Criminalization of Asylum Seekers in Israel: Toward an Agentic Research Perspective that Opposes Othering and Estrangement.

At the start of the millennium, asylum seekers (ASs) from Eritrea and South Sudan began arriving in Israel as a consequence of armed conflicts in their countries. In their first months of stay, their civil status was not regulated. Later on, the state regulated it based on the Prevention of Infiltration Law (1954), originally designed to prevent Palestinian-Arab refugees from returning to the country. The African ASs represent less than one-third of the undocumented immigrants in Israel but their skin color highlights their alienness thus they are prone to both official and unofficial criminalization. This paper deals with state violence directed at the African ASs through practices of criminalization and othering as applied by Israeli politics and the justice system towards undocumented African migrants in Israel as dangerous and undesirable others. The discussion presents implications for an agentic human rights action-based model for further inquiry and practice that resists othering.

The Practice of Spiritual Criminology: A Non-Doing Companionship for Crime Desistance.

Spiritual criminology (SC) is an umbrella term for various criminological theories, models and practices that share reference to the spiritual dimension of human existence. Informed by a growing body of research that applies spiritual approaches to various aspects of criminology, SC attempts to provide a common thread shared by most approaches to spirituality: a voluntary self-journey that begins with an elevated level of self-centeredness and is aimed at self-transformation. Based on an extensive review of the literature, this paper proposes three general principles for spiritual accompaniment of people who offended: mindful non-doing, being and acting; love and compassion; and compassionate inclusion. These principles can be applied by combining several practices: renouncing control over knowledge, process and outcomes; creating a moral atmosphere that includes forgiveness and nonjudgment; and self-modeling. SC is shown to contribute to the rehabilitation of people who offended and also to crime prevention.

Sufi Non-Doing Offender Rehabilitation: Positive and Peacemaking Criminology in Practice.

Offender rehabilitation is a challenging goal that calls for ongoing creative innovations. Amongst is a non-doing rehabilitative initiation that is inspired by spiritual traditions. The aim of this paper is to present an application of non-doing offender rehabilitation that has no declared intention to rehabilitate, carried by a peacemaking Islamic Sufi route. Based on the positive criminology approach, we conducted a qualitative phenomenological study consisted of interviews with 11 ex-prisoners who were employed in the Shadhiliyya-Yashrutiyya Sufi order as construction workers and also with 35 Sufi disciple and leaders. We identified five themes of non-doing: (1) atmosphere; (2) modeling; (3) social inclusion and suspension of judgement; (4) spiritual meaning; (5) feasibility of transformative processes. The discussion presents principles of a model of non-doing rehabilitation in a spiritual community and emphasizes the research innovation in presenting non-doing as a holistic method of inclusion within a transformative faith community.

Factors related to negative feelings experienced by emergency department patients and accompanying persons: an Israeli study.

BACKGROUND: Studies on hospital violence have emphasized the importance of staff- service recipient interaction in leading to violent incidents. These incidents are the extreme result of service recipients' frustration and anger in their interaction with staff. The aim of this study was to analyze factors related to negative experiences of emergency department (ED) patients and accompanying persons in Israeli hospitals. METHODS: Structured interviews with 692 participants in seven major general Israeli hospitals: 322 patients and 370 accompanying persons. RESULTS: Negative feelings while in the ED were reported by 23.6% of patients and 20.5% of accompanying persons. Eight aggregate variables relating to staff-patients/accompanying persons interaction were identified: 1. General attitudes of staff and quality of ED experience; 2. Staff attitudes towards patients; 3. Staff attitudes towards accompanying persons; 4. Waiting; 5. Quality of perceived medical care; 6. Information provided to patients and accompanying persons; 7. Information provided to patients, as reported by accompanying persons; and 8. Severity of medical problem. Among patients, the only significant aggregate variable related to anger and frustration was perceived quality of care. Among accompanying persons, the three significant contributors to negative feelings were: 1. Staff's general attitudes; 2. Attitudes towards patients; and 3. Severity of patients' medical problem. Analysis of specific items within the variables revealed that, whereas patients' negative feelings were related to nurses' perceived negative attitudes those of accompanying persons were related to the doctors' perceived negative attitudes. In addition, patients' negative feelings were related to low severity of medical problem, whereas accompanying persons' negative feelings were related to patients' low severity of pain. CONCLUSIONS: The study reveals the importance of including both patients and accompanying persons in the analysis of staff-service recipient interactions in EDs. The results are discussed in terms of patients' and accompanying persons' different perspectives. Three practical implications of the results are put forward, aiming at reducing patients/accompanying persons-staff frictions in the EDs, thus decreasing the potential of violent outbursts against ED staff: (1) implementing a framework based on "patient-centeredness" for the restoration of patient's sense of agency and empowerment; (2) broadening the scope of laws concerning patient's rights to include their families and other accompanying persons; and (3) implementing courses on interpersonal and human service skills, as well as teaching skills of handling emotional stressors experienced by both the staff and service recipients.