William Brangham:
The Binational School of Psychotherapy launched about seven years ago trains postgraduate students to care for traumatized children, this in an area with seemingly endless conflict.
The trainees are a mix of Jewish Israelis, Arab Israelis and Palestinians all learning together. I recently spoke to the program's two directors, Esti Galili-Weisstub, who is a Jewish Israeli, and Shafiq Masalha, a Palestinian Arab Israeli.
Thank you both so much for joining us today.
Obviously, it's impossible to encapsulate everything that young people are absorbing and seeing and experiencing in the midst of this war. But I wonder if you could just talk a little bit about the kinds of challenges that these professionals will have to deal with trying to help children who are living through this experience.
Dr. Esti Galili-Weisstub, Co-Director, Binational School of Psychotherapy: When children suffer from extreme trauma, as they are, they are damaged in a multifunctional way.
Their concentration is damaged, so their intellectual abilities are damaged. Their ability to create, their ability to imagine, they are all damaged. The anxiety shows up as behavioral problems, as problems with connecting with the others, or with feeling safe, being able to enjoy play.
It's like basically having something of an iron cast kind of stifling all your mental and cognitive functions.
Dr. Shafiq Masalha, Co-Director, Binational School of Psychotherapy: At this time in the war, we are counting the number of people who are dead or injured, but we do not really have any idea now about the psychological harm that's going on and that will show itself very soon.
I'm very afraid that the next generation of the Palestinian people in Gaza will be really suffering from this trauma.
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