Israel's suffering children

By Richard Miron
BBC correspondent in Jerusalem

Fourteen-year-old Shahar Medioni spends much of her spare time glued to the television following the fortunes of her favourite footballer, David Beckham.

She shares her fascination for the Real Madrid player with countless other people in Israel and around the world.

Militants have killed or wounded scores of Israeli children

Sitting on the edge of sofa in the living room of her parents' Jerusalem apartment she watches the latest game featuring her footballing hero.

But Shahar's stay in the apartment to catch the latest game is not just because of her interest in football.

"It is good to stay at home," she says, "I prefer being here to going to the mall or something like that."

Shahar is a gregarious teenager but she says she feels scared to go out.

"I am afraid a terrorist will come or something like this."

Russian roulette

Her feelings are common among children in Israel, who have become used to images of shattered buses and destroyed cafes - the results of suicide bombings by militant Palestinian groups.

Their minds are affected by so much anxiety Merav Medioni, mother

"It feels like Russian roulette now," says Shahar's mother, Merav Medioni.

She grew up in Jerusalem and though she remembers bombings during her childhood, the situation, she says, is far more difficult for her three children.

Given the situation, she says, she finds it difficult to reassure them.

"This isn't a normal and natural way in which I would like my children to grow up in. Their minds are affected by so much anxiety."

Sometimes, she says, when she goes out with the whole family, she notices her children nervously sticking close to her.

"I explain to them to calm down but then I wonder how can I tell them to calm down when..." and her voice trails off.

Attack on the Children

In August, eight infants were among 23 people killed in a bus bombing in Jerusalem.

The youngest casualty was five-months-old, and scores of children were injured.

Youngsters have been left traumatised by attacks

That incident became known as 'The Attack on the Children', and highlighted for many in Israel the high cost paid by the country's younger citizens in the past three years.

In Israel's previous conflicts, the military bore the overwhelming burden of casualties, but this intifada (Palestinian uprising) - with its bombings and shootings in towns and villages - has exacted a high price from civilians.

Ordinary contacts that Israelis used to have with Palestinians have virtually disappeared.

Few people venture into Arab areas in East Jerusalem or elsewhere - instead images of the 'the other side' are built up from the alarming and often bloody images in the news.

Dr Philip Veerman is the executive director of the Israeli section of the charity Defence for Children International.

He says that, given the type of the attacks and their frequency there is evidence of trauma amongst many people - particularly the young.

"I think it is quite widespread so this is very much present in the life of children," he said.

Bleak future

In the Medioni family home 10-year-old Tal plays on a computer game one room away from where her sister sits watching TV.

Tal enjoys zapping away imaginary enemies on the computer.

She prefers not to think about those who she sees as her real life adversaries, and says she doesn't like Palestinians.

The mother of two children at Tal's school was killed in a recent suicide bombing at a Jerusalem café.

"It's terrible for the children to lose a mother, because it is impossible to live without a mother," she says.

Tal has little hope for peace in future.

"The situation will continue until sometime - I'm not sure when but sometime," she says.

That pessimism has infected many - both young and old - in Israel.

And there are concerns that the trauma of this conflict, particularly on the young, may be felt for generations to come.

---

Despair of Palestinian children