Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, USA; Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA; and Chief Strategist at Health for Palestine, Palestine.
Psychiatrist and Executive Director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, Palestine.
Health Hum Rights. 2020 Jun;22(1):179-185.
The Gaza Strip is under an Israeli land, sea, and air blockade that is exacerbated by Egyptian restrictions and imposes an enormous cost in terms of human suffering. The effects of blockade, poverty, and frequent attacks suffered by the population have taken a significant toll on people's mental health. The Great March of Return, a mass resistance movement begun in March 2018, initially provided a positive impact on community mental health via a sense of agency, hope, and unprecedented community mobilization. This improvement, however, has since been offset by the heavy burden of death, disability, and trauma suffered by protestors and family members, as well as by a failure of local and international governments to alleviate conditions for Palestinians in Gaza. Reflecting on the ephemerality of the material and political gains of this movement, this paper shows that Palestinian and international health practitioners have an opportunity to develop an understanding of the psychosocial consequences of community organizing and mass resistance while simultaneously providing holistic mental and physical health care to community members affected by the events of the Great March of Return and other efforts.
加沙地带受到以色列陆海空封锁的影响，埃及的限制使封锁情况更加恶化，给人们带来了巨大的痛苦。封锁、贫困和人口经常遭受的袭击对人们的心理健康造成了重大影响。“回归大游行”是一场始于 2018 年 3 月的大规模抵抗运动，最初通过赋予人们权力感、希望感和前所未有的社区动员，对社区心理健康产生了积极影响。然而，自那以后，抗议者及其家属所遭受的死亡、残疾和创伤的沉重负担，以及当地和国际政府未能减轻加沙地带巴勒斯坦人的状况，抵消了这种改善。本文通过反思这一运动的物质和政治收益的短暂性，表明巴勒斯坦和国际卫生工作者有机会了解社区组织和群众抵抗运动的心理社会后果，同时为受“回归大游行”和其他事件影响的社区成员提供全面的身心健康护理。
