Israel Matzav

The 'Palestinians' are depressed

Yesterday's Washington Times reports that more than 90% of the 'Palestinians' residing in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are 'depressed' about their situation due to the ongoing violence between Fatah and Hamas (which has heated up again) and the collapse of the 'Palestinian' unity government.

Jamil Rabah, the director of Ramallah-based Near East Consulting, said he found that 92 percent of Palestinian survey respondents suffer from depression-related anxiety, a jump of 15 percent compared with a poll in October and more than double the level from November 2005.

"The higher the level of depression, or discontent, the higher this score comes out, the higher the social fragmentation of society," Mr. Rabah said.

Mr. Rabah said he built a depression index with questions used by the World Health Organization to study the Balkans.

...

Analysts fear the growing despair will cause more grass-roots Palestinians to be drawn into an internecine conflict, which has been largely limited to militias from rival parties and families. Other reactions include rising support for radical Islamic militant groups as well as increasing waves of emigration.

"There's a high level of frustration. It's getting dangerous. There isn't any value to life," said Ibrahim Habib, field-work coordinator for the Israeli chapter of Physicians for Human Rights. "A lot of people feel the [Palestinian] Authority is irrelevant."

Of course there's no value to life! These people teach their children that the best thing in the world to be is a suicide bomber!

But wait: Guess who they're blaming:

Cairo Arafat, a psychologist and an official in the Palestinian Planning Ministry, said that, though the survey doesn't address levels of clinical depression among Palestinians, it indicates an erosion of Palestinians' coping mechanisms developed over seven years of daily clashes with the Israeli army.

In addition to the internal fighting, Palestinians are hemmed in by Israeli restrictions on their movement, as well as an international aid boycott of the government.

In other words, as usual, it's everyone's fault except the 'Palestinians!'

I know: Let's give them a state reichlet. Then they won't be depressed anymore because they'll be too busy blowing up Jews....

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:17 PM