On UN World Mental Health Day, Palestine Deep Dive presents: Palestine’s Mental Health Crisis: Personal and Collective Trauma Under Israeli Occupation

Dr Samah Jabr is the Director of the Mental Health Unit of Palestine’s Ministry of Health in the West Bank and is a trained psychiatrist.

Her practice goes beyond clinical consultation and training, but also addresses the wider Palestinian community's suffering from the ills of Israel's oppressive occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism.

According to Dr Jabr: “The Israeli occupation is not only a political issue, but indeed a mental health problem. The injustice, daily humiliations, and trauma each and every Palestinian experiences have caused a repetitive injury, both to the individual and collective minds of my people. In Palestine, abuse and trauma are ongoing, enduring, and they affect every aspect of Palestinian life. Individual personalities are impacted, as is the value system of the community as a whole.”

Palestine has an overwhelmingly young population. In previous shows we’ve focused on Gaza’s child mental health crisis; 80% of Gaza’s children now report living with depression, grief and fear according to Save the Children. Join us this time as we Deep Dive into Palestine’s Mental Health Crisis as a whole at this tumultuous moment.

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