual and pervasive. From apartheid road systems and checkpoints, to settlements and of course the wall, the psychological stress incurred by the occupation has left the population with one of the highest rates of mental health disorders in the Middle East.
