The Dual Attitude towards the Arab Personality in the Contemporary Hebrew Children's Literature: A Critical Analysis of Ronette Gettleman's 'On Her Way

Having received a noticeable stature in the contemporary Hebrew children’s literature, Ronette Gettleman is one of the most renowned authors who have addressed the issue of hate speech and the culture of peace in contemporary Hebrew children’s literature. Hate speech is considered part of Zionist literature. Gettleman’s story On Her Way is a prominent piece of prose that depicts the Arabs and their image in Israeli children's minds. Hence, the story On Her Way was chosen as an attempt to identify, through selected excerpts from the story, how the Arab person is negatively portrayed in contemporary Hebrew children’s literature. The author, through some Israeli children, expresses the concepts of hostility and hatred in their conscience towards the Arab character. Like other Israeli authors, Gettleman shows that the image of Arabs in Hebrew literature raises fear, anxiety and terror whenever Israeli children hear the word "Arab". It also makes the culture of hatred and hostility a headline for the Israeli child. In contrast, the author highlights the culture of coexistence and peace among some Israeli children towards the Arab character. The story demonstrates that there are some Israeli children who are willing to coexist and live peacefully with Arabs. This story with its focus on both hatred and hostility on the one hand and coexistence and peace, on the other, shows the dual attitude of Israeli children towards Arabs. This is a new trend in contemporary Hebrew children's literature towards the Arab character and its positive outlook. Keywords: Contemporary Hebrew Children’s Literature, Hate speech, Culture of peace, Ronette Gettleman, On Her Way.

The Delivery of Diagnosis by Child Psychiatrists: Process Characteristics and Correlates of Distress

We describe the attitudes of child psychiatrists toward diagnosis delivery (DD) and explore potential stressful factors associated with the process. Eighty Israeli child psychiatrists completed a questionnaire on their perceptions of DD of schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We also conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 child psychiatrists who were asked to share their personal experience with DD. The questionnaire responses revealed that child psychiatrists perceived schizophrenia and ADHD as the most and least severe disorders, respectively, and its treatment as being ineffective and effective, respectively. They expressed negative perceptions toward DD of schizophrenia and positive perceptions toward DD of ADHD. The results of linear regressions revealed that some factors predicted distress accompanying DD in all three diagnoses, such as lack of professional experience, negative perceptions of DD, and the effect of parents' attitudes of opposition to the diagnosis. The interviews revealed that DD was often described by psychiatrists as an emotional experience and that the psychiatrists' age, and whether the psychiatrists identified more with the child or the parent, affected their attitude toward DD. Lastly, the psychiatrists expressed feelings of loneliness in the procedure of DD and their wish to share and reflect on their experiences with others. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the clinically important topic of DD in child psychiatry that has not been adequately addressed and help deal with psychiatrists' challenges in this task.

The least detrimental alternative

The decision to remove children at risk from their homes entails serious dilemmas, since both remaining in and being removed have strong negative psychological repercussions. This article presents an empirical investigation of 194 Israeli child protection officers’ decisions on 368 children at risk. Findings showed that while the officers predicted that all the children would have a better quality of life outside their homes, they removed only those where the projected disparity between the alternatives was substantial. That is, they considered not only whether one alternative was better or worse, but how much better or worse. Implications for decisions in “grey areas” are discussed.