Cross-Cultural Counseling

The Arab-Palestinian Case

Frank De Piano

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780789001566
• eBook ISBN: 9781317791058
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

As a therapist, you may find yourself at a brick wall when you try to treat Middle Eastern, North African, South American, Asian, and other clients with psychotherapeutic techniques formulated in the West. As Cross-Cultural Counseling: The Arab-Palestinian Case illustrates, the construction of self, community, and society is remarkably different in Arab countries. Only certain aspects of Western psychotherapy can be adapted to respond to the unique sociopolitical conditions and cultural factors affecting the mental health of people raised to consider community needs over self needs and desires. This text suggests a biopsychosocial approach to treating psychological disorders among Arab clients and highlights differences in the prevalence and manifestation of psychological disorders among peoples of South/Eastern backgrounds, as compared to what is known in the West. You'll gain an education and understanding from Cross-Cultural Counseling that helps you provide more effective services to Arabs and Palestinians to meet their mental health needs. Cross-Cultural Counseling shows you how divesting therapeutic techniques of cultural sensitivity results in the alienation of clients who are not accustomed to recognizing or meeting their individual needs. It suggests a biopsychosocial approach to treating psychological disorders among Arab clients and highlights differences in the prevalence and manifestation of psychological disorders among peoples of South/Eastern backgrounds, as compared to what is known in the West. Challenging therapists to discard their misconceptions and biases about people who don't fit the Western mold in terms of individualization, identity, and personality, the book also covers:

• different sociopolitical situations in Arab countries and the maintenance of authoritarian and collectivistic culture
• psychocultural features of Arabs
• socialization in Arab homes and schools
• help-seeking behavior among Arabs and poor mental health service delivery in Arab countries
• factors threatening the unity of the Palestinian family
• therapeutic recommendations for traditional clientsAccording to author Marwan Dwairy, Cross-Cultural Counseling is meant to "undo the dehumanization that has surrounded Palestinian-Arabs and help clinicians to understand the behavior of the Arab client and come to know the person in him or her." Certainly, no other book can help you, as a psychologist, psychiatrist, or mental health professional, treat Palestinians, Arabs, and other South/Eastern clients as efficiently and successfully.

PART I: THE ARAB-PALESTINIAN CULTURE

Chapter 1

The Palestinian Arabs

As a Palestinian living in Israel, I frequently face various difficulties in introducing myself to Western people.

When I say “I am Palestinian,” people find it difficult to know my country because Palestine does not exist as an independent state yet. Then the conversation usually proceeds in the following way:

“Oh, from Pakistan,” attributing the misunderstanding to my accent.

“No, I am from Israel.”

“You are a Jew then.”

“No, I am an Arab.” Then I explain, “Palestinians are Arabs like Egyptians, Syrians, Saudies.”

“So, are you Muslim?” They show signs of surprise, which I have learned are related to my blond hair and fair skin that do not fit the stereotype of Muslims.

“No, I am a Christian. Among Palestinians there are Muslims, Christians, and Drouzes.”

After this confusion, it becomes clear that it is difficult to understand my background. Some people find it easier to end the conversation with a silly smile and a head nod, while others realize it is complicated and ask for more explanation.

THE PALESTINIANS’ STORY

Palestinians have been associated for a long time in the West with terrorism, first because of the dominance of Jewish propaganda in the Western mass media. Second, the Jewish tragedy of the Holocaust justifiably gains the sympathy of the West toward Israel, making the country appear to be a victim that is defending itself. Therefore, the Palestinian attacks against Israel overshadow the Palestinian tragedy and casualties that have been caused by Israel. Third, for historical and political reasons, Western countries have built a strategic alliance with Israel to serve their interests. Fourth, the Palestinians have failed for decades to gain access to the Western media and to communicate to the Western mainstream in a language consistent with Western culture. They have mistakenly assumed that their cause is obvious enough to speak for itself and to justify their military struggle. For these reasons, the Palestinians are known to the West by their struggles against Israel, rather than by their history, culture, and human aspects. Therefore, there is a need to dispute the misunderstanding that surrounds the Palestinian people and their tragedy.

Before the establishment of the state of Israel, Palestinians lived in their homeland, Palestine, under the British mandate. They were the majority, while the Jews, who immigrated to Palestine during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were a minority. During the war in 1948, more than 70 percent of the Palestinians were expelled from their homeland and became refugees. The state of Israel was then created on land that was 75 percent of Palestine. The other parts of Palestine were divided; the West Bank was appended to Jordan, and the Gaza Strip to Egypt. Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan. As the result of an intensive Jewish immigration immediately after the creation of the state of Israel and because many Palestinians abandoned their land, the few Palestinians who stayed in their homeland became a small minority living under a military regime in Israel, and the others became refugees in Arab countries such as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. The Israeli government refused to take back any substantial number of Palestinian refugees; they expected that they would sooner or later be absorbed into the populations of the countries where they had found refuge.

In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in addition to other parts of Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. During this war, some Palestinians became refugees for the second time, while the others stayed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, known as the occupied territories, and lived under the Israeli occupation. In December 1987, the Palestinians in the occupied territories started a national popular uprising, Intifada, against the Israeli occupation. This uprising, sustained for more than five years, made it clear that the occupation of another nation’s lands cannot last. World governments became aware of the injustices that were being done to Palestinians and pushed toward a solution to this problem. A peace process between the Israeli government and the Palestinians, which was initiated in Madrid in October 1991 and simultaneously in Oslo in the early 1990s, accomplished a peace agreement between the two parties. According to that agreement, in 1994 the Israeli army started to withdraw gradually from the main cities in the occupied territories and submitted those cities to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Negotiations are still taking place concerning the other occupied territories as well as the permanent solution. The Palestinians demand an independent state, while Israel is still not ready to accept this solution. The status of Jerusalem in the permanent solution seems to be one of the toughest issues in the negotiation.

Demographic Data

The number of Palestinians today is about eight million; 43 percent of them are living in Israel and the occupied territories, 44 percent are living in surrounding Arab countries such as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt, and the rest, 13 percent, are spread over different countries around the world.

Sixty percent of the Palestinians are still living as refugees, away from their villages and cities, under foreign regimes in different places: in the occupied territories that are ruled by the Israeli military regime, the Arab countries, and many other non-Arab countries in Europe and America. Most of the refugees are living under miserable socioeconomic situations.

Today Palestinians live in small villages and towns or in refugee camps. Before 1948, the vast majority of the Palestinians were peasants who worked on their lands. After they lost their land, the vast majority became laborers. Among those who live in Israel or the occupied territories, about 80 percent are working as laborers far away from their villages. Most of them are working on a temporary basis. The rate of unemployment among men (who are usually the breadwinners in Arab families) is very high, ranging from 20 percent to 50 percent. Only a small portion of Palestinians have successful businesses, which are mainly in the Arab countries, especially in the Arab oil countries.

The Palestinian family is a traditional one, with an average of six children in the nuclear family. The population is young; about half are children and teenagers. Due to this fact, and because the vast majority of women are homemakers, the Palestinian society is a consuming rather than a producing one.

Many factors have threatened the unity of the Palestinian family. The expulsion and deportation of Palestinians have physically torn many families apart. For instance, some brothers or sisters are living in Jordan, while others are in Lebanon, and still others remain in their homeland. For many decades they have not been allowed to meet or correspond because of the state of war between Israel and the Arab countries. During the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1967, half of all Palestinian men have been arrested and imprisoned for months or years by the Israeli army, which has left thousands of families without providers. In the refugee camps in the Arab countries, men have been obligated to leave their families for months or years looking for ways to earn a living in other areas or countries. As a result, the Palestinian father has become removed from his family, which makes the mother more central in raising the children and caring for their needs.

THE ARAB/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE

As Arabs, Palestinians share the Arab culture that stems from the collective Arab/Muslim experience. Therefore, to understand the cultural background of the Palestinian Arabs, it would be helpful to present Arab history.

Looking back at Arab/Muslim history, we may identify four major periods, each representing a distinct layer in the Arab cultural structure (Dwairy, 1997b).

Aljahiliyya

In the period that preceded the emergence of Islam in a.d. 622, Aljahiliyya, Arabs lived in tribal systems in the Arabian peninsula, Syria, and Iraq. Many of them were nomads, traveling in the desert, looking for water and a livable climate. Some were settled cultivators, tending their grain or palm trees in the oases; some were traders and craftsmen in small market towns; some combined more than one way of life. An ethos of courage, hospitality, loyalty to family, and pride of ancestry was dominant. Arabic poetry flourished, reflecting this ethos. Poetic language, with refinement of grammar and vocabulary, emerged out of formal Arabic language.

Collectivism and authoritarianism were the main cultural characteristics of that social system. People submitted to the authority of the tribe to survive in the tough desert climate. Age and gender were the main factors in the authority hierarchy. Young people submitted to older people, and women submitted to men. Collectivism included the nuclear and extended family, as well as the whole tribe. All of them shared the property and destiny and adhered to the authority of the tribe, the shikh’. The collective stand against other tribes was known as ‘asabiyya. Honor belonged to an individual through membership in a large whole. Much of that honor depended on the wealth of the tribe, as well as the behavior of the women. Women were expected to be submissive, modest, and decent. Women who deviated from these norms would hurt the so-called “honor of the family” and, therefore, would face severe punishment.

Islamic Empire

Immediately after the emergence of Islam in the Arabian peninsula in the early seventh century, Arab/Islamic armies conquered the surrounding countries and founded a new empire. This empire expanded from Iran in the east, through North Africa, to Spain in the west. At that period, the style of living changed from nomadic to peasant and town life. Trade flourished from the Indian Ocean through the Mediterranean Sea to Spain. Large cities, mosques, and palaces were built according to a distinctive Arab/Islamic style with pleasure pavilions set amid gardens and running water. They developed a system of irrigation that would bring water to the inhabitants of the cities (Hourani, 1991). Transportation and mail systems and hospitals were built during this period. The first mental health hospitals in the world were built in Baghdad, Iraq in a.d. 750, followed by ho...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• About the Author
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Author’s Note
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgment
• Part I: The Arab-Palestinian Culture
• Part II: Mental Health in Arabic Society and Other South/Eastern Cultures
• Appendix. Conclusive Comparison of Modern Western Culture with Medieval and South/Eastern Cultures
• References
• Index