On World Mental Health Day, October 10, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) launched “Occupied Minds,” a multimedia exhibition featuring the work of Magnum photographer Moises Saman documenting the mental health challenges facing Palestinians living in the West Bank. The traveling exhibition opened in Amman, Jordan.
“Palestinians living in the West Bank experience enormous levels of direct and indirect violence in their daily lives, and this is having an impact on the mental health of many of them,” said Juan Carlos Ramos, MSF head of mission in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “Every day, our teams work to support people suffering as a direct result of events related to the violence, including detention of relatives, violent home and school raids, house demolitions, the killing of family members, searches at checkpoints, and day to day harassment by settlers and soldiers.”
MSF has run mental health support programs in the West Bank city of Hebron since 2001. In 2018, MSF mental health teams have provided over 6,400 people with individual or group counseling, psychotherapy, psychosocial first aid, or psycho-educational support. However, mental health issues remain a stigmatized topic in the region, discouraging many of those who need help from seeking it.
Saman´s documentary work explores the personal impact of traumatic events on Palestinians living in Hebron. Here are some of the stories featured in the exhibition: