Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP)

The organization published a report on its website on October 7, 2025 titled “Mental Health Crisis in the Gaza Strip: Two Years of Living Under Genocide.” The organization claimed in the press release of the report that Israel had waged “two years after the genocidal war” following the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, adding that the report analyzed mental health in Gaza “amid the ongoing genocide since October 2023.” ³

It was a signatory on a 2005 open letter published on the boycott, divestment, and sanctions Campaign (BDS) movement website, maintained by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, objecting to joint health projects between Palestinian and Israeli organizations. ⁴

Background

The Gaza Community Mental Health Program is a mental health organization based in Gaza. The organization was founded in 1990 by Eyad El-Saraj, a Palestinian psychiatrist, and consists of an executive administration, board of directors, and a general assembly made up of 35 members from various backgrounds. ¹

The organization provides clinical and social services, conducts research, and holds training services. It also has a diploma program, which is governed by the Islamic University of Gaza. The diploma lasts for two years and includes “theoretical and practical courses.” According to its website, GCMHP “specialists” supervise the practical training. ^{1 2}

The diploma program works in partnership with several universities around the world, including Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the University of Oslo in Norway, and the University of San Francisco in the United States as of 2026. ²

Anti-Israel Advocacy

Gaza Community Mental Health Programme published a report on its website on October 7, 2025 titled “Mental Health Crisis in the Gaza Strip: Two Years of Living Under Genocide.” ³ GCMHP claimed in the press release of the report that it had been “two years after the genocidal war,” referring to Israel’s response to Hamas after the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023, adding that the report analyzed mental health in Gaza “amid the ongoing genocide since October 2023.” ³

GCMHP was a signatory of an 2005 open letter published on the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement website maintained by the Palestinian BDS National Committee regarding joint health projects between Palestinian and Israeli organizations. ⁴ According to the letter, signatories had “deep-rooted objections” to joint health projects, especially those that aimed to promote “dialogue and collaboration between Palestinian and Israeli health professionals, NGOs and health institutions.” ⁴

The letter claimed that such collaboration did not “reflect current Palestinian priorities,” adding that Israel was an “occupier.” The letter also claimed that joint health projects “reflect an unacceptable politicization of health research,” and that they are premised on the “mistaken” belief that cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis in academia and science could lead to peace. ⁴

The letter closes by claiming Israeli academics, scientists, and healthcare professionals should consider joining projects that aim to end “Israeli military occupation” and remove the “siege and the Apartheid Wall,” all of which contribute to the “root cause of ill health,” which the letter claims is Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. ⁴

GCMHP was a signatory to another BDS movement letter released in 2006. The letter, titled “Gaza Healthworkers [sic] Call for Sanctions Against Israeli Institutions of Occupation,” began by claiming the Israeli military was committing “brutal practices” and added that Palestinians were “living under disastrous humanitarian conditions.” ⁵

The letter also added that sanctions had been “unfairly imposed on the entire Palestinian people by the USA, Britain and the EU,” and called for sanctions to be placed “against Israeli health institutions,” as such institutions had supported “the inhuman acts against Palestinian people through the Israeli occupation.” ⁵

Funding

The Gaza Community Mental Health Programme receives funding from governments and international institutions from around the world, including CHF 600,000 (approximately $770,000) from Switzerland in 2021, and $401,247 from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) that same year. ^{6 7}