Redefining deprivation in a conflict area: learning from the Palestinian experience using mixed methods

Conflicts threaten public health, human security and and wellbeing. While their visible impacts (such as physical disability, injury and death) garner considerable attention, they affect populations in other important ways. This paper seeks to understand how people make sense of, and cope with, various forms of deprivation and trauma resulting from experiences of conflict and military occupation in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt). Using mixed methods, the paper explores mental health and wellbeing outcomes associated with deprivation in a conflict setting. Starting with an analysis of the Palestinian Survey, it looks at the ways in which deprivation is conceptualised by individuals through the lens of mental wellbeing. The paper evaluates dominant theoretical paradigms in social and health sciences by linking local understandings of deprivation and health to experiences of conflict and military occupation. Qualitative data was collected from 52 in-depth interviews across the West Bank. The 2014 Socioeconomic and Food Security (SEFSec) was used for the quantitative portion of the study, and multi-level modelling was adopted to assess the impact of deprivation on mental health. This study shows that politics and locality are variables that significantly affect mental health and wellbeing in the Palestinian context, particularly political uncertainty and restrictions on mobility. Political and social deprivation are considered more pressing that material forms of deprivation. The civil population's struggle against occupation and its internalisation of deprivation has serious repercussions on individual and public health in the long-term.