Sagit Yehoshua

Sagit Yehoshua is an Atkin Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) at King's College London.

Yehoshua holds a Bachelors degree in criminology and Middle East studies and a Masters degree in applied criminology from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where she is studying for a doctorate:

Sagit is also a PhD Candidate, at Bar-Ilan University, with her dissertation subject being Profiles of Leaders of Terrorist Groups. Sagit has focused her studies on the psychology of terrorism and the profiles of terrorist groups and leaders. The research has involved years of interviewing the leaders of major terrorist organisations in Israeli prisons.

Yehoshua is a lecturer at the Department of Criminology at Bar-Ilan University.

Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya

Yehoshua is also a research fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.

Yehoshua took part in a workshop entitled "Is the Prison System Rehabilitating Terrorists or Radicalizing Them? - Challenges of Working with Imprisoned Terrorists" at the ICT's 9th International conference on 9th September 2009.

She told the meeting that the leaders she interviewed did not typically have an anti-social personality:

There is no specific terrorist personality because it is such a big phenomenon which needs a lot of research but I believe that I got inside their mind, it would allow me to know how they act and give me and the IPS {Israeli Prison Service] more tools.

She went on to describe the conditions necessary for the Israeli Prison Service to influence imprisoned Palestinian leaders:

After talking with them for so many years, I found that they go through a process of moderation but they need some factors: length of time in prison - they need time where they are out of influence from outside; negotiations and dialogue with the prison and management and person - first time they see someone from Israel not through the media. When they continue to do that, they see it is possible to talk with them; level of acquired education - they continue their studies. Many leaders do not want to receive education from Israel as they do not agree with the content of education.

International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation

Yehoshua joined the ICSR as a guest in Winter 2009. In a post on the Centre's blog, she wrote:

I have met and interviewed some Arab Muslims, while in London for my research - usually students that came to London to study or their friends that have finished their studies and decided to stay. During these meetings I felt that even though they are intelligent, arrived some years ago from their countries and that they have a similar background, it was very difficult to conduct the discussions.

Though I didn't expect it to be easy, I did not believe that I might be considered (to be) a recruiter of (a) dark Israeli intelligence agencies every time I tried to get an Arab Muslim to talk to me or to introduce me to his friends.

She went on to add:

during the interviews that deal with life and thoughts, I had the feeling that there was some sort of barrier between us, one that I could not break, even after so many years of interview experience with tough criminals and terrorists.

It is perhaps possible that it was precisely Yehoshua's experience interviewing Palestinian prisoners that gave her Arab interlocutors pause. Her discomfiture is arguably somewhat disingenuous in that her work on terrorist profiling of Palestinian prisoners has obvious relevance for Israeli security policy, and might be considered the kind of work that would be carried out by professional intelligence collectors and analysts if it were not being done in the academic community.

Cheerleaders

As of 6 February 2010, Yehoshua was listed as an officer on the Facebook page of the online activist group, the Cheerleaders. As of 26 February 2010, Yehoshua was no longer listed as an officer although she was still a member of the group.