Thoughts from the Palestinian Teritorries

14 February 2008 – Half of my patients are children having faced a traumatic event, e.g. an incursion, and the other half are usually the mothers and close relatives of those arrested. “Patients” mean that children have nightmares, bedwetting, somatic complaints and fear, while adults are sad and crying, they show lack of interest in daily life, they cannot sleep or eat and suffer from intrusive memories and flashbacks. They also have health problems for the same reasons. I put myself in their shoes to feel the impact in all its parameters and support them as much as possible.

Especially mothers are the most “difficult” patients. Maybe because being a mother may mean worrying about your children anyway. So much when children at the age of 14, 15, 16 and over, have been taken in the middle of the night with their pajamas only, beaten in front of their parents and put to jail with an open-time sentence. How are these mothers coping with this? Basically they spend their days waiting for a phonecall from the jailed son, waiting for a permit to go visit him, waiting for his release, waiting for a court and a trial to fix a sentence, wondering if her son found clothes, if he needs blankets, if he lost weight, if his moral is ok, if he is crying, if…if… Imagination fills in the gaps. They are worried as any mother would, and they are getting confused also with this political situation, as sometimes they ended up saying “at least I know where he is”. This means that they accept the imprisonment and whatever that implies as the best possible situation compared with other existing ones, e.g. becoming a martyr. It is easy to write about it, but to accept it means denying many of the dreams and ambitions usually parents have. It is a hard reality, which leads to an unfair but realistic adaptation.

My work with them goes up to a point. It goes up to the point when they can feel well and cope without feeling guilty, to the point that my need to support does not disrespect the difficulty of the situation and the feelings attached. Even when we agree to conclude our sessions, I cannot help thinking about them for long after, keeping an eye

30 January 2008 – Yesterday, we were wishing with the children I work with that it would snow in Hebron. There were some signs but when I woke up today I could not believe my eyes. During the night, it snowed heavily and if you add the wind and the cold, the scene is really perfect. If you stay at home in front of a fireplace I mean. I know that children will be very happy, it is a chance for them to play outside, to make snowmen, to “fight” with snow ammunition.

I cannot help thinking of how things are with such weather for the people here that cannot afford to pay for electricity, for warm clothing, for transportation, for buying food in case they get stuck in. Or how enjoyable can snow be when whole families, babies and children included, have to spend 3 hours standing outside in the cold at night, without warm clothes, waiting for an incursion to end. Or how is it for the 7 year old boy somewhere in the mountain that he lives, having to walk 2 hours to go to school and to 2 to come back…

For many people here, life is difficult. Because of the conflict, lots of things are not as we from outside take for granted usually. One of them is the way people live in their own houses, many times having no control on who’s entering, how the house ends up after and how many members of the family remain after the “visit”. The children I work with usually suffer after such “visits” – bedwetting starts, nightmares, fear, somatic complaints.

We tried together to work on these problems, having in mind that they need to adapt to the current situations and manage them in order to continue living, playing and behaving as children are supposed to.

Snow and playing out with it, doesn’t matter how cold they may feel, is one of the few things that Palestinian children can enjoy as all the other children in the world, this right of playing with at least what nature brings cannot be violated by any political situation. Conflict or not, today children play.