The worker said that living with the threat of retaliatory shootings and missile
strikes has made the Palestinians tense and uneasy.
" They want to clear the territory and kill the resistance movement. They
destroy 20 houses and arrest 100 people. They want to cut off the head of the
snake, but if they kill 10 it creates 100 more terrorists," the worker said.
It has been a way of life for years.
" I was born in a refugee camp. Our generation has been raised here, but
we are displaced persons. Proposition 194 says we must have two states. Our people
have the position we will not leave our land, and if they come to take us away
... we are not afraid to die," the worker said.
It was obvious that the mental health professionals saw Israel as trying to force
them out of their country and that Israel’s retaliation for the suicide
bombings was not bringing the situation any closer to a peaceful settlement.
Men who are detained have been shot with the claim that they were trying to escape,
the participants said. They were concerned that Israeli soldiers have demolished
homes with little pretext.
The Israeli army has destroyed homes and property of relatives of people connected
to terrorist attacks, they said. The participants were concerned that the rest
of the world is not paying attention to the dehumanizing collective punishment
strategy employed by Israel.
The Palestinians believe they have been dehumanized. They feel helpless to do
anything about it. The workers were not surprised that some of their people have
carried out suicide bombings - in their final moments they feel that they can
accomplish something to help their people.
Several stressed that the United States is wrong to classify the suicide bombings
in the region to the terror attacks on America.
The United States, the workers said, is not an occupied country with no way to
fight against oppression.
" We’re under occupation," another mental health worker said. "We’d
just like rights as normal people living under freedom."
" The more pressure they put on us, the more we attack. There are reasons
for the attacks; we want the occupation to stop.
" Since 1948 our land has been taken and settlers are squeezing us. We’re
humiliated every day, and our IDs are checked everywhere. We are desperate people,
and desperate people do dangerous things. We can’t fight back any other
way.
" The army blows holes in our walls to get from one place to another. The
dead are left in the streets. It looks to me just like the holocaust. Why didn’t
they learn from their own experience?
" I don’t want to smell death anymore."
