Hilary Wise 11 May 2015. Posted in News
Israeli
industry minister says, “People like to buy things that have been tested. If
Israel sells weapons, they have been tested, tried out.”
MONA
SAMOUNI was 10-years-old when she lost her home, her parents and 19 other
relatives, after they were crushed before her eyes in one of the bombing raids
of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2009.
In
an award-winning film, she speaks of her past experiences with an almost eerie
detachment, as if she is telling someone else’s story.
One
can only guess at what is going on behind that calm facade, as she sends a
heartbreaking message to other, luckier children: “I ask the children of the
world to take good care of their mothers and fathers... People don’t appreciate
the blessings they have till they lose them.”
For
years after that shattering event, Mona obsessively drew and redrew the images
that haunted her - “a sea of blood and body parts”. She suffered recurring
nightmares, fits of anger and lack of concentration at school. But thanks to a
loving family environment and intensive therapy, she seems to be gradually
recovering.
'Continuous
PTSD'
Of
the 900,000 children in Gaza, UNICEF reckons 373,000 are in need of
“psycho-social first aid”.
The
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP), which runs three psychiatric
clinics in Gaza treating both children and adults, struggles to cope.
Psychiatrist Yasser Abu Jamei, who heads the GCMHP and who himself lost many
members of his extended family in last summer’s onslaught, said: “There was no
place for parents and children to hide... You never knew where the bombs were
going fall.”
According
to Dr Abu Jamei, the most common symptoms among children are anxiety and fear.
They are afraid of being separated from their parents, have frequent nightmares
and often develop a stammer. Schools report higher levels of aggression and low
school achievement for many children. An important part of GCMHP’s work is
training both teachers and parents on how to deal with the aggression.
Of
the situation in Gaza, Dr Abu Jamei jokes: “This is a form of continuous post
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)" - or, as I like to say, it can’t be
"post-traumatic stress disorder" if it is not yet "post".
Because, beyond the daily privations of life in Gaza - the desperately
overcrowded housing conditions, inadequate food, a contaminated water supply,
badly damaged schools - the wider context is one of ongoing, unpredictable
attacks.
Understanding
Israel’s strategy
The
film in which Mona Samouni appears, Where Should The Birds Fly, gives the lie
to Israel’s claim that its assaults on Gaza are purely retaliatory: we see the
harassment of farmers attempting to harvest their crops and of fishermen trying
to earn a living in the polluted stretch of sea where they are supposedly
allowed to put down their nets. But for the presence of international
observers, the casualties from such attacks would undoubtedly be much higher.
In
seeking to understand Israel’s seemingly random brutal actions, we should
remember a key slogan in Bill Clinton’s election campaign: “It’s the economy,
stupid!”
An
Israeli-made film, The Lab, lifts the lid on the Israeli arms industry - a
multi-billion dollar a year earner and the backbone of Israel’s economy. As the
title indicates, Gaza is the place where the effectiveness of Israel’s
super-sophisticated weaponry and new military strategies can be evaluated and
demonstrated to the world.
Israeli
industry minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer explains in the film how Israel has an
edge over its competitors in the field: “People like to buy things that have
been tested. If Israel sells weapons, they have been tested, tried out.”
Even
more chillingly, Amiram Levin, former general and now an arms dealer, explains
to a rapt audience the role of the Palestinian people: “You have to understand,
most of these people [in Gaza] were born to die - we just have to help them.”
Israel
has certainly been launching increasingly violent attacks on Gaza every couple
of years since 2008, and arms sales have been soaring. Does this mean that the
people of Gaza can expect a fresh all-out assault every time the Israeli arms
industry needs a boost, irrespective of international conventions on the rights
of civilians?
The
recent report by the Israeli military whistleblower organisation Breaking the
Silence, confirms that the Israeli army is now in open contempt of the accepted
rules of armed conflict: last summer soldiers were told to shoot and shell
anything within range - the range of a tank being two kilometres. Those who
questioned these orders were told: “There are no innocent civilians.” No wonder
the dead in the last onslaught were very largely civilians, including 537
children.
An
uncertain future
But
what if Palestinian children, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, were also
unwitting subjects in another long-term experiment - one of social and
psychological engineering? In the West Bank children may not suffer the traumas
of those in Gaza - but when your parents are humiliated by soldiers and
attacked by settlers before your eyes and you fear a violent incursion by
heavily armed men in the middle of the night, what are the long-term
psychological effects?
As
Israel’s sophisticated psychologists must know, witnessing and experiencing
violence and humiliation while being powerless to resist breeds anger,
frustration and the desire for revenge. Is this precisely what Israel wants? Do
they hope to produce a generation of disturbed young people, some of whom will
be spurred to desperate acts of retaliation? There is a logic to it. Israel
relies absolutely on provoking some form of violent response, however
ineffective, that it can use to justify its demonstrations of military might
and its ongoing expropriation of Palestinian land.
Gazan-British
mental health worker Wasseem El Sarraj speaks of the “sustaining rituals” of
everyday life in Gaza, which somehow survive: “There is laughter, happiness and
beauty amid deep and profound suffering.”
The
population is fortified by a strong sense of identity, enduring family networks
and the knowledge that both international law and natural justice are on their
side. But all fear that Gaza’s legendary resilience may be put to the test once
more, before long.
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