The Politically Contested Fainting Epidemic That Affected Eight Hundred West Bank Schoolgirls in 1983
Between 21 March and 6 April 1983, approximately 800 Palestinian schoolgirls in the West Bank developed acute symptoms including dizziness, fainting, and abdominal pain. The episode is one of the best-documented modern mass psychogenic illness outbreaks. Its political context — Israeli occupation, contested origin theories — made the medical diagnosis substantially difficult to communicate.
Read the story →