Neveen Ali-Saleh Darawshy

The past three decades have seen growing research on community violence (CV). In Israel, limited literature on Palestinian Arab society has found widespread exposure to CV across all ages. The recent surge of violence in Palestinian Arab communities in Israel underscores the need for further research on frontline social workers in social service departments (SSDs) who cope with escalating CV on a daily basis. Findings of this qualitative phenomenological study that included interviews with twelve SSD directors in Palestinian Arab communities in northern and central Israel revealed four interrelated themes that reflect the realities faced by directors of SSDs in their society amidst escalating CV: (1) Intensifying and normalized CV in everyday life; (2) Overlap of personal, parental and professional coping with CV; (3) Gaps between policy and practice in responding to CV; and (4) The challenges of remaining motivated at work. The findings indicate that directors of SSDs in violence-affected communities require stronger professional and institutional support. Social work policies, training, and practices need to be adapted to local realities, with clear guidelines and adequate resources, alongside enhanced collaboration with community and national actors to protect workers and improve community safety.

The study addresses community violence among Arab social workers in Israel. Data from 14 in-depth interviews were thematically analyzed. The findings reveal that participants encounter challenges in the personal, familial, as well as the professional spheres. They report collegial supportive coping mechanisms used by social workers after exposure to community violence. This study highlights the importance of enhancing social workers’ well-being, safety, and professional effectiveness after exposure to community violence. Tailored peer support is crucial in addressing the challenges they face.

In this collective autoethnography two academics who live in Israel explore the possibility of friendship across different social positions, religions and nationalities. The article describes how autoethnography and Denzin’s scholarship have made this friendship possible and deepened it. To this end, the article explores their journey within neoliberal Israeli, dominantly Jewish, academia, investigate the (im)possibility of authentic dialogue between an Israeli Jewish woman and a Palestinian Israeli woman in Israel in this moment of violence in Israel, and examine how Denzin’s scholarship and conferences have allowed them to explore these questions using autoethnography. Inspired by Denzin’s scholarship we use collective autoethnography as a methodology that is grounded in love, care, hope and forgiveness to dwell together in a fractured discussion about shattered time and space. Our time is fractured by past and present traumas and the fear of what the future holds. Our space has been damaged by violent conflict. The article concludes by discussing the importance of Denzin’s scholarship for critical social work researchers during violent conflicts.

This research investigated how social workers with diverse national and political backgrounds communicate using digital tools during crises and political conflicts. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, twenty-five social workers from municipal departments of social service in six ethnonationally mixed Israeli cities were interviewed in Hebrew and Arabic. The research examined how social workers with differing national identities navigate communication, focusing on perceptions, actions, and strategies during politically charged periods. The findings revealed three intercorrelated themes: strategic use of digital silence as a coping mechanism, power asymmetries reflected in communication patterns, and the struggle to maintain professional boundaries when political events permeate digital workplace discourse. While using digital tool as WhatsApp may decrease tension, it remained essential for work coordination, it simultaneously became a space where political tensions were enacted through patterns of engagement and disengagement, challenging professional norms and collegial relationships. The study recommends fostering awareness of how national identities shape communication on digital platforms like WhatsApp, encouraging inclusive and supportive professional environments during political crises. Ethical considerations and organizational guidelines should address the intersection of social work diversity, digital communication, and professional practice.

This study investigated the correlations between social workers’ levels of religiosity and their professional attitudes toward discussing sexual health. The focus was particularly on the potential mediating role of their attitudes to heteronormative beliefs. A random sample of 150 social workers from Israel (Jewish [63.3 percent], Palestinian-Arab [36 percent], and those who self-identified as “other” [0.7 percent]) completed a self-administered questionnaire. The findings revealed significant correlations among professional attitudes toward discussing sexual health, attitudes toward heteronormativity, and degree of religiosity. Social workers with higher levels of religiosity exhibited higher levels of heteronormative beliefs, which, in turn, influenced their professional attitudes toward discussing sexual health. Furthermore, the findings highlight the importance of challenging heteronormative perspectives for all social welfare service users. Social work must establish culturally sensitive training to challenge the hegemony of heteronormative perspectives while connecting to religious and conservative values and perceptions.

In this study, I investigated the correlations between retrospectively reported experiences of child abuse in the family‐of‐origin and exposure to community violence as adults on parental monitoring among Palestinian–Israeli parents. A sample of 760 parents (453 mothers, 59.6%) participated in the study. A self‐administered questionnaire was used. Results showed that both experiencing child abuse and community violence victimization were associated with high levels of parental stress, and experiencing child abuse was also associated with low levels of parental monitoring. Indirect effects of parental stress were found between both types of violence exposure and parental monitoring. Among mothers, there were additional indirect effects between violence exposure and parental monitoring. These findings suggest that exposure to multiple contexts of violence correlated with parental behaviours, and parenting programmes should focus on reducing parental stress and improving parental monitoring, considering the gender differences. Overall, this study highlights the importance of addressing the outcomes of trauma on parenting monitoring, which can have significant implications for public health.

In this study, we examined Palestinian Israeli and Jewish Israeli social workers’ relationships in relation to events in May 2021 that involved serious political violent incidents between Palestinian and Jewish Israelis. The qualitative phenomenology approach was used. We interviewed twenty-five social workers from both groups who work in public social services in six ethnonational mixed Palestinian–Jewish cities in Israel. Participants, who were predominantly female and between the ages of 25 and 55, were recruited using a purposive sampling technique. In-depth interviews, conducted in Hebrew and Arabic, focused on the perceptions, experiencing and challenges in relationships between colleagues during crises. Findings revealed the complexity of relationships amid political violence. Most participants coped by remaining silent on political matters. Three themes emerged: subjects of silence, reasons for silence and instances of breaking silence within WhatsApp groups, staff meetings and private conversations amongst individuals of the same ethnic group. The authors make recommendations for research, practice and training for social workers concerning relationships in the context of ongoing political conflict. It is also important to raise ‘social-work-informed conflict awareness’ amongst social workers that relates to how political conflicts may influence their behaviours and relationships.

The military family stress (MFS) model conceptualizes that wartime deployments and post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are associated with couple, parenting, and child adjustment difficulties. The aim of this study was to replicate and extend the military family stress model by examining the associations among deployment length, PTSD symptoms, marital functioning, parenting practices, and child adjustment in a replication sample of both National Guard and Reserve (NG/R) as well as active‐duty service member families. The MFS model is extended to test whether these relationships vary between mothers and fathers. The sample included 208 families enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of a parenting program for military families (94.4% of fathers and 21.6% of mothers were deployed). Replicating the MFS model, we specified parenting, marital quality, and child adjustment as latent variables and conducted multi‐group structural equation models. Parenting practices were positively associated with marital quality and child adjustment. PTSD symptoms were negatively associated with marital quality. The indirect effect from PTSD symptoms to parenting practices through marital quality was marginally significant. The indirect effect from marital quality to child adjustment through parenting practices was significant. There were no significant gender differences between the two structural models. This study provides empirical support for the MFS model. Results demonstrate that deployment‐related stressors are significantly associated with parent and family functioning. Parenting programs for military families might effectively target similar risk processes among both mothers and fathers.