Fear and Anxiety, as Reflected in Israeli Children’s Books

Abstract

This article aims to show elements of fear and anxiety in children’s books written about children living in the Gaza Strip region of Israel. Since the 1950s, this area has been a source of active terrorism against Israel, although it should be noted that there have also been periods of relative calm alongside the waves of terrorism. The research methodology is based on a text analysis of 20 children’s books on this subject that reflect social processes during wartime and their effects on residents, who are mostly children. The vocabulary related to fear and anxiety highlights certain sociocultural contexts—in this case, a period of war—and the lexicon use expresses the unique atmosphere that was created in the Gaza Strip