The psycho-social foundations of the 'Knife intifada'

The nature of the "lone wolf" stabbings perpetrated by Palestinian youths has prompted myopic analysis from the Anglo-American press corps.

The New Yorker's Bernard Avishai has stated that social media has "encouraged Palestinians to participate in the 'Knife Intifada'", while Judi Rudoren of The New York Times, states that the attacks are "motivated by social media campaigns - some by Hamas and other militant Islamist movements, many by enraged individuals".

Even George Orwell Prize winner Peter Beaumont, writing on the frontline for The Guardian, dedicates an inordinate amount of his piece to the power of social media in facilitating the recent wave of violence rocking Palestine.

The fundamental inability for the European and US press to meaningfully engage in the material realities of the occupation results in a pseudo-psychological analysis, replicating a racially tinged image of an "Uncontrollable, illogical, angry Arab", spurred on by YouTube videos.

This reductionism serves to substantiate the Israeli narrative of victimhood - which in turn justifies their punitive responses.

Those Palestinians motivated to violence have been dubbed "The Children of Oslo", due to their coming of age during and since the PLO's 1994 peace negotiations with Israel led to the infamous Oslo Accords.

The analysis of this status by much of the Western media presents this section of Palestinian society as a disenfranchised, frustrated rump of young people, alienated from the Palestinian Authority's administrative apparatus which hands out privileges and patronage to small cliques through wasitah, or nepotistic links.

The experience of young Palestinians within the occupied territories is layered

There is little analysis of the social reality this engenders.

The experience of young Palestinians within the occupied territories is layered. Due to the cantonisation of the oPt and the class-based based structure of Palestinian society there are a variety of experiences when it comes to the occupation.

The plundering of resources, PTSD induced from exposure to trauma, unemployment due to a strangulated economy - these are all experienced in different ways. Yet a defining feature of post-Oslo adolescence has been arrest and the hands of the Israeli army, or the demolition of their family's home.

It is impossible to look at the social reality of "The Children of Oslo" without paying due attention to these issues.

Most of the stabbings have so far occurred in occupied East Jerusalem, with many analysts tracing the perceived surge in violence to the presence of Israeli right-wingers in the al-Aqsa mosque compound, and the provocative message this sent to Palestinians.

However, a closer examination of the situation in Jerusalem reveals a juridical regime which is geared towards displacing Palestinians. Al-Aqsa was a violent spark in an already flammable and explosive tinderbox.

Through the National Planning and Building Law and the Israel Land administration law, among others, planning and development for Palestinians is severely restricted.

Only 13 percent of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem is allocated for Palestinian use, whereas 35 percent has been expropriated for Israeli settlements.

Due to these restrictions, more than 90,000 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem are at risk of displacement due to the "illegality" of their domiciles.

In August of this year, OHCA registered the highest number of structures demolished by the Israeli authorities in a single month since July 2010. A total of 145 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished in 37 residential areas including 32 in Area C, four in East Jerusalem and one in Area A, displacing at least 200 people.

Under Military Order 1651, a number of previously issued military orders were consolidated into what is now called The Criminal Code. Under this, the age of majority for Palestinians at 16 was revised and divided into three different categories - those under 12 are considered children, those between 12 and 14 are considered "youth" and those between 14 and 16 are defined as "young adults".

According to statistics collated by DCI Palestine, between 2008 and 2014, an average of 204 Palestinian children (under the internationally defined legal status) were held in military detention each month. 

The majority of those detained are kidnapped in the middle of the night, seized from their homes at gunpoint. Unaccompanied by their parents, they are taken to interrogation centres where their questioning may consist of verbal abuse, threats - and, at times, acts of physical violence. 

In analysis of 311 cases, DCI found that more than 30 percent of Palestinian children arrested reported physical violence during the point of arrest, transfer to interrogation or during their interrogation.

The year following, UNICEF concluded that Israeli military detention of Palestinian children was "widespread, systematic and institutionalised".

Post-arrest, a child is hauled in front of a military court, where most plead guilty as it is the swiftest exit from a judicial system, which rarely grants bail. After sentencing, nearly 60 percent of Palestinian child detainees are transferred from the occupied territories to prisons within Israel.

In a report by Save The Children, a "whole person" approach was taken, which tackled the policy impact of house demolitions on the individual child, their family, and the wider socio-economic environment. The report found that children whose homes were demolised exhibited symptoms of anxiety, were prone to being withdrawn depressed and violent, as well as removed from their families.

The report indicates that the sense of loss which accompanies a housing demolition has an impact not only on the individual and family but also the wider community, injecting within it a sense of loss and helplessness. This issue of helplessness was also a consistent theme within the psychological assessment of children who had been incarcerated.

The Israeli occupation is a complex legal-military-socioeconomic structure, which imperils the mental health of those it subjugates

The interplay between the assault on their own agency, and their parent's helplessness, intermingled with feelings of fear and guilt were psychosomatic characteristics of an individual who had undergone a traumatic event.

The psychological evaluation also noted that the "dryness" and "disconnection" of many of the testimonies collected suggested emotional dissociation, and an inability to deal with the fear, loss and damage.

In both the housing demolitions and the incarceration, it was noted that the child's understanding of these events were not divorced from the wider occupation and displacement which characterised their social lives and wrought deep social scars on the collective composition of their community.

The Israeli occupation is a complex legal/military/socioeconomic structure, which imperils the mental health of those it subjugates.

Within house demolitions and child arrests are the socio-cognitive symbols of the nakba, and the tragic consequences of the establishment of the state of Israel and the displacement and occupation which has defined Palestinian social life since 1948.

The Oslo Accords has done little to ameliorate the impact of the occupation, let alone construct a just or viable solution. Those who have grown up in its shadow have been traumatised, marginalised; turning to the knife in order to vent their frustrations.

Nick Rodrigo is a freelance researcher working for the Afro-Middle East Centre based in Johannesburg. He holds an MA in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Essex, and has previously worked with Iranian and Palestinian human rights organisations.

Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of al-Araby al-Jadeed, its editorial board or staff.