Introduction:
Military occupations, wars, and forced rule have negatively impacted societies. It mostly results in long-term damage. There are profound and long-lasting impacts on the economy, displacement, and loss of humans, social, political, environmental, cultural, and intragenerational impacts. But one of the most significant detriments is psychological trauma, which inflicts unseen damage that extends far beyond and upshot conflict. Under military occupation, Palestinian children face severe psychological trauma.
Dr Iman Farajallah, a psychologist in the United States, has extensively researched the psychological trauma in the children of Gaza due to military occupation. She was also born in Gaza. So, she has first-hand experience of living under Israeli occupation. According to her research, 95% of the Palestinian children show symptoms of anxiety, depression, and trauma.
Life under occupation; children’s voice:
There are some painful cases reported that show the mental health of children. A mother named Amal in Gaza, who has four children whose ages are between 7 and 14, said that my children cannot focus on basic tasks anymore. They even fail to think about the minor things that I have told them immediately and cannot recall things that have just happened. I would not say that their mental health has deteriorated; it has been obliterated, complete psychological destruction. In another report, there is a person named Sameer, father of a child, said that I have two sons, one wants to become an engineer, and the other’s goal is to be a police officer. But now, due to the brutal prevailing situation, one wants to drive a donkey, and another dream is to sell biscuits in front of the house. These cases show the worst conditions of Palestinian children. The depression, hopelessness, and disturbance prevail in them.
The children of the 21st century are the fifth generation of Palestine living under military occupation, bearing brutal bloodshed, coercion, and destructiveness. Children of Gaza are referred to as the world’s largest “open-air prison” by Human Rights Watch.
Juncture leads to military occupation in Palestine:
There are some notable conflicts between Arabs and Jews that led to the military occupation in Palestine. The explanation is listed below. In the late 19th and early 20 centuries, a nationalist movement arose in Europe among both Arabs and Jews community, particularly Zionism. The Modern Zionist movement developed due to antisemitism in Europe. Its central ideology was to establish a homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people, which was under the Ottoman Empire at that time. Palestinian Arabs opposed the idea.
This movement was empowered during the First World War, when the enormous number of Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the war, Britain took control of Palestine and officially recognized the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland, which led to violence because there was a 90% Arab population at that time (Al Jazeera).
A significant violent confrontation followed between Arabs and Jews, which includes the 1929 Hebron massacre and the 1936–1939 Arab revolt, also known as Sixth-Month Strike. The first phase of revolt was led by the Arab National Committee in which they boycotted Israeli products. The second phase (1937) was spearheaded by a peasant resistance movement targeting British forces and colonial structures. In 1939, Britain sent thirty thousand troops to Palestine, which led to killing, destruction, and administrative detention. British and Jewish forces formed joint counterinsurgency units, such as the Special Night Squads (Al Jazeera). Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary formed during this that, later became the core of the Israeli army.
During the years of revolt, approximately 5,000 Palestinians had been killed, 15,000–20,000 wounded and 5600 imprisoned. In 1947, the UN proposed a partition plan for the Arab state and the Jewish state. According to which 55% of Palestine was allotted to the Jewish state, including key coastal areas while Jerusalem was to be placed under international control. Israel accepts, and Palestine rejected it.
Consequences of the 1948 First Arab Israel war during which Jewish paramilitary forces expanded beyond the UN-proposed borders. As a result, thousands of Palestinians were killed and displaced, which is known as the Nakba (“catastrophe”). It ended in 1949. By the 1949 armistice, the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian administration, and the West Bank was annexed by Jordan in 1950.
The past two wars led to the third “Six-Day War” between Israel, Jordon, Egypt, and Syria in 1967, in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Many Palestinians view this as a second forced displacement, called the Naksa (“setback”).
First Intifada (1987-1993) Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation, marked by protests, boycotts, and violent clashes, resulting in the deaths of 237 children. During this period, Hamas was founded. It led to increased international attention and the beginning of peace efforts. In Oslo Accords (1993-1995), which contain many agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and its goal is to resolve the conflict through a two-state solution. However, the process stalled, and violence continued. And Israel constructed a barrier around Gaza.
Second Intifada (2000-2005) was a more violent Palestinian uprising following the breakdown of peace talks. It resulted in a significant loss of life and further entrenched the conflict. After Yasser Arafat’s death, Hamas won the 2006 elections. In June 2007, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza. accusing Hamas of terrorism. Israel has launched four brutal military assaults on Gaza in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021.
So Gaza has been prone to repetitive cycles of violence for many years and is in a state of chronic humanitarian crisis (WHO, 2022). These protracted conflicts and military operations continue to inflict severe suffering on its civilian population.
The Invisible Wounds; Psychological Trauma:
Clashes not only injure bodies they have an everlasting effect on psychological well-being, with the potentiality of dire consequences (IASC, 2008). Many researchers explore different consequences of war, but one of the most important and invisible is depression in children. (Chu & Lieberman, 2010). The more brutal wars impact people at higher levels of psychological illness and trauma, and in which 30% result in PTSD. Due to the prevailing situation in Palestine, it was reported that many children in Gaza are in fear, they have repetitive nightmares in which their lives are at risk, they want to escape and save their lives. It highlights that children in conflict situations experience minor to major psychological, emotional, social, and academic disorder symptoms.
In a recent study by El-Khodary (2020), it was documented that 88.4 % of Palestinian children are suffering from personal trauma, 83.7 % facing other types of traumas, and 88.3 % facing belonging annihilation. The conclusion drawn from the study is that 53.5 % of the participants were diagnosed with PTSD, “post-traumatic stress disorder.”
According to Al Ghalayini and Thabet (2017), the 51-day war left a harsh impact on Palestinian preschool children in the territory of Gaza. The most distressing and common observations that children experienced are hearing shelling (95.5 %), hearing drones (89.2 %), and watching lacerated bodies on television (81.2 %). It is also documented that PTSD was common in 25.7 % of adolescents, and depression and anxiety as highly widespread.
Common symptoms of PTSD;
There are signs to diagnose specific diseases, same as with PTSD, people go through some sort of sickness, especially among children, it is hyperarousal, which includes aggression and difficulty sleeping, re-experiencing past events, feeling depressed, showing somatic symptoms, meaning the person focuses more on physical pain, with feelings upset and jumpy.
Whispers from the Rubble; A Child’s Life in Gaza:
One of the incidents with a child of Palestine having a long-term impact on his psychological well-being is that a 3-year-old child named Abdur Rehman was watching his father and uncle when killed by a bomb of Israeli army. When he met with his grandmother, he asked her, “My uncle has no head. Who killed my father? Where did he go? “Abdur Rehman asked many associated questions about his father’s death, that who is behind the killing of his father. He asked, “Where is my father? When is he coming back home?” his grandmother dealt with him politely, saying, “Your father is in heaven.” He wants to know that “Where is heaven?” so she tells him that, “He is in the heavens with God.” The shocking response came from Abdur Rehman: “Grandma, ask God to return my father to me; I want to sleep next to him.” He often asked these questions to everyone he met, crying for his father.
Conclusion:
The children of Palestine endure many of war hardships and catastrophes. They are future of Palestine and It is impractical or illogical to expect quick progress in their psychological health. If it is not addressed there is collective destruction of people. This is not just a geographical issue, which is a hurdle to their fundamental human rights it is a constant psychological siege. Temporary ceasefires and food aid are not just enough a firm action is needed to address the root cause for their right to safety, health, and education. With the elimination of Israeli occupation, the Palestinian people can rebuild their lives. It is one of the crucial steps to the betterment of children’s well-being and lasting peace.
The Author, is an Independent Researcher.
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