70%.

70% of children in towns affected by rockets suffer from at least one symptom of PTSD. Men, Women, and Children--everyone--are affected by these attacks. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4093281,00.html
Take a look at this article and you will see the traumatizing effect that the rocket attacks from Gaza have had on the people of Sderot and the surrounding communities. There are a multitude of stories I have heard since I have been here. It has changed the way that I think about the rocket attacks significantly

Back in America, or anywhere else in the world, it is easy to demonize Israel for the retalitory air strikes that it carries out in response to the rocket attacks. It is easy to demonize Israel for the operation in Gaza. You see the statistics--few killed in the border cities, and many more in Gaza. But what is Israel to do? The citizens who are affected need help. Natal’s resiliency training goes far. But it is very difficult to train an entire city to just deal with the fact that every day there is a significant chance that air sirens will go off and an office building, a car, a store, or someone’s home will be destroyed. The rocket attacks can not go unpunished, there must be a system of deterrence.

Listen to a few of the pleas of the civilians there and you will that it is very difficult not to empathize with them. It is hard to think that nothing can be done. "Parenthood here focuses on survival, not on empowerment.” “When the Color Red alarm went off while I was in the shower, I would run to the shelter without clothes on. About a month ago, the alarm went off again. I heard planes flying by and I fainted. They had to take me to the hospital." "Life in this town was beautiful before the Qassam fire started," she said. "Since then, there hasn't been one night when we could sleep normally. All aspects of life have been disrupted.”

50% of Children in Sderot experience symptoms of “reliving” rocket attacks
41.6% experience sympoms of heightened arousal, extreme fear and anxiety, a constant state of alertness, nightmares, etc.

An Israeli woman is carried after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza landed in a factory in the southern Israeli town of Sderot February 27, 2008.  REUTERS/Amir Cohen

A woman is evacuated on a stretcher after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza landed in a factory in the southern Israeli town of Sderot February 27, 2008.

Workers survey the damage after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza landed in a factory in the southern Israeli town of Sderot February 27, 2008. A Palestinian rocket attack from the Gaza Strip killed one person in Israel on Wednesday, the Zaka emergency service said. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

For most rocket attacks, the Israeli air force sends a retaliatory strike on the site from which the rocket was fired. They do everything they can to avoid civilian casualties, but the terrorists fire indiscriminately on civilians from civilian areas. They use human shields. In Gaza, there is no punishment for terrorism on the Israeli population. In fact, it is praised by the government in power, Hamas. Many of the rockets actually emanate from the government forces of Hamas, the Al-Quassam brigades.

Should they really be forced to move out of their homes? Should Sderot be turned into an exclusion zone? Israel cannot just stand back and allow these attacks to happen, even though civilians aren’t typically killed. The reason they aren’t killed is because there have been bomb shelters put up all over the city. There are sirens. They are encouraged to go inside. Even still, they suffer from trauma of the constant fear.

These children will have an extremely different life than those who grow up elsewhere. I doubt that they will ever be able to completely detach from the terror that they were forced to live in during their childhood. Perhaps, they will become extremely resilient--at least those who were resilient during the attacks. Perhaps instead, they will continue to suffer from the effects of PTSD for the majority of their adult life--being unable to focus on the intricacies of everyday life, severely attention deficit, sleep deprived, and depressed. In America, it is hard to understand what it is like here. Many people probably just dismiss it altogether, saying something to the likes of “the middle east is just screwed up. What can you do.” This is a dangerous attitude. It is the same attitude that many Israelis share--something that will deter the winds of peace for a long time. People need to try and understand this illness, PTSD. Soldiers in America deal with it in a place where very few understand their situation. Many are driven to the edge, some even commit suicide.

PTSD is something I still know very little about. But it is something very intense, and those who have it feel lost. But they are not alone. As a society, we must learn to confront it, and show that these people are not alone.

I am not sure what that means now. I am one of these children who grew up in the U.S. completely detached from the life here. I have met kids my age that have lived through terror, it has greatly affected their lives. Many of them were aggressive.

I remember one night from when I was living in Jerusalem. I was out with one of my friends in town. Jerusalem, being a very intense place, has consistently dealt with the conflict for over a thousand years. Since Israel has become a country, and Jerusalem its undivided capital, there have been terror attacks. They have lived through the intifada, when stone throwing, bus bombings, and murders were an every day phenomenon. That night that I was out, I heard an Israeli teenager running down Jaffa street screaming something with people around him joining in chorus. They repeated an extremely racist motto, which I will not translate directly but I will say that that it undermines the issue, a continual cycle of hatred and violence. The stress caused here by the conflict creates anger on both sides. It causes people to forget dreams of peace. I have met quite a few people that have become so cynical over these years to say that peace is impossible. I can personally say I have no solution. Nothing can change until both sides relax..

PTSD is a disease. It is a national disease here, and the symptoms can sometimes be hate and mistrust. I’m not sure what to do. When I came here, I felt like I had a solution. After living here for nearly 6 months. I don’t have a clue what there is to do. But the sickness needs to be treated, otherwise, peace is impossible.

NATAL provides a necessary service. Today, I talked to a friend of mine, he told me two of his brothers have trouble sleeping at night because of memories of battles. It is too common, and it breaks my heart to learn more about the disease here. NATAL does everything I think could be possible, and although my contributions may be minimal, I am very happy to help. NATAL is treating the disease. Now, its important that people learn what it is, and how they can help.

terrifying.

During my last visit to NATAL, my fellow interns and I were shown a couple of films which help to describe what PTSD is and how NATAL combats it. The videos were quite terrifying.



The first video interviewed three individuals who were diagnosed with Post traumatic stress disorder. The traumas which each experienced were all different, but the effects were similarly disturbing to each of them. The disease affected their lives in every which way--they had difficulty communicating, being in a work environment, and even getting out of bed in the morning. One had been present at the scene of a terrorist attack, another was a respondent to one, and a third had her son taken from her during the operation in Gaza. PTSD put their lives on hold, inflicting them with "Hidden Scars," terrifying memories which inhibited them from functioning on a day to day basis.

It's very interesting the way that this disease plays itself out in the lives of its victims. The woman who lost her son kept his room exactly the same. She explained that she couldn't come to believe that her son was dead, despite what every one told her. She became emotionally unavailable to the rest of her family. Unwilling to cope with her loss, she became reclusive.

The firefighter, Chen, who responded to the terrorist attack felt similarly. In the attack at the lobby of the park hotel, 30 were killed and 140 were wounded. Just as the hotel lobby was torn to shreds, so was Chen's well being. He said that the smell of flesh kept him awake at night. It made him lose his temper, and as a result, his family suffered. This cycle of anger broke him down, and made him extremely depressed.

Finally, Tamar, the woman who witnessed a terror attack at the entrance to the HaSharon Mall in Netanya, broke down. She was severely damaged after the incident, finding it hard to cope with why she survived and others perished. Tamar said that she couldn't keep the memory out of her mind. It played back in her dreams, and made it very difficult to move on with her life. She kept being reminded of images of scattered clothing and the looks of terror on peoples faces. She said during the incident, she zoned out, unable to deal with what had just happened, and was shaken into reality by a man yelling at her to watch her step. She had been standing on a piece of flesh. I can't even imagine the toll that such an event would take on one's mind.

All three of these individuals suffer from PTSD. The worst part about it is that they aren't alone. The pain is felt deep in the heart of Israel. In such a small country that has dealt with war and terrorism persistently since its inception, nearly anywhere in Israel, someone is in need of help.

The effects of trauma can kill you internally. They can keep you from working, being a parent, or even continuing to function in everyday life. These innocent people--victims of traumatic events and the psychological illness which follows--need help, or else they may be doomed. The work that NATAL does is fundamental to the welfare of Israeli society. It is a country which is so small. With its short history embedded with image after image of terror and war, everywhere here you will find someone suffering from PTSD.

NATAL provides a very necessary service for Israel. Many are unable to afford traditional treatment, and NATAL provides it for free. Every dollar donated goes directly to the treatment, because all operational costs are funded by one donor. In addition, the ability to have confidential treatment, in which victims don't aquire the sometimes unfavorable label of PTSD, makes NATAL a special place.

NATAL has developed a multidementional treatment--an arts and crafts group experience, personal and group therapy, a call unit, and other group activities. Many victims of PTSD find that they lose crucial social skills necessary to function. Through interaction, NATAL helps to rebuild these social skills. They give people a place where they can talk about their experiences and mourn together through workshops and group therapy. This way they can know that they are not alone.

Try to remember the terrible events that occurred on 9-11, how traumatic it was for the American people. Or perhaps try to imagine the trauma of a shooting in a school , or of a group of innocent people who are taken hostage and threatened with death. It is extremely intense, and quite difficult to imagine. Every one in the country hears about the event, and glued to the TV screen waiting to see what will happen next they think, “what can be done to stop this?”

Israel lives in a very peculiar situation. These events ,sadly, are not uncommon. When attack occurs on US soil, the first response is to retaliate with an even greater magnitude of force. This is demonstrated in the large number of casualties which occurred in America's recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Response in Israel is more convoluted. In such a small space, with all attacks occurring on Israeli soil, How can the military respond to terror? While all options are always on the table to prevent further attacks, shock and awe response must only be a last resort. Surgical strikes must be taken, and even those which undoubtedly take civilian lives on occasion, are criticized internationally. The reality is that Israel as a nation that Israel sadly must learn to cope, so long as the threat of terror and war occurs on a daily basis. The work that NATAL does is crucial to allow this small nation to operate, so the victims of terror and war can continue to thrive rather than be disintegrated by the atrocities which they witness. In Israel, many must learn to cope with trauma, whether they live on a border city, or in a contentious area. In these cases, it is not treating post traumatic stress disorder. It is training people to live in a traumatic, stressful environment.

This brings me to the second video which we watched. It began with a news crew following one of NATAL's psychologists down to the border city of Sderot to do some routine therapy with residents who live there. He began by going house to house with families who had lived in stress under the threat of rocket fire. Since 2001, 9822 rocket attacks have been carried out. In these cases, terrorist groups in Gaza fire rockets and mortars indiscriminately on civilian areas in southern Israel. While casualties are low, they still have occured. More than thirty people have been killed and hundreds have been injured. The day that he went, 40 rockets fell in Sderot.

It went from a routine visit to something much more terrifying and traumatizing. I remember one scene in which a large group of children were playing in a playground. Suddenly, sirens went off and a voice on a loudspeaker said to get inside as soon as possible, there was a Quassam rocket coming. At this point, on average, one has fifteen seconds to find shelter. Luckily, there are bomb shelters all over the city, even at bus stops. All the children screamed and ran as fast as possible into the building. The camera turned to a car, where a man was unable to get out in time. He was bracing himself and leaning back in forth, praying. This image stuck in my mind. I can't imagine how terrible this must have been. But it isn't uncommon, to the contrary, it is part of everyday life in Sderot.

At this point, the NATAL psychologist was running all around the city, helping whoever he could. There were men, women, and children screaming. A woman came up to the psychologist and said, "HELP! HELP! I need a psychologist!" The man ran into a home with the woman and there was another woman in the kitchen. She was freaking out. The psychologist tried to help, to console her. She had just witnessed a close friend being killed by a rocket. He tried to help her, to calm her down. Eventually, she passed out. Then he needed to talk to her children to tell them that it will be alright. Sometimes people pass out, it doesn't mean that they are dead. It became very clear to me that many of the people that live here have been affected by the rocket fire. They have "Hidden Scars."

Citizens in sderot live under a constant threat. They hear the sirens cry and the loudspeakers yell to get under cover on a daily basis. This stressful environment takes its toll on the citizens of Sderot. According to NATAL, 71% of chidren in Sderot suffer from at least one post-traumatic symptom, one in three citizens suffers from PTSD, and almost half of the residents have reported a loss in income as a result of living under constant fire. It is hard for me to imagine a life like this. I am so used to living in Indiana, in calm, in a country which has witness very little terror and war on its home soil. The biggest threat I face is being let down for a job, or the weather.

Learning more and more about the way that PTSD affects Israel has made me put things into perspective. It is such a wild place here. A start up nation that thrives in the middle east, which has innovated and developed a working economy, even in the face of hardship. Every person here serves there country, many serve in the military and see combat. Trauma is not rare. It is just part of living in this country. Extreme as it is, it thoroughly intrigues me. Israel has been through a lot. PTSD is a battle that it is willing to face. NATAL attacks it head on, and provides solidarity for those who suffer. Through hardship, Israel maintains its stoic nature. This is so different from back home.