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Losing a loved one as a result of murder is a profoundly traumatic experience. This is even more precise with regard to children who have lost an immediate family member, such as a parent or a sibling. This experience may severely impact the children’s social and emotional lives, their functioning, adaptability, and psychological and physical development. In the last few years, public and therapeutic awareness in Israel has been raised with regard to the effect of murder cases on the families of the victims. In 2009, the Israeli government approved an assistance program for families bereaved by homicide in Israel. This article focuses on the treatment of grieving children in the Arab community, which touches upon the violent nature of the murder, requires awareness, and broadens the knowledge of children’s grieving processes, as well as religious, cultural, and social perceptions regarding death and treatment-seeking.

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The studied test case presents the adult voices of Israeli children whose fathers were prisoners of war (POWs) in Egypt from 1969 to 1973. The study's findings indicate long-term effects of the captivity on the children of POWs, and that an inner formative experience associated with the period of the father's absence remains despite his return. The findings are explained by means of ambiguous loss theories and by loss and bereavement theories. Recommendations emerge for ambiguous loss to be recognized as a stress situation, and for professional and social assistance to be provided for the family in building a life routine that does not freeze in place, but continues during the father's absence and after his return.

A political opponent assassinated Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, in 1995. The event was a macro-level collective trauma during which youth had to confront and contend with the symptoms of trauma and grief and their interactions. One unique reaction of youth was to write graffiti on the walls of Tel Aviv's city hall. The texts and symbols of the graffiti were examined and studied. Overall, the graffiti was found to represent spontaneous and authentic feelings of loss and “spontaneous memorization.” Beyond this, content analysis of the graffiti revealed that many youth were addressing the social, political, and cultural aspects of the tragedy. The uniqueness of the graffiti symbols is also discussed.