The emotional toll of the war on the people of Nazareth and the wider Galilee has been immense.
Najla Asmar is a psychologist who leads the EMMS Nazareth Hospital Maana Center, which provides vital mental health services to the community.
She lives in Haifa and, like many Arabs in Israel, does not have a shelter to stay in during the missile strikes. Her elderly mother can’t move to another site, so they had to find shelter somewhere in the building.
The Hospital has taken massive efforts in recent years to fortify parts of the building, meaning many services can continue whilst the sirens are still ringing across Nazareth.
“The most dangerous part was getting to work; I felt safe in the hospital,” she said.
The Maana Center is made up of around 40 therapists. During the conflict, they visited staff – such as those running the kitchen, ER, laundry, and maternity units.
“All our staff have their own issues too, with small children and the stresses of the conflict, but we managed, in a good way, to keep working, supporting one another and supporting the hospital,” she said.
When the therapists weren’t in the hospital running workshops and offering mental health support to staff, they ran many of their sessions remotely. In March alone, they carried out 450.
Previous studies have shown that Arabic speakers experience disproportionately high rates of mental distress compared to the rest of the population.
Despite this, there is a societal stigma around accessing mental health services and language barriers to accessing them. Although Arabs in Israel make up 21% of the population, only 1.4% of psychologists and 1.9% of psychiatrists are Arab.
The conflict compounds these pressures. These workshops are a response to alleviate emotional wounds and provide a means to cope.
The center’s ‘Hour of Support’ meeting series was launched to provide a safe space for listening, dialogue, and human connections.
The meetings were held in Arabic and were adapted for diverse groups within the community: parents, children, older adults, professionals, and the general public. An average of 130 participants took part in each meeting, reflecting the significant need within the community for such spaces during this period.
One local participant compared the meetings to a ‘warm Ramadan evening.’
“Not a time to say many words, but simply to say: We are here with you.”
Another participant stated they appreciated that the meeting was not a lecture, but rather ‘an open dialogue.’
“It was clear how much people need a supportive space like this.”
Another meeting in the series was dedicated to older adults, focusing on their emotional and life experiences, and the resilience they have accumulated over the years, with a focus on how these experiences can be drawn upon to engage with the challenges of the current conflict.
“It was a deeply professional and very moving gathering, conducted in a clear and respectful emotional voice,” one participant noted.
Another event in the series served more than 500 children, with a puppet theatre performance on the topic of living through difficult times as well as an activity with an art therapist.
Among the services and initiatives launched as a response to the conflict were the:
Najla said she finds hope in her community, in strengthening their abilities and capabilities, ‘initiating things that echo our pain and our strength.’
It is so often the case that the news will showcase targets, military hardware, political machinations and the shifting heft of geo-politics; however, the daily grind of war leaves few people unaffected.
As the staff of the Nazareth Hospital and School of Nursing keep showing up at work with dedication, compassion and courage, they embody a fundamental principle of Christian witness in the face of crisis. That principle is captured by St Paul in 2 Corinthians 1 v 3-5:
…”the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
