Military

DATE=11/09/00

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL / PALESTINIANS / TRAUMAS

NUMBER=5-47354

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Many Israeli and Palestinian children have been traumatized by the past six-weeks of violence. Depending on where they live, children and adults have endured shootings and shellings, death and destruction, closures and curfews. Psychologists and social workers are trying to help them cope with the crisis. From Jerusalem, correspondent Laurie Kassman takes a closer look at their work on both sides of the divide.

TEXT: In the Palestinian town of Ramallah, a women's support group is running an emergency hotline around the clock so counselors can advise parents and children how to cope with the violence. Instead of flowers, animals or smiling faces, youngsters now draw pictures of tanks and burnt flags and scowling children.

Counselor Nelly Abou Zaineh says some children even draw pictures of a young Palestinian boy, Mohammed Al-Durra, dying in the arms of his father as the father shouted to Israeli soldiers to stop shooting.

/// ABOU ZAINEH ACT ///

Most of the children who we are dealing with talk about the crime (the death) of Mohammed Al-Durra because most of the children see that on T-V. So they feel very angry and they feel that my father cannot protect me.

/// END ACT ///

Mrs. Abou Zaineh, a mother herself, counsels parents to talk honestly with their children about the situation, but also stresses the importance of trying to make them feel safe.

It is not easy, since many children have to pass by scenes of violence on their way home from school. Palestinian leaders are urging teachers to do what they can to keep children away from violent areas.

Social workers like Mrs. Abou Zaineh also are encouraging parents to keep children away from television coverage of the confrontations.

/// ABOU ZAINEH ACT TWO ///

Let them draw, let them play, let them hear stories, but do not let them stay in front of the T-V. We try to let the parents talk with the children about the situation and try to give them information about what has happened, to be honest and realistic because the children see the violence in the street, in the house, in the street. So we must be realistic with them.

/// END ACT ///

A few kilometers away, across the green line that divides Arab and Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem, the story is similar.

Psychologist Gafnit Agassi is working with adults and children who are also traumatized by the violence, especially television pictures of a Palestinian mob lynching two Israeli soldiers.

/// AGASSI ACT ///

It depends specifically on what people have gone through. There are people who have bullets in their houses, people who get bullets or stones (who get shot at and stoned) on the road to and from work. There are different levels of trauma. There are people who just saw the lynching of T-V over and over again. People who have children in the army who are worried constantly what is happening with their children.

/// END ACT ///

Ms. Agassi says it is common now for people to get ill without realizing it is a sympton of trauma - a problem also faced by Mrs. Abou Zaineh in Ramallah.

/// AGASSI ACT TWO ///

People get physically ill or they start having nightmares. They start visioning (reliving) again what happened and worrying and unable to function. These things you get after the trauma.

/// END ACT ///

Mrs. Agassi, like Palestinian psychologist Nelly Abou Zaineh, talks about the need to face the current crisis and not hide from it.

On both sides, the counselors also know that, long after the violence ends, they will have to deal with the emotional scars that it has left on Israelis and Palestinians. (SIGNED)

NEB/LMK/KL/RAE