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Name
depressed
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Profession
Question
Would you please tell us the most difficult situation and problem someone would face- on the psychological level- when a raid begins, is it the sound of the planes , the vision of blood, the passing away of beloved. WHat is psychologically the worst?
Answer
These are all traumatic evidences which can affect all those involved in such traumatic events. Making comparisons between these different things in terms of the most worst thing depends on individuals who are engaged.
Name
a Muslimah
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Profession
Question
How is it possible to help those in need, the children and the women who are now homeless, desperate to feel comfort and peace. If money is needed it there an authentic organization that might deliver it to them.
Answer
All types of support are needed, tangible support, social support and emotional support. Most of the Palestinian NGOs working in Gaza Strip are involved in a way or another to support victims in Rafah, so any of these organizations could receive all donations from outside to support Palestinians in Rafah.
Gaza Community Mental Health Program is one of these organizations, the mental health program is running a crisis intervention project to support people in Rafah. You can contact GCMHP under the following email address: amal@gcmhp.net
Editor note: If you are willing to assist Rafah people, just go to this site: helping Rafah people.
Name
Someone
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Profession
Question
Do you think that the psychological pain of a child living in Rafah , who saw in front of him his HOME demolished , can be repairable.
Answer
Homes in Palestinian society mean safety and security. Losing homes leads to losing these feelings, which are one of the basic needs for human beings. In addition to that, land and homes are a source of identity for Palestinians, who have passed through similar experiences more than 50 years ago. The Palestinian generation who have been uprooted from their homeland in 1948 still keep the keys of their homes they left more than 50 years ago. Also, they still keep documentations that prove they own the land of Palestine. The grandfathers' generation is still teaching their grandchildren that there is a big loss in their life. This indicates that losing home could not be repairable and could lead to a lot of psychological disturbances. However, the will to live is still there among every single Palestinian.
This gives them the hope for future.
Name
Samirah
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Profession
Question
I have seen from your biography that you have made a lot of researches on the effect of torture within prisons on victims , can you give us some insight into these social and psychological effects.
Answer
The research studies conducted to figure out the impact of imprisonment and torture on Palestinians who have experienced maltreatment inside Israeli prisons showed out that the majority of those ex-prisoners are suffering from various psycho-social problems, examples of these : post-traumatic stress disorders, depression, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders (ie, dlusional disorder).
These types of problems have been resulted from the torture techniques used by the Israelis. One of these techniques, for instance, is psychological, which aims to break down trust among prisoners on one hand and among prisoners and their people on the other hand. To achieve that, Israeli interrogators use some Palestinian prisoners who were unable to tolerate torture, they use them to work as collaborators with Israeli interrogators. Those people are living with other prisoners inside prison talking to them and asking about their activities outside, thoroughly some of the Palestinian prisoners who achieved moral victory on their interrogators by not confessing or giving information. Under the euphoria of such moral victory, they told those collaborators who were colleagues of struggle yesterday everything about themselves, their associates outside... etc.
Those who experienced such things have been sentenced by the Israeli authorities based on information they deliver to their colleagues. Mistrust among those prisoners has resulted in certain psychological problems and even disorders as we mentioned before (paranoia).
Also, ex-prisoners are suffering from family problems, mainly those who spent long periods of time inside prison (ten years, 15 years) they went back home unable to deal with their kids who became adults. The development process of their children has not translated into images in their mentalities, that's why they found it difficult in many cases to deal with their children.
Name
Samir
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Profession
Question
WE have read the other day in newspapers that the Israelis have helped in torturing the prisoners of Abu GHarib , as someone who knows through his empirical studies, the techniques the Israelis use , do you personally think this may be true???????
Answer
Israelis are pioneers all over the world in this field. There is no doubt that Israelis are involved in torturing Iraqis in Abu Ghraib, since many of the torture technique that took place in Abu Ghraib have been originally developed in the Israeli prisons and practiced against Palestinians (ie. witnessing torture of others, sexual assault, making news of torture known in the community, shaking which might lead to death). By the way, Israel is the only state in the world that legislated using torture against Palestinians, mainly shaking. Israelis were also involved in torturing Chileans and South Africans and maybe other parts of the world.
Name
----
-
Profession
Question
This is not a question but a simple request just tell us :" How is it like living in Rafah"
Describe the daily struggle and the suffering and hardship. How do people manage to survive.
Answer
Life in Rafah is a nightmare; I was there yesterday trying to help, we found people who detached themselves from reality to avoid pain. They used for that denial and dissociation, while others were trying to look for their relatives and loved ones while family members of martyrs were grieving. The general scene in Rafah is catastrophic. Those who visited Rafah before might not be able to recognize certain places or homes.
Name
sakina fareeed
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Profession
Question
In what way are the Palestinian refugees different than others, or is the situation of refugee much the same everywhere.
Is there anything which makes the Palestinians more " resisting" more "unbeatable" than other refugees.
YOU see other refugees do not fight and take life as it comes and do not struggle (like the Palestinians ) are the Palestinians and is their mentality - really different , or is just their situation different.
Answer
Palestinians are unique in their experience. They have been uprooted from their homeland. The uprooted people are living in what is so called "refugee camps". Life in one of these refugee camps is a trauma itself. More than that, Palestinians living in Gaza Strip are exactly like those who are living in a prison. There is a lack of movement freedom, ambualnces cannot reach hospitals, sick people might die waiting in their ambualnces at Israeli checkpoints, medical staffs might not be able to reach their work, students lose access to their schools, families cannot reach each other due to fragmentation process by the Israelis intentionally. On top of that, Israeli tanks and bulldozers invade all places in Gaza Strip, bulldozering farms, demolishing homes and killing people. What do you think what Palestinians should do?
Name
sorraya imam hassan
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Profession
Question
What is your organization trying to do in order to help to improve the current situation in Rafah.
Answer
My organization is working on two different levels in Rafah; the first one is preventive by debriefing traumatized people in order to promote psychological reseliency due to our previous experience in dealing with such situations, we have found out that debriefing people immediately after trauma helps them to cope better with traumatic experience. This process includes adults and children, which could take place on individual levels or in groups.
The second level is therapeutic by referring those who need intensive service to our community mental health centers distributed in Gaza Strip. A special intervention is for women, where GCMHP established a woman empowerment program located in Rafah, aiming to empower women in order to be able to adjust the traumatic situation.
Name
moheeb
- Palestine
Profession
journalist
Question
Do you think that there are many Palestinian people in Rafah who had been shoked from the last Israeli attack , can you give us some numbers about the children and women who have been affected.
thank you
Answer
During the last Israeli attack in Rafah, 150 houses were demolished, accordingly 330 families became homeless, the total number of these family members is 1,500.
In addition to that, 62 Palestinians were killed, 50% of this figure were below the age of 18, and 270 Palestinians were seriously injured. Those are all shocked people, and also the rest of Palestinians living in Rafah, because others are waiting to live the same trauma, since Israeli forces are still there in Rafah, declaring that Rafah area is used to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza Strip. This means that more homes will be demolished. Some Palestinians started to leave their homes actually in order to save some of their things.
Name
ahmed
- Palestine
Profession
old presioner
Question
Dr ahmed I want to ask you about the Palestinian prisoners' psychology in Israelian jails ,what's the psychological proplems they face and how do the Palestian athuority or associations help them to face those proplems.
Answer
Part of the answer of your question was mentioned before. The other part is related to the role of the Palestinian government and other organizations in helping ex-prisoners.
As you know, there is a Ministry called the Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Detainees working to support prisoners and their families by nominating lawyers who defend prisoners while in prison and developing rehabilitation programs to empower those prisoners after being released. This is the domain where other Palestinian NGOs working in Gaza Strip are trying to help ex-prisoners.
Name
Mokhter
- Bangladesh
Profession
Faculty
Question
Do you think that the repercussion of the house-demolition in Rafah will make the whole world volatile for living while it will tempt the unjust and brutal power everywhere to do whatever they want without any human consideration.
Answer
Israel, with the support of the United States, is ignoring all human right's declarations. The Israeli army acts in the occupied territories are violations of the basic principles of human rights. They ignore the right to live for Palestinians, that's why Israeli soldiers intend to kill children. In Rafah during the last attack, Israeli soldiers killed 15 of the children, some of them were below the age of 4.
Name
Ηγ έαΣΨνδνΙ
- Palestine
Profession
ΡΘΙ ΘνΚ
Question
My question is that I hope of the kind doctor to show me( I am a Palestinian mother ) how to deal with my children who wet their beds at night, as some of them are now 12 years old, in addition to that I have a 3-year-old child who has bed-wets at day too, so how can I deal with them.
Also, I hope you can provide us with some solutions to the "nocturnal" fear in children, as my 5-year-old girl suffers from this illness.
Answer
These are normal reactions to the abnormal situation. Many children respond to their traumatic experience by showing such symptoms and signs. Advices and counseling are available at the toll free line number: 1800-222333. Don't hesitate to call GCMHP at this number where you'll find specialists ,who will answer all your questions.
I wish you and your kids good luck and quick recovery.
I would like to thank you for your courage to ask such questions, because many of those who have similar problems are hesitant and reluctant to visit specialized centers which provide the services needed.
These centers are there to meet the needs of the community, where many of the children who pass similar experience to your children are manifesting the same responses.
Name
Nini
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Profession
Question
Thank you very much for the efforts shown in your site and we Palestinians realy appreciate all your contributions that give us suppert to face the problems we are facing.
can you provide us with an advice to support us psychologically especially these times we are homeless and no infrastructure infront of us?
Answer
Generally speaking, social support network is crucial in these situations, mainly to provide those in need with the support needed. This includes various kinds of activities as we mentioned before by providing all types of support for those in crisis are helpful. To be more specific in this regard, I recommend all those who pass such a situation to belong to a group of friends or relatives telling them what happened with him/her and talking about associated emotions and thoughts or ideas, because psychologically speaking, all symptoms and signs are based on emotions and emotions are products of thoughts and ideas. Traumatic experiences affect thoughts of people by making them distorted, so these distorted thoughts will produce pathological emotions, which will lead to symptoms and signs. If these settings are not available, don't hesitate to call GCMHP on the toll free number: 1800-222333.
Name
----
-
Profession
Question
Do you have accurate account of the number of homes demolished, kids killed and families displaced within the last weeks?
Answer
According to the statistics delivered by Al Mizan center for human rights in Gaza, the number of homes demolished during the last Israeli attacks on Rafah were 124 homes completely demolished, 226 were partly demolished. Number of homes demolished in Gaza Strip in total is 5,013 out of this figure were 2,200 were in Rafah.
The number of injured people were 270 and number of killed people were 62, 50% of them were below the age of 18. The number of homeless families are 330, including 1,800 family members.
Name
John
- Alaska
Profession
Question
How do you evaluate the role of the NGOs in helping the people of Rafah, and where does the GCMHP fit into these NGO's?
Answer
NGOs functioning in Gaza Strip are involved in a way or another in helping the Palestinians in Rafah.
GCMHP is one of them. As we mentioned before, GCMHP intervenes on two levels; preventive and therapeutic. More details on the GCMHP role was mentioned before.
Name
Maria
- Italy
Profession
Question
How time does it take for the people of Rafah to wait until their trauma can be removed, and what could be done to make their pain less?
Answer
Trauma in Palestine is ongoing, and as we mentioned before, all people living in Rafah expect new rounds of the Israeli attacks as if they are living the trauma before it took place.
Trauma healing in Palestine could be achieved after the Israeli army withdrawal and when there is space for peace which is highly needed for those, who are suffering from ongoing trauma. Without that, the suffering will continue and more new victims will break down.
Name
Mokhter
-
Profession
Faculty
Question
Last Word:
Answer
Instillation of hope is a crucial issue when talking about victims of trauma and violence.This could be achieved through providing all types of support tangible, social and emotional.
All of the participants of this live dialogue could help through lobbying and advocacy to support Palestinian rights, each in his/her own place. If you are not brothers in religion with Palestinians, you are still brothers in humanity.
