Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of headache among medical students in Palestine: a cross sectional study

Background Headache is one of the most disturbing complaints worldwide, negatively impacting social and regular life activities. In the background of stressful life in medical schools, adding to the stressful situation in Palestine, a developing country under occupation, this study investigated the prevalence and clinical characteristics of migraines and tension- type headaches among medical students from the Palestinian Universities in West Bank and Gaza. Methods A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted on all Palestinian Medical Students. Students were diagnosed based on ICHD-3 criteria. Demographic characteristics were compared by gender for each type of headache. Frequency, percentage, and mean ± SD. Pearson’s chi-squared test, independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used where needed. P-value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results The study included 806 medical students; 476 (59.0%) of them were female. TTH and migraine’s prevalence was 59.8 and 22%, respectively, with a higher prevalence among basic year students. The female to male ratio was 1:0.6 for both types of headaches. Sleep deprivation, physical activities, and altered sleep patterns were reported as the top triggering factors. Conclusions The results demonstrate that the prevalence of both subtypes’ primary headache is high among Palestinian medical students, with a higher prevalence among basic year students. The study also showed that these findings are higher than other studies among medical students in other countries.

Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in Palestine: a cross-sectional online study

IntroductionIn Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), there have been more than 320 890 known cases of COVID-19, resulting in 3452 deaths. The detrimental effects of the virus can be seen in the nation’s health, economy and government operations, leading to radical uncertainty that is exacerbated by the absence of any definitive treatment or vaccines. The level of knowledge about and trust in treatment and vaccination varies worldwide. This study aims to assess the willingness of Palestinians to receive a COVID-19 vaccine and their knowledge about such vaccines.MethodsAn online survey of adults over 18 years old (n=1080) was conducted in Palestine in October 2020. Using multivariate logistic regression, we identified correlates of participants’ willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine.ResultsWe found that about 63% of participants were willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. However, acceptance varied with the specific demographic variables that were investigated. Women, married participants and those aged 18–24 years are more likely to take the vaccine. Further, participants with good knowledge about the vaccine and its side effects are more willing to get the vaccine.ConclusionThe availability of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine in Palestine is crucial to decrease the burden of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. In addition, to ensure a high vaccination rate, health awareness campaigns should target those who are not willing to get the vaccine, especially those who are more vulnerable and the elderly.

Grotesque in The Vey Short stories of Palestinian Female Writers

This research aims to study the application of the Grotesque technique on the characters of the very short story written by Palestinian female writers. The study includes three examples of very short stories by Palestinian female writers from different sectors: Israel, West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the diaspora. It attempts to find the connection between the grotesque reality that emerged after the war in 1948 and its effects and changes in society, politics and economics. Therefore, we will monitor the topics written by Palestinian female writers in the very short story because of the preferences that this genre achieves that do not exist in other literary genres such as reduction, brevity, intensification. We reveal the extent to which the Grotesque technique is used to express marginalized feminist issues, and to find similarities and differences between stories in the application of the Grotesque technique on the characters. We found That the Grotesque technique used in the stories to distort the contours of the characters. The characters do not behave as normal but are somewhat willful, and act as a mechanism. The character of the woman is absent and invisible and her voice is inaudible. Women's personality in various situations is a negative recipient.

Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Headache Among Medical Students in Palestine : A cross Sectional Study

Background Headache is one of the most disturbing complaints worldwide, negatively impacting social and regular life activities.In the background of stressful life in medical schools, adding to the stressful situation in Palestine, a developing country under occupation, this study investigated the prevalence and clinical characteristics of migraines and tension headaches among medical students from the Palestinian Universities in West Bank and GazaMethods:A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted on all Palestinian Medical Students. Students were diagnosed based on ICHD-3 criteria. Demographic characteristics were compared by gender for each type of headache. Frequency, percentage, and mean ± SD. Pearson's chi-squared test, independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used where needed. P-value < 0.05 was considered significant.Results:The study included 806 medical students; 476 (59.0%) of them were female. TTH and migraine's prevalence was 59.8% and 22%, respectively, with a higher prevalence among basic year students. The female to male ratio was 1:0.6 for both types of headaches. Sleep deprivation, physical activities, and altered sleep patterns were reported as the top triggering factors.ConclusionsThe results demonstrate that the prevalence of both subtypes' primary headache is high among Palestinian medical students, with a higher prevalence among basic year students. The study also showed that these findings are higher than other studies among medical students in other countries.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict and International Law

International law’s indeterminacy and its capacity to be shaped by what Duncan Kennedy describes as “legal work,” or the intervention of the legal worker to shape many available parts, (i.e., evidence, primary documents, testimony) into an argument makes certain that there is no singular account of a conflict in international law. Despite the myriad legal arguments presented in jurisprudence, scholarship, and advocacy, not a single one of them is the “truth” to the exclusion of all others as the law itself represents a terrain of battle rather than a science to be discovered or verified. This could not be truer in the case of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. The conflict itself refers to the establishment of Israel, self-defined as a Jewish state, in Mandate Palestine, where a native, and numerical majority, Arab population sought to be self-determined. Perhaps the worst way to pursue this scholarly inquiry is to begin in the 1948 War between Israel and six Arab armies. Doing so effectively erases the three decades of British colonial oversight in its capacity as the Mandatory power that facilitated the settler-colonization of Palestine, the supplanting of nascent Palestinian sovereignty with Jewish-Zionist settler-sovereignty, and, ultimately, the country’s transformation into the modern state of Israel. While I begin this inquiry roughly during the First World War, which ended with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and its dominion over Palestine since 1299, there is room to begin much earlier especially in regard to the development of legal regimes regulating nationality and citizenship as well as land to understand their mutations over the course of the Palestine Mandate between 1922 and 1948. Similarly, it would be a mistake to end this inquiry upon Israel’s establishment, and then begin again during the 1967 War and the subsequent occupation of Arab lands, as do most legal accounts. The intervening decades between the two wars serve as an analytical bridge to understand the continuities in law between Britain’s colonial oversight of Palestine, Israel’s racialized governance of Palestinian natives who remained, and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which together provide a more holistic picture of an ongoing settler-colonial regime of land usurpation, native removal, and settler replacement. This bibliography aims to provide historical context as well as reflect some of the debates within the historiography and legal literature. It includes a mix of primary sources, legal analysis, and historical accounts that together should help shape a robust research project.

On prisoners, family life and collective punishment: The Namnam case

This article examines the 2019 decision by the Supreme Court of Israel (the Court) in the Namnam case, upholding a ban on family visits to Gaza prisoners incarcerated in Israel and affiliated with Hamas.1 This ban was adopted as part of Israel's attempt to pressure Hamas into an exchange of Palestinian detainees and prisoners against missing Israeli civilians and the bodies of Israeli soldiers, apparently being held by Hamas in Gaza. The Court examined the measure primarily in light of Israeli administrative law, and held that it had no grounds to intervene. It held that an analysis under international law would have yielded the same result. This article examines the decision of the Court in light of the applicable international law. It considers the Court's decision in terms of the permissible restrictions on the right to family life and draws on the Court's reasoning for an in-depth analysis of various unarticulated aspects of the prohibition on collective punishment. The article concludes that an international human rights law analysis might have led to a different outcome, and that had the Court applied the prohibition on collective punishment properly, it would have had to declare the measure unlawful. The article then places the decision in the broader context of the Court's engagement with international law in disputes relating to Palestinians residing in the West Bank and Gaza.

Epidemiology of Enterobiasis in Palestine

Enteropiasis is a parasitic disease caused by the pinworm; Enterobius vermicularis. In this report, the prevalence of Enterobius vermicularis infection in the West Bank and Gaza strip was investigated based on Palestinian Ministry of Health reports from 2008 to 2018. A total of 29,390 cases was reported, 29,061 (98.9%) in the West Bank, and 329 cases (1.1%) in Gaza Strip. The results of the present study show that E. vermicularis infection is highly prevalent among people living in the West Bank and to lesser extend in Gaza Strip. There is a need for joint and concentrated e"orts from the Palestinian government and public health services to control this infection. Personal hygiene, education and living conditions and overcrowding are risk factors associated with the spread of infection.

Palestinian Transnational Social Field and Diaspora Entrepreneurs

This chapter and the following Chapter 7 are interconnected as they both discuss Palestinian diaspora mobilizations. This chapter focuses on the transnational social field and the four types of diaspora entrepreneurs connected not simply to the West Bank and Gaza but also to Jerusalem, Palestinian camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and other fragile states in the Middle East. The 1948 ‘great dispersal’ of Palestinians became a pivotal point for refugee migration and subsequent commemoration in the diaspora. The PLO secularist nationalist movement and Islamic movements have developed rich exile politics since the 1970s–1980s. The 1993 Oslo Accords presented an opportunity for embedding the diaspora-based PLO into homeland territory and establishing an internationally endorsed local government under PNA leadership. Islamic networks existed in parallel, drawing more strength from the failed peace process and gaining momentum with the second intifada after 2000. It paved the way for Hamas to win elections in 2006 and establish alternative governance in Gaza, which has been disputed ever since. The polarization of domestic politics was transposed to the diaspora. There are many disagreements in this field on what is the main goal of the Palestinian cause beyond ending occupation of the Palestinian territories. For some, achieving statehood is important, advocating either a two-state or a one-state solution. For others, a solution for refugee return needs to be prioritized. This chapter presents data on migration in the Palestinian field, in the Middle East and globally, and specifies the individual profiles of Palestinian diaspora entrepreneurs.

Concessions for Concession’s Sake: Injustice, Indignation, and the Construction of Intractable Conflict in Israel–Palestine

In intractable conflicts, what factors lead populations to accept negotiated outcomes? To examine these issues, we conduct a survey experiment on a representative sample of the Jewish Israeli population and a companion experiment on a representative sample of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. We find that holding the negotiated settlement outcome constant, approval of the settlement is strongly influenced by whether it is framed as a negotiating defeat for one side—if and only if respondents are primed to be indignant—and that these effects are strongly mediated by perceptions of the fairness of the settlement outcome. Moral indignation produces a desire for concessions for concession’s sake. Such conflicts over political framing violate assumptions of the rationalist literature on conflict processes and suggest important new directions for conflict theorizing.