Third Bethlehem International Conference, Bethlehem University, Palestine Click Here
Under colonial violence and active genocide, the destruction of Gaza extends beyond physical infrastructure to the systematic erasure of Palestinian identity, memory, and intangible heritage. This presentation draws on firsthand psychiatric work in Gaza. At Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, nearly 1,000 displaced patients were seen over a month, many suffering from trauma-related psychosis, addiction, depression, and spiritual despair.
These psychiatric conditions reflected more than clinical symptoms-they signaled the unraveling of cultural continuity. Families, religious life, education, and intergenerational memory had been violently interrupted. In this context, mental health collapse mirrored the targeted erasure of intangible heritage.
Amid extreme resource scarcity, psychiatry became a form of cultural preservation.
Testimony, storytelling, and emotional witnessing offered patients a chance to restore coherence, dignity, and identity. This presentation argues that in Gaza, mental health work is not only humanitarian but archival and cultural-validating lived memory and resisting erasure.
This underscores the need to broaden cultural preservation frameworks to include psychological survival in war zones; to challenge archaeologists, cultural heritage professionals, and mental health practitioners alike to recognize the role of psychiatric care in defending collective identity.
