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. 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Grand River Fraser • Utica Rd Livonia • Middlebelt Rd Rochester Hills • Rochester Rd x• ongularsm (..). bdicions ADVERTISING INTO GEAR call us to advertise 248.354.6060 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)