Psyche, Science, and Society

Dr. El-Sarraj on Psychosocial causes for the Palestinian Factional War

February 20th, 2007

In a new article, Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj , director general of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, discusses The Psychosocial causes for the Palestinian Factional War. I has glad to see his acknowledgment that the suicidal power struggle ripping apart Palestinian society is pathological. Dr. El-Sarraj is not afraid to confront the dangerous effects of the Palestinian myth of the purgative effects of violence.

Many questions even after Mecca meeting remain … what has become of us? Our people have suffered for 59 years from displacement, homelessness, discrimination, impoverishment and expatriation, but they withstood that suffering and never killed each other; so what happened to us? The late Arafat rejected a plan to kill Abu Nidal, who had already killed a number of Palestinian leaders, and said, “If we start this series of killings, we will never stop.” So what happened? I have heard stories about new forms of cold-blooded and callous murder, and about Palestinians denigrating and holding as infidel other Palestinians or accusing them of heresy and bigotry as a prelude to ostracizing or murdering them. I have also heard numerous stories about children who have been horrified and traumatized and have fallen victims to nightmares, loss of appetite, insomnia and fear of street-walking. What is happening to us? How could things amount to assaulting homes, mosques and universities?

Politics and political difference alone do not provide the answer. There are several additional social and psychological factors for what is befalling this society. A safe and stable environment is one that produces normal children, while the environment we have been living in since the occupation is one in which violence proliferates and becomes rampant.

He discusses the after-effects of torture of Palestinian prisoners by Israelis, the effects of violence in the Intifadas on children, the abysmal performance of the Palestinian National Authority, and the absence of a common enemy as contributing factors.

His:

Conclusion

The systematized repression and torture that the Palestinian people was subjected to under the Israeli occupation, the poor performance of the PNA as embodied in the absence of law and justice and maladministration all led the youth to seek and cling to a new identity which is different from that of their helpless parents and which holds that naked force is the only means to avenge themselves over the suppression they have long been subjected to.

The formation of those political, partisan and religious identities and the view that ultimate force is the model of heroism are the major cause of the status quo of Palestinian armed conflict which finds its fuel in many causes such as division, hatred, and vindictiveness of a generation that rebels against the declining family system and the chaotic PNA.

[Thanks to Gilbert Achcar for sending this.]

Entry Filed under: Culture, Palestine, Psychoanalysis, Psychology, Radical Politics, Social Issues, Torture