“I realized that I was breaking”: The West Bank’s invisible mental health crisis

Rahaf’s breaking point came when they detained her fourth brother, Hamzeh, while he was at work. “I never thought they would take Hamzeh,” she says. “When they detained him he was at work at the gas station. There was a video recording, and we saw them beating him. We didn’t hear anything about him until they brought him home 60 days later.”

Rahaf’s is a familiar story. Palestinians across the West Bank, and in particular in Hebron, suffer similar experiences every day. Some are persecuted by Israeli settlers seeking to establish ownership over the land, while others receive notice that their homes will be demolished. Some witness the demolitions, while others enter into legal battles that can last years.

Together, these experiences create an environment of constant instability, anxiety, and stress, which can take a serious toll on mental health. Children, in particular, are vulnerable to long-term mental health issues as a result of witnessing or suffering traumatic events. From February to July 2019, MSF reached 8,145 people with mental health services, of whom more than 60 percent were children. Our project continues to expand, seeking to provide services to as many of those affected as possible.

Raghda, a mother of six, is familiar with this toll. She has been fighting a demolition order issued for the house that she shares with two of her children for the past 11 years. She finally sought psychological help from MSF in 2014, when her 12-year-old son was detained by the Israeli military and imprisoned for six months. She breaks down in tears as she recounts this episode, describing the impact that it had on her and her children.

“I am not the kind of person who normally shows sadness, but because of everything I went through, I began to cry in front of them. I was not like this before. When I reached this point, I recognized that I was breaking. I am not an aggressive person who hits children, so I started to break plates and glasses. I felt that I was letting my anger out by breaking these things, instead of hurting my children or myself.”

The mental health issues that arise in response to traumatic events like those suffered by Ragha can lead to a prolonged sense of frustration that can lead to the breakdown of families and communities. In Hebron, MSF works to counter the worst impacts of mental health issues connected to the occupation by offering free psychological support by trained mental health workers to those who present with symptoms such as nightmares or trembling.

Abu Firas is one of the MSF psychosocial workers in Hebron who supports families showing symptoms of mental health issues. He has worked at the Hebron project with MSF for nearly 20 years:

“You can imagine what the response of a mother or a father might be when they witness the demolition of their house. People suffer from stress, anxiety, sleeping problems; they feel all the time that their lives are threatened, they have no vision of the future, they are always frustrated and hopeless,” he says.

“Our role as psychological social workers is to help people get back to normal and introduce them to the resources they have. Some return to their universities or schools, and some return to work and support their families. For me, this is an achievement.”