Plant een Olijfboom's In-House psychologist offers advice

For more than ten months, we have been witnessing the daily killings of people in Palestine. You see it, I see it. The whole world sees how hospitals, schools, mosques, homes, aid trucks, ambulances, and fields are being bombed and destroyed. We see children crying and mourning their parents, siblings, and limbs, and how the acronym "WCNSF," "wounded child, no surviving family", applies to more children every day. We see how aid workers and journalists are deliberately targeted. We see it, and yet (still) so little seems to change.

HOW DO WE KEEP GOING?

Saisha, as the in-house psychologist for Plant een Olijfboom (Plant an Olive Tree), will try to support us. What does this do to us psychologically? How do we deal with all these feelings of sadness, anger, and pain? How do you take action without burning out yourself? Because there is a gigantic fire raging in the world. This fire has caused the concepts we once held onto to go up in smoke. This calls for new ways to keep ourselves grounded in the present. In a world where genocide can continue for ten months without any intervention.

KEEPING YOUR FIRE BURNING

Fortunately, there are many ways to maintain your strength. We can actually look to Palestine for most of these lessons. For example, read this poem by the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish:

“We Palestinians suffer from an incurable disease called hope.”

— Mahmoud Darwish

‘‘We Palestinians suffer from an incurable disease called hope.
Hope for freedom and independence.
Hope for a normal life where we are neither heroes nor victims.
Hope that our children will go to school without danger.
Hope that a pregnant woman will give birth to a living child in a hospital, not a dead one at a military checkpoint.
Hope that our poets will see the beauty of the color red in roses, rather than in blood.
Hope that this land will regain its original and ancient name, 'land of hope and peace.'
Thank you for carrying this weight and banner of hope with us.’’

HOPE

In the coming period, we will focus on various internal struggles and ways to cope with them, including 'hope.' Clichés often have a core of truth, and the saying "hope keeps us alive" is one of them.

Hope gives direction to our actions. It gives a reason to get up. Hope gives courage to persevere when something seems endless. We choose hope so that humanity will learn. We hope that people will not forget.

Hope can be big or small: big, like seeing the ever-growing masses of people standing up for Palestine, or people in power who suddenly start to speak out and take action. Small, like a sticker on a pole with the Palestinian flag, or a smile at the sight of a keffiyeh. Beautiful, like a child in Gaza playing joyfully with water despite all the misery and destruction around him.

When we choose hope, we choose the possibility that a bad situation can get better. We choose to continue doing the right thing, regardless of the (immediate) outcome. Because we want to protect ourselves and the future of the next generations, and we cannot and must not give up. And because, as Mahmoud Darwish says, we must carry the weight of hope together. We continue to choose hope because hope is our only choice.