By Azmat Ali
Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)—often hailed as the father of modern drama—stands as one of the most daring playwrights of the 19th century, unafraid to strip away the genteel veneers of society to reveal its moral hypocrisies. Ibsen’s Ghosts (1881) offers a searing meditation on the legacies of intergenerational consequences. In the play, despite all attempts by Mrs. Alving to shield her son Osvald from his father’s immoral influence, she fails against the inescapable force of inheritance, and subsequently Osvald inherits his father’s immorality. He not only resembles his father in looks and behaviour but also suffers from the congenital syphilis, as he confesses that “The disease is hereditary, mother… It’s my father I have to thank for it.” His plight is not simply personal; it is the embodiment of how past activities seep into the present.
Today, across the besieged landscape of Gaza, countless young people find themselves in a parallel condition. Born into a territory under prolonged blockade, occupation, and recurrent military assault, Gaza’s young people inherit wounds that are not merely personal but the cumulative result of decades of dispossession, displacement, and structural violence. International law names these conditions—collective punishment, denial of self-determination, and siege—as violations, yet they persist, shaping the psychological, physical, and cultural landscape in which these young lives unfold. They maintain their identities through remembrance of events, most prominently the Nakba—a “collective trauma” that spans generations. According to the UN:
“The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Before the Nakba, Palestine was a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society. However, the conflict between Arabs and Jews intensified in the 1930s with the increase of Jewish immigration, driven by persecution in Europe, and with the Zionist movement aiming to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
In November 1947, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem under a UN administration. The Arab world rejected the plan, arguing that it was unfair and violated the UN Charter. Jewish militias launched attacks against Palestinian villages, forcing thousands to flee. The situation escalated into a full-blown war in 1948, with the end of the British Mandate and the departure of British forces, the declaration of independence of the State of Israel and the entry of neighboring Arab armies. The newly established Israeli forces launched a major offensive. The result of the war was the permanent displacement of more than half of the Palestinian population.
As early as December 1948, the UN General Assembly called for refugee return, property restitution and compensation (resolution 194 (II)). However, 75 years later, despite countless UN resolutions, the rights of the Palestinians continue to be denied. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) more than 5 million Palestine refugees are scattered throughout the Middle East. Today, Palestinians continue to be dispossessed and displaced by Israeli settlements, evictions, land confiscation and home demolitions.
The Nakba anniversary is a reminder not only of those tragic events of 1948, but of the ongoing injustice suffered by the Palestinians. The Nakba had a profound impact on the Palestinian people, who lost their homes, their land, and their way of life. It remains a deeply traumatic event in their collective memory and continues to shape their struggle for justice and for their right to return to their homes.
On 30 November 2023, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution A/RES/77/23 requesting the Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat, for the first time in the history of the UN, to dedicate its activities in 2023 to the commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Nakba, including by organizing a high-level event at the General Assembly Hall on 15 May 2023. Furthermore, the UN General Assembly adopted another resolution A/RES/79/82 requesting the Division to commemorate the anniversary of the Nakba, including by organizing annual events and through the dissemination of relevant archives and testimonies. On 15 May 2023, for the first time in the history of the UN, this anniversary was commemorated pursuant to the mandate by the General Assembly (A/RES/77/23 of 30 November 2022).”
In Gaza and in refugee camps, children grow up immersed in the narratives of exile and loss told by their parents and grandparents, learning the fears and hopes of those who lived the original trauma. In this way, the “cyclical nature of trauma” ensures that “psychological scars and sociocultural disruptions are inherited by following generations,” perpetuating “a legacy of suffering and resistance” within families and communities. Like Osvald, Gazan youth are caught in systems beyond their control—but their parents’ trauma is no disease of chance. It stems from systematic oppression. Researchers describe Palestinian trauma as a convergence of collective, colonial, and transgenerational wounds: the forms of ongoing siege, displacement, and episodic bombardment of Gaza inflict repeated blows to civilian life, breeding communal grief and existential threat. Each war and checkpoint, home demolition and school destroyed reinforces lessons of loss that parents internalize—lessons passed wordlessly to their children. As one study puts it, the endless “intersecting” traumas of Gaza create “a web of psychological, social and cultural challenges” that the next generation must navigate daily. In these conditions, resilience and new forms of resistance become crucial means of survival.
Gaza’s young people are not simply passive victims of inheritance; they are transforming inherited pain into fruitful purpose. UN observers report that “a generation of young people” in Gaza is showing “extraordinary resilience and leadership,” even under siege. Twenty-five-year-old volunteer Dina, for example, carries the scars of five wars, displacement and hunger in her life. Instead of collapsing, she channeled that experience into organizing aid: since October 2023 she and her Y-PEER team have started ten humanitarian projects in northern Gaza, from safe youth spaces to food and hygiene distributions. As UNFPA reports, Gaza’s youth “are not just surviving but actively working to support their communities and inspire hope for a brighter future.”
Gaza’s artists turn crisis into creativity: one painting shows a family baking bread on a UN aid flour bag, symbolizing survival under siege. In every field—art, culture, activism—Gaza’s young people are pushing back. Surrounded by rubble and ruin, they literally “paint despair into defiance,” says Al Jazeera—wheat flour bags and aid boxes become canvases, “every paint stroke tell[s] a story” of resilience. As one 18-year-old artist from Jabalia explains, “when I paint on a flour bag, it feels as if I’m writing our history with a brush dipped in suffering and resilience.” In other words, Gaza’s heritage of trauma becomes the raw material for resistance art. Even amid mass destruction—after dozens of cultural centers and galleries have been bombed—artists “manage to turn pain into hope,” insisting their work is a testament to survival. As journalist Asem al-Jerjawi notes, this creativity is itself an act of defiance: “Even after losing so much, my art remains my defiance.”
The Shababeek art gallery in Gaza, once a hub of creativity, now lies in ruins after air strikes. Still, young Gazans refuse to let their culture die. This determination is echoed by many. Even as occupation forces target Gaza’s teachers and students—acts some term “educide” and “epistemicide”—Gaza’s youth maintain community life and memory. They draw murals in destroyed neighborhoods, write blogs and poems, and circulate images of daily life under fire. Every keffiyeh scarf worn and Palestinian flag flown becomes a statement that they live and remember. As one young artist declares, “the occupation seeks to erase our culture and identity. But art preserves our memory. Every painting I create is a document, telling the world that we are alive, we dream and we hold onto our roots.”
Gaza’s youth resist in many forms; they document brutality on social media, organize protest camps (even as universities are shelled), and care for one another in the wreckage. For instance, in art and culture, they use murals, music, poetry, and theater to process trauma and rally solidarity. Students and artists turn burnt flour bags and crumbled walls into canvases that “tell the story of the war’s destruction,” embodying the will to survive. Volunteer networks (like Y-PEER Palestine) have sprung up everywhere. Teenagers train to counsel peers, distribute food, and keep schools open despite bombings. One UN report highlights youth initiatives that have set up safe spaces, provided hygiene kits, and delivered vital aid in besieged areas. These grassroots efforts carry forward the culture of mutual aid long observed in Palestinian refugee camps.
Gaza’s young people (and their supporters abroad) have amplified their story online. Across the globe, symbols of Palestinian identity—the keffiyeh, Handala cartoon, even the watermelon (referring to banned flag colors)—are proudly displayed in rallies and on social media. Graphic posters, street art, and viral videos confront global audiences with Gaza’s reality, helped by the “pivotal role of social media” in challenging propaganda. This worldwide cultural activism has reshaped public opinion, with polls showing growing youth support for Palestine and a surge of international protests demanding justice.
The bridge from Ibsen’s Ghosts to Gaza may seem long, but the patterns align. In both, silence and secrets breed suffering, yet the afflicted generation chooses how to respond. As one analyst puts it, “family legacy and unspoken suffering” can either crush or ignite us. Gaza’s youth—acutely aware of the “ghosts” of Nakba and occupation haunting their lives—have chosen to ignite a voice. Their defiance joins a century-long Palestinian tradition of cultural resistance: from the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish and the cartoons of Naji al-Ali to today’s digital campaigns. By transforming inherited trauma into creative resistance, they follow in the footsteps of earlier generations that said no to erasure.
In Ibsen’s play, Osvald sinks under the weight of his inheritance. In Gaza, a new generation bears those weights defiantly. They illustrate that wounds can be turned outward, not just inward. The syphilis Osvald inherited brought only despair; the Gaza youth have inherited violence and dispossession, but they aim to turn those “ghosts” into fuel for freedom. As Ghosts reminds us, “untreated trauma and secrecy can lead to desperate actions”—and indeed the ongoing conflict has driven some Gazans to despair. Yet it also teaches that visibility and solidarity can break cycles. By speaking openly—through art, protest and community—Gaza’s young generation is breaking the silence that Ghosts so sternly warned about, and forging resistance from the ashes of suffering. Unlike Osvald, whose illness ends in helpless surrender, Gaza’s youth transform their inherited traumas into acts of resistance, creativity, and resilience—whether through political activism, cultural expression, or the sheer act of survival.
Azmat Ali | Instagram ID: @azmata90_lle | is a student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
References:
War-related trauma in narratives of Gazans: challenges, difficulties and survival coping – PMC
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11949732/
UNFPA Arabstates | Rising from the Ashes: Youth Resilience and Leadership in Gaza
https://arabstates.unfpa.org/en/news/rising-ashes-youth-resilience-and-leadership-gaza
Art as survival: Gaza’s creators transform pain into protest | Israel-Palestine conflict | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/2/12/art-as-survival-gazas-creators-transform-pain-into-protest
Palestinian Cultural Resistance in the Service of the National Project
https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/palestinian-cultural-resistance-in-the-service-of-the-national-project/
16 August 2025
Source: countercurrents.org