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English > Current Affairs > Archive by region > Middle East
by Eric Beauchemin
27-10-2008
Israel has barred over 100 foreign experts from entering Gaza to attend an international conference on mental health. The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme and the World Health Organisation spent over a year organising the two-day meeting.
The conference, entitled "Siege and Mental Health...Walls vs. Bridges" will discuss the effects of the siege that Israel imposed on the territory in the summer of 2007 after Gazans voted the Islamist Hamas movement into power. Israel describes the conference as propaganda. Since the Hamas takeover, it says it has only allowed humanitarian workers into the territory.
Rhetoric
It is easy to get lost in the rhetoric. Gazans describe their territory as a prison, an assertion the Israeli authorities vehemently deny. Gazans speak of a siege, another claim Israel denies.
But beyond the claims and counter-claims, independent studies have shown that one-third of Gazans suffer from mental health problems, ranging from stress and anxiety, to depression and suicidal tendencies. Another third of the 1.5 million people, squeezed into this tiny sliver of land, measuring only 45 kilometres by 5 kilometres wide, are at risk.
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When the siege began in June 2007, his business collapsed. He had to let all his employees go, and since then, he has been selling his sewing machines one by one to support his family.
"I sleep all day now because there's no reason to get up. There's nothing. I'm very depressed. There's no hope. I'm under constant pressure and I feel that there's no way out."
Prison within a prison
Fouzan is in therapy and takes medication to try to deal with his depression. He spends his days in his garden, trying to escape the pressure he feels within his home. He believes that his mother, his wife and his children all blame him for the situation. Home has become a prison within a prison.
"I come here to try to avoid thinking about the fact that I can't feed my children. It relieves my stress for a while. I feel that I have failed as a husband and a father. I was a businessman. Since the siege, I have become a beggar. But at the end of the day, I have to go back home and face my family."
Siege within a siege
Gaza is a very conservative society, which doesn't recognise or accept mental health problems. But many, many people in Gaza have even more acute problems than Fouzan. They can't turn to family or friends because of the shame.
It was these people that the foreign academics wanted to meet to get a better understanding of the effects of the siege. But they won't be allowed to speak to Fouzan and the other patients being treated by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. As the organisers put it, the conference about the siege has itself come under siege.
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According to the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme's director, Dr. Eyad el Sarraj, "the Israelis, who were trying to tell us that Gaza is not under siege now are telling us very clearly, ‘yes you are under siege, and we don't want even scientists to come'. Israel is arrogant with its power. The rest of the world needs to see this."
Tags: Eyad el Sarraj, Gaza, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, Israel, mental health, World Health Organisation
Barbara Harvey, blmharvey@sbcglobal.net, 28-10-2008 -
News coverage of the Erez crossing protest.
Thomas, 27-10-2008 - USA
We applaud the reappearance of the Israel bashing, terrorist supporting Leftist-Islamist alliance. The pesky Jews donated billions of $$$ worth of greenhouse equipment when they left Gaza: all have been destroyed by the Hamas mob. The crying game goes on as this fellow said: "He employed 30 women who made clothes for the Israeli market." It was not good enough for the Arabs so they started the Quassam play and here we go again with the crying game: "and since then, he has been selling his sewing machines one by one to support his family." May be your leftist newsman, E. Beauchemin feels deep sorrow for these Hamasniks but no other people with a modicum of common sense think alike. Besides, how is Mr. Alan Johnston of BBC mental health going since his public conversion to Islam?