Presenter Biography
I am a third year dual degree MSW and MPH Health Promotion candidate,
Institution
PSU
Program/Major
MSW/ MPH Health Promotion
Degree
MSW, MPH
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
4-4-2024 1:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Keywords
complex trauma, trauma, PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, colonization, colonial, decolonization, decolonize mental health, settler-colonialism, Palestine, chronic stress
Abstract
The growing settler colonial project of Israel forced indigenous Palestinians to flee from their homeland to further the Zionist movement of establishing a Jewish-majority state. The forced dispossession and displacement of Palestinians at this time was referred to as the Nakba, or catastrophe (Masalha, 2002). From 1947 and 1949, approximately 750,000 Palestinians from a population of 1.9 million were made refugees (Al Jazeera, 2017). Also referred to as the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Zionists forcibly took over 78 percent of Palestine, destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed around 15,000 Palestinians including more than 70 massacres (Al Jazeera, 2017). Since October 7th, 2023, Palestinians have continued to be under violent besiegement of the Israeli occupation through carpet bombings, forced starvation, aid deprivation, and massacres. Current figures still do not reflect an accurate number of Palestinian child fatalities in both Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian youth have been forced to live under violent occupation since they were born and have been reported to live with psychosocial challenges due to the conditions brought upon by Israeli occupation. According to Dr. Samah Jabr, the Palestinian head of mental health services, she described how there is no “post” in Palestinian youth facing trauma because it is never-ending. Furthermore, she continues how Westernized clinical definitions of mental health do not apply to the experiences of Palestinians (Goldhill, 2019). In exploring decolonial and Indigenous mental health frameworks and practices, how can they address the complex historical trauma of the ongoing violence of settler-colonialism among Palestinian youth?
Included in
Exploring Decolonial and Indigenous mental health framework and practice to address complex trauma among Palestinian youth living under violence of settler-colonialism
The growing settler colonial project of Israel forced indigenous Palestinians to flee from their homeland to further the Zionist movement of establishing a Jewish-majority state. The forced dispossession and displacement of Palestinians at this time was referred to as the Nakba, or catastrophe (Masalha, 2002). From 1947 and 1949, approximately 750,000 Palestinians from a population of 1.9 million were made refugees (Al Jazeera, 2017). Also referred to as the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Zionists forcibly took over 78 percent of Palestine, destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed around 15,000 Palestinians including more than 70 massacres (Al Jazeera, 2017). Since October 7th, 2023, Palestinians have continued to be under violent besiegement of the Israeli occupation through carpet bombings, forced starvation, aid deprivation, and massacres. Current figures still do not reflect an accurate number of Palestinian child fatalities in both Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian youth have been forced to live under violent occupation since they were born and have been reported to live with psychosocial challenges due to the conditions brought upon by Israeli occupation. According to Dr. Samah Jabr, the Palestinian head of mental health services, she described how there is no “post” in Palestinian youth facing trauma because it is never-ending. Furthermore, she continues how Westernized clinical definitions of mental health do not apply to the experiences of Palestinians (Goldhill, 2019). In exploring decolonial and Indigenous mental health frameworks and practices, how can they address the complex historical trauma of the ongoing violence of settler-colonialism among Palestinian youth?