Young Palestinians Face a Steep Toll on Mental Health

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In the West Bank, a Teen Mental Health Crisis

“It just twisted something inside of me, like I felt those emotions coming out. I was scared,” said Dalia Amra, a 10th-grade student in Ramallah, while hearing explosions on the news. “I was terrified, actually. It could be me next.”

Since before the start of Israel's latest siege of Gaza, Palestinian mental health has been under distress. In 2022, a collaborative report found that more than half of Palestinian adults in the West Bank and Gaza suffer from depression, a figure about 10 times higher than the global average. The report also noted high rates of PTSD and other mental health issues.

The report did not include nearly half of the population in the region: Palestinian youth.

According to mental health experts, young Palestinians are particularly vulnerable when it comes to the region’s mental health crisis. That is the focus of Pulitzer Center grantee Kern Hendricks’ new film, released earlier this month by Undark magazine.

Through interviews with teens, parents, and mental health practitioners, the short documentary explores the trauma experienced by Palestinian youth and their families living in the West Bank as they watch the attacks on their friends and family through the news and social media.

“This brings anxiety. Most of them, they feel hopeless, they feel helpless,” says Muna Odeh, a psychotherapist in Ramallah who runs a mental health hotline for Palestinians. “It is hard as a youth to live in a place where nothing is certain.”

Support for this project comes from the Pulitzer Center’s Peace and Conflict reporting grants, which support journalism and engagement on the roots of conflict, peacekeeping initiatives, and the connections with underreported global issues. We are actively seeking project proposals on the Israel-Gaza war, and invite reporters, editors, and media organizations to submit ideas that go beyond breaking-news headlines and share underreported stories from the region.

Best,

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Impact

“What’s It Like To Live in a News Desert?”, a story by Pulitzer Center grantee Vagner de Alencar and his team at Agência Mural, has been featured by LatAm Journalism Review, a trilingual digital magazine published by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Almost half (48.7%) of Brazil’s municipalities lack a local journalistic outlet. The story uncovers what life is like in a news desert, and how the absence of information affects daily lives and public debate. Agência Mural reporter Jacqueline Maria da Silva told LJR:

“We hear so many [negative] things about journalism, it's so difficult, people devalue it so much ... And this report warms our hearts to see people understand that journalism is important, even though there are many things that go against it and a lot of devaluation."

Read the full project How to Choose One’s Vote in a News Desert here. 

Photo of the Week

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“Documenting adoptees and children in institutions is challenging because I had to create images without revealing their identities, retraumatizing, or fueling the stigma that surrounds them. I made sure to consult their social workers or adoptive parents to learn the best way to approach the children. Establishing trust among the people I photograph takes time and I would not have been able to do it without Pulitzer Center’s support.”

—Bernice Beltran

This message first appeared in the July 19, 2024, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.

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