Abstract
The main goal of this study was to review published studies on the impact of extreme negative life events related to political violence such as terror attacks and wars on the well-being and mental health of various groups of Arab and Jewish civilians in Israel. More specifically, this study examined the well-known risk factors for PTSD related to terrorism, military operations and wars in Israel, as well as symptoms of Dissociative disorder, Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), Secondary Traumatization, and Death Anxiety. The study also took into account some of the background characteristics, and internal and external resources available to the individual, which can serve as mediator variables between these negative events and the population’s well-being. All of the literature published in Israel on these topics up until May 2017 was systematically reviewed. The review included over a hundred items and studies on the impact of ongoing terror attacks and risk factors for distress, trauma and PTSD. Findings indicated that causes, risk factors, and outcomes vary widely, from the earlier and traditional studies to the more recent, modern, and sometimes integrated approaches towards these topics.
Highlights
This study examined the well-known risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to terrorism, military operations and wars in Israel, as well as symptoms of Dissociative disorder, Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), Secondary Traumatization, and Death Anxiety
B) references listed of about 30 other published articles and books’ chapters of the impact of wars, terror attacks, and military operations on civilians, professionals and para-professionals on the more general-world-populations regarding this topic in computer searches of the PsycINFO database; c) nearly 240 abstracts identified in computer searches of the PsycINFO database and Google scholar for the same topic in Hebrew
Military operations and wars are often defined as the deliberate use of violence or the threat of the use of violence against professional armies, communities and innocent/unarmed people, with the aim of intimidating them into a course of action that they otherwise would not take (Primoratz, 1990)
Summary
The Second Lebanon War took place in Israel during summer of 2006, after the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers and an abrasive missile attack on the northern border of Israel by the Hizballah (the fundamentalist Islamic party that shared political control of Lebanon with Syria and Iran). The Cast Lead Operation (2008, referred to as the Gaza War) was a military operation that was carried out in the Israeli Southern region, following seven years of missile bombardments from the Gaza strip aimed at the Israeli civilian population and in response to the kidnapping of the soldier Gilad Shalit by the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Protective Edge Operation (2014) took place after the kidnapping of three Israeli high school students at the Israeli Southern border, by the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Despite the fact that the majority of the civilian population suffered neither casualties nor loss of assets, the lives of the civilians in almost all of Israel’s northern and southern communities were in immediate danger and, the entire population in those areas experienced the conditions and the impact of war (Murthy & Lakshminarayana, 2006; Solomon, 1995)
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