Terrorism Is Traumatizing Children
Israeli specialists are finding children who can't play and child alcoholics.
DINA KRAFT
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Afula, Israel
he 10-year-old boy's dark
eyes widen and he shifts
nervously in his seat. He has
trouble fa 11 ing asleep many
nights, says he doesn't feel safe outside of
his home and never watches the TV
news after a terrorist attack.
It's been this way since a pair of
Palestinian terrorists sprayed shoppers
with automatic weapons outside the bus
station in the northern town of Afula
more than three years ago. Among those
running for their lives were the boy's
parents. The boy found out about the
attack while watching the news and was
stunned to see footage of his father
being taken away from the scene in an
ambulance. "I'm scared it will happen to
me," says the boy, who is one of numer-
ous students receiving trauma counsel-
ing at a new school-based treatment
program for victims of terrorism.
On the other side of the political
divide, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in
the Gaza Strip trembles constantly and
finds eating and sleeping difficult ever
since an Israeli bomb fell on his house,
killing his sister and spraying pieces of
her flesh on the walls.
With no end in sight to the violence
and uncertainty of the Palestinian intifa-
da, researchers are finding high levels of
post-traumatic stress disorder among
Israeli and Palestinian children. This
week, Herzog Hospital's Israel Center
for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, in
Jerusalem, and the UJA-Federation of
New York are holding a conference to
examine the effects of terrorism on chil-
dren and adolescents in Israel and the
United States.
About half the children in Jerusalem,
the city hit hardest by Palestinian vio-
lence during the past 3 1/2 years, experi-
ence symptoms of post-traumatic stress
disorder, according to one Israeli child •
psychiatrist. That's two to three times
higher than the rate of children suffering
from other causes of trauma.
A recent study by Herzog's trauma
center found that 33 percent of Israeli
youth have been affected personally by
terrorism, either by being at the scene of
an attack or by knowing someone
injured or killed by terrorists. Seventy
percent of those surveyed reported
increased subjective fear or hopelessness.
The rate of post-traumatic stress disor-
der among Palestinian children is about
70 percent, other researchers say.
These figures have prompted psychol-
ogists to ask how children are affected
by growing up in the midst of violence,
and how these Israeli and Palestinian
youngsters can best be treated and
taught to cope.
Many suffer acute anxiety of public
transportation and public places. Others
have problems with insomnia.
Behavioral problems are emerging at
school.
"The impression is that the rates are
higher because terror exposure in Israel
is not just a one-time event, but a way
of life," said Dr. Esti Galili-Weisstraub,
who heads Hadassah Hospital's child
psychiatry unit and has helped open two
clinics in Jerusalem for children suffer-
ing from post-traumatic stress disorder.
With every new terror attack, she said,
past traumas are relived and this "raises
the question of the responsibility of the
state not to take it lightly that children
are exposed to terror trauma."
In Palestinian areas, even more chil-
dren witness violence first-hand. On
average, every Palestinian child has wit-
nessed about 10 traumatic incidents,
according to some Israeli researchers.
"We found that Palestinian children
are in a terrible situation . . . showing
the range of symptoms of post-traumat-
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is stress disorder, such as not sleeping,
being hyper-vigilant, agitated, having
tmares," said Zehava Soloman of
Tel Aviv University "When you see
traumas, and then the hunger and
poverty, future orientation is catastroph-
ic: They do not see themselves growing
up.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psy-
chiatric disorder that can be triggered
after experiencing or witnessing a life-
threatening event, from military combat
to terrorism, natural disasters and per-
sonal assaults.
After the event, day-to-day life can be
marred by nightmares and flashbacks,
difficulty sleeping and emotional with-
drawal. Children suffering from the dis-
order often cannot imagine a future in
which they are grown up, according to a
study of 1,500 children that Solomon
helped conduct among West Bank
Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and Jewish
Israelis in Jerusalem and in settlements
in the Palestinian-populated territories.
"Kids feel they have nothing to lose
because life is so fragile," she said.
A study of 3,000 Jewish children in
Jerusalem and in settlements found that
being raised with a strong sense of reli-
gion and ideology can help foster
resilience.
Nevertheless, Miriam Shapira, who
directs an emergency crisis center for
West Bank settlers, said the situation
among settler children is dire. Almost
every school has students who have
experienced close losses. One school had
20 students who had lost a parent in
terrorist attacks, she said.
About half of the teachers also have
had a close relative killed or were them-
selves involved in an attack.
"The culture in settlements is chang-
ing," she said. "Now there is less denial.
People are talking about the effects of
living with terrorism."
Researchers say teenagers are at
increased risk of psychological disorders
because — at an age where they're sup-
posed to feel increasingly independent
--- terrorism places more and more
restrictions on where they can go and
what they can do. Additionally, many
teens with problems fall through:the
cracks because they don't want to bur-
den their parents with their problems.
At this week's conference on treating
traumatized children and adolescents,
new research by Dr. Ruth Pat-
1)