Webinars

Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) update from Dr. Yaser Abu-Jamei

Speakers:

• Dr. Yasser Abu-Jamei, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP)
• Stewart Ting Chong, former Board Member of GMHF
• Doctors Against Genocide
• Jewish Voice for Peace Boston

Links shared during talk:

• Report Dr. Yasser Abu Jamei mentioned: https://www.gcmhp.org/news/882
• Join Doctors Against Genocide here: https://doctorsagainstgenocide.org/join-our-coalition
• Join Jewish Voice for Peace Boston (JVPB) as a member here: https://bit.ly/JVPB-memberinfo
• Musician Basel Zayed here: https://www.youtube.com/@Basel.Zayed.

Panelists explore Gaza’s cycles of trauma, recovery, and re-traumatization.

Since October 7, Israel has dropped the equivalent of two nuclear bombs on Gaza, killing and wounding tens of thousands, displacing 1.5 million, and creating conditions on the ground that inevitably lead to more death, injury, and disease.

Yet this humanitarian catastrophe is not the first Gazans have endured. The majority of the population are refugees displaced from their homes in the 1948 Nakba. Forty percent of today’s Gazans are under age 15. In their lifetime they have seen five Israeli bombing campaigns on their homes, not to mention the deadly force Israel used against Gazans participating in the primarily nonviolent border protests of 2018-2019.
How does this affect the physical and mental health of the people of Gaza, particularly the children? For how many generations will this damage remain? Panelists will explore Gaza’s cycles of trauma, recovery, and re-traumatization, centering on three short films: “Gaza: A Gaping Wound”; “So They Know We Existed”; and “Heroes of Gaza: The Extraordinary Doctors, Living & Working in a Warzone”.

Panelists:

• Samah Jabr: Head of the Mental Health Unit within the Palestinian Ministry of Health; founding member, Palestine-Global Mental Health Network
• Ahmed Alnaouq: Palestinian journalist; co-founder of We Are Not Numbers
• Steve Sosebee: Founder and President, Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund
• Alice Rothchild (moderator): Author, filmmaker, and Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School (Ret’d); founder, Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council

Drs. Othman Mohammed and Alice Rothchild discuss the medical, human rights, and mental health consequences of the war on Gaza.

Speakers:

• Dr. Alice Rothchild is a retired ob-gyn, author and filmmaker who last visited Gaza in August 2023 as part of a delegation focused on human rights
• Dr. Othman Mohammed is a child psychiatrist, born and raised as a refugee in Lebanon, currently Assistant Professor of Psychiatry with UMASS Chan Med School-Baystate

More than 15 years into Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, and after rounds of devastating Israeli bombing campaigns, life in Gaza continues to become more difficult and traumatic for the two million Palestinians who live there.

What is it like to live under such conditions, with no end or reprieve in sight? Join FMEP for a conversation among experts about the current state of mental health in the Gaza Strip, and what it might mean for the future of Gaza’s residents. We will look at the findings from a recent study conducted over two years by Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) and the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP).

Featuring:

• Dr. Yasser Abu-Jamei, Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
• Ghada Majadli, Physicians for Human Rights, Israel
• Razzan Quran, George Washington University
• Dr. Yara Asi, (FMEP Non-resident Fellow)

source: FMEP