James Zogby: Why Does the US Press Ignore the Trauma Experienced by Palestinians in Gaza? Racism

Because we don’t see Palestinians as fully human, we fail to understand how destroying their lives, denying them a normal present and a hopeful future can result in deformities in their sense of self.

One thing of which we can be certain is that there will be consequences to the genocide in Gaza. 

It is difficult to wrap one’s arms around the excruciating pain being endured by Palestinians in Gaza. We only know the rough outline of the devastation. Tens of thousands have been murdered in aerial bombardments, over 100,000 have sustained serious injuries, the majority of homes have been demolished, and, as a result of Israel’s blockade, mass starvation is impacting more than one and one-half million people. In addition, hospitals and schools have been destroyed, and other essential services to provide support for births, illnesses, deaths and grieving, and treatment of the psychological wounds of war have been largely terminated. 

We know that most of the dead and wounded are civilians, with the majority being women and children. We also know that upwards of 4,000 people have lost limbs. And many wounded children are the only survivors in their families, making them maimed orphans without a support network. 

If we don’t demonstrate compassion and implement a comprehensive approach to rebuilding Gaza and restoring a sense of wholeness to its people, I fear what the future may have in store.

I’ve written before about the indecency of those “day after” discussions that focus exclusively on matters of governance or bricks-and-mortar while ignoring the human dimension and long-term consequences of this conflict. Of course, those governing and reconstruction issues are important, and it is gratifying that working papers are being developed to address them. But building housing and infrastructure and creating administrative structures should not be the sole considerations; attention must also be paid to addressing and healing the physical and psychological wounds of this war. 

Consider the psychic wounds experienced by Gaza’s children. We know that significant losses produce trauma. Losing a parent, a sibling, or a friend, or even just moving to a new neighborhood can be unsettling and have an impact on behavior or mental stability. We also know that the degree of the shock can be mitigated by other factors. For example: the discomfort experienced by a child when their family moves to a new city and the child loses friends and a familiar environment can be somewhat offset by a supportive family. 

But what if, as is the case in Gaza, your family has lost many loved ones (parents, children, and close extended family members), been forced to move multiple times, and is now living in a tent without food or water? And then imagine that during the last cease-fire, children, already traumatized by loss, joined the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians making the long trek northward to their old homes. What they find upon arrival is that not only their home but also their entire neighborhood is rubble and unrecognizable. And then they are forced to deal with hunger and the indignity of witnessing their parents begging for food. 

We know that as we grow our brains organize our experiences so that they sense to us. We develop a mental map of our relationships and our place in the world in which we live. But what if, in the case of a 12-year-old returning to Gaza City, they find that there is no home, and the way to school, the neighborhood store, a friend’s home, or the mosque or school have all have been erased. The compounding of multiple losses and extreme dislocation can only be seen as profoundly traumatizing. Under these circumstances it is impossible to calculate the severity of the impact on this child’s well-being or future development. What will become of them, their older siblings, and their parents? How will their brains ingest and make sense of all of these losses? 

Given the seriousness of this situation, it becomes imperative not only to end the conflict and make plans for reconstruction and governance, but also to create strategies to address psychic and developmental needs as well. The U.S. press focuses on the need to address the trauma of those young Israelis who’ve been held hostage in Gaza. This is obviously needed, but what is disturbing is the extent to which we’ve ignored the trauma experienced by Palestinians in Gaza. Why? In a word, racism. 

Because we don’t see Palestinians as fully human, we fail to understand how destroying their lives, denying them a normal present and a hopeful future can result in deformities in their sense of self. If we don’t demonstrate compassion and implement a comprehensive approach to rebuilding Gaza and restoring a sense of wholeness to its people, I fear what the future may have in store. 

Even now, neither Israel nor the U.S. have shown any interest in addressing the humanity of Palestinians and instead are advancing plans that see this much beleaguered people reduced to pawns to be moved about to help Israel achieve its goals. 

The solution must come from a forceful and united stand taken by Arabs and key European states to sanction Israel for its crimes, force them to evacuate Gaza, and end their occupation of Palestinian lands. Then and only then, under an international mandate, can reconstruction begin that will rebuild Gaza and help to heal the wounds of the Palestinian victims of this war. 

If we do not take this course, there will be hell to pay as the bitter seeds being planted today will be bearing fruit in future generations.

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First published in Common Dreams. Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices (2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community.