COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY ENACTMENTS IN PALESTINE: ROOTS AND CURRENT MANIFESTATIONS

Abstract

This article describes enactments of community‐centered work and a master's program at Birzeit University as manifestations of community psychology in Palestine. The early roots of community psychology may be traced back to the community organizing and grassroots activism evident during the first Intifada in 1987. These early enactments affirmed community voice and supported national liberation receded in the post‐1993 Oslo Agreement era when international donor funding and institutional arrangements privileged the establishment of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), focusing on Palestinian victims of military violence. These enactments tended towards unreflexive individualized modalities of community psychology. In contrast, the Birzeit program is positioned as an attempt to continue and develop the spirit and substance of the critical enactments contained in the first Intifada. This article embodies a case for the development of critical community psychology in Palestine given its history of prolonged colonial occupation and disenfranchisement.