ABSTRACT
Political violence is an ongoing threat to human well-being amongst all members of Israeli society. 1 Exposure to political violence is related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and behavioral problems. 2 But it may also be associated with such positive outcomes as pro-social behavior and positive self-esteem. 3 The present paper is among the first to compare Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli adolescent respondents to political violence within Israel. Results show high levels of problems in both populations. In contrast to previous scholarship, 4 the paper finds that Palestinian-Israeli peoples had less exposure to political violence, but experienced higher impacts; one of the major factors for this differential experience being socioeconomic status (SES). By focusing on both populations living in the state of Israel, greater insight can be had into similar and divergent subjective experiences of political violence, and consequently the nature of the required medical and allied disciplinary responses to political violence can be tailored to suit these needs.
