Long-Term Solutions for a Short-Term World: Canada and Research Development

Chapter Five: Under Fire: Doing Research in Warlike Conditions

C H A P T E R F I V E Under Fire: Doing Research in Warlike Conditions Rita Giacaman, Yoke Rabaia, and Viet Nguyen-Gillham Historical and Contextual Overview Palestinians have been living in protracted conflict for almost one hundred years, with varying degrees of exposure to violence and security threats and with periods of extreme Israeli military brutality. Warlike conditions are not only part of daily life; they have become normalized to some extent as a matter of survival and resilience.1 The carnage of the Gaza Strip beginning December 27, 2008, is only one the many periods when Palestinian civilians were exposed to extreme and extraordinary Israeli military brutality . Described as a war crime,2, 3, 4 the massacre and atrocities committed by the Israeli army on the destitute Gaza Strip have been the most ferocious onslaught since the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, when the state of Israel was created on Palestinian land. During the 22-day Israeli attack of the Gaza Strip, almost 1400 Gazans were killed, mostly civilians, and thousands injured, in addition to the rampant destruction of infrastructure, homes, schools, universities, and mosques. The capacity of the Gaza health care system which needed to respond to an enormous number of casualties had already been severely compromised by the state of siege imposed on Gaza for over a year and a 87 half. Yet, tragically, information on the appalling conditions of the Strip continues to be sanitized by the Western, particularly the U.S., media,5 who, in most instances end up blaming the victims. It is impossible to tell the story of who we are, what we do, and why we do what we are doing, without looking back at Palestinian history. Our daily lives, our work in research, our field interventions, and our raison d’être are all inextricably tied to the century-old story of injustice towards the Palestinian people, and their resilience, agency, and unyielding hope for positive change. A historical overview is also important because the Palestinian narrative of injustice and the struggle for liberation has largely been ignored in the Western world. An understanding of Palestinian history will prepare the way for an understanding of why we focus on psychosocial health, in particular, on that of young people. The story begins in 1917, when British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour stated in a letter to Lord Rothschild, the leader of the British Jewish community , that “His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” with the understanding that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”6 This statement effectively promised the land on which Palestinians had lived for centuries both to the Palestinian indigenous inhabitants and to mainly European Jews who believed that establishing a Jewish state was the only way to provide protection from European anti-Semitism. The Balfour Declaration led to the beginning of a series of hostilities and wars, and, ultimately, to the ongoing conflict that exists today. Seventy-eight per cent of the Palestine that had existed as a unique social, cultural, and national entity for centuries7 was transformed into the State of Israel. As documented by the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé,8 more than three-quarters of the Palestinian population was forcibly dispossessed and expelled from the country between 1947 and 1949, turning them into refugees in neighbouring Arab states.9 Ironically, anti-Semitism was not a Palestinian creation but a European one, yet the United Nations General Assembly chose to solve its problem by creating a new tragedy, that of Palestinian eviction and dispersion, Israeli military occupation of Palestinian land, and protracted warlike conditions. The major collective trauma of the 1948 Palestine War is still felt by third-generation refugees, especially those still living in refugee camps.10 88 r i t a g i a c a m a n , y o k e r a b a i a , a n d v i e t n g u y e n - g i l l h a m In 1950, the West Bank was annexed to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian military administration. About twenty years later, Israel occupied the rest of Palestine (the West Bank, including...