Cölsch, Nele Potential and limitations of peace education in . A case study on parents’ perspectives on the Hand in Hand school in

Freiburg, Br. : Centaurus-Verl. 2011, 119 S. - (Gender and Diversity; 3)

Empfohlene Zitierung/ Suggested Citation: Cölsch, Nele: Potential and limitations of peace education in Israel. A case study on parents' perspectives on the Hand in Hand school in Jerusalem. Freiburg, Br. : Centaurus-Verl. 2011, 119 S. - (Gender and Diversity; 3) - URN: urn:nbn:de:0111-opus-52936 in Kooperation mit / in cooperation with:

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Kontakt / Contact: peDOCS Deutsches Institut für Internationale Pädagogische Forschung (DIPF) Informationszentrum (IZ) Bildung E-Mail: [email protected] Internet: www.pedocs.de Nele Cölsch Potentialand limitationsofpeace education in Israel Gender andDiversity

Herausgegebenvon Prof.Dr. Marianne Kosmann, Prof.Dr. KatjaNowacki und Prof.Dr. Ahmet Toprak, alle Fachhochschule Dortmund

Band 3 Nele Cölsch

Potential andlimitationsofpeace educationinIsrael

Acasestudy on parents’ perspectives on theHand in Handschool in Jerusalem

Centaurus Verlag Freiburg 2011 Bibliografische Informationender DeutschenNationalbibliothek Die DeutscheNationalbibliothekverzeichnetdiese Publikation in der DeutschenNationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar.

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Umschlagabbildung: Question and answer session -classparticipationpaper concept, Foto: timsa, Quelle:www.istockphoto.com

Satz:Vorlage des Autorin Table of Contents

0Introduction...... 9 1Peace education: Different approaches...... 11

1.1 What is peace?...... 11 1.2 Peace education...... 12 1.3 Peace educationinconflict ridden areas ...... 12 1.4 Peace educationinformal, non-formal and informal education...... 13 1.5 Influencing factors of peace education...... 14 1.6 Objectives of peace education...... 14

2The setting of the school: Aconflict over identities...... 16

2.1 Israel –Amultilingual, multiculturalsociety ...... 16 2.2 The strong craving for aJewish state...... 17 2.3 Palestinians in Israel...... 19 2.4 The awakening of aPalestinian identity...... 20 2.5 Jerusalem...... 22

3The Israeli school system...... 23

3.1 An overview ...... 23 3.2 Differences of the Arab and the Jewish sector...... 24

4“Hand in Hand” –NGO andschools...... 26

4.1 An overview ...... 26 4.2 Conceptual framework of the school...... 27 4.2.1Bilingualeducation...... 27 4.2.2 Identity matters...... 30 4.2.3Intergroup encounters...... 34

5Methodology...... 38

5.1 'Thick description'– The methodused ...... 38 5.2 Methodological background...... 39

5 5.3 Description of the interviewees as agroup...... 41 5.4 Description of the interviewees as individuals...... 42

6Findings of thecasestudy...... 45

6.1 Introduction– Motivation of the parents to enter the school ...... 45 6.2 Bilingualism...... 45 6.2.1 Dominance of Hebrew in the society and its impact on the school...... 46 6.2.2 Language use at home ...... 47 6.2.3 Bilingualpolicyofthe school ...... 49 6.2.4The fulfillment of expectationsregarding language skillsof children ...... 55 6.2.5 The question of English and special needs...... 58 6.2.6 Language skills and visions for the future...... 59 6.2.7 Final conclusions on bilingualism in consideration of academic studies ...... 60 6.3 Identity...... 62 6.3.1 The question of self-definition ...... 62 6.3.2 Critique about Applicationofstrengthening identity in school... 64 6.3.3Special needsofidentities on theJewish and non- Jewish side.. 68 6.3.3.1 The Question of identity on the Jewish side ...... 68 6.3.3.2 The question of identity on the non-Jewish side...... 69 6.3.4 Ceremonies in school ...... 70 6.3.5 Intermarriage andthe question of identity...... 73 6.3.6 Identity and educational excellence...... 74 6.3.7 Final conclusions in considerationofacademic studies...... 76 6.4 Intergroup encounters...... 77 6.4.1 Contact of parents...... 77 6.4.2Perception of representation of the parents in school...... 80 6.4.3 Expectations about the contactinschool...... 82 6.4.4 Impactonchildren...... 83 6.4.4.1 The school's impact on friendships ...... 83 6.4.4.2 The school's ideological impactonchildren ...... 87 6.4.5 Worries about the impact of school in the future...... 90

6 6.4.6 Final conclusions in consideration of academic studies...... 92 6.5 Excursion– The impact of the school on its surrounding ...... 93 6.5.1 Impact on homes...... 93 6.5.2 Impact on society...... 96

7 Conclusion...... 99 References ...... 104 Attachments ...... 110 Acknowledgement...... 119

Content of figures

Figure 1: The amount of children by parents attending the Hand in Hand School 41 Figure 2: Religious background of parents 42

Transcription signs

(.) short break and I felt kind of a// I sentence or word not completed, new was already prepared beginning to-to repetition of syllables or word (laughing) Nonverbal expressions, other remark- able noises be'ehmet toda words in languages other than English (?) word or words not understandable at all [word] Overlap [word] N: Interviewer I: Interviewee

7

0Introduction

Theconflictinthe Middle East is oneofthe most present in German media and probablyelsewhere as well. Israel is in the center of it,somemightsay it is the center. In this region where constant violencetakes place, uncountable organiza- tionsand projects try to work towardpeace and coexistencewith very different strategies.Sincethe Al-Aksaintifada (the uprising of Palestinians in the occupied territories starting in 2000), theconcept of co-existencei work and encounterwork is undergoingacrisis (Halabi, Sonnenschein 2004). The rift between the Palestini- ans and the JewishIsraelis hasdeepened. The concept of co-existence is questioned and mutual mistrust raised. Still, peace work continues in this crucial political reality.Fund(2002,cited in Stephan et al. 2004, 239) estimates that about 150,000 people are currently engaged in about 300 programs,just counting those within Israel. In the formal school sys- tem, by now,fourbilingual, bi-national officialschoolsexist under the Israeli Min- istry of Education. One just opened last year and the numbers of students attending theseschools rises constantly. The biggest one is located in Jerusalem. This 'Hand in Hand' peace school is the subject of my final thesis. Based on interviews con- ducted with 20 parents who send their children to this school, Iwill elaborate on the challengesand limitations the Hand in Hand school in Jerusalemconfronts as well as itssuccesses. This paperisbased on acasestudy conducted between September and December 2008.Itsummarizesthe opinions of parents regarding the concept of the school in Jerusalem. The interviews themselves were conducted in English. This is neither the mothertongue of the interviewers nor the mother tongue of most of the parents interviewed. The general ideaofGermaninterviewees addressingPalestinian as well as Jewish parents can be questioned eventhough alternatives mightalso show deficits. As Bekerman pointsout (2003) one should be aware of the influence of the researcher'sbackground and the consequences in the results and interpretation. Even though nobodygave me the feeling thatmyGermanness is aproblem, I'm aware that it haschangedthe answers of the interviews as well as it influences my interpretation. This paper is written in English, first of all, because it is more authentic to keep the interviews in thelanguage conducted to prevent mistakes based on translations and

9 to keep the original terms.The literature used mainly comes from IsraelorEnglish speaking countries. Additionally the finalresultswill be handed over to Dr.Zvi Bekerman, the academic who conducts alongterm study on the Hand in Hand schoolsinIsrael, as he continues his research. Parents interviewed can then ask him if they would like to know what has happened with their answers as theyhavehis contact details. On top of that, the particularGerman-Israeli history and relation- ship makes me feel uncomfortable translating the answersand ideas into German, a language used in Israel mainly in the contextofthe Holocaust. Thestructure of this thesisisseparated into twomainparts, firstthe theoretical introduction, giving an idea of the contextofthe school and in the second part, the case study conducted. First, the concept of peace educationwill be introduced. Based on the wide spreadbut stillvague term 'peace', different understandings of thepedagogical conceptofpeace educationwill be presented as well as the influ- encing factors and main objectives of peace education. Then in chaptertwo, Iwill describe the setting of the school. To understand the concept of this specific Hand in Hand school with its uniqueapproach, it is of high value to get an idea of the population of Israel, its societaldivisions,and the status of the Arab-Palestinian minority.Onlyinthiscontextone can understand theobstaclesand objectivesof theschool'sspecific program. In addition theschool systeminIsraelwill be ex- plained, as the HandinHandschool is part of thatsystem. In part two, theschool will be described, with its conceptand the central aspects emphasizing: bilingualism, identity issues and inter-groupencounters.These will be the three categories used to present the results of the interviews. This is thecen- tral partofthis work, that is, putting the results of the interviewsinto acontext of academicdiscourse. Iwill not dig anydeeper into atheoretical background of in- terviewing parents. Besides the fact that there is not much academicliterature available aboutthis issue, it would go beyond the scope of this thesis to focus on the targetgroup as well.

10 1Peace education: Different approaches

“Peace education will notachieve the changes necessary for peace. Rather it pre- pares learners to achieve the changes.” (Cabezud, Haacelsrud2007, 296)

1.1 What is peace?

Peace educationisbased on theterm peace. To understand thecomplexity of peace education,one has to be awareofthe alreadydifferent interpretations of peace in ordertounderstand the different approaches of peaceeducation. 'Peace' is aterm mostly described by its opposite, to be more precise by its absence (Webel 2007). Peaceisastateofnon-violence. Even though for Galtung (1990, 2003), afounder of peace and conflictstudies, it is defined as muchmore than that. He distinguishes between positive and negativepeace. Negative peace is theabsence of war,vio- lenceand conflict.Positivepeace though stands forthe presence of positive states and desirable thoughts like justice, harmony or equality and is therefore much more than the absence of violence. Galtung (1990)also talks about structuralviolence manifested in inequalities suchasunequal distribution of power.For him,therefore positivepeace canonlybeestablished if structures are challenged and changed toward more equality among thedifferent stakeholders. Even though, more detailed interpretations of peace, for exampleadistinction of inner and outer peace on a spiritual levelwere given,Galtung's definitionserves as basic principle on peace projects as well as peace education (as in Biton, Salomon2006). According to We- bel (2007), it is important to understand that anypeace project aims for atransfor- mation on apersonal and collective levelfromdestruction toward positive values andstates. It formsactivemembers and collective self-determination and empow- ers toward emancipation. For Webel (2007), even though there will never be atime when absolute peaceisspread throughout the world, to work toward amore peace- ful,just and equal world is motivation enough to puteffort in projects of peace, like peace education.

11 1.2 Peace education

Peace educationisbydefinition broad. It does not combine acertain curriculumor has acertain approach but instead imparts specific values, attitudes, beliefs, skills and behavioral tendencies that correspond with the objectives(Bar-Tal 2002). It is the heading for certain aims andchallengesstructuresand power relations through differentstrategies, dependingonthe situation it is embedded in. It can promote culturaldiversityinethnocentric societies, challenge raciststructures, it can work toward nuclear disarmament, environmental protection, gender equality and other equalities. Cabeszud andHaacelsrud(2007)argue thatabasic structure of democracyand peace must exist to build upon. If the surrounding environment does notpromote peace education, it cannotsucceed. Bar-Tal andRosen (2009) on the other hand are persuaded thatpeace education can also take place in violent areas andplaces where it is not welcome.But they draw attention to the fact that in such situations one hastoapply peaceeducation in an indirect wayand consider the outer atmos- phere.

1.3 Peace education in conflict ridden areas

Peaceeducationprograms based in conflict areas face conflicts such as ethnic- national conflicts, religious-culturalconflicts and political/economic conflicts (Lenhart 2007). Of course thesetypes areoverlapping and intertwined.According to Lenhart (2007), peace education takes place during aconflict on the base of the human rightofeducation or as ameasure of reducing aconflict. It can also be used after aconflicttoreconcile different parties in conflict. Just to reestablish aregular schoolsystem afteritwas destroyedduring aconflict can be considered as peace education.

In aconflictsetting peace educationispreoccupied with special challenges. Ac- cordingtoSalomon (2002, 7),they can be described as (a)the conflictgoing on between collectives notindividuals, (b) facing adeeply rooted narrativeii and memories and (c) confronting great inequalities. Based on the setting and dimen- sion of conflict,one can use differentpeace-building methodstotargetdirectly or indirectly the 'culture of conflict' aterm used by Bar-Tal and Rosen (2009).They describe the'culture of conflict' as the dominant societalbeliefofanarrative, con-

12 taining collectivehistory, ethos of conflict, emotionalsetting and so on. According to them, the conflictinIsrael/Palestine can be identified as an intractable one. This term is characterized by the length of the conflict lasting over 25 years, the fighting forgoalsthat areassumed to be essential, beingperceived as being violentand un- solvable, of a'zero-sumnature' and being continued by the societies involved, as wellashavingagreat impactonthe population. The deeper aconflict goesand the longeritlasts,the stronger the 'cultureofconflict' has developed and the more dif- ficult it is to overcome. In suchaconflict the narratives of allpartiesinvolved sat- isfy thesocialneedtoprovide information that stabilizes the collectiveemotion and orientation. It fails to provide objective information. The main goal of peace education, in thesense of Bar-Tal andRosen (2009),istryingtochange the preva- lent 'culture of conflict' and initiating aprocess of reconciliation which consists of mutual understanding, recognition and acceptance, an investment in peaceful rela- tions, mutual trust, positive attitudes and consideration of the other parties' needs and theirinterests (Bar-Tal, Rosen 2009).

1.4 Peaceeducation in formal, non-formaland informal education

Educationcan be dividedintoformal, non-formal and informal education. The formal sectoristhe regular compulsory school sector. The non-formal sector is based on education transmitted in institutionsnot belonging to the compulsory school system and the informal school sector is private knowledge that is imparted outsideofany institutions. According to Cabezud and Haacelsrud (2007)informal and non-formal education have great potential for peace education, taking into con- sideration that in conflict areas formalsettingsmight be controlled by the party in power, though theestablishment of peace education in aformalsystem is also con- venient. The main advantage is the greatnumberofstudents,who are required to attend compulsoryschooling. On top of that schools are oftenthe only social insti- tutionsthathavethe resources, methods, legitimacy,authority and conditions to carryout peace education (Bar-Tal, Rosen 2009). In peace education embedded in formal education, educators can target the younggeneration that is still in theproc- ess of forming normsand ideasand has not yetcompletely absorbed the'culture of conflict'surrounding them(Bar-Tal, Rosen 2009). On the other hand in formal edu- cation, through teachers' instructions, school ceremonies, history, text books, and so forth the national dominant narrative is reproduced. Those practicing of peaceedu- cation have to therefore be aware of the correlation between power,education and control (Cabezud, Haacelsrud 2007).

13 1.5Influencingfactors of peaceeducation

Peace education,aspreviously described, canbeset up in environmentsmoreor less open to peace. In any casethe outerconditionsofthe setting influence im- mensely the climatewithin theschool. The school'ssuccess depends on different factors(Bar-Tal, Rosen2009). The firstfactoristhe political-societalcondition that can be measuredfor example by the politicalpeace process and governmental and political support. The second main factorthe school relies on is the educational conditionssuch as the Ministerial support, thepeace education policy (goals and planning), organization and so on. Depending on the politicalclimate and support for peace education the schoolmust decidewhether to implement adirect or an indirect approach. The indirectapproach doesnot address the conflictitself, but focuses on themeswhich deconstructthe 'culture of conflict'. This can be achieved through subjects like identity, violence, human rights, conflict resolution skills, security matters and empathy (Bar-Tal, Rosen2009). The direct approach on the other hand confronts the staff, the studentsand other stakeholders of the setting with all themesrelated to the conflict. This includes the history and narratives of both conflictparties. On an affective level, fear and hatred must be reduced while simultaneously hope, mutualtrust and acceptance must be actively fostered. The models of direct and indirectpeace educationdonot exclude each other but can enrich eachother (Bar-Tal, Rosen 2009).

1.6 Objectives of peace education

The evaluationofthe success of apeace education project canbemeasuredbydif- ferent factors,according to different academics. According to Danesh (2007) the objective of peace education in aformal school setting is defined by the addressing of four major themes:

1) reflecting theirown world viewsand gradually developing apeace-basedworld view 2) creating aculture of peace in the school environment 3) creating aculture of healing, reconciliation and recovery from damages done 4) learningtoprevent new conflicts and resolvetheminapeaceful manner

14 ForDaneshpeace educationrequires an integrated approach meaning the inclusion of all partiesinvolved in school; parents, teachers, students,administrationand supportstaff. For Bar-Tal (2002) an objectiveofpeace education is thatthe dominantparty gives up privileges,statusand power to redistribute in ordertostrengthenweaker parties in society.According to Cabezud and Haacelsrud (2007), theconcept of peaceedu- cation is to uncover how direct and structural violence interact and support each other. They suggest to draw attention to the connection between the macroand the micro level. Everyaction on amicro levelinfluences the macro level. Based on this model, peace education should provide options on how to change reality. Shapiro (2002) defines the objective of peace education as providing space for unheard voices,awayfromthe center to speak out. To let everybodybecomeself- determined subjects, ratherthanremainobjects of whom onetalksabout andde- cides over.Salomon (2002) points out thatthe main objectives of peace education in intractable conflicts should be accepting theother narrativeand being willing to critically analyzetheir own narrative and actions, being able to understand the suf- fering of the other group, showingempathy and trusting theother group, besides beingengaged in nonviolent activities. So here,once again it becomesobvious that theunderstandingsofpeace,peace education and their objectives differimmensely.

This introduction in the ratherphilosophicalsubject of peaceand peace education givesanimpression on how much definitions, objectivesand approaches can vary even though they all aim for amore just andharmoniousworld. It is also apparent thatthere can notonly be one approach in how to implementapeace education in a curriculum. It is more than just achange of structure in an education setting, but an attitude thatneeds to be incorporated by the educators and stakeholders in the pro- ject. It is not aseparate subjectbut an educational orientation.Indifferentpolitical settings, from democratic environmentstoconflictareas, it can be setindifferent formsofeducation: formal, non-formal and informal, and cantargetthe conflict existing in adirect or an indirect way. The peace education programofthe Hand in Hand school in Jerusalemisset in aformal setting, in an intractable conflict and therefore has to overcome obstaclesonthe most difficult leveldescribed, dealing with avery strong and deeplyrooted 'culture of violence'.

15 2The settingofthe school:Aconflict over identities

2.1 Israel –Amultilingual, multicultural society

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israelthe country holds apopula- tion of almost 7.5 million inhabitants in 2009.iii The population in Israel is amulti- cultural and multilingualsociety and consists mainly of Jews, who constitute about 80 percent of allcitizens. The Jews in Israel have origins allover the world.The Ashkenasim, thehegemonic group, consists of Jews with Europeanand American roots.There are also Mizrahim Jews, who are rooted in Asia, and northern African Arabcountries. Together with about one million Jews fromthe former Soviet Un- ion and asmaller number of Ethiopian Jews, theybuild the heterogeneousgroup of theJewishcommunity in Israel.'Arab ',asthey are known, constitute about 20 percent of the population. They are amixture of more than one million Muslim- , 120,000 Christian-Arabs, and 150,000 . The rest, categorizedas'oth- ers', mainly consists of ChristianArmenians. The officiallanguages in Israel are Hebrew and although Israel does not functionasabilingualstate. Hebrew is the language of public civic life. It is the common language of bureaucracy,the medium of instructioninhighereducation, the dominantlanguage of the mediaand most importantly the language of most sectors of the labor market(Amaraetal. 2009). As aresult, it is extremely difficult to function in Israelwithout sufficient competence in Hebrew even though the country holds, according to thedifferent backgrounds of its citizens, awide variety of languages. Russian, English, French are commonlanguagesheard in the streets, besides other languages imported fromthe Diaspora. The Arab-Palestinian citizens of IsraelhaveArabicasmothertongue but almostall functioninHebrew.Arabic is spoken by some Jews rooted in Arab countriesbut they have assimilated into to the Hebrew hegemony in public and onlyuse Arabic, if at all, at home (Hajjar 2000). So allinall,Arabic is thelanguage of the minority, mainly spoken by Palestinian citizens,even though in awider context,itisthe language of the majority in the Middle East.

16 2.2 The strong craving for aJewishstate

TheimmigrationofJewsinPalestine started in the late 19th century and wasbased on the idea that the land of Israel provides asheltertoall Jewish peopleworldwide whosuffer from discrimination and persecution.Jewish refugeesfled fromanti- Semitism in Europe and Arab countries. Even though the so called 'Zionist' idea is rooted in political mattersbysecular Jews, it refers to the biblical homelandofthe Jewish people (Rouhana 1997). The Shoa (Heb:Holocaust)and thepersecution worldwide during World WarIItriggered newwaves of immigration that arrived in Palestine. In 1948 the state of Israel was proclaimed afterlongand difficult nego- tiationsincluding the Partition Plan adopted by the UN Security Council.iv Based on thesehistoricalmatters it defines itself as aJewish state andstrengthens Jewish identities(Lowrance 2006,Rouhana 1997). Thiscan be seenbythe symbols used, the language spoken,holidayscelebrated, andsoforth (Wolff-Johntofsohn1999). The ideaofaJewishcountry for all Jews, Eretz Israel,isacentral aspect in the Jewishnarrativeall over the world. It is manifested in the Israeli'Law of Return' that gives the right to all Jewstosettle in Israel and acquire the Israeli nationality. The interpretationofJewishness in this law,aswellasinother matters in Israeli politicsv is basedonreligious termsrather thanpolitical, ideological, or even terri- torial terms(Rouhana 1997). The intertwinedrelation of religion and national un- derstanding of Jewishness, as has been described here, gives reasonfor the Jewish community to strongly argue what defines aJewish identity (Rouhana 1997). Even thoughalternative voices to the Zionist narrative emerged in the 1980s andin- creased in the 1990s, the Zionist mainstreamisstrongly positioned in Jewish Israeli societyvi. Asense of 'mino-majority'goesalong with theJewish identity caused by the Jew- ishhistory and the fact, that Israel still is the only countryworldwide with aJewish majority and is located in the center of the Arab and Muslim world (Wolff- Jontofsohn 1999). This means that Jews hold the majority in termsofreligionand culture in Israelwhereasthey are aweak minority in the wider geographicalcon- text.Thisisreinforcedbythe fact that Israelisnot recognizedasalegitimate state by various neighboring Arab countries(Wolff-Jontofsohn 1999). This as well as other factors give rise to the strong need for Jews to keep Israel Jewish. The paramountconcernofIsrael is security.Thispreoccupation with security is based on fourissues.First of all, differentwarswerefoughtwithneighboring Arab countries. Besidesthese conflicts, threatsbythem, includingtheir denialofthe recognitionofthe existenceofthe stateofIsrael, give reason for afeeling of inse-

17 curity.Israel,since its foundation, has not experiencedawarlessdecade. Second,the traumatic past –the perpetual discrimination, persecutionand pogroms,and anti- Semitism thatculminatedinthe Holocaust. This experiencebecame partofthe consciousnessofthe Jewish population worldwide. Third,the threat of Palestinian refugees of the '48 war and their offspring claiming their property, land and homes back (Rouhana 1997). And finally,Israel is confronted with cross-borderand indi- vidual attacks on civilians within IsraelbyPalestiniansmainlyfrom the occupied territories. AccordingtoWolff-Jontofsohn (1999) the collective trauma of the Holocaust and persecution tremendously influences the present understanding of the conflict with the Arab neighbors.Inthe consciousnessofthe Jewish people the patterns of inter- pretation repeatand therefore anypolitical conflictwith the Arab people is seen as an existential one, afighting for survival thatleaves no spacefor risk. Besides the constant conflict with Arab countries, this psychological omnipresent momentum and interpretation by the Jewish people buildsanadditional obstacle to overcome in order to solvethe conflict. The Holocaustisthe central occurrence in the Jewish history for everyJew in Israel and elsewhere. However,someresearchers like Zuckermann (1996, cited by Wolff-Jontofsohn1999, 87) claim that the perpetua- tionofthe history of the Holocaust, in the dimension it is done in Israel, is instru- mentalized for political matters. Human Rights organizations argue, that the secu- rity wall as well as settlementsinthe West Bank show how security measurements and economicinterests, for example access to land, are intertwined. Thequestionofsecurity determines political decisions in allareas in Israel and leadstoastrongly militarized society.Apermanent focus on foreign politics and a widespread fearwithinthe Jewish populationleaves little space to concentrateon internal deficits. Israel facesanumber of conflicts within its society including common genderquestions and party-political arguments. There are strong divisions suchasbetween religiousand secular Jews, as described over the questionofa definition on Jewishness and the consequences resulting outofthis question. An- other one between Ashkenazim and Mizrahim Jews over the Ashkenasim hegemony, between immigrants and veteransmainlyreferring to Russians and settled Israelis on immigration politics, and racial questions mainly over the status of Ethiopian Jews, who are the most marginalized among the Jewish community in Israel. The deepest of all divisions though remains between Jews and theArab-Palestinian mi- nority (Yonah 2005). The Palestinian minority challenges the Zionist idea ideologi- cally and threatens the Jewishness of the country by demographic determinants. Bar-Taland Teichman(2005) suggest that theArab-Palestinian population forms

18 about20percent of thetotal population in Israel while its natural increase rate is double that of the Jewish rate.

2.3PalestiniansinIsrael

While the establishment of Israel hasbrought independenceand security to the Jewish population, it is called Nakba (Arb: catastrophe) in thePalestinian narrative. In thewar fought by neighboringArabcountries andJews oneday after the state of Israel wasproclaimedmost of the Palestinians were expelled or fled while only approximately 160.000 of themstayed (see Wolff-Johntofsohn 1999). Palestinian citizensofIsraelare descendants of Palestinianswho remained in Israel after 1948 and received Israeli residency (Jabareen2006). After the many wars Israel fought with itsneighboring Arab countries and avariety of other reasons, theArab neighbors areseen as the 'other' and 'enemy'(seeBar-Tal, Teichman2005). Pales- tinians, as representatives of theArabpeople, live as 'others'or'enemies' within itvii.Intimes of political crisis likeduring the Al-Aksa intifada,the attitudes toward the Palestinian citizensinIsrael were influenced by the happeningsand thenega- tive stereotypes about Palestinians held by increased while in times of peace amore positiveattitude toward themcan be noted (Bar-Tal, Teichman2005). Theyformally hold the same democratic rightsasJewish citizensbefore the law, with significantexceptions(Rouhana 1997). Political changes providedimprove- ment for the Palestinian population (see Amara 2003) even though the preferred status for Jewishcitizens remained. In economic, educational, legal and social terms, Palestinians are far behindthe Jewish community in Israel. The Palestinianpopulation in Israel is separatedbut integratedinthe Jewish-Israeli society.Theymainly live in separate neighborhoods,villages and towns, take part in differenteducation systems but at the same timeinterface in areas like public institutions, governments, universities andsoforth. While more than 80 percent of the PalestiniansinIsrael reside in exclusively Arab communitiesinthe Galilee, the north, thesocalled“Triangle”inthe center andthe in the south (Jabareen 2006), others also live in neighborhoods in mixed cities like , Nazareth,Jeru- salem, Ramla, Lod and others (Mor-Sommerfeld et al. 2007).

19 2.4 The awakening of aPalestinian identity

Living in aJewish state, where the Jewish self-esteemisenhanced by the state es- pecially the Palestinian Arab minority suffersofanidentity confusion(Lowrance 2006,Amara et al.2009).Through theunique situationofthe Israeli Palestinians, they developed an identity with aspecial imprint, thatdistinguishes themfromthe identity of otherPalestiniansinGaza, theWestBank, but also fromPalestinians in exile. The greatmajority of Palestinians with Israelipassportwould notquestion the existence of Israelbut see their task in integration in the country and fight for equalityonapolitical level rather than throughviolentprotests(Wolff-Johntofsohn 1999). It can be described as astruggle between an 'Israelization'including its modern and western lifestyle and arecallingofthe Palestinian identity,arather traditionallifestyle. As stated by Yogev,Ben-Yoshua and Alper (1991), theyhave createdanew national identityincluding theidentification with the Palestinian people in the occupied territories and refugeesinother countries such as and , including their support for the fight for independence, but they also claim their belonging to the state of Israel (Ghanem1998).viii The awakening of an understanding of the 'Arab population' in Israel as Palestini- ansbegan in 1960sespecially with theSix-Day war of Israel and Arabcountries in 1967ix.Before, there wasatimedominated by the self-definition by the Palestini- ansasIsraelis. When the Jewish state was founded, the political elitefled and rather uneducated peasants stayed. Kimmerling (1993, cited by Wolff-Johntofsohn 1999, 119) called it a“body without head”. This had major effects on the develop- ment of an identity by this group. The Palestinian minority was during thefirst decades afterIsrael's establishment strictly controlledbythe Jewishapparatus and meanttobeeducated in ordertounderstand the Zionist idea (see Wolf-Johntofsohn 1999). This led to an identification of many 'Arabs' as Israelis. Through the educa- tion policy the level of education among the Palestinian minority improved and a new intellectualelite generatedwhich createdanew and independent understand- ingoftheir self-identity.Overtimethe securitymeasurementstoward thePalestin- ianIsraelis reduced because it became obvious that they didn't constitute athreat for the Jewish country. When in 1967 Israeloccupied the West Bank and Gaza as a result of the'67 warthe isolation fromthe Arab world wasdismantled and anew identification as Palestinians developed. Palestinian Israelis mettheir familymem- bers on theother side and showedsolidarity with them, supporting theirinterests, but also understood their privileged situation in termsofeconomyand that their belongingtoIsraelwas irreversible (Wolf-Johntofsohn 1999). According to

20 Ghanem (1998), the core problem of identity forPalestinians with Israeli passport is not the conflict between the twoidentities, Palestinians andIsraeli, but the in- completeness of both of them. Amara (2003)states, that the identity of the Arab Palestinianpopulation in Israel develops by theinfluence of mainly three factors: (a)the Israelipolicyonminori- ties; (b) regional developments such as the Oslo accords in 1993, when the gov- ernment of Israel and representativesofthe Palestinian authority (PLO)had the first agreement, elaborated together; and (c) internal developmentsamong the Arab Palestinian populationinIsrael. TodayPalestiniancitizens of Israel can be viewed as adistinctnational minority (Palestinian)aswellasanethnic (Arab),religious (Muslim,Christian, and Druze) and linguistic(Arabic) minority(Jabareen 2006). Of course differentsubgroups have an unequal understandingand approachtotheir Palestinian Israeli or Arab identity. The Druze populationinIsraelhas aparticularidentity that can be de- scribedas'non-Arab Arabs' (Hajjar2000).They are confronted with discrimination as non-Jewseventhough they are very loyaltothe state of Israel. Their religion is a secession of theIslam. They are the only Arab sub-groupthat was permitted and encouraged to enlistinthe military service. Through the military armytheir under- standing of Israeliness is much stronger thanany of the other Arab groups andtheir feeling of discrimination much less distinctive (Hajjar 2000). The complexity of the identity of Palestiniansholding an Israeli passport can easily be shown by the terms used forthem. The terms Arab Israelis, Palestinians, Arab Palestinians or Palestiniancitizens of Israelare utilized commonly.Depending on the situation, theterms are highly politicized. Bar-Tal andTeichman (2005) claim, for example,thatthe term'Arabs' used by Jewish Israelis in relation to Palestinian Israelis impliesthe refusal to recognize an existence of the Palestinian nation. Since 1973, there is aconstantincreaseamong Arab Palestinians in Israel to define them- selvesasPalestinians (Amara 2003). Onlyveryfew Arabs who are citizens of Is- rael definethemselves only as Israelis. In thefollowingtextIwillrefer to themas Palestinians. When part of aquotation, Iwill retain the term “Arab”, butrefer to theminalatercontext as Palestinians. The Palestinian population struggles for asuper-identity of the state of Israel that would include their behalf in all belongingswith an egalitarian status(Amara 2003). Untiltoday,theyabstained fromalmostany form of violent protest.While thereisatendencytoreawakeninsome(see Wolff-Johntofsohn 1999), others em-

21 bark on the strategyofeducation, knowing that only an over-talented and educated non-Jewwill succeed in the Jewishhegemony.

2.5 Jerusalem

The statusofJerusalemisunclear.ByIsraelilaw it is the capital of the state, but most countriesaswell as academics don't recognize it as such. Therefore, most embassies are situated in TelAviv. For the Palestinians it is thedemanded capital of their futurestate.The religious,cultural and historical importance for both people addsontoJerusalem'scomplicated status. Thecityholds apopulationofabout 750.000 inhabitants (Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics).Itissplitintwo parts:EastJerusalemand West Jerusalem, dividedbya separating fenceand in other areas awall. Whereas West Jerusalem belongs to Is- rael, East JerusalemisunderPalestinian administration. Jewish citizens rarely cross the border to EastJerusalem butEast Jerusalemitesand some Palestiniansfromthe West Bank visit West Jerusalem, when permitted,onaregular basis for work, edu- cation,medical care and other reasons.Aside fromthe conflict about the settlers in the West Bank and the Palestinianrefugees, Jerusalem is oneofthe main unre- solved problems for the settlement to theMiddleEastconflict(Kacowicz 2005).

This chapteristoshow the highlypoliticized context in whichthe schoolhas de- veloped. The intractableconflict of Israeland the Palestinians is, referring to Amara (2009),not only amaterial conflict,but also one basedonidentity andnar- ratives. Identity is amajor issueinthe area andtherefore hastobeconsidered in the Hand in Hand school as will be seen in further chapters. The traumatic experi- encesbothpeoplehave lived through and their current situation has amajor impact on identity issues on both sides. They all live through aconstant debate overtheir definition of identity and experience constantthreats. The politicaltension is much stronger in Jerusalemthan it is in other parts of the country. The separating wall for example influenced the schooltremendously as will be seeninthe description of the interviews. Jerusalemisone of the central issues the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is built on. At the sametimeitisone of the few places wherebothpeople liveto- gether and where aco-existenceprogram is needed most.

22 3The Israelischool system

3.1 An overview

The Israeli school systemisorganized by the Israeli MinistryofEducation. It is separated into four streams frompreschool up to higher education: the state sector, the state-religious, the Arab andthe semi-private orthodox religiousone. Thestate sectorisresponsible for most of the Israeli youth's education. The education system is divided into 3different levels: it demands six years of primaryschool, three years of junior high schooland three years of high school. Tenyears of education are required by law.Also kindergarten at the age of five yearsisobligatory before entering school at the age of six (Mor-Sommerfeld et al. 2007). Avast variety of private schools, primarily ultra-orthodox Jewish and Christian ones, are summarized as “recognized but unofficialschools” (Iram, Shemida 1998). Theyare also mainly funded by the Ministry of Education and in return aresup- posedtouse the ministries' prescribed curricula. The Haredi (ultra-orthodox) streamnowadays holds about 25 percent of Israeli first graders and has astrong focus on religious studies, including the imparting of Yiddish.The Arab sector that includes the nonJewish minority in Israel also holds about25percent of Israeli students. It has apartly different curriculum fromthe Jewish one. It is reflecting a culturalbackground for , Christians and Druze in the fieldsofliterature, religion and tradition while in other areastheyare identical, for example the mathematicsand geographycurricula (Mor-Sommerfeld et al. 2007). The language of instruction in the “Arab sector” is Arabic, while Hebrew is taught intensively. Hebrew is necessary for highereducation and, furthermore, provides opportunities in statusaswellasinworking options. For this the learningattitude amongstu- dentstowarditispositive. On theJewishside, very little Arabic is taught, if any. After the Oslo Agreementin1993 the Ministry of Education recommended learn- ing Arabic, the language of its neighbors,but it was neverimplemented in the schools. Still only six percentsofthe students in the Hebrewsectortake Arabic examination as part of their matriculation (Brosh 1996, cited by Mor-Sommerfeld et al. 2009, 211).Palestinian Arab parents can send their childrentoJewish schools, which some parents make use of. The reverse has not been documented so far (Mor-Sommerfeld et al. 2007).

23 The separated primary and secondaryeducation sections mergeinto amoreunified higher educationsystem,thatismainly offeredinHebrew.After havingpassed the matriculation (bagrut),studentscan pass to college, institutesoftechnology or one of the biguniversities in Israel. AccordingtoMor-Sommerfeld and others (2007) onlyafew teacher-training colleges forthe “Arab sector” are held partly in Arabic depending on the institute. The Israeli school systemprovidesafunctional bilingualism where the language competence is transferred in consideration of practical use. On the Jewish side, in the regularschools, the first foreign languageisEnglish, while the second foreign language is either Arabic or French.InJewish orthodox schools, Yiddish andother languages are spoken besides Hebrew.Onthe non-Jewishside, the language of instruction is Arabic. However,Hebrew is always learned as second language from second or thirdgrade on (Amara et al. 2009).

3.2 Differences of the Arab and the Jewish sector

For some teachers in the Palestinian educational system there exists asense of con- flictregarding their loyaltyboth toward their employer,the Ministry of Education, and their loyalty toward the Palestinian people (Bekerman2005a). The Ministry does not allow Arab schools to freely choose their narrativesconcerning national historyorculture. For example,the Palestinian understanding of the Nakba, the creation of Israel, is not taught (Mor-Sommerfeld, Azaiza 2007). Al Haj (2007) claims that the history curriculum presented in school reflects the power system in the wider society and reproduces the dominantideology.Itstrengthensthe identity of Jewishstudents but notthe one of Palestinians. Jabareen (2006)describes asystematic exclusion of Palestinians within Israel. He claims that the Arab school systemwhich is excluded frommany benefits theJew- ishsector profitsfromiscompletely controlled by the JewishMinistryofEduca- tion andthatcontrols the content and the objectives of the Arab Palestinian educa- tion. This is, according to him, amajor obstacle to aPalestinian self-definition and afreedevelopment of the cultural-nationalidentity.Itdenies the distinct needs of Palestinians in areassuchasArablanguage, national identity,history and heritage. For many years,asMor-Sommerfeld, Avid andDunetz (2009) explain, Palestinian teachers and educators were questioned by the securityservices of Israel about their politicalattitudesbefore receiving permission to teachwhich led to an intimi- dation of people's willingness to express their opinion.

24 In general, the Jewish school stream is equipped better than the Arab stream. Arab classes, for example,were on average four students larger than Jewish schools. At kindergarten level full-time Palestinian teachers have to deal with 39,3 students while Jewish teachers take care of 19,8 students on average(Coursen-Neff2006). Jewish students continue also more often to higher education. According to the Israeli BureauofStatisticsonthe Jewish side 66,2 percentreceived amatriculation certificate to continue in higher education, on the Arab sector the rate was 44,6 per- cent in 2008. On top of that only 8percent of students accepted to universities are Palestinian Israelis(Golan-Agnon 2006).

TheIsraeli school system is separated into aJewish and an Arab stream, whereas the Jewish streamhas subcategories. The curriculum, elaboratedbythe Ministry of Education forall schools reproduces the Zionist idea and therefore strengthens the identity of Jews but not of non-Jews. The division of the studentsbysending them to separate schools has amajoreffect on the understanding of each other.Education could be the first encounterinasetting where living areas aredivided butthe usual continuation foraregular Jewish youngster after secondary school is the service in the army. Onlyafter that, in higher education or through work, is there achance of interaction. Only four schools in all of Israelbreak with the mono-lingual and mono-national understanding, four of themrun by Hand in Hand (one of them in cooperationwiththe associationHAGAR) andthe eldest one, established in 1984 in Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salaam (Oasis of Peace) aschoolset up in avillage where Palestinians and Jewslive together in coexistence. The biggest of the schools, the Hand in Hand school in Jerusalem, is itemofthe research presented in this paper.

25 4“Hand in Hand” –NGO and schools

4.1 An overview

The Center for BilingualEducation (CBE) called “Hand in Hand” was founded in Israelin1997. The main goal of this center is to provide egalitarian education for Jewish and Arab children in Israel. Bi-lingual, bi-national and multicultural educa- tion are emphasized in the schoolsrun by this NGO.The school in Jerusalem lo- cated within theinternationally recognized borders of thestate of Israel wasone of the first to be established according to these principlesin1998, parallel to aschool in the Galilee. Todaythere are four Hand in Hand schools allover Israelone in Kfar Qara in the Triangle of Israel, one in Sakhnin,anewly opened oneinBeer Sheva, in coopera- tion with theassociation HAGAR, andthe biggest one in Jerusalem. Theschool there holds 460 students ranging fromgrades one to ten, including akindergarten. In September 2008, the first senior high program started. The school in Jerusalem is located in Patt,aJewish neighborhood in Southern Jerusalemonthe border of Beit Safafa,anArab neighborhood. The school is recognized as anonreligious school underthe Ministry of Education.Thismeans,ituses astandard curriculum with thedifference, that both Hebrew and Arabic are used as languages of instruc- tion and that everyclass has aJewish as well as aPalestinian teacher jointlyrun- ning classes. The Center for BilingualEducation officially changedits name in 2003 to the Cen- ter of Arab Jewish Education in Israel implyingastrongerfocus on educational integration and multiculturalism rather than on language (Bekerman2007a). Each school emphasizes the imparting of both narratives and understandingofhistory. The school's functioning can be conceptualizedthrough avariety of existing theo- ries including peace and coexistence education,collaborative learning, multicultur- alism, bilingualeducation, contact hypothesis and the criticalpedagogy(see Bekerman 2007a, 101). Parents are required to make two commitments when enter- ing the school:theyshould agree on the school's philosophy and volunteer their timeinschool(Amara et al. 2009). In the following,three of the main pedagogical strategieswill be describedfurther. Theseare the main subjects that will be analyzed through theinterviews of the par-

26 ents in thefollowing case study.The contents of each concept: bilingualpedagogy, strengthening of identity and contact hypothesis intertwine andtherefore some as- pects willdouble. Other concepts like the one of multiculturalism is partly covered by the bilingual approach as well as contact and the strong focus on identity mat- ters.

4.2 Conceptual framework of theschool

Before introducing the concept of the school, Iwould like to agree with Yogev and others (1991) anddraw attention to the fact,that the encounters of Palestinian Is- raelis and Jewish Israelis in this specific school is based on asocietalpower- asymmetry and is therefore characterized by dominant-subordinaterelations. This power-asymmetryemerges in the concept of the school.

4.2.1 Bilingual education

Bilingualeducation, including bi-literacy, is acomplex matter and defined differ- ently dependingonthe academic using it. Hornberg's (1991)model of bilingualism distinguishesbetween transitional, maintenance and enrichment.Whereasthe tran- sitional modelisarather pragmatic approach stating thatthe problemoflanguage is solvedwhen allpeople learned the necessaryskillstocommunicateinthe domi- nant language the maintenance model supports the idea of sustainingthe original languagesofthe minoritieswhile learningthe dominant language. The enrichment modelisbased on the idea, thatthe acquiring of anew language is anew resource beyond practical matters. The understanding of bilingualism as it is used in this paper referstothe last interpretationofbilingualism as atwo-wayimmersion. In this sense, bilingualism is more than just the usage of more than one language but an instrument of intergroup relations, multiculturalism and through thatitserves the purpose of socio-political change through achange of perspectives (Mor- Sommerfeld et al. 2007). It can be usefulatanindividualaswell as acollective level. At an individuallevel many studies show advantages for peoplehaving been brought up multilingually like developingahigh amountofcreativity and flexibility and showingpositive attitudes toward others. It givesaccess to awider perspective, different values and beliefs (see Gacía 1997, Mor-Sommerfeld et al. 2007). By creating bilingualindi-

27 vidualswho influenceand take part in society it servesthe collective and hasthere- fore more than an individual component. On the collective,sociallevel, it helps to form asociety of more tolerance, knowledge and probably more involvement, thinking and acting differently. Besides that it helps to develop empathy with 'oth- ers'. Through these differentstrategies it is recognized as atooltoovercomemajor societaland culturaltensions (Mor-Sommerfeld et al. 2007). It is also seen as an empowerment pedagogyfor members of theminority through securing equal op- portunity in education (Bekerman2004) as wellasacontribution to the self-esteem of the minority group. As Joseph (2004) describes,national, religious and ethnic identitiesare constructed through languages and languages are constructed through them. Languages and identity are therefore closely connected(see also Tabouret- Keller 1997) andatool to strengthen identity. Ecamilla (1994)found factors that encourage childhood acquisition of twolan- guages:(a) the languages involved have to haveanequal statusinacommunity, (b) both languagesare spoken by individuals whoare important to thatchild (c) the larger environment demandsthe use of two languages and (d) there are ampleop- portunities to speak and use thelanguage in manysocialcontexts. Bilingual education is seen as controversial. Acriticism of bilingualism is that it candolittletoreconstruct powerrelations,and it can not be properly understood unless it is dealt with in relationtothe socio-political contexts (Amara et al.2009). As can easily be figured out when reading Escamilla's modeloflanguage acquisi- tion the conditions to implement abilingualeducation in aconflict area already lacks major conditionswhichcannot be influenced by the educational institution. In the case of Israel, where Arabic is the second officiallanguage and at the same timethe language of the 'others', the usage is highlypoliticized. One can talk about “asymmetric bilingualism” in Israel, as non-Jews speak their own language and Hebrewwhereas Hebrewspeakers do not necessarilyspeak another language (Amaraetal. 2009). Asimpleexample forthe language statusinIsrael can be ob- served in the school system. The practice of teaching Arabic and Hebrew aredeci- sively different. Hebrew,inthe Jewish sector,isusedtostrengthenidentity and connected with national content. Arabic is treated differently in the Arab sector. Hebrew there is the central language learned in termsofhours of lessonsand Ara- bic is also disconnected fromPalestinianheritage (Jabareen 2006). Even though most PalestinianIsraelislearn Hebrew fromthird grade on most of themhave a differentpronunciation of Hebrew than an IsraeliJew thereby being marked and

28 categorized as non-Jews. Speaking Hebrew like amother tongue, without accent, leads to less discrimination in everyday life (Bekermann 2005b). Former studiesabout the school have given us abetter understanding of the bilin- gual, multicultural education in the context of an Israel, that is notsupportive in strengthening Arabic usage, partly because it is the language of the less symbolic power (Bekerman 2005a). Thedocuments by the Hand in Hand NGO point out (Bekerman 2005b) that the bilingual policy is instrumentalinestablishingmutual understanding and respect as it is for strengthening the self-esteemofthe students belongingtothe Arabic speaking minority in society.Itisused to change reality andbreak down the cultural andlinguistic barriers between the two groups. Other objectives are to provide equal educationalopportunity and to developastrong identity of the self and other. Even though theCBE seemstorealize the difficulties of bilingual education and is aware of the fact that the parents are on the verge of giving up on bilingual success, they stick to their idea (Bekerman2004). Their concept on bilingualismisestab- lished according to the followingprinciples(Bekerman 2005b, Mor Sommerfeld 2005):

• The school startsoff in grade one with an equal amount of Jewish and non- Jewish students. • On top of that each class is run by two hometeachers, one Hebrew and one Ara- bicspeaking, responsibletoshare the educational task. • The teachers are supportedand receive special training on bilingual education. • Theyare required to speak to allstudents in their mother tongue. Averyimpor- tant factoristhatnotranslationisdone by anyteacher,sothe students could not just wait for therepetition of thestatement in their ownlanguage which means thatthe students have to concentrateonthe second language. • The curriculumissubject based, what means that languages are not just taught in language classesbut throughoutthe entirecurriculum. Depending on the sub- ject,the language use is adjusted, especially whenitcomes to group-specific is- suesasliterature or history. • The children learn to readand write in both languagesfromthe first day on and develop abi-literacy. Based on this bi-literacytheylearn to speak both lan- guages.

29 • The school consists of aroughly equal distribution of Palestinian and Jewish members. • The head of the school is jointly run by two representatives of each group • Arabiclanguage courses are offered to the Jewish parents. • The children do not need any prerequisite of the other language or athird lan- guagex.

AccordingtoSpinner-Halev (2003) in times of globalization, bilingualeducation faces anew obstacle:English. It needseven more persuasiontoconvince the ma- jority to learn the language of the minoritywithin acountry.English, the universal language, is more attractive for the majority to learn ratherthan learningthe lan- guageofthe minority for reconciliation matters. In the case of the Hand in Hand Bekerman (2005b) found out, that Jewish as well as Palestinian parents of the school welcome the new introduced lessons in English. Parents of this school, as has been described by Spinner-Halev (2003), on both sides, question the necessity of Arabic over this. The question of bilingualism is acontroversial one. While it is not able to change powerrelations it tries to overcome themthrough bilingualism.The approachof the schoolcan be described by the enrichment modelofHornberg(1991). It's ob- jective is bilingualism of all students in Arabic and Hebrew.Even though Hand in Hand is awareofthe influenceofthe political situationonthe languageusage of the children andtherefore accepts deficits in Arabic, it still pursues astrictagenda on bilingualism, encouragingArabic.Aworldwide supplementary provocation for bilingualschools,asthisone, is the globallanguage:English.

4.2.2 Identity matters

The question of identity is acomplex one. Themeredefinitionofitisdifficult to give andinthispaper impossible to provide. In thecontext of the schoolgroup identities on the basis of national, ethnic and religion membership are central. In aconflict situation, such as the intractable conflictbetween the Jews and the Palestinians, theidentitiesofeach party are constructed as distinguished from the 'other'. This monolithic construction, as Bar-On(2008)calls it,defines the other as the enemy,asevil, whereas theown group is moral and right. The construction of identity and collective narratives as monolithic undermines aconflictresolution

30 and formsmajor challengesfor peace education. As has been described previously theJewish as well as the Palestinian populationofIsraelundertake aconstant iden- tity struggle. As Bar-On (2008) points out, identities are dynamic and ongoing processes in constant alteration. Besides, each group is heterogeneous, made up of differentsubgroups as the religious and secular Jews on the one side or the Druze and Muslims on the non-Jewish side. According to Moaz, Bar-Onand Fakhereldeen (2002), the attributions ascribed to the other grouphas gradually been deconstructed starting with the Israeli- Palestinianpeace negotiations in Madrid in 1990 andraisedparallel to theOslo peace accords in 1993. Accordingtothem, this can be measuredbyagrowing sup- port of left-wing voices of Jewish party members and activists fighting forthe ac- knowledgement of the Palestinian rights as well as astrong agreement on the two- state solution by the Palestinian side. These new voices challenge the dominant monolithic one and enforce new arguments within each group. However out- standing politicalevents, like the Al-Aksaintifada, led to afallback on the Jewish side toward amorenegative perception of the Palestinians and astrengthening of supportofthe Zionist ideal(Bar-Tal, Teichman2005).Alsoonthe Palestinianside it hadeffects.Someofthemshowed solidarity with their people fromthe West Bank,demonstrated in the north of Israel andrecalled their Palestinian identity. Thisisonlyone exampleofhow in this Middle East conflict, the question of iden- tity is acentralone,and tremendously influenced by politics. The Israeli society is still in the process of listening and accepting all the different voices fromwithin and deconstructingthe 'monolithic identities' (Moaz et al. 2002). In thiscontext, the question of identity is central for intergroup encounters as is happening in theHandinHandschool.The goal of contact,which is amajor aspect of the school,istoexchange perspectives andtomeet as individuals, and through this individualencounters develop mutualunderstanding between the groups. “The partiesthen have to find away to connect and relate to each other by creating a more complex construction of their own as well as the other's identity”(Moaz et al. 2002, 957). In this process it is difficult to achieve the change of perspective, with- out giving up themembership in and representation of their owngroup. As for this, academics discuss controversially, whetherthe identity of each group shouldbestrengthenedinanintergroup encounterornot. Some advocatesofpost- modernismclaim that strengthening identitiesleadstoafocusondifferences of the partiesinconflict, while it should be on the similarities instead (for areviewsee Mor-Sommerfeld et al. 2007). Others like Cummins(2006)orBekermann (2007b)

31 claimthat strengthening identitiesisamajor task in intergroup encounters,espe- ciallyinthe school setting. Bekerman (2007b) comes to this conclusion through an excursion on theunderstandingofidentity.Inhis opinionthe idea and the under- standing of identity as it is used in the conflictinthe Middle East should be ques- tioned andinthe long term be challenged and deconstructed. So, on an academic level he criticizes the concept. But these categoriesdominate the reality of the members of theintergroup encounter.The political and social conditionsunder which the encounters takes place generate and shape the idea of anationaland eth- nicidentityand thereforeitisnot yetthe right moment to deconstructthese exclu- sionarypower relations. For theJews, as Bekerman(2007b) describes, it would be considered athreat to their hegemony,whereas for the Palestinians it would be seen as an integrationofthe enemyinto their ownunity,aswell as athreattoacollec- tive senseofPalestinian identity.Thiscould point out the consistencies of thesub- divisions of Muslims/Christiansand Druze as well as traditionalists versus modern- ists. Bekerman (2007b) concludes, thatagoal should be to free identity from its tighthistoricaland political connections andreinstate it as an enriching difference amongst people. The schools approach to this problemisdefined through the objective of strength- ening the group identity of each child. “Weseek to enhance the civil identity to- gether withthe personal identity of the pupils” (Hand in Handweeklyplanner 2006-2007, cited by Amara et al. 2009, 20). In contrasttothe bilingual concept of the school, there is no finalroad-map on how this should be done in the school cur- riculumbut is considered as an interdisciplinary topic which comesuponaregular basis. It would be raisedbyquestioningwhat material is used,how is amemberof acertain group represented, howare historyand narratives imparted, the usage of language and so forth. The principle occasions whenthe questions of identity arise are, withoutdoubt, religiousand national holidays. Officialholidays in particular, where the idea of group identity is in focus, create asupplementary opportunity to bring up identity matters as well as an extremely hazardous threat at the same time. The core ideas of the school –toemphasize multiculturalism andmutual respectonthe one hand and to strengthen the group identities, including ethnic pride and affiliation,onthe other –are almostimpossible on these specialdays(for aclose description see Bekerman 2004). Theyare either exclusively for one grouporinclude elements unacceptable to one group.

32 Thestaff triestocounterbalancethe effectsofthese holidays.This can be done throughthe invention of similarfestivals for the other groups. For example as they take the Jewish ceremony KabbalatHaTorah (Receivingthe Bible-Old Testament) and concoct the sameceremony for Christians (receiving the Bible-New Testa- ment)and Muslims (receivingthe Koran). In other cases the school tries to merge holidayslike the Hannukah (the Jewish Festival of Lights), Christmas (the com- memoration of the birth of Jesus), and if feasible by the dates Idel Fiter (the fast breaking at the end of ). Other political ceremonies, in particularthe Me- morialDay for fallen Jewish soldiers, are strong momentsfor the Jewish sense of community. Thesamecan be said about the Nakba Dayfor Palestinian people al- though this is not an official Israeli holiday. These two rather controversial com- memorations by the two people are held on the sameday,adaybefore the Israeli Independence Day. It is givenextra care anddone in parallel so thatthe children attend the ceremony of their owngroup. In these political ceremonies it is required, in order to respect the other,toreduce the usage of symbols like flags. As described by Bekerman (2004), the staff provided workshops for parents to include thepar- ents' ideas and to decide together how to deal with certain ceremonies. The school understands itself as alearningproject which changes the approach in order to op- timize thesuccess of such events. As long as the 'monolithic identities' of Jews versus Palestinians/Arabs are gener- ated in the context of the Middle East conflict, precisely in Israel it is considered difficult though importanttodeconstructidentities in the sense of group identities relying on national, religious and ethnic belongings.The school'sapproach to the difficult questionofhow to dealwith identity, as concluded by Bekerman (2007b), is to strengthen each child's collective belonging to agroup, be it in religious, eth- nic or national matters. The challenge though is to find abalance between strength- eningthe group identity of each child, including pride of the belonging to that group, while ensuring thatthis goes along with an inclusion of members of other groups or at least mutualrespect toward the others. Even though the question of identity is acomplex one (and might therefore by definition not be approached in a wayall the stakeholders would wish it would be done) it cannot, in this context, be ignored. School children and adolescents are part of the community and the society in whichthey live in and are greatlyinfluenced by the views expressed in it. The arrangement of national and religious ceremonies, in particularneeds acreative and selective approach to pursue this endeavor successfully.Different thoughts are giventoeachspecific ceremony with the objective of balance the idea of the be- longing to the own group with the desire to be inclusive or at least respectful to-

33 ward the other side. This requires the revisionofcultural identity markers and a reduction of symbolsused, likeflags, in order to not offend others.

4.2.3 Intergroup encounters

The HandinHandschool is based on contact among students,teachers, parents, staffand the community. Contact is astrong pedagogical tooland used for areduc- tion of stereotypes. It is awidespread approach (see forexample Moaz 2000, Saguy et al. 2008, Abu-Nimer 1999)inthe contextofpeace education with members of differentgroups and connected to high expectations. Intergroup encounters aremainly based on the theory of “contact hypothesis”by Allport(1954)who set up fourcategoriesessential for apositiveprocessininter- group contact. He refers to the intergroup contact as acontinuous meeting of mem- bers belonging to different groups in order to improve the attitude toward other groups and reduce negative stereotypes ascribed to the othersxi.Following arethe fourcategories,founded by Allport and cited by Pettigrew (1998) under which a positiveattitudecan be achieved:

1) Equalstatus within the situation:Itshouldbeensured that the members of the differentgroups experience the same statusinthe contact situation. 2) Common goals: Prejudice reduction throughcontactrequiresagoal-oriented effort.Ascan be observed in athletic or other teams with membersofdifferent groups, the common goal is asupport to strengthening intergroup contact within ateam. Dependencyofeach other in order to win intensifiesthis process. 3) Cooperation: The contact should be based on cooperation notcompetition. In the process of achieving acommon goal,the setting should providecooperation within the group. 4) Supportofauthorities, law,orcustom: The environment of the contactsituation should supportthe contact. The supportofauthority establishes normsand ac- ceptance and for that reason –institutionally as well as politically–is consid- ered as the last of the four conditions, necessary for apositiveimpactoncontact situations.

It is importanttounderstand that even if allthese elementsare takencare of, still the contactcan proceed negatively. Aside from that,the theorydoes not saywhat

34 kind of processwill take place,but rather thatthese categories can initiate aposi- tive process. Different studieshave proven that even if some of these categories arenot fulfilled, the contactcan have positive impacts. This is importanttorememberespecially whenitisalmost impossible to ensure them. On the other hand, numerous re- searcheractivities built upon these categories and added more categories, under which acontact should take place. These arefacilitatingfactors to asituation, whereas Allports factors remain essentialfor an optimal intergroup encounter,ac- cording to Pettigrew (1998). In their pointofview of Moaz, Steinberg, Bar-Onand Fakhereldeen (2002) it is essentialtohave facilitating leaderswho are able to form arelationship between the two sides through the gradual creation of personal boundaries. Otherslike Wagner and Machleit (1986, cited in Pettigrew 1998, 69) argue thatacommon languageisneeded, as well as avoluntary contact and apros- perous economy.Ben-Ari and Amir (1986, cited in Pettigrew1998, 69) are con- vinced that apositive intergroup encountercan only take placeifthe attitudes to- ward the other groupare not too negative in the beginning.The close and if possi- ble longcontactallows ashifting of notion toward similarities ratherthan differ- encesand is therefore essential according to Tal-Or,Boninger and Gleicher(2002) whereas space for informal contact is considered fundamental forMoaz (2000). Another noteworthy newcategorythat has been proven to be essential forpositive effects in intergroup contact is 'friendship possibility'. Researchers agree on thefact that affiliation toward membersofthe othergroup is tremendously important for thereduction of negative attributions toward this group (Kadushin, Livert 2002). Pettigrew (1998), for example,isconvinced thatifthe four conditionsofAllport are ensured, the 'friendship possibility'isalready included. On top of that someconditions require further consideration. The question of equal status,for example,isfor Spinner-Halev (2003) inseparable to the situation outside of the school because power relationsseep into thecontactsituation and reproduce an imbalance. He therefore claims,thatprejudices and stereotypes can be sustained even though positive contacthas taken place,especiallywhenthe parties in conflict still live in fearofthe other party and reconciliation hasnot yettaken place,asis the case in Middle East Conflict. Schools face alot of mistrust in such asetting. If apositive contacttakes place, it can still be interpreted as the exception to therule (Spinner-Halev 2003). There are other criticisms. Some researchers believethe theory concentrates too much on more tolerant members of each group who are willing to entercontact situations. Others namethe problemofnot havingresearch

35 material on howthe experience of the intergroup encounter can be transferred to a contactwith different groups(forreview see Pettigrew 1998). Manyresearchers agree on the fact thatcontact itself does not lead to areduction of stereotypes, mutual understanding and other positiveimpacts. Insteaditisinterre- lated with otherprocesses taking place in parallel, which combined, leadtoa change. Recent research projects show that the process of learning about the other group, changingbehavior,generating effective ties and ingroup reappraisal take place in combination (Pettigrew1998). Ingroup reappraisal meansthat outgroup contact leadstoanew perspectivethat reshapes the theirown ingroup. Normally, intergroup contact is observed as adetached process fromthese other aspects. Ac- cording to Pettigrew (1998), this is the reason whysomeresearchersget disap- pointing results of intergroup encounters, meaning that positive attitudes toward members of the outgroup could not be established. In considerationofthe HandinHandschool,the question of an equal status within thesetting is questionable.Ithas to be askedhow much the setting of the environ- ment influencesthe contact itself. According to Spinner-Halev (2003) the school can onlyachieve contact on eye level if politics also work toward apeace agree- ment.The Hand in Hand school is built in thecontext of aconflictand no end is clearly conceivable.Aside fromthat, in an establishment like the school, everybody knows the individual's positioninthe societalhierarchy and this again leadstoan unbalancedstatusinthe encounter. Therefore, Tal-Or,Boninger and Gleicher (2002) suggesttoempower membersofthe minority in order to guarantee them a stronger role, to counterbalance the societalstatusoutside of school.This is partly done throughthe school's system of emphasizing Arabic within school. As Bekerman (2007a) points out, intergroup contact is mainly explored in volun- taryand non-formalsettings. The school setting generates difficulties thatother settings don't have to confront, like nationaland religiousceremonies, parents'par- ticipation and so forth. Halabi and Sonnenschein (2004)call attentiontothe difference of the contact hy- pothesis (Allport 1954) and theintergroup encounter approach by Nadler(2000, citedinHalabiand Sonnenschein 2004, 375). The contact hypothesis assumes that mere contact canlead to areduction of negative feelings toward one another. Through re- or de-categorization of the different groups, apositive encounter can take place.Onthe otherhand, the concept of intergroup encounters, pursues adif- ferent strategy. Here an emphasis on the representation of themembersbelonging

36 to different groups is setout. No re- or decategorization takes place. For this, a generalization towardother membersofsamegroup is expected. Contact is one of the main strategies to create amore positive attitude towardan- other group, especially when negative attitudes are perceived. In the context of peace educationinIsrael many contact situations on the base of Allport's contact hypothesis (1954) have taken place. Academics initiating these encounters have come to different results.Somesay that Allport's fourconditions: Equal status within the situation, common goals, cooperation, and the support by authorities are not enoughand addother aspects as trainedfacilitators,informalspace to create friendships and so on. Opposite to that, others claim thateven if all these aspects are not fulfilled,the contact canstill lead to apositive impactonthe participants. Pettigrew (1998)drawsattention to the fact, that the encounterisnot an isolated process, but hastobeconsidered in awider context with theaspects like learning about theother group, changing behavior,generating effective ties, and ingroup reappraisal. According to him, the impact of intergroup encounters can only be measured in thisholistic approach. The school contextofHand in Hand implies particular additional challengestothe ones faced by non-formal contact situations. Regulations likeceremonies bring in aspects of representation of one group that makes it difficult to re- or de-categorize the group. The question of identity, and representation of the own group versus melting into abigger group, is an important onetoask here. In general the aspects of language usage, the question of identity and the encounter in the school, as described, stronglyintertwine. If Arabic is strengthened to create a counterbalance of societalreality, is the equality withinacontact situation still en- sured? Does the separationofthe group, in order to hold group-specific ceremonies lead to astronger separation of the group instead of creating asuper-identity of all students?This artificialseparation of the threeaspects, whichwill be continued in the presentation of the results, should be kept in mind when reading the opinions of the parents.

37 5Methodology

5.1 'Thick description' –The method used

The description and interpretations of the case studyare done in accordance to the method of „thick description“,anapproach introduced by Cliffort Geertz in 1973 who studied different culturesinthese terms. As Geertz points out, culture is made by menand women and people living within that culture knowthe codes thatguide their behavior in away that is acceptable to itsmembers. According to the research method of „thick description“,the goal is to describe and interpret, knowing that the interpretation is done according to the researcher's understanding. If not inter- preted, according to Geertz, it is notmeaningfulbut coincidental. He givesthe ex- ampleofa'twitch' and a'wink' of an eye, where one is donepurposely while the otherone is not. This givesadifferent meaning to the fact that the eyelids were contracted. For him the objective of an researcher is to find the difference between a'twitch' and a'wink' of an eye. This understanding of interpretation concludes that even the description includes interpretationsinaccordance with the observer’s own codes. The analyzing, which comesafter the description, means sorting out the structures of significance (Geertz 2001,178).Interms of the contraction of the eyelids, the 'winking',isthe 'thin' description, because it does not include an interpretation, whereasthe 'twitching' does include an interpretation. And therefore fulfills the objective: to find out the symbolic import in society or between communicators. The interpretationsofthe researcher havetherefore to be seenasaselection of codes, worth interpretation. „What we call our data are reallyour constructions of other people's constructions of what they andtheir compatriots areupto“ (Geertz 2001, 178), Geertz therefore speaks of searching for meaninginstead of law. Ac- cordingtoGeertz, one needs to understand thesituation,the codes, rituals, cus- toms,and ideasofthe person's background to find out what codes could be used and how to analyze them. Agoodanthropological interpretation, he claims, sets the research material in the context of the culture. It consistsof: tracing the curveofa socialdiscourse and fixingittoaninspectable form (Geertz2001, 186).

38 The first chapters haveshown the discourse of the settingand the concept of the school in which the interviews have taken place. The next chapter will describe the results of the research as well as interpretations in lightofthe academicdiscourse about peace education in Israel.

5.2 Methodologicalbackground

Dr.Zvi Bekerman, aJewish Israeli academicofthe HebrewUniversity in Jerusa- lemhas been evaluating the Hand in Hand schools and offering academic assis- tance to the school as well as to the NGO in conceptual matters since the founda- tionofthe NGO. Hismainfocus is surveyingand evaluating theprogressofbilin- gual educationalfacilities in Israel as well as investigating the effects these schools have on the Israeli society in general and on theparticipating families in particular. Theinterviews conducted here are part of alongterm study on Hand in Hand. The main aimofthe interviewswiththe parents, for him, wastoinvestigate parents’ attitudes regarding multiculturalism, bilingualism and peace education. Since he did not have the capacitytoconduct the interviews himself, he requested two German assistants through the framework of ASA-scholarships.xii MajaScrba- cic and Icamefor the duration of three month in fall of 2008 to conduct 20 inter- views. Iwant to callattention to the factthatitseemedthatnone of the interview- ees related to us as Germans. While as Germans we belongedtoneither of the par- ties involved in the school, in the wider Israeli and Jewish context, it mighthave had impacts. Thequestionnaire used forthisstudy wasdeveloped by Dr.Bekermanonthe basis of his previousresults. The participants were recruited by the principals of the school. The only criterion was to have some basic knowledge of English, as all the interviews were held in English. Abalance of Jewish and non-Jewish participants was aimed for. The sampling included parents fromdifferentethnic backgrounds, differentsocio-economicclasses and having varying numbers of children in school. The semi-standardized questionnaire used for the interviewswas an open manual, composedofeight main categories with several sub-questions. Its purpose was to provide an orientation for the interviewer:not all questionswere explicitly asked of allinterviewees, but the themeswereused as incentives to come up with certain subjects. The first category deals with theinterviewees' personalbackgrounds and theirviewofthe political context in Israel. Categoriestwo, three and four focus on how the parents perceive the school itself, while category fivecenters on thechil-

39 drenand how they perform at the school. Categories six and seven deal with cere- monial issues andbilingualism at school and category eight focuses on the chil- dren’sfuture. Thequestionnaire can be found as attachment to this paper. The interviews took about one to two hours each and were fullytranscribed. They tookplace at the location and time of convenience for the participants. Normally thiswas either at their homes,places of work, at the school or at acafé. In general the interviews were individual sessions, even though in afew cases either children or thepartnerofthe intervieweejoined in during theinterview and added some comments. Participation was voluntary.The interviewees were briefed beforehand that the meetings would be taped and thatall information obtained would be kept confidential,anonymous and used for researchpurposes only.The interviews were heldinEnglishbynon-native interviewees as well as non-native interviewers. This as well as the fact that the interviews were taped mayhave influenced its content and dynamics. The interviewswereinterpretedaccordingtothe cross-sectional analysis(see May- ring 2002), usingdeductive categories according to the school's concept. These are: bilingualism,the strengthening of identitiesand the contact happening within school.These categorieswere chosen becausethey are essential for the school's pedagogical work. Besides, theyare more concrete and easier to evaluate thanother theoretical concepts likemulticulturalism,coexistenceeducation, collaborative learning or other approaches the schools relieson. Aspects of multiculturalism and other approaches are partly covered through the descriptionofmultilingualism, identity matters and contact (seeBekerman 2005a). Because of the small number of interviewees, the results arenot representative. I will notanalyze according to quantitative methods, but present the results in the previously mentioned categories withoutproviding the number of interviewees statingthe same opinion. Eventhough the paperdoesnot contextualizeeachsingle interviewee, but comparesthe answersofdifferent parents, the reader canfind small descriptions of every interviewed person below in order to associate the background of the person with the statementsand connect different opinions by the same person.

40 5.3 Descriptionofthe interviewees as agroup

The interviews were conductedwith 20 parents of students in Hand in theHand school in Jerusalemout of which thirteen were female and seven male. The age range was between32and 58 years. Theycan be consideredasbelongingtothe upper middle class society.Mostofthe interviewees have at least one academic degree:nine of themhave 'only'aBA, six have aMA, three have aPHD, oneper- son holds aprofessorshipwhile one person does not have an academicdegree, but has studied at university and worked forseveralyears as ateacher.Someofthe interviewees are working on higher degrees at the moment. The present occupa- tions of the interviewees can be dividedintouniversity faculty (three Jewish and one American Christian), activists in NGOs (three Jewish), lawyers (two Jewish andone Palestinian), employeesinthe health sector(two Jewish and one Palestin- ian), touristguides(twoPalestinians),teachers (two Palestinians),aPalestinian who works in theMinistry of Education, one architect and aDruze who works as engineer. The parents interviewed have betweenone and five children, an averageof2.75 children per family.Out of the total number of 55 children that theparents have,35were enrolled in the Hand in Hand school.Seventeen out of the twenty parents inter- Figure1:The amount of children by parents attending the HandinHand School viewed send all their school aged children to theHand in Hand school, if theyhadn't already started in another schoolwhen Hand in Hand was founded. Out of the three parents whodecidedtoregister their kidsindifferentschools, two were Jewish and one was Druze. The grades the children attend at schoolrange fromkindergarten to ninth grade; six children go to kindergarten, twenty-four to elementary school and five attend JuniorHighSchool.Eight out of the twentyinterviewees speak Hebrew as amothertongue, eight Arabic, three English and one parent is native in Russian.

41 The twenty interviewees consisted of tenJews, sixChristians,three Muslims and one Druze. Out of the total, fourpeople would call Jews (10) themselves religious, five could be Christians (6) categorized as traditional, nineas Muslims(3) secular and two as atheists by their Druze(1) owndefinitions.Out of theten Jewish participants, two were not born and raisedinIsrael but im- migrated as adults, one fromNew Zealandand theother one from Figure2:Religious backgroundofparents Russia. The six Christian inter- viewees can be subdividedintotwo American Christians and four .One of the AmericanChristians is married to an Armenian Christian and wasborn and raisedinIsrael.Three of the PalestinianChristians are originally fromnorthern Israel while the fourth one is from Bethlehembut married to aPales- tinian Christian fromnorthern Israel. Twoofthe Muslims are also fromthe north, so actuallyonlyone Palestinian was born and raised in the Jerusalemarea.

5.4 Description of the interviewees as individuals

In ordertocontextualize comments by different interviewees, understand the con- sistency within each interview and emphasize the difference in background of each and everyperson, the following short descriptions of the individuals are provided. All nameswere changed and newnames wheregiven to the interviewees andtheir children. The names were chosen in accordancewith theirreligious background andgender.

1) Sara: Jewish Israeli, female, immigrated fromNew Zealand, works in reli- gious education and is active in areligious community,has onechild who at- tends grade two 2) Estephania:Jewish Israeli, female, works in an NGO, has twochildren who both attend the school, one in grade two the other in pre-school (an extractof her interview is attachedinthe backofthe book)

42 3) Rani:Palestinian Christian Israeli, male, works as tour guide, has three chil- dren who all attend the school in grades five, four and two 4) Levi: JewishIsraeli, male, worked as ateacher and with different NGOs, has four children,ofwhomone attends the Hand in Hand schoolingrade six; his wife, Aviva, alsoparticipated in the interview 5) Miri:JewishIsraeli, female, immigrated fromRussia, agyneologist, has two children of whom the younger one attends gradesix 6) Liat:JewishIsraeli, female, works as lawyer, has three childrenofwhom the oldest one attends grade six 7) Dina: JewishIsraeli, female, works as lawyerfor the government, hastwo children,bothofwhom attend the school in gradefour and kindergarten 8) Stefan: Christian with permanent Israeliresidency,male, immigrated from the US, works as aprofessoroflinguistics,has three children, all attending the school in gradesnine, eightand four 9) Ilan:Jewish Israeli, male, PhD, works in the Middle Eastern Department of theHebrew University in Jerusalem, has three children of whom the oldestone attendsthe school in gradefour 10) Lea: JewishIsraeli, female, PhDinEnglish literature, just came back from a stay in the US, has two children, both attending the school in gradesfour and one 11)Marie:Christian American/Israeli,female, works as aprimary school teacher andasauthorofchildren books, married to an Armenian Israeli, has two chil- dren both of whom attend the school in grade five and kindergarten 12) Ameera: Muslim Palestinian, female, works as ateacher for special education, has twochildrenwho both attendthe school in grades six and one 13)Hannah: Jewish Israeli, female, works as an art therapist, hastwo children, of whom the younger one attendsgrade nine 14) Nadia: Muslim Palestinian, female, works as lawyer,has three children, of whomtwo (twins) attend the kindergarten 15) Manal:Christian Palestinian, female, worksasanarchitect, hasthree children, whoall attend theschoolinfourthand firstgrade andkindergarten 16) Hussein: Muslim Palestinian, male, works as amale-nurse in hospital, has three children, two of whom attend the school in grades six andfive

43 17) Doha: ChristianPalestinian, female, studied mathematics andworks in the Ministry of education, has three children, of whom the youngest one attends grade ten (an extract of her interview is well attached in the endofthe book) 18) Fadi: Christian Palestinian, male, grew up in Bethlehem, works as tour guide, married to aPalestinian Israeli,has five children, with twoofthemattending the school in grades three and one 19)Sarit:Jewish Israeli,female, PhDinAnthropology, lectures at auniversity,has three children, one of whom attends the schoolingrade six 20) Refai: DruzeIsraeli, male, works as acivil engineer,has four children, two of whom attend theschool in grades three and two Even though the Druze mightnot consider himself aPalestinian, when summa- rizing, Iwill refer to him as aPalestinianfor reasons of convenience.

44 6Findings of the case study

6.1Introduction–Motivation of the parents to enter the school

The Hand in Hand school offers asetting thatisbilingualand works toward the idea of co-existence.These arethe main factors which attract the parents inter- viewed to send their children there. On the Jewish and the non-Jewish sidesome arguments to enter this are specific for each group while other aspects are relevant for members on both sides. On the Palestinian side, the bilingual setting reflects the everydaylife in Israel.

“I felt this school is so much like our life actually.It’svery// especially as an Arab in Israel, it’ssomuch like how we live here.Wework together, also we have no other op- tion and we work in places with Jewish people, with Muslim people with// this is in- teractingwitheveryone.”(Manal)

Someparents state thatthey would want their children to be fluent in both lan- guages.Inthe caseofthe Palestinians, while Arabic is important fortheir identity, Hebrew is unavoidablewhenitcomes to highereducation or white collar jobs. Be- sides, the Hand in Hand school has agood reputation when it comes to educational excellence.Onthe Jewish sidethe expectation of acquiring Arabic is one of the main factors to pick this school. The desire for co-existence and the fact that the childrengrowupwithfewer prejudicestowardthe other group is attractive to par- ents of either side as well as the smallclasses, each of whichhave two teachers. Yet, some parents select the school not out of ideological motivation but forrather non-ideological reasons like connections parents have to teachers in the school or their expectationofagood educational setting. This is of special interest for parents who have children with special needs.

6.2 Bilingualism

The school's focus on bilingualismisessential for the everyday life of the children and therefore forthe parents. As bilingualism is themosttangiblesubject forpar- ents, some of them interrelate the success of the schooland the language skills of their children. The challenges the school faces concerning thesetting of the school

45 andthe influenceithas on the children's language skills and usage are presented in the following.

6.2.1 Dominance of Hebrewinthe society and its impact on the school

Parents are very awarethat thesocietyhas an impactonthe school. Some parents identify the strong positionofHebrew in the Israeli society,inmedia,politics and everyday life as amajor problemofthe school. One parent goes as far as saying that the school is probably the onlypublic place where Arabicand Hebreware spo- ken parallelinanonviolent context, aside frombureaucratic settings. SomeJewish parents assume that the dominance of Hebrew in the Israeli society is the reason for theirchildren's lackofknowledge in Arabic. One motherthinksthat if herson would hear Arabic more often in the streets or in the media, he would speak it more often. Other parents also stress the point thatitisnot only the meager presence of Arabic in the Israeli society but also the fact that Arabic is the language of the marginalized in Israel or even the language of the enemy. All that leadstothe fact,that some children arenot proud of havinglearned anything that hastodo with Arabic.

“[T]here is something about him that rejects Arabness[...], for instance he will never speak to me in Arabicand whenever Ispeak to him in Arabic, he doesn't likeit[…].I thinkithas to do with hisidea, that Arabness is something marginalized in his society, it'snot something to be proud of. (Sarit)

One mother explains thatfor the samereasons as achild she refused to learn the language thatshe could have pickedupfromher father. Another mother suggests thather child might feelthreatened by the language.

“[M]aybe we'rethreatened by Arabics [Arabs].But Arabics is notsomething you're threatened of. Kidsdon't think that Arabic people areathread, they'renot afraidofit and they feel, it's part of life,you know,the Jews go to school with Arab people, so it's okay.You hear Arabic everywhere, you celebrate their-their holidays, that's great, but it's not as good as Ithought. And Istill think it can. Thereisstill alot of work to be done.”(Liat)

AJewish mother statesthat she finds the emphasis on Arabic significant for the self-esteemofPalestinianchildren. This assumption fits aPalestinian mother's as-

46 sessment of the situation. She notices thatpeople look strangelyather when she talksArabic in public.

“[S]ometimes you go in aplace andyou starttalkinginArabicand,you know,people will lookatyou.'Youdon’t look Arab', they will tell you. How arewesupposed to look?” (Manal)

This is an experience, noted by other Palestinians as well. Discriminationchal- lenges Palestinianparents when explaining their children thatthey are all the same and thatthey should be proud of their language and use it. Considering thedomi- nance of HebrewinIsraeli society,somePalestinian parents assume thatthe use of Arabicinpublic places,which is rare, should be promoted as amatter of respect toward the Arabic speaking citizens of the country. For one Palestinianparentthe smallnumber of Jewsspeaking Arabic leads to mistrust towardthe Arabic speaking population in thecountry. Afocus on Arabic would lead to less suspicion.

“So, if you want to know your// the other side in this country,you should know his language andthe cultureand everything. And then youstart, you know,treating them as people andasequal people. Youknow their culture and their// you know them as people” (Manal)

In this chapter,aconnection between the outside environment and the language use of the students in school is describedbyparents. Parents by far agree that the school is set up in aHebrew speaking environment where Arabic is marginalized. Aside frombureaucratic settings, the use of Arabic and Hebrew simultaneously is not seeninIsraeli public. According to some parents, speaking Arabic is central forthe identity and the self- esteem of the Palestinians and needs to be conserved. This caneasily be seen when parents state that they convincetheir children to speak Arabic or when they talk about reactions to the speakingofArabic in public. Parents connect the use of lan- guage withidentity matters andsocialand political matters. This can be found by the statement that an emphasis on Arabic by the Israeli society would lead to less mistrust and could help to reduce suspicion.

6.2.2 Language use at home

Thelanguageuse at home varies among the families. On the Jewish side, parents interviewed mainly speak Hebrewtotheir children. On the non-Jewish side, in

47 some homesArabic is emphasized whereas in other familiesamixoflanguages, normallyHebrew and Arabic,are spoken. One interviewee explains that it'simpos- sible to exclude Hebrew in the household because the Israeli media is in Hebrew. Besides, workingall day in aJewish setting demands ahigh commitmenttonot fall back on Hebrew in private conversations at home.

“Me and my husbands. We use Hebrew all day andit’shardfor us to come home and talk Arabic withoutusing any wordinHebrew.So, we’retrying, we’re doing our best. Andalso the girls when they approach us with Hebrew language, when they’re talking with us in Hebrew so Irefuse to listen.Iask them to translate.” (Nadia)

Other parents don't bother switching between Hebrew and Arabic in onesentence. Some familiesuse even athird language like English, Russian, Spanish or Arme- nian at home,dependingonthe background of the parents. On the Palestinian side, aparent states that his child is proud of learning new words and grammar in Hebrew.The child is keen on learning Hebrew and even looks for Hebrew speaking friendsinorder to usethe language. Some children even start to talkHebrew to their parents. Some Palestinian parents checkthe leveloftheirchil- dren in Hebrew by talking to themand helping themwith theirhomework.One Palestinianfather even admits that sometimes his daughterteaches him some He- brew.

“Sometimes Italk, sometimesIspeak Hebrew purposely,you know,for them just to learnand to check how they know thelanguage. And sometimesthey spoke to me He- brew,they asked me, they spoke to me somesentences in Hebrew.But it is not the spe- cial language, or theonly language in our house. We speak in Arabic in thehouse and sometimes, you know,wehave to check.” (Hussein)

One Jewish father, who is fluent in Arabic andloves the language, would not talk in Arabic to his daughter because she has anegative attitude toward the language and thereforehetalks little Arabic with her.Asides from that, he did not want to mix languages when she was too young or her siblingswere too young. He is con- vinced,thatchildrenshouldfirst be confidentintheir mother tongue before getting introducedtoasecond language.

“I felt that she had abit antagonist. AndIdon't want her, you know,tobeantagonist, so this is also onereason, why Idon't speak alot of Arabic with her.” (Ilan)

48 Another Jewish parent whoknows thather son's attitude towardArabic is slightly positive,speaksalittleArabictohim.Inher case, she uses Arabic to tease her son.

Children come fromhomes where eitherHebrew,Arabic or athird language is spo- ken. As for the parents interviewed, theydon't see aproblemchallenging thechil- dren with threelanguages at the same time. SomePalestinian parents emphasize Arabicathome, even though someofthem work in aHebrew context all dayand find it therefore challenging to speak Arabic without mixingitwith Hebrew. One Jewish parent would not talk Arabic at home,partly because he is convinced that thechildren should firstbeconfident in onelanguage and partly,because he feels that hischild doesn't liketotalktohim in Arabic. In general, it becomes obvious that Hebrew is much more present in the households of the Palestinianchildren thanArabic is on theJewishside.Palestinian children want to learn Hebrew and initiate in speakingitwhile this is not mentionedeven onceonthe Jewish side.The oppositeisthe case, in familieswhere one parent is enthusiastic about Arabic the children stillrejectthe language. Thereforeitisrarely used, even though the capability is there. So, beside the dominance of Hebrew in the societalcontext, Hebrew is more dominant and presentthan Arabic in the households.

6.2.3 Bilingualpolicyofthe school

The school's bilingual policyisthe reason for some parents to choose this school. Someparents even go as farasclaiming that the bilingualpolicy is the legitimiza- tion for the school's existence. One mothermentions thatthe school'simage as a bilingualschoolislesscontroversialthan it wouldbeifthe school putpolitical concerns first.

“[B]ilingualism is awonderful way to approach thebi-national way.Ithink it's a// it just givesusamodel to work with,that is less threatening andmorecultural and less political in orientation.”(Lea)

Forher,politicsshould not enter the children's lives. She was worried that the school would produce “little heroes”, of which she disapproved regarding her daughter.She didn't want her to be part of an political experiment, but preferred to let her daughter and others remain normal students and enjoytheir childhood.

49 “[A]tfirst we didn'tthink we would go to the bilingual school because it soundedtoo (.) how shall Isay it, heroic. Youknow, big words Idon't agree with. Andwecame to this school to see it and it was really agreat experience. It was just living together,no heroics, no propaganda” (Liat)

Other parents also had fears about politicsseeping into thechildren's lives too early. Theyare pleased that the school is notpolitical, in the sense thatstudents don't noticethe politicalmotivation of the school. One mothergot the impression thatthisschoolisevenless political for the children than regular schools.Aside fromthe bilingual aspect of theschool, which is considered amajorfeature of the school,parentsalso identify aless racistenvironment in this school comparedto others.

“For me the main thing, or two things were, ah,toprevent her from being racist, ah, in-in the regular schools withtoo much, ah, it's notexactly chauvinistic approach, but it'sakindofignoring the other andah, you know,sothiswas onething, and the other was Arabic.”(Ilan)

Especially in mixed marriageslike in the case of the Armenian-American couple, to choose eitheraPalestinian or aJewish school would have meantthe lack of ei- ther Hebrew or Arabic. The American Christian mother statesthat aschool on ei- ther side wouldalsoprovide aone sidededucation with resentmentstoward the others. Having grown up in such “racist”schools themselves, where the other group is perceived as the enemy,parents appreciate the openness of HandinHand in portraying different perspectives.

“[F]or him the Arabic was very,very important. And to me the Hebrew was very,very important, and for him the Arab was so important, that he was willing to send the children to Palestinian schools and, ahm, both of us didn't feelcomfortable with that, just because of the, ahm, of the negative, ahm, viewpoint towardIsrael.”(Marie)

Even though theschool aims to treat both languages the same, some parents com- plain that Hebrew is dominant in the schoolcontext. Parents suggest thatArabic shouldbeemphasized more, in order to produce acounterbalance to the Hebrew dominance outside of school. One Jewish parent has an interesting approach to this question. According to him,the school creates abalance when consideringthe wider objective of equality of Palestinians andJewsinthe school: with regard to language,Hebrewisdominant, but this is balanced by the stronger Palestinian nar- rativepresented at school.

50 “[I]fwespeak about language the Hebrew is moredominant, but if we speak about- about the national narrative [...], thePalestinian nationalnarrative Ithink is stronger. So if youtake the whole thereisakindofequality.” (Ilan)

Theimplementation of the bilingual policy accordingtoparents lacksconsistency in oral communication. Parents claim thatwhen it comestogeneral information, what the school sends out to the parents is written bilingually.One Jewish mother notes though, thatshe does notunderstand the part on the report card about the Arabic languageskills because it is nottranslated. She wishesthis would be written in Hebrew as well. When it comestooral communication though, it is notthat con- sistently handled. In parent-teacher meetings, for example,one mother claims that she does not understand what the Palestinian teacher says. In contrast to heropin- ion, other parents claim that in parent-teachermeetingsthe bilingualpolicy is not pursued and only Hebrew is used. This inattentiveness is basedonthe presumption that allparents understand Hebrew. Consideringthe background of the Palestinian parentsinterviewed, this is truetoall butone case. Onefather,who grew up in Bethlehemand onlylater movedtoIsrael, is notfluentinHebrew.Heexplains that he could not follow the conversation of aparent-teachermeeting, because it was held exclusively in Hebrew.Hesent his wife to the followingmeetings, sinceshe grew up in Israel and understands Hebrew.This monolingualstrategy is accepted by somePalestinianparents. As aJewish motherexplains, theydon't see the need in translating back and forth in Arabic and Hebrew.This samemothertells astory about aparent-teacher conference, where aPalestinian parentcomplained about the extratimeand effortneeded forthe translation.

“And one of the Palestinian parents said, youknow,'Could we please justdothis in Hebrew and get this done? Cause it's just taking so long.'"(Lea)

The dominance of Hebrew within the school is also aresult of the immense chal- lenge of finding Jewish teachers fluent in Arabic. Parents point to this as one of the school's major problem. One mother stresses that if the school would truly want to establish abilingual policy,theycould not dealwith peoplenot knowing both Ara- bic and Hebrew. Some Palestinian parents insist that theschoolshould make the parentslearn Ara- bic.SomeJewish parents have taken part in oneofthe Arabic courses offered by the school butnone of themcontinued over along period. OneJewish fathersug- gested an Arabic intensivecourseinsomekindofsummer school where the chil- dren would join as well. His wife, who waspresentatthe interview,replied though

51 that she would not be willing to make such an effort. She, as well as others, would be toobusyand sets differentprioritiesfor their leisuretime. Other parents on the Jewish side admit that they arenot willing to pay apricefor true bilingualism, such as an Arabic course for the parents, even though they agree on the importanceofit. When it comes to the Arabic knowledge of thechildren, one mother thinks that first of all the schoolisaregular state school that has to educate the children on differ- ent subjects. If theylearn Arabic in addition, thatisexcellent but it'snot necessary. One fatherwho was verymuchinvolved in the parents committee is afraid that the introductionofJunior High School will lead to adifferent focus in the school. He thinksthatthe preparation forstandardized teststhatstudents have to pass in order to get the bagrut,will lead to less emphasis on language skills. Besides the dominance in Israeli media and everyday life, someparents blamethe pedagogical concept of the school forthe lack of Arabic by the Jewish students. Someparents acknowledge that they see the school as ayoung, learning project that is experimenting and improving. One mother adds that she thinks the peda- gogical conceptfor bilingualism should be changed but she wouldn'tknow how. Parents appreciate the newly introducedsystemofdividing the students by their mother tongue when it comestolanguage classes. One mother describes herson's complexes regarding language skills because he is competitiveand compareshim- self to students with Arabic as mother tongue.Sofor her,the division of thestu- dents by mother tongue is very helpful. She wishes they would have introduced that earlier.

“I think that they should have taught them totally separately.[...]Hecame on the first class, he felt that he's the worst kid in class. Of course, because the others areArabs whospeaksitfluently. Andheisverycompetitive.” (Dina)

One mothersuggests thatthe school should useArabic in amorecreative wayand not just regularlanguage education. She would want to seeanextra activity in drama or some other contextwherethe language would be connected to something that is pleasant.

“I would be very happy [...], if the school woulddosomething to really,tochallenge thekids to speak moreArabic, to do something more,ah, creative about it, to make it shows, to do something that will really force them to usethe language more.”(Han- nah)

According to another mother this wouldoverburden the school. It can notbring about the children's activeusage of thelanguage because of timelimitations and

52 thepressure of knowledgetransfer in other subjects that are on the nationalcurricu- lum. The active use of Arabic, she thinks, should be takencareofafter school. She therefore took the initiative andgot extra classes for her daughter.Ontop of that, she speaks Arabic with her Armenianfatherathome. Other parents alsotakeaddi- tional Arabic classes for theirchildren. Arabicisdivided into different dialects andStandard Arabic (fusha),which is mainly used for written information. When it comestobilingualismthe parents major critique toward the school is the teaching of Standard Arabic instead of Col- loquial Arabic. The school'sassumption, thatthe children would learn automati- cally howtospeak Arabic and therefore fusha needstobeemphasizedinschooldid not come true. Parents demand to concentrate on spoken Arabic fromfirst gradeon and less on Classical Arabic.

“English he knows, because the teacher knew,that nobody knows English, started it from scratch.SpokenArabictheythink it will be learned from air […]Iknow abit of literary,ofwritten Arabic, very little from school,but it'sdifferent from spoken Arabic, it's almost two different languages. So, spoken Arabic nobody teaches it,they just thinkthattheycan learn it becausethey hear Arabic and maybe thereare kids who candoit, but he [her son]'snot.” (Dina)

One fathernotices that other children andfriends are jealous of his knowledge of Arabic. He speaksfluent Arabic and has observed these feelings toward himself as wellastoward his daughter.This goes alongwith the statement of amother inter- viewed who admits that she is jealous of her son's Arabic skills.

Theschool'sfocus on bilingualism is appreciated by someparents because it is an uncontroversial, ostensibly barelypoliticalapproach. Parents don't want their chil- dren to be in apolitical setting. This is interesting fortwo reasons: firstofall the NGO changed purposely the name from “Center forBilingual Education”(CBE) to “CentreofArabJewishEducation” to emphasize the focus on multiculturalism and integrated education, rather than bilingualism, with the idea that bilingualism is only atool for political change. Secondlysomeparents, even though they are en- gagedinthispolitical project, want it to be as apolitical as possible. It would be interesting to find out whythe political aspect is so unwanted. It would also be re- warding to find out if it is pure accident that it was mentioned only by Jewish par- entsinthe interviews. If it is notaccidentalthatJewish parents want to keep it less political,the question arises, whether the fear of being marginalized and tagged leftistthemselvesinfluencesthem. This thought arisesbecause in differentcontexts

53 which are notpresented in thischapter,parents state thatbybeing in thisschool they put themselves in avery marginalsocialstreamand one mother evencon- fesses,that“there were firstfears, for example,that youwill be tagged as veryleft- ist” (Dina). Forthe school, thequestion of whetherthe school attracts apolitical parentsbecause it is well financed and known for its educational approach andhas agoodreputation mightraise. Especially formixed-couples the school provides an education that helps to de- veloptwo languagesand an identity that does not include resentmentstoward the othergroup, something that is especially important forchildren carrying different roots within oneidentity. The regular “racist” school system,asstated by parents in adifferentcontext, needs astrong counterbalance. Bilingualism seemstoworkwellaslongasitislimited to written information handed over from schooltoparents. In oral communication some parents have dif- ferent perceptions. For example,the dominance of Hebrew in parent-teachermeet- ings is indisputable, even though, according to one parent, there are Arabic com- mentsbyPalestinianteachers which are nottranslated. The wide spread Hebrew knowledge by Palestinianparents leadstoaninattentiveness in bilingualissues. What is interesting, is that even some Palestinian parents, according to oneinter- view partner,don't find it necessary to translate everything into Arabic. The Pales- tinian father who couldnot follow the meeting did not mention any complaint in this situation, but sent his Hebrew speaking wife fromthen on. The question comes up whyparents do not see the necessity of bilingualism when it comes to their own liveseventhoughbilingualismisconsidered by someparents to be essential for the students andthe setting in school. HebrewisspokenbyJewish and most non-Jewish stakeholders in the school and this seems to lead to aHebrewdominance in class, in parent-teachermeetings, conversations among teachers and therefore in the school setting in general. Only veryfew of the Jewish parents have acommand of Arabic while most of themhave attended none or onlyveryfew of the Arabiccourses provided by the school and haven't improved their Arabic skills fromtheir own school experiences. The honest commentbyamother that she would use her leisure time for other things instead of learning Arabic is representativealso for otherJewishparents,whichhave similar answers in othercontexts of theinterview. The question over the concept on bilingualism of the schoolcomes up.Somepar- ents complain aboutthe teaching of fusha insteadofColloquialArabic. Others think that the children should be separated for language classes by their mother

54 tongue and others would wanttosee more creative activity with Arabic so that it getsused in different contexts thuspromotingadifferent connotation thanwhat comes frombeing an obligatory subject.

6.2.4 The fulfillment of expectations regarding language skills of children

The expectations of parents regarding the language skills imparted at school vary tremendously.Indeed, awide range between disappointmentand satisfaction on the fulfillment of those expectations can be foundinthe interviews. Especially on the Jewish sidedisappointmentconcerning the second language skills of their children is widespread. According to someparents theschool raised the expectationthat Arabic would be like asecond language to their children.

“Weweretold that it would//I think second grade [...]Theytold us it happens. Some- how as amiracle it happens andtheyknow Arabic.[…] And we werewaiting and waiting andnope, doesn't happen. So it's// this was the really big, ah, how do you say it, abig disappointment.”(Liat)

One parentconfesses thathenow knowsthat his expectationsconcerning theAra- bic language skillsofhis daughter were set toohigh. He therefore does not blame the schoolfor not fulfilling his expectations.Someparents are aware that the school cannot provide fluent language skills andthink that parents should be more aware of that. Onemother thinks that Jewishparents are too impatientwith the Arabicskills of theirchildren. Theyshould not compare themtoPalestinianchil- dren's levelofHebrew. For one mother,Arabic is notmainly about language skills. To her,itisthe keytoa differentculture. Therefore, thelevel of Arabic is notasimportant to her as it is that the childrenget in touch with children from the non-Jewish side. For another parent who shares this assumption, the result of alack of Arabic skills leadstoa tremendousdeficit.

“[T]he language is very importanttounderstand the culture, to be part of it, to feel comfortable with Arabic people. When it's not thereit's abig deal.”(Liat)

An American fatherwho speaks little Arabic expresses hisown experience with the language.Even thoughheisfar frombeing fluent, he observes positive effects us-

55 ingArabic in hisworkingenvironment, the university.Hethinks thathis children's attendance at Hand in Hand makes Arabic present at home.

“And quiet frankly,with my students, athirdofmystudents hereatHebrew University areArabic,are Arabic speakers and that gives me connection with my ownstudents, that Iwouldn't have otherwise, because Irecognize their names, Ican speak to them, notalot,but at leastIknow enough about theirlanguagesothat Ican make them feel at home,ah, it's probably for me professionally been very good that Ican relate to the students morepositively,than Iwould if my children weren't in the school” (Stefan)

Other Hebrew speaking parents raise concernsover the sparse oral use of Arabic. According to them,the children understand and read well, but they don't speak. One reason for that as mentioned by various parents could be the earlyacquisition of Hebrew skills by Palestinian students. This leads to acommunication in Hebrew amongthe children from an early stage on. According to aJewish mother,the longer her son stayed in school the fewer Jewishchildren remained in his class the more her son spoke Arabic. Over and beyond these complaints, one should how- ever not forgetthough that there are also Jewish parents,especially in higher classes, who are highly satisfiedwith the levelofArabic by their children.

“[The youngest one] certainly understands everything that goes on in Arabicand, ah, butthe twoolder ones,I'd saythe experiment succeeded, they really arefunctioning in athird language, English at home and then Hebrew and Arabic, so that for me is wonderful.”(Stefan)

On the Palestinian side, parents are predominantlysatisfiedwith the language skills of their childreninArabic as well as in Hebrew.Onlyone father is concernedabout the levelofArabic.Hesaysthat he found spelling mistakes on the blackboard by theteacher andthis would worry him.Especially on the non-Jewishside, parents emphasize the school's determination to notmix languages. They have the problem of living bilingually and mixing languages when talking to the children. Theyap- preciate the school's effort in strengthening Arabic as well as separating the two languages.

“I was afraid that they will speak more Hebrew than Arabic,Ididn’twant that to hap- pen.Iwant them to// and Ididn’twant them to mixlanguages together.” (Manal)

It is interesting to see that someparents seemtoquestion thelevel of Arabic of their children unequally to the teachers. One mother even goes as far as to claim the teacherdid not understandthat her daughter trickshim.Inher opinion, the

56 teacherdoesnot realizethather daughter replies without really understanding the statement of the teacher.

“I've seen it happening with teachers,who say,well Shemrit speaks good Arabic, and then I'd say, well say something and the teacher will sayand Shemrit would answer and smile.The teacher was surethat she understand everything andIasked her what didshe sayand Shemritsaid: 'I don't haveaclue' "(Liat)

Someparents interviewed are verydisappointed about their child's language skills, while others aresatisfied. On the Palestinian side, none of the parents complains about deficiencies in Hebrew.Palestinian children pick up Hebrew veryquickly andlearn it fluently withinthe first years in school. On the Jewish side, thesatis- faction of parents varies tremendously. Thereseems to be ashifting pointinthe capabilityofArabic, according to the parents. The longerthe students stay in school, the more they speak Arabic. This might be partly connected to thewith- drawal of Jewish children fromthe school in higher grades, which leads to amajor- ity of Palestinian children in class. Even thoughthe bilingual language policy,with aHebrew and an Arabic teachers in each class is not keptinhigher classes, thestu- dents seemtocommunicatemore often in Arabic than in lower classes. Especially in the firstyears, Palestinian children learn much better Hebrew than the Jewish children learn Arabic. This produces acomfortable situation forJewish childreninwhich theydonot have to focus on spoken Arabic. This again adds to the domination of Hebrew in class as well as in private meetings. Palestinianpar- ents speak of thesuccess of the school in not mixing languages. This statement can only be understood given the fact thatmany Palestinian parents work in aHebrew setting and thereforeuse Hebrew everyday.Someofthe parents admit that they have problems not mixing Hebrew and Arabic in one sentence. Someparents understand the concept of bilingual education as atooltoget access to anotherculture.Thisisinteresting in consideration of theNGO's interpretation of bilingualism,where it is seenassuch as well. It is remarkable to see that some parents seemtoassess the Arabic language skills of the Jewish children differently than theteachers.Either theparents understate the Arabic language skills of their children or the teachers overstate theminorder to affirm their work.

57 6.2.5The questionofEnglish and special needs

Someparents think that the children should learn more English in school. The strong focus on Hebrew and Arabic leaves little roomfor English. One father stud- ied English with his daughter at home before firstgrade. When she started school, she lost it.

“She was studyingEnglish even beforewith me, in the school,inthe house. But now in the school,Idon't think they do much for English, or maybe it's anew plan and they'regoing to start it soon, because until this moment, my Christina in the third grade she would saybad, you know,only this few words,while in the first grade she was muchbetter.” (Fadi)

One parentwho has astrong connectiontothe US and worked there for aperiod, would be verypleased if the school could offer an English speaking streaminthe Hand in Hand School. For her as well forothers, the school raises additional obsta- cles compared to aregular school when coming back fromalonger stayabroad. Her children have problems catching up on missed materialand little chance to get the same bilingual education in other countries. Another mothernotes that the school is not meeting her daughter's needs as adys- lexicchild. Thefocus on another language overburdens her daughter'scapability. She needs longer hours to make up the regular material. Even though the school and the parentsarranged extra conditions forthe student, theadditionallanguage leadstofrustration and anegative attitude toward school. Another mother,onthe otherhand, enjoys the specialconditions at Hand in Hand. She chose the school mainly because her son is hyperactive. In small classeswith two staffmembers in each classroom, she has the impression thatheisbebettertaken care of than in a regular schoolclass. The ideological agenda of the school was subordinate. For aJewish Russian mother who migrated to Israel the fearcameupthat her son would lose his mother tongue Russian.Hespeaks it but concerning writingand readingheismuchbetter in Arabic and Hebrew. Similar concerns are raisedbythe the American-Armenian couple. Attending theHand in Handschool means paying the price of not attending the Armenian school. The older daughter attendedthe Armenianschool to get abasic idea about the culture and the language before com- ing to Hand in Hand.The younger son, who was supposed to receive the same edu- cation, was not accepted by the Armenianschool because the older sisterwas not committed enough to it. He therefore could notbenefit fromArmenianclasses.

58 This chapterisinteresting when it comestodifferentneeds of individuals. It gives an idea of considerationsthe school couldintegrate in the pedagogical concept in order to please the parents and shows how difficult it is to meet all the different demands made by parents and students. Given the context of the Israeli society,the background of thepeopleaswellas globalization, the demand for more English is unquestionably an important one. If the school is notable to fulfill the demandsofparents in regard to English lessons, parents will remain disappointed. The school has to be aware that the special condi- tions it offers in terms of numberofstudents in class and number of staff members in classmight also attract parents who do not choose the school for political rea- sons butfor educational ones. It offers special conditions for regular students,but is even more attractive forparents, whohave children withspecialneeds like hyper- activity.Onthe otherhandthe school mightnot provideanideal settingfor chil- dren with specialneeds like dyslexia.Itmight be reasonable for the school as well as for the children to think of alternatives, because an extra language mightover- burden the child as in the case mentioned above.

6.2.6 Language skills and visions for the future

When it comestovisionsfor the future, concerning the value of languagesitbe- comes obvious thatPalestinian parents needHebrew while in the opposite case it is nicetohavebut not necessary.Palestinian parents are very aware of the fact that Hebrew is important for the future of the children. Higher education as well as white collar jobs require fluency in Hebrew.AJewish mother wants her son to fol- lowher footprints and serve in the IsraeliMilitary Intelligence. For her,this is a unit of the army where smart and intelligent people meet andshe would want him to be one of them.Besidesthat, she wouldn't want to see himasacombat soldier, even though shedoesn'texactly saywhy,but onlyrefers to service in the Military Intelligence as apreferred position. She says that having Arabic language skills provides astrong advantage to getting accepted in theIntelligence and hopes that the fact that her son has Arab friends does not have anegative influence on his ca- reer. “I want him very much to go to Intelligence and Ihave some doubts, maybe he will be excluded on security grounds, becauseheknows too many Arabs or somethinglike this” (Dina)

59 AnotherJewishmother hasdifferent visions for her son. For her,Arabic gives her son employment options outside the Jewish apparatus. For example, he could use his Arabic skills in building relationships with neighboring countries. AJewish father thinksthathis daughterhas agood language baseline to build up on, if she wants.Her language skillscould provideoptions in work as well as in private con- tact with people.Other parentsalsospeak of language skills as abasefor contact with the other group. One Palestinian parentprovides initial evidence of first posi- tive resultsofthis.She likesthather Jewishbabysitter comesand speaksArabic to her children. Forher this is amatter of respect.

“I have ababysitterfor the kids, he’sfromthisschool, he’s older,about 14 years old. What’snice// he’sJewish and he comes, he speaks Arabic also to the kids. So, I’m happy to see that it’sworking also forthe other side.That’svery important for me. It’s arespect” (Manal)

Someparents regardthe Arabic language skillsasanenrichmentofthe children's future. On the Palestinian side,parents are very aware of the necessity of Hebrew for professionalaswell as educational reasons. On the Jewish side, three options are listed. First, Arabic could be used for careerreasons outsideofthe Jewish appa- ratus,secondly it can help to build private relationships. And lastly, as one mother explains,itcould be used to work within themilitary service. While the first and second idea might be suggestions the school wouldagreewith, the third proposal might be seen critically by the school as well as the staff and other parents.Coming backtothe hypothesis thatparents might notshare the political idea the school of- fers, to learn Arabic skills in order to use them for the military apparatus against Palestiniansissurelynot the intension of the school. If the school becomesaninsti- tution thatisonlyaccepted by parents because of the possibilitytolearn Arabic, for whatever purpose, its legitimization mightbecalled into question sooner or later. On the other hand, it is challenging for the school to prevent parents like this from sending their children to HandinHand, especially when it is growing as fast as it is.

6.2.7 Final conclusionsonbilingualism in consideration of academic studies

According to Spinner-Halev (2003) the demand of parents to concentrate more on Englishreflectsthe spirit of thetime. Thisisnot only ademand in this school, but challenges bilingual schools worldwide. In times of globalization it is notmere

60 personal preference. Especially for the group in the majority,itrequires astrong argument whythe students should invest more in the language of the minority than in English, the global language(Spinner-Halev2003). In consideration of therela- tionship Israel has with its neighboring Arabcountries theorientation toward Europeand the UnitedStates becomeseven more relevant. Knowing English also providesoptionsfor Palestiniancitizens working abroad. Theyare aware thattheir children pick up Hebrew quickly and speak it fluently afterashort amount of time, so their demand for another language is understandable. The fact that written information given outbythe school is bilingualwhile oral information,asinparent-teacher meetings,isnot translatedisawidespread prob- leminbilingualeducation. Amara, Azaiza, Hertz-Lazarowitz and Mor-Sommerfeld (2009) have found in their longterm analysisonthe Hand in Hand schoolsthat He- brew dominatesinall fields, butinthe area of information given out in writingitis the most symmetric. Even when the school changed the strategyand emphasized Arabic in order to produceacounterbalance to the Hebrew dominance outside of school, the school never achieved true bilingualism (Bekerman 2005b). Whereas Amara (2005 quoted in Amara et al.2009, 31) found that Jewish parents don'thavehighexpectations for their children's level of bilingualism, the inter- views presentedhere show thatsomeparents are very disappointed by the language skills of theirchildren. As seen here, onlyafew Jewish parents speak Arabic.This result corresponds to the otherprevious studies on thisschool(Bekerman 2005a,Amara et al.2009). This is notsurprising when takinginto consideration the Israeli school system and themarginalization of the non-Jewish citizens in Israel. As seen here as well as in otherstudies (Amaraetal. 2009) the Jewish teachers are also not bilingual. Especially whenteachers translate conversations within or outside of the class- rooms to make themselves understood, they create averycomfortable situation for the students who can just wait for atranslation (Amara et al. 2009). In the last years, as Amara, Azaiza, Hertz-Lazarowitz andMor-Sommerfeld state, Arabteach- ers of Hand in Hand emphasizethe usage of Arabic and trytonot switch to Hebrew in conversationswith pupils,co-teachers or staff. In this context, the researchof Escamilla (1994) also helpstounderstand thesituation. She found that the focus on abilingualsetting should not onlyreach out to classrooms but includethe entire school setting. According to Escamilla (1994)the parents as well as the staffand the teachers of the schoolserve as role models to the students.Inthe case of the bilingualschool,only veryfew Jewish parents speak Arabic as well as very few

61 Jewish teachers. The philosophy of atrulybilingual setting is reduced to the class- rooms.Thishas astrong impact on the children since they only experience of Ara- bic is reduced to an “obligatory”setting whereas the more comfortable communi- cation, maybe even on more intimateissues,takes place mostly in Hebrew mostly (Ecamilla 1994). This is one of the factors,besides the little bilingualrole models on the Jewishside and the external setting, that influences thelanguage use of the children on the Jewishaswell as the non-Jewish side in the school. According to Raham(2001, cited by Amara et al. 2009, 29) thelanguage teaching in Hand in Hand is ideologically based. The reality in Israel does not offer atrue need to learnArabic. This couldbeone reason whyJewish children do not use Arabic. They make little use of it outside of school, becauseequal statusofArabic and Hebrew in the community is notpresent. In this context, one gets the impres- sion that some of the studentsinHandinHandhave internalized the concept that Arabic is an inferior language already at an early age.

6.3 Identity

This chapter describesparents' opinionsonthe school's objective to strengthen identities. It becomes apparent that the general idea of strengthening identity is consideredcontroversialbyparents before it even comestothe question of applica- tionorevaluation.The wide spectrumofparents the schooldeals with including their expectations, opinions and demands,willbepresentedinthe following.

6.3.1 The question of self-definition

The question of self-definition in terms of religion and nationality provides infor- mation that is useful forthe school'spedagogical concept, because it shows the complexity the school has to confront. In general Jewish interview partners had little difficultiestoanswer this question. It wasmainly answeredbythe terms “Is- raeli” and “Jewish”. Jewishnessisnamed in both contexts:religion and nationality. Someparents would define themselvesmoreinterms of Israeliness ratherthan Jewishness, while forothersit'sthe oppositecharacterization.

“I would describe myself as aIsraeli, as an Israeli Jew,probably.Yes,Iwould put Is- raeli first.”(Estephania)

62 Someparents also stated in this or othercontexts thatthey define themselves as Zionists. On the Palestinian side, one can find awider varietyofanswers. Some parentsstart to explain their identity in complex constructions or by political cir- cumstances.

“I am Arab, you know Ispeak theArabic language. My// I’m from aPalestinian ori- gin, because my grandparents werePalestinians beforeIsrael came. IhavetheIsraeli passport andI// so Ilive in this country and Ihave thepassport. AndI’m from Chris- tianbackground, I’m not religious” (Manal)

AChristian Palestinian father replies to thisquestion by describing howheisseen by others and how he would define himself in comparison to that.

“Let's say this. They call us Arabs; Iwanna meet that person whocouldprove that we'reArabs.Wemight be Byzantines, who become Arabs, because they learn how to speak Arabic.And,ah, but in the identificationcardand ah, in the papers we'reAr- abs.”(Fadi)

This father doesnot care if he is called “Arab” by others. On the contrary he de- scribes himselfassuch as well. This becomes clear when he notes in adifferent contextthathis personality is Arab.

“[W]e're Arabs, we areArabs. This is my personality.” (Fadi)

On the Jewish as well as the non-Jewish side, parents talk about Arabs less often about Palestinians. This is important when it comes to the school. APalestinian parent highlights the carelessness of the Palestinian parentsinschool being called Arabs. He considers this as anoteworthy disparity to Palestinian people outside of school. Another Palestinian parentmentions that he is not afundamentalist,when he de- scribeshimself.

“I am Hussein, IamanArabic (.)Israeli. Ihavecitizenship of Israel and Israeli pass- port.[...]I’m Muslim, but I’mnot areligious, I’m not fundamentalist.”(Hussein)

This smallextract of interviews demonstratesthat the Jewishparents interviewed find it easier to define themselvesinsimple words in comparison to the non-Jewish parents. Some parents separate Israeliness andJewishness andidentify more with oneofthe twoterms,whilefor others Jewishness is synonymous for nationality

63 and religion.This shows how broad these terms areused anddefined, depending on the user. It becomesobvious that for some parents the question of self-definition is more complex and more difficult to put in words on the Palestinian side. The factthat parents start to explain their “Israeliness” or their “Arabness”, might be an indica- tor forthat. Politicsand historyenter the definition. To emphasize that one is not a fundamentalist might be the result of public perception on in Israel. On both sidesthe parentsuse the term “Arabs”, less often the term “Palestinians”. This is significant considering the school's strong focus on strengthening the Pales- tinian identity.

6.3.2 Critique about Application of strengtheningidentity in school

The interviewed parentsdon't agree overthe question of whether or not the chil- dren are moreinneedofastrengthened groupidentity in this school compared to a regularschool with only Jews or onlyPalestinians. Some parents think thatinabi- national schoolthe belonging to agroup is not as evident as in aregular school and for thatthey find the emphasis significant.

“I think if you areinaonlyJewish school your identity is clear,Imean, and you don't dealwith it. Youdon't deal with it explicitly,but it is part of all thesystem. And when youare in abi-national school,Ithink yeah, you have to be morecareful about it.” (Ilan)

For some Palestinianparents it is of value to seethat the children would learn about the Palestinian identity but alsounderstand the distinctionsofthe various parties and the conflict. For one parent it is fundamental that the child perceivesthis school as part of the solution to the conflictbylearning with the other group and living together while knowingabout the existing problems.Parentsadmit that the question of strengthening identitieswas something they had not thought about be- fore sending their children to thisschool. One mother acknowledges that shefound the idea of it strange in the beginning. Now she is happyabout this conceptual fo- cus. Other parents discuss the question of identity in general. They ask what is identity and what does identity imply in the Israeli context. Someofthemconclude that it is too broad to teach. One parent notes thatwhen it comestoreligion, parents have

64 very different interpretation. Since the school is not veryspecific in interpreting Jewishness and Palestinianess, there is little legitimization to teachthe children something thatthe parents do not agree on. In aprivate school like the Lutheran Christian one, this same parentwould give approval to educating hischildreninthe religious way the schooloffers. In this state supported school though, there can onlybeavery broad educationinreligious andnationalnarratives. This parent also notesthatheknows parents whowould declare their wish to not strengthen identi- ties. He knows afamilywith aHolocausthistory who cametoIsrael to notfeel Jewish,tonot be confronted the Jewishness. Accordingtohim,inIsrael this is a widespread opinion that shouldbeconsidered in the school.

“I don't think I'malone in that, Imean, how apersonisaJew these days is very much of afamily thing, thereare lots of different ways of beingJewish and so forthe school to take on the job, the strengthening of the Jewish identity,ah, Idon't think the school is in aposition to do that.[...]Ihave acolleague whose father is aHolocaust survivor and he saidhecametoIsrael so he didn't have to be Jewish.Imean he wanted to be Israeli, but he didn't want to be Jewish”(Stefan)

One motherrefers to this question by analyzingher background and identity and draws conclusions fromthat. She has roots in different religions and cultures and wants to integratethemall into her identity. At the same time, she strongly defines herself as aJew and is seen as aJew by society.This is whyshe thinksthe school should focus on identity questions,onconsidering the history of both peoples liv- ing there and them being deniedoftheir identity. But, at the sametime, they should be awareofthe 'otherness' around and within oneself.Therefore, it is important to her thather children are not raised in aJewish box. Her statementisastrong evi- dence for the complexity of identity questions in the Israelicontext.

“[I]t'ssomething that you carry on yourself, even if youwant it or not. And you'rebe- ing, ah, judged by that alittle bit, ah, it's avery-very ahm not understandable field for me. I'm very confusedabout. Not that I// Ithink I'm aJew.IfIhavetoidentify myself, I'maJew,Ihave, ah, different roots, ah Idon't feel that it's, ah, disturbing or,ah, mak- ing me, ah confusedabout what-what Iam, but it's part of who Iam, also my-my roots and my background,ah, my kids areJews, but Ialways, always remind them that they have the otherrootsaswell, and it's part of who they are” (Hannah)

Someother parents agree thatthe identity of achild is notbuilt in aclosed setting and that the bare fact that the children go to school with children of different back- grounds alreadybuilds the identity of each child. This goes along with the opinion

65 thatthe school succeeds in teaching the students the irrelevanceofabackground for afriendship. Otherparents consider this school as an institution that strengthens personalities instead of memberships to collectives. They are happythat everychild can keep his or her ownidentity.Aparent whodoes not consider himself an integralpartofany of the three big religiousgroups in the school, Jews, Muslims or Christians, de- scribes the situation as if each child has to belong to eithergroup. He considers the great concentration on these categoriesasfalse.

“[I]nschool, you really only have three choices, you'reChristian, Muslim or-orJew- ish” (Stefan)

An unexpected aspectthat came up in some interviews is that it seems easier and more realistic to strengthen thealready existing collectiveidentities thantoforma new,common one.

“I guess it's ah, it'sagoodthing, because it encourages each one in whoheis, not try to create himinsomethingdifferent, into amoldthateverybody wouldfit into. Ahm, each personcomes from somewhereand it's importanttostrengthen that, so he feels confident in it. So he feels confident also in what otherpeople are, ahm, for them- selves, not trying to make them different or something likethat.” (Marie)

For some parents this opinionaccompanies thefear that the school creates areality thatthe childrenwill not find outside of school. OnePalestinian father notices that he thinksthe school should notintroduce asystem in whicheverything is turned upside down comparedtothe reality outside.Another parent completesthis thought by suggesting to first concentrateonthe common ground andthen afterward intro- ducingdistinctions that some parents on both sides believe exist. One motherisconvinced that the school is notvery good at imparting knowledge on Judaism. In combination with the unsatisfied expectations regardingher daugh- ter'sArabic language skills, she thinks that herchild is missingout on something in thisschool. In comparison to aregular Jewish school: her daughter receiveslittle knowledgeonJudaism.According to her,thisisthe price forbeing in the Hand in Hand school. Another mother notes, thatshe would like the Jewishness of herchild to be strengthened. She addstoitthough,thatifthe identities of the Palestinians werestrengthenedaswell, her child would be scared. Anothermother notes that she can't identify apedagogical concept of the school in termsofbilingualism and strengthening identity.She considers the school's image

66 campaignastoo much of apriority underrating the internal needs of theschool's organization. Shewould want to see aguideline on explicit objectives by the school, which could be the base of evaluationconcerning the achievementsinbi- lingualism and identity matters.

“They invested in raising money,building anew building, in relations with diplomats and so on, but, or even in the relationship with the Ministry of Education. But there wasn't asense of clearideologyorclear line of reasonwithin the school and Ithink that's the reason forchaos. Therewasn't asense that whoeverisleading it has an educationalvision and is implementing this vision.”(Sarit)

This same mother blamesthe lack of concept for the demand of the parents to strengthen identities. In her opinion, the fact that other parents want the students to be separated forspecial occasions or lessons, claim forafocusonceremonies and so on, is because of the deficientagenda of theschool. She thinks parents with such intentions have not understood or do not agree with the idea of the school. Accord- ing to her,the strengthening of identities is taken care of outside of school, there- fore she does notsee any problem in the children losing it.

“I think we got enoughofthat outsideofschool;really that's what we get herefor breakfast, lunch anddinner.It's all about your nationality.Iwish we could have had less of that. Idon’t think being, belonging to anationality is so constructiveunder the currentcircumstances. It should be played down, not amplified.” (Sarit)

In this chapterthe wide variety of opinions on strengthening identitiesispresented. It becomes apparent what challenge the schoolbears in satisfying all parents.The wish of parents for theirchildrentobeaware of their collective identities collides withthe liberal approach of creating acommonground of all children withoutmak- ingadifferencebetween the differentbackgrounds. This leads to the question of whether the students should be separated forcertain events to be strengthened in their own identitiesorwhether they should focus on common interests rather than differences.Asidefromthat, someparents argue that the school is nottransparent enough regarding the agenda,for example,the school's understanding of the terms “Jewish” or “Palestinian” identity.Others statethat the schoolhas no legitimization to strengthen identities becauseit's not aprivate school with afocus on religious studies.Ingeneral the question over the strengthening of identity is seen very con- troversial. The assessment that JewishIsraelis came to Israel to not feelJewishhelps to un- derstand the self-definitionsbyparents. Some parents definethemselves as more

67 Israeli than Jewish where as others use the term Jewish in a religious rather than a national sense. In consideration of the Jewish majority in Israel, Jews don't need to define themselves as Jews. Due to the long history of anti-Semitism, it has been difficult to not be aware of one's Jewish identity. However, If there is a place where this is possible, it is Israel. The self-definitions give a good example of the wide variety of interpretations on Jewishness, Palestinianess as well as Judaism, Christi- anity and Islam. As one mother states, to include different roots of one person makes the question of strengthening group identities even more complex.

6.3.3 Special needs of identities on the Jewish and non-Jewish side

6.3.3.1 The Question of identity on the Jewish side On the Jewish side, some parents note that they want their children to be “proud” of their Jewishness. They want to cultivate their Jewish background which, in their opinion, is essential for their identity. A Jewish mother wishes that her child learns to live its Jewish identity in Israel. For her it's challenging to accomplish this in light of history and present political cir- cumstances. Other parents agree on this point and declare that they hope to see their children express their appreciation for their identity as Jews despite their sur- roundings.

“I want them, you know, in-in the more particular Israeli sense, I want them to-to find ways to live in peace with, you know, with the very conflicting identities we have here. It's very difficult[...] It's a-it's a complicated situation to-to feel good in, to have that// to build your life in and// because there is so much bad around you.” (Lea)

According to the expectations of parents, one mother confirms the school's success in creating a strong Jewish identity, while raising awareness in actual political mat- ters as well as historical conflicts.

“[Her daughter] still understands, that it's, the process was very hard for the Pales- tinians and it was very painful and there is the Nakba there. And to be, the fact that the school allows her to-to stay proud, a Jewish Israeli proud, a proud Jewish Israeli and to understand the conflict and to live through it, I think it's very, it's very fascinat- ing thing to live through.” (Liat)

68 SomeJewish parents find it significanttosee a“proud” Jew in their child. In con- sideration of Jewish history andpresent political situation this does not seemtobe easytoachieve.

6.3.3.2 The question of identity on the non-Jewish side The teaching of the Palestinian narrative in school, as well as Islamisacontribut- ing factor when choosing aschool for some parents interviewed. Reactions parents got when announcing their attendance in this school included questionsonidentity. One Palestinian parent mentions for examplethat her own parents expressed fear thatthe childrencould loseArabic language skillsaswellastheir Palestinian iden- tity. They were scared that the children would want to be like Jewsdue to the con- stant contact with Jews. Anotherinterviewee hadthe same thoughts.

“I was fear about one thing, you know,that’smaking my daughter grow up thereand I’mafraid aboutthe traditions, aboutthe societyinour village, to get in deeply in the Israelisociety andtoforgetthe Arabic tradition. I’m not religious, but maybe if Iwas religious Ididn’tsend my daughters there” (Hussein)

Someparents express their fear of having to deal with behavior,their children might learn fromJewish students, like drinking and hanging out late as well as their concerns about their children comparing themselveswith Jewish students and los- ingtheir Arab identity over that.One Palestinianfatherfinds it very fundamental to strengthen the identity of the “Arab” pupils becauseinhis opiniontheywant to be Jewish anddenytheir Arab background.

“[E]very time [I wish]for my daughters not to be afraidtosay that they areArab, to be proudabout their identity,even in their mixed school,because if you respect your- self the other respect you.You know,ifyou look sometimesyou can see Arabslike this, boys most of thetime, you know they cut their hairlike to be like Jewish, because they areafraidtosay they’reArab, or they’re ashamed to be.”(Hussein)

The mother of Armenianchildrenisvery happy that the school ensures thattheir Armenian identity is strengthened in school. She highlights positively that not only Palestinian and Jewish collectives are strengthenedbut also theArmenianback- ground of herchildren. However aChristian father sensesalack of emphasis on Christianity, in order to strengthen Judaism andIslam. He thinks that Christianity receives too little attention in school andwould want to see his children get stronger in theirChristian identity.Heclaimsthat they know more about Mohamed than about Jesus.

69 On the Palestinian side,parentsare concernedabout theequalitythatisaimed for in school. One parentwonders if the children might get used to areality that they will not find outside of school. This intervieweewondersifchildren mightbedis- appointed later. APalestinian mother regardsthe discrimination outside of school as amajor reasonfor the importance of equality within school. According to her, her children will be confrontedwith discrimination in the future and thereforeshe wants her childrentoexperience equality in school. APalestinianfather thinks that the school provides the childrenwith tools to fight this discrimination.

“[T]he Jewish, theyall ask, areyou oneofus? If youare not one of us, well, we might show you respect, but deep inside we already put abarrier, aborder between me and you.So, yes, that's gonna// not gonnabeeasy (.)onour kids, but Imean when-when theygainthe experience and theyhandle anormal life, when theyget to thesepoints, I know,I'm sure, confident, they will know how to-how to behave and what to say,and, ah, how to overcome. We aregiving them the tools. Th-This school is the tool to over- come these obstacles.” (Rani)

On the Palestinian side some parents want their children to be proud of their Pales- tinianidentities.Living as aminority in Israel, they want their children to conserve Palestinian traditions. Some parents stress that their childrenfeel ashamedadmit- ting their“Arabness”. They behave and dress like Jewish children. Palestinian par- ents demand astrong focus on the Palestinian narrative to prevail cultural assimila- tion. On the Jewishaswell as thePalestinian side, parents assert the value of strong identities, even though they give differentreasons for that.Onthe Jewish side,par- ents name the strong politicalconflictthat makes it hard forchildren to feel proud of their Jewishness as amajor reason besidesothers. On the Palestinian side, par- ents name the Jewish majority that enters their livesand creates fears about keeping the own identity and language as astrong element for identity.Those who arenot members of the two dominant groups want to see their children's identities strengthened as well. While forsome, like the mother of an Armenian child,thisis already taken care of, aChristian parent wishes that Christianity wouldnot loose out to Islam andJudaism in school.

6.3.4 Ceremonies in school

How national as well as religious ceremonies of differentgroups within school should be dealt with is considered diversely by parents. What they agree on is the

70 importance of children findingaway to celebrate their ownfestivities whiledem- onstrating respect to others when they have their holidays. One parent statesthat theschoolsucceeds in this aspect. Students understand why the other group has differentfeelings about aholidaythan the owngroup and still celebrate thefestivi- ties with the owngroup without bad feelings. While someparents would not want their children to be separated during festivities becausethis draws aclear linebetween thedifferentgroups, other parents think that celebrating ceremonieslikethe Independence Dayand the Nakba are essential for the identities of children and should therefore be celebrated separately or at least should be veryevidently marked in the belonging to one group.

“I think the idea of celebrating separately holidays but celebratingbyeverybody,each holiday,belonging to adifferent religion is moreofa// is moreofsense because then you learn thecustoms of the other,you know that youare not the other,but the cus- toms arerelated to the other and you know it's your holiday or it's not yourholiday.I think that's important questionsofidentity” (Estephania)

AJewishmother considers ceremoniesinIsrael as commemorationtothe Jewish history,especially to the Holocaust. Sheappreciates thatthe plurality in this school helps to finddifferent perspectives to these holidays.

“[T]here is this thing whereyou look at the// especially at the-atthe mainstream school system as the series of things of stories of persecution and lucky escapes. And there’sapolitical message in there, unintentional or unarticulated but it’s in there. And Idon’twant my kids getting that message.Iwantthemtoget amorecomplicated view of reality” (Lea)

One parentstresses thatthe school has improved in its way of dealing with cere- monies. According to him,one year theymade abig mistake when theyrequired all children to come on Nakba/Independence Daydressed in either black or white,the color dependingonwhetherthe child belonged to the Jewishortothe Palestinian side, the white dress symbolizing delight for the establishment of thestate of Israel, theblack dress to commemorate the destruction that went along the establishment of the state.Thisparentdid notforce his children to make that choice and for that reason kept themathomeonthat day. He does not consider himself belonging to either of the mainnational or religious groups and considers the decision of the children to decide to which sidethey belongto, whenitcomes to religiousorna- tionalconcernsasacomplication.

71 Some parents approve the systemwhich allows their children to choose if they want to join theceremoniesofthe other group. Theyfind this asuccessful ap- proach, especially when it comes to sensitive, politicized ceremonies like the Inde- pendence Dayand the Nakba.However,the Druze parentalso notices the problem in decision making by his children.

“The teacherasked them to decide “You want to go to the hatzmaut or to the Nakba” and they werehavetodecide. So,wetold them to decide what they want. We told them “you decide”. Anditwas aproblem. Iwanted them to decide to go the hatzmaut and the girldecided// havemorefriends, Jewish friends, so she decided that she goes cele- brate the hatzmaut. But the little one have moreMuslim friends, Arab friends, and he decidedtogotothe Nakba.”(Refai)

He suggestscelebrating acommonholiday instead that is based neitheronnational nor religious events by anygroup. For him this is especiallysignificantwhen it comes to the Nakba and Independence Day. In his opinion it is destructive to cele- bratethe Nabka,because this leads to anegative attitude toward the majority of Jewsinthe country. Parentsagree that the school still experimentsinhow to handleceremonies. One mother notes that one year theycelebrated Hannukah and Christmas at thesame time. This led to aconfusionamong the children about what rituals belonge to which religion.

“[W]ewent to aparty that all the, two or three, ah, holidays of different religions were celebrated together.Ithink that for example caused some of amess. Imean you get yourpresents for Christmasand you lit the Hannukah candles and I'm not sure what the kids get of all of this.They might have an idea, that we// and they did have thisideabecause they-theygot kindofasmall symbol of each holiday.Sotheythought that at Hannukah we get the presents in the stock from Father Christmas”(Estepha- nia)

This part shows that the holidaysand ceremoniesinschoolare seen by many par- ents interviewed as major stabilizers for identities. Some parents of children be- longingtomajor groups appreciate theseparationinorder to setclear linesbetween what belongs to whom.Non-Jewish and non-Muslim parents have different per- spectivestothese holidays. Someofthemclaim thatitisdifficult to choose which grouptheybelongto, others complain thattheir children lack knowledgeintheir ownreligionand wish theirchildren's identitiestobestrengthened in terms of ceremoniesaswell. Independence Dayand Nakba arecentral ceremonies for par-

72 ents as well as society.Asfor this parents appreciate the attendance by students to be voluntarily.

6.3.5 Intermarriage and the questionofidentity

The parents interviewed are ambivalentconcerning the idea of their children get- ting married to aperson of another group. One reason mentioned in this context is theproblem of identity for achild by amixed couple.Besides, they relate to the intolerant societythat creates difficulties forintermarriages. This is not what par- entswish for their children.Still some would accept the decision of the children and would feel happyfor them.

“[M]ybig girl she was asking me “Can we marry aMuslim guy,can we marry aJew- ishguy?”. Isaid, you know,you can marry whoever youwant, but it’seasier if you marrythe same religion.”(Manal)

Other interviewees are notwilling to accept an intermarriage at all. Anothersimilar category is the fear concerning friendships. Some parents are afraid of their break- ing afterthey finished school. Amajor concern here is military servicefulfilled by the Jewish population and its impacts on friendships.

This shortchapter showsthatthe interviewees are aware of difficulties when it comes to intermarriages. At first sight this is not connected to the school, but the question of intermarriage is present fromanearly stage on, because the obstacles the future bringsafter the finishingofthe school aretremendous. Society will de- mand separation, for example through military service. This is not fulfilled by most Palestinians.Itisremarkable to see how much this group agrees thatitwould be unhealthy fortheir children to get apartner from theother side becauseofsocietal structures and widespread discrimination. Some worry of enhancedchances of in- termarriage because of contactwith the other group on aregular base in school. Through this question it becomesobvious howdeeplyinfluenced parents are by the societalstructures, even thoughthey are willing to take up withthisveryspecial school.

73 6.3.6Identity and educational excellence

Parentscallattention to thefactthateventhoughthe school tries to provide equal- ity among the students, the minority group in this schoolisveryaware of its status in society.SomePalestinianparents proclaim their intention to work harderthan the Jewishpopulation to succeed in the Israeli system.This leads to different ex- pectationstoward the school. On the Jewishside, some parents want to take it easy on theirchildrenand focus on joint activities. On the non-Jewish side educational excellenceismuch more demanded. This becomesaproblemfor both sides, be- cause the expectationstoward the school don't match. One Jewish parent demon- strates appreciation for the Palestinian's request on the school.

“[T]he Arab parents want their children have morehomework have amorerigorous academic program whereas the Israeli parents, you know,want their kidstobekids and just to grow up like every body else, [...]they'renot sort of under the pressurethat Ithink many of theArab parents feel for their children to excel.“(Stefan)

If Palestinian children leave theschool, one factor is educational excellence, which might partly connect to their status as aminority.One Jewish parentcomparesthe situation withthe Jewishminority in the UnitedStates.

“[B]ecause they know that if they arenot the best, also the Jewish in United States and alsothe ArabsinIsrael, if they arenot the best, theycan not be equal. To feel that they areequal they have to be much more.”(Levi)

APalestinian motherdeclaresthe chance to getthe Israeli bagrut,asthe reason for her daughter to attend this school. Besides agood knowledgeofHebrew the ba- grut, thefinal examination, thatisneeded to acquire ahighereducation in Israel, is the key to afurther educationaland professionalfuture in Israel.Private schools in EastJerusalemoffer astrong perspective abroad by international standards and a focus on foreign languages butthey offer little when it comestofurthereducation in Israel.

“[I]fIwill be very honest with you Iwill tell you that I-I took this school only because of the, ah, final exams. Because as Itold you that we have Israeli system and this is the only school that, ah, will fed my daughter,tohave, ah, the Israelis system.” (Doha)

This motherexplains that within the Triangle, aregion in Israel where proportion- ally many Israeli Palestinianslive, she wouldhave betteroptions in Palestinian

74 education. In EastJerusalemthe education is either international and private or public withlower standard. So this schooloffersareasonable alternative. As amatter of fact,asstated by parents, in higher grades more and more Jewish parentspull out their children to enroll themindifferentschools. APalestinianfa- ther assumesthatone reason whyJewish people leave school in higher grades is connectedtoidentitymatters. This parent concludes that the approachingservice in the army is amajor factorofwhy identity becomesmore importantthe older the children grow.

“[T]he Jewish wanna push in the brain of their kids, or national elements. So, we find that the Jewish areleaving, and we-we are, who don't have any otherchoices.”(Rani)

Anothermotheralleges that alack of connection and obligation toward the school easesthe decision of parents to withdraw their children fromschool.For her,ifthe parentsweremore committed, they would not just leave. “[I]t'svery easy to this people to leave theschoolatacertain time andtomovetoa Jewish school. Ah, so, it-it// they don'tneed this connections for,toparticipate in this, ah, school, but Ithink, if they had this connectionsmore, it would put theminaposi- tion, that they won't leave, they be more,ah, theywon't leave after afew years to an- other school.”(Hannah)

In this part it becomesevident that the background of astudent and the question of school career,especially when it comestoHighSchool,are connected. For Jewish studentsmoreoptions are provided when it comestoalternative schools. Some of the Palestinian parents statethat they would not send their children to public schools. The alternate private schools are mainly internationally oriented and do not provide the education and exams thatstudents need forhighereducation in Is- rael.Whereas Jewish parentssympathize with aless arrogating education in lower classes in higher grades, according to parents, many Jewish students withdrawfor other schools in higher grades. The question arises whether or not educational ex- cellencebecomes more important the older theJewish children get especially when it comestostandardized tests. The approaching military serviceneeds strong na- tionalidentificationand this might also influence the decision to changeschools. Furthermore if parents are not willing to accept intermarriage for societalorper- sonal reasons, it might be easy to reducechances by taking thechildrenout of the bi-national school and enlist them in aregularschool.

75 Some Palestinian parents are veryaware of the fact, that their children need to work hard to succeed in the Jewish society.Theyhave experiencedfor themselves that as non-Jews they had to stand out academicallyaswell as professionally to reach ahigh standard in Israel. Because of the obstacles theyovercametheywant to providethe best basis possiblefor their children by ensuring ahigh academic level fromthe verybeginning of their schooling. The question arises whether par- ents of this school, with high academicbackgrounds and strong professional ca- reers, consider the question of earlyacademic promotion more acutely than other Palestinianparents fromdifferent schools.

6.3.7Final conclusionsinconsideration of academic studies

It is astonishingtonote that aparent notes that on the Palestinian side parents do notcareabout beingcalledArabs. Some evencall themselves“Arabs”. Astudyby Yogev Ben-Yoshua and Alper (1991) demonstrates thatthe stronger the identifica- tionwith the term “Arab” on the Palestinianside, the higher the probability of readiness for contact with Jews.This leads to the question of whether it is coinci- dental or if the interviewed parents representafraction of thePalestinian society living in Israel, that is enormously open to Jews and contactwith them. That study done by Yogev,Ben-Yoshua and Alper (1991)showed that 15.3 percent of the re- spondents definethemselvesasArabs, 21.1 percent as Israeli Arabs and 63.6 per- cent as Palestinian Arabs. So the parents here rather belong to adistinct minority when it comestotheir self-definition as Arabs. This also leads to thequestion whether there aresimilar indicators on the Jewish side as well concerningthe self- definition of Jewishand accordinglyIsraeli.Another researchbyLowrence (2006) showsthat the higherthe self-identification with the termPalestinian in the Israeli context, the higher theperceptionofdiscriminationbythe person. The stronger the identification with the term Arab, the less the person feels unprivileged. Parents interviewed state thatthe Palestinian parents in the Hand in Hand school are well- offand of high academicbackground. Determining if these factors correlate could be asubject for further research. In general, the parents interviewed do not agree on whether or not identities should be strengthened at school. Some parents are eager to see clearly defined and strong identitiesoftheir children, while others would like to putastronger focus on find- ing common ground. In the context of the theorybyWolff-Jontofsohn(1999) who states that the Israeli Jewscan be considered as a“mino-majority”, it would be in-

76 terestingtofind out in afurther researchproject, how much thewish of Jewish par- ents to see their children'sidentity strengthened results from international anti- Semitism, discrimination and theJewishHolocausthistory.Inthis contextitmight be questionable whether the schoolshould treat the Jewish majority also as ami- nority,especiallywhen it comestothe statedwishofthe parents promotingtheir children to “be proudofthe Jewishness”. While some parents claim the school should strengthenthe children's identity,oth- ers would like to concentrate on common aspects. What is known as amolding of “us”and “them” is termedafterGaertner,Dovidio,Anastasio, Bachmann and Rust (1993),are-categorization. This re-categorization in Pettigrew's concept (1998) of contacthypothesis,isthe final stage of intergroup contact after contacthas been built and friendships established. This final stage,according to Bekerman(2007a) can only take placewhen the self-identityisstrengthened and the maximumreduc- tion of prejudices is achieved. Onlyveryfew groups reach this point. Still theques- tion of how much the school should focus on distinctions instead of commonalities, forexample,through the celebration of ceremonies.

6.4 Intergroupencounters

The school provides aplatform to get in touch with the other group. This should not only happen amongst students butalsoinclude parents andstaff members. The followingchapter will capture the parents opinions on the school's success in con- necting people. It will also summarizedeficits the school hastowork on.

6.4.1 Contact of parents

The school constitutes one of the few public institutionsthat brings families to- gether,which is appreciatedalot by parents. One parent namesthisasthe main advantage of theschool.Another parent reinforces this statement by adding that the school hasbeenagood experience so far,evenifonlyfor the nice people he made contactwith there.This is matched by the opinion of amother who thinks thatthere is something connecting in this school, something all the parents share. Theyall had to overcome something in order to join theschool.

“[T]here is somethingabout lookingaroundyou andsaying everybody in this court- yard has been// was willing to overcome something to be here. And that in this very

77 hostile//ornot hostile, but tense, reality.That is very precious, just to look around and say'nice people, really good people, good hearts.'"(Lea)

Amother adds, that she enjoys getting to interact with people, who really care about their children. Some parents appreciate the extra activities the schooloffers, likeavisittodestroyed Arab villages, which hadtobedesertedin'48. For thisvery event, aPalestinianmother points out, that thehigh amount of Jewish parents at- tending this trip wasapleasant surprise. APalestinianparent describesthe community built around the school as abig fam- ily.

“[W]enever feel that this is Jewish, this is Christian, this is// we have from all relig- ionsand theyfriends together,that we feel family” (Ameera)

That this is not usual in the Israeli contextisnoted by parents on both sides. Only rarely do friendshipsamong Jewish and Palestinian adults develop. If theyexist, they were often built through work. SomeJewish interviewees reply, when asked about friendshipswith Palestinians, that theircontactsare acquaintancesratherthan friends. Others state that they do not have anycontact with the other side at all. By contrast, some Jewish parents are veryactively involved in political engagement in the West Bank and throughthathave close contact to Palestinians within Israel as well as in the Occupied Territories. Amother who does not consider any of her con- tacts with Palestinians “friendships”, feelsunfortunate about the system minimiz- ing the chancestomeetaPalestinian who belongs to the same peer group as her. She refers to thesocietalhierarchy that often leads to contact, in which she would be in ahigher position, which makesitdifficult to build relationships.

“[T]he odds of meeting somebody who is outmypeer,you know,somebody,that I would have alot of-of in common with, who’saPalestinian arepretty small. Ihave much better chances of meeting people whoare,you know,who will do some kind of labour for me.”(Lea)

APalestinianwho has livedabroad, has similarthoughts. He remembers that out- sideofthe country it was much easier to get in touch with the other group.

“Like you know,welived in Canada and we hadJewish friends and we haveChristian friendsand we have Muslim friendsand it’sthe same feeling. It’s just herethat the politics ruinseverything.” (Manal)

78 Another Palestinian mother stresses,thatshe does not havemuch contactwith Jews. For her separated neighborhoods, her working place in an Arab school in her Arab village arestructural reasons for that. Sheremembers, that back in her college years, she was closer to Jews than today. Nowadays she only gets in contact with them through herhusband whoworks in an office with mainly Jews and sheculti- vates her friendshipsfromcollege time. OtherPalestinianshavedirectrelationships to Jews. Some of them, even though they have joint activities or go on holidays with Jewish friends,mention, that they wouldnever talk aboutpolitics.

“[I]fyou talk about politics there’snoway thatyou can get to an understanding withmost of the Jews. AndI’m saying most of them.[...]Like when you’retalking about aperson coming and exploding in here, ok?[...] You wanna talk about back- ground of that person[...]People in here don’twanna hear about the background, they don’twanna listen.Fromtheir point of view this personisaterrorist and that’sit, pe- riod.”(Nadia)

SomePalestinian parents talk about the difficultiestoinvite their friends over. Liv- ing in East Jerusalem, it would be too dangerousfor friends to visit. APalestinian mother,for example,can notwelcome her Jewish friends, because the wall was built behindher house. On top of that the newconstruction of acheckpoint on the other side of herhomeforces Palestinian friends to passthe checkpoint to arrive at her home. The contact built among parents of the school was even stronger some years ago, a mother remembers. In the beginning, when parents werestillmore committedto the school, they metmore ofteninprivate anddiscussed school issues. In the class of her daughter,which is one of the founding classes,the relationshipamong par- ents is still very strong. But for her,the school in general seems to have become anonymous to some degree. This observationisconfirmed by another founding parent of the school, but also by amother of achild in alowerclass who does not wanttobepart of the communitythe school offers her.She does not see herself in a community of the school.

“We'resending our kids there, we take them back home, that's it." (Liat)

Even though someJewish parents would want to see the school promoting thecon- tact among parents, aJewish mother arguesthat the school cannot offer acommu- nity.Itcan facilitate it,but the basic idea and effort has to come fromthe parents themselves.

79 This chapterprovides the information that forPalestinians it seems much easier to get in touch with Jewish people than the otherway around. While all Palestinians state, thatthey have relationshipswith Jews, many of them friendships, only afew Jewsmention friendshipswithPalestinians. Forsomeparents, the structural setting of Israelseems to prevent meetings at eyelevel. Housingand divided livingareas are tremendous problems when it comes to close contact among parents as well as students. Higher education and work were named as environmentswhere relationships among the groups develop. Therefore, the school is areal alternative for making friends to the other side and has succeeded in building acommunity amongthe parents.Contact is built throughchildren or common activities. Aside fromthat, the school helps to break the hierarchyamong Israeli citizens, as in the school thePal- estinian parentsare not the minority,don't earn less than Jewish parents and have similar professional careers. Palestinian parents mention thatthey cannot getinto politicaldiscussions with their Jewish friends.This is arelevant statement. Theschool tries to overcome this exact problem.The students learn in this school to have argumentsover political matters, toleratethe others person'sopinion and still be friends. Hopefully theywill not have to avoidsomesubjectsastheir parentsdo.

6.4.2 Perception of representation of the parents in school

The question about whether the population inside the school is representative for the group outside of the school is notanswered consistently. Someparents agree that the parents in schooldonot representthe society outside school while onepar- ent does not agree. Besides their ideologicalmindset, they consider theparenthood of the schoolingeneral rather “left wing”, “more committed” or “open minded”.

“Ithink it represents avery small fraction of theworldoutside. Ithink it’sa// the kind of people whosendtheir kids to this kind of school are// it narrowsdownthe groups on both sides. In someways,Ikeep explaining this to people, that it feels like you’re goingoutside your comfort zone, socially,but in some ways it is moreheterogeneous// ah homogeneous than it would be if we send our kid to aregular public school” (Lea)

Afather wishes that also more religious parentswould attend theschool.The scout in school is very homogeneous in termsoftheir open minded opinions. In his opin-

80 ion, if theschoolwould really want to make adifference, it should not only attract the open minded people. Other parents note that many Palestinian families in school come from the north andare therefore more tolerant, open minded andedu- catedthanthe Palestinians fromJerusalem. Onemother believes that thePalestin- ianparents areamix of families who have moved fromthe north and people who live in the neighborhood of the school.

“[F]romthe Palestinians you get both, youget educated people, who havemoved to Jerusalem, but youget also people from Beit Safafa, who simply live nearby.And those wouldnot necessarily be as educated as Palestinians whocame from Nazareth and so on. It is heterogeneous.”(Sarit)

It is noteworthy,that the Palestinian group in this school is considered to not incor- porate much of its Palestinianess into the Hand in Hand school.Accordingtoa Jewish father, the Palestinians in school are veryassimilatedtothe Jewish envi- ronment and it lacks astrong Palestinian spirit in school. ThePalestinian parents, according to him,want to studyinaJewish framework with all the advantages in- herent, includingbeing among the decision makers and being able to influencethe system.The power of decisionmaking giventothe Palestinians in the Hand in Hand school hasthe effect, oneJewish mother explains, that Palestinian parents theredonot feel like second bestcitizens. To her,the main difference between the Palestinians inside and outside of school is that they are not afraid of expressing theiropinion.

“I see at school alot of people that they have an opinion andthey knowhow to ex- plainit, andthey know how to, ah, ah, how to-to create, ah, dialogue, and around I see people,that are, ahm, being afraidto-todoso, or,ah, feellikesecond bestciti- zens.”(Hannah)

AnotherJewish parentdescribesthe school as “upside down”. He refers to the in- comeofPalestinian parentsthatishigher thanthe income of the Jewishparents in school,aswell as the demand of Palestinians to tightenupthe curriculum. On the Palestinian sideonlyone mother distinguishes the Palestinian parents in school fromthe Jewish ones. She assumes,that Jewish parents are more politicallymoti- vatedtoattend the schoolthanthe Palestinian ones.She explains, that forJews more school alternativesexist, which requires astronger ideological commitment to take up with the Hand in Hand school.

81 Accordingtothe answersofthe interviews presentedinthissection, the Palestinian families in school are considered integrated into the Jewishsociety.Someofthe interviewees draw this conclusion fromthe background of many families in the northern part of Israel. Here the parents reproduce acommon stereotype, stating that Palestiniansfromthe northare more tolerant and open minded than Palestini- ansfromJerusalem. The question arises, as to whether the school should not focus on these “moredifficult” cases in the direct neighborhood. In combination with the chapter'identity and educationalexcellence'someargu- mentsdouble. The Palestinians are aminority and know about it. The Palestinian parentswant their children to succeed in the Israeli society andknow that they need extraeffort forthat, accordingtosomeparents. The school provides asetting, where theydon'tfeel like aminority and therefore express their opinions freely.

6.4.3Expectationsabout the contactinschool

On bothsides parentsexpressthe expectationthat they want their childrentobe open to the other group. Someparents also express alimit to this open-mindedness, though. On the Palestinian side,amother mentions, that the children should stay a bit traditionalsothat she can protect them. Shewants to keep control overthem.

“'[B]utmyJewish friends, you know, her parents let her go at night.'So, Idon’t want// Idon’t know,thisisIdon’t want. Iwant them to be also alittle bit traditional, not alot but alittlebit so Ican protect them, cause it gives you morecontrol when you know.” (Manal)

AJewish parentwishes the same.His daughter should be open minded, but not too much. He describes himself as traditionaland would like his daughter to be such as well. AnotherJewish mother explains that contact is okay as long as the child does notstart to practice Ramadan. She would want him to stay Jewish. APalestinian parenthas averydifferent ideaabout the impact of contact in the school. He ex- plains that he would want the children to not forget the unjustsituation whileliving peacefully together.

“[T]otry to make peace with-with the others, butinthe same time, not to forgettheir rights and to get their rights.” (Rami)

82 Parents also wish, that they want their children to grow up together and not get ac- customedtothe widespread negative perspective of the othergroup. Some parents on the Jewish side expect that, as aresult of the contact, prejudices will reduce and the children will get adeeper understanding of the culture of the others, as well as language skills. Amother has the image of the school as an institution that does not teach the children what to think about the other group butrather helps to ignore the existence of these categories.

“[I]t’s about gettingtoknow one another and it’snot even to know one another cause it’s, you know,atthe age children don’tthink of, in terms of other.We’re all kids and we play together andthese aremyfriends andthis is how, this is what we do. It’s -it’s sort of agiven.And that’sexactly whatwewerelooking for” (Sara)

Parentswant their children to become open-minded, even though, for some parents, thereisalimittothat. Some cannamethislimit, like nottaking up Islamicholi- days and ceremonies, others can't. Fear,attached to strong contact, came up on both sides. ForaPalestinian parentitisessentialthatthe Palestinian children would not forget what hashappened historically and politically, while they are becoming friends with Jewish children. One the Jewish side,parents want to reduce preju- dices.Aninteresting aspect is the comment by amother stating, that she does not want her child to learn the widespread stereotypes about the other group.

6.4.4 Impact on children

6.4.4.1The school's impact on friendships The school'sgoal to strengthen contactamong studentshas not completely suc- ceeded,whenasking parents. Someparents arevery happyabout their child'scon- tacts. In school theypractice howtobuild friendships and learn soft skills likehan- dling conflicts, which for some parents is part of the reason whytheir child suc- ceeds in building stable relationships. Some parents argue that the childrenmake good friendsinschool, on both sides, withoutreferring to the backgrounds.

“She didn't sayIlove my Arab friends or Jewish friends, shesaid"Ilovemyfriends". And, ah, all my kids do.”(Rami)

Others are deeplydisappointed, because thereislittle or no contact with theother group. Jewish mother observed atremendous change in the wayher child would

83 deal with friendships. In the first years at school,her childwould not know who is Jewish and who is not and would not be interested in thatquestion either.But over theyears she became well aware of the differences of the groups and startedtodis- tinguish.

“Atfirst we wereasking// we would ask: 'Isshe Jewish,isshe Arabic?' andshe said: 'I don'tknow.'And we said,well we won't askany more,because it shows that, ah, it's important, whileitisn't,it'snot importantatall for akid that is six years old. Now she knows exactlyand she// under,she knows that it's important, or shethinks that it's im- portant, which is achange Ithink, shegrewup, she understand, she reads news, she reads the newspaper,soshe knows it's importantifyou'reanArabicoraJew.” (Liat)

This phenomenonofgetting aware of differences and based on that,treating Pales- tiniansand Jewishstudents differently seemstobeawidespread phenomenon.Jew- ishparents interviewednotice that the older children get, the closer their children grow with other Jewish children or that the numberoffriends is no longer bal- anced.

“I can't put afinger on it. ButIcan see, thatthe wayshe,when she meetswith them [Palestinian friends]even, it's different, it's not as intimate as it is withher Jewish friends.” (Liat)

This goes alongwith the statement of amotherobservingthatthere is no constant interaction in the class of her daughter amongJews and Palestinians. She notices that in previous classes it wasn'tasdivided as it is lately.Another motherwho no- tices that her daughter has few friendshipsinclass traces this back to the constella- tion of the class of her daughter.She demonstratesbyacalculation thatiftwenty children areinone class, half boys,half girls and half Jews and half non-Jews, this means, thather daughter has little chance of finding good friends.

“So it's means that my daughter's only four friends in the class and naturally she is not afriend of all the girls in the class, so it meansthatshe hasbetween twoand three friends in the class.” (Aviva- wife of Levi)

For her as well as for others, it is not astonishing that her daughter has less contact withPalestinians. In accordancewith others, she believes that it's normaltobe friends with people who have asimilar background. To speak the same language, to have the same rules of behavior and so on are some of the connecting aspects among children of the same group, according to parents. Unfortunately the gender division which can be noticed in certain gradesadds on to the national division in

84 classand leadstoevenlesssocialcontact in classfor some students.One mother wonders if the separation in her daughter's class in national andgender categories is coincidental or if this is ageneral problemofthe school's system.Ifthe separation in classesissomething systematic, the school should change something about it in order to ensure amorepleasant childhood forthe children. In higher grades, due to the lownumberofJewish students in class, some Jewish parentsnotethattheir children have more Palestinian friends than before. In one case, the interviewee'schild is the onlyJewish male in class. For another Jewish mother,whose child is in asimilarposition of beinginastrong minority of Jewish studentsinclass, this is aproblem because she does not want her child to be in such aposition. Her son started looking for otherJewish students in parallelclasses because he has little contact in his own class. For the Palestinian side, parents also express their wish to have more Jewishstu- dents in class, but not as urgently as Jewish parents. One parent mentions that, dur- ing the first years, her child would have had more contactwith other Palestinian people, whereas lately,itbecamemore balanced.

“[A]tthe beginning when they come,they connect moretothe Arabic children,you know,Arabic speaking children, maybe because it’sthere.”(Manal)

AnotherPalestinianmother explains that the family moved to amixed neighbor- hood fromaJewish one because their childrenhad too many Jewish friends. She wanted themtobemoreincontact with Palestinianchildrenaswell. Thelow amountofcontactafterschoolisproblematicfor the Palestinian as well as Jewish parents. One major factoristhe distancethat the children have to overcome to visiteachother.The school is not aneighborhood-school,students come from all overJerusalem. Afather’s explanation is that theydonot visit each otheronaregu- lar base because of the effort required. Another obstacle to overcome is listedbya Jewish mother admitting thatshe would have to, herself, overcome picking up her child in aPalestinian neighborhood.

“I wasn't sureabout myself, about how Iwouldfeel if Ihad to drive into aPalestinian neighborhood to pick up my child from aplay date.Ithasn't happened.Imean Ithink Iwould find a// Iwould figureout how to do it.”(Lea)

For some students socialisolation is atremendous problemwhich is whyparents considertaking outtheir children.

85 “I must say that as the years went by he wasratherisolated socially, because we lived far from school, none of the children from school lived nearby,hedidn'tstrike many friendships,soIwas abit sorry for himfor having such achildhood” (Sarit)

One Jewish mother found aturning pointinher daughter'slackofcontact. Shewas concerned about the sociallife of her daughter, but now her daughter is organized in ayouth movement and connects to children who are older and younger than her. Others observe, that soccer is aconnecting game which helps especially the boys to make friends inside and outsideofclass. APalestinianfather whoispleased by the quantity and quality of his daughter's friendships explains that for himthisisconnected to the deeprelationshipsofthe parents. If parents trust each other,chances are high to allow their children to have contact with this family.AJewish motherunderstands, at the end of the interview, how the contact of herself with Palestinians could be linkedtothe contact behavior of her daughter.She claimsthatshe cannotexpect her daughter to have Palestinian friends if she does not have close contact to the other side herself.

“I told you, oh my daughter doesn't have Arab girl friendand this is problem and then you ask do youhaveArab friendsand we tell you no, we don't have, so how do you want your daughtertohave friends, Arab friends, if youdon't have Arab friends? So, this,Ithink is oneofthe problems. It's not only school. It's the whole, it shouldbe changed in all society.” (Aviva-wife of Levi)

In generalthischapter points out two aspects of friendshipsofthe children in school.The first one is contactamong studentsoutsideofschool, the other aspect is the changeofperception toward the other group coming up in higher grades and the resulting lack of contact to members of theother group. Especially the contact after school worriessomeparents,because they see theirchildren in socialisola- tion.This, forsomeparents, is reason to withdrawtheir children fromschool. Jewish parentspoint outthattheir children have more intimatefriendshipswith other Jewish children. Jewish parents of students in the higher grades describe dif- ferent handling of their childrenwith the statusofminority in class. Eitherthe chil- dren look forother Jews outsideofschool or in parallelclasses or they get stronger friendshipswithPalestinianclassmates. On thePalestinian side, parents complain much less on the contact situation. None of the parents namesaproblemoftheir children nothaving Jewish friends. An interesting aspect in this chapter is the comment by aJewishmother stating, thatshe wouldfeel uncomfortable picking up her children in an Arab neighbor-

86 hood.The enteringofPalestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalemisacommon fear by Jews. This mother explains in adifferent context, thatshe is worried about gettinginto“trouble catchingupwithher children's lives”.This is an aspect worth furtherinvestigation: In which situationsdothe children of Hand in Hand chal- lenge their parents by their open minded point of view and where is the limit for parents? ThefactthatsomePalestinianparentswanttheir children to havemore contact withPalestinianchildren and for that move fromanIsraeli neighborhoodtoa mixed neighborhood shows thehigh amount of integration of the Palestinianpar- ents in the Jewish society. The contact of parents is connected to thecontact of children. In differentways theyinfluence each other.While aparent statesthat the trust built among parents helps to encourage friendshipsamong the children, amother understands thatifshe doesnot havecontact to the other side, she is adeficientrolemodel to her daugh- ter.Parents also statethat through the contact of the children the parents get to know eachotherand some evenbuilt close relationships.

6.4.4.2The school's ideologicalimpactonchildren Someparents find exact words for the impacts the schoolhas on their children, or at least ensure that the school has astrong impact on them. Others find it hard to distinguish what comesfromschool and what comesfromtheir liberalfamily background or other factors such as the attendance fromaveryearlyage on in a bilingual and bi-nationalsetting, for instance the YMCA kindergarten. This kinder- garten works closely with Hand in Hand and for one parent, the school even owes its existence to thekindergarten because it was there thatthe idea of an ongoing bi- national school developed. Finally,parents state thatthere is no comparison as for how the child would have developed in adifferent school. Someparents areconvinced that the children have developed adifferentmindset than in adifferent school. What is obvious to some parents is the openness of the students to handle subjects likepolitics, conflictbut also discussions on issues like sexuality, which is impartedinschool.One mother is sure that her daughter has beentaughtsoftskillslikediscussing,being tolerant, conflict resolution andso forth. For her,this is the main advantage compared to other schools.Other parents describe abalance that the school is able to create, through imparting knowledge on history and its implications and at the same timeestablishing friendships

87 amongst students with different background. Parents also namethe outstanding awarenessfor political happenings. APalestinian parentdescribes closely what other parents confirmininterviews:the children's demand to discussthings. He as well as others tracethis attitude back to the school's concept,asthe studentslearn in school to thinkcriticallyand doubt before accepting. His daughterwould not be willing to just take an order or state- ment withoutargument. For someparents,asone father observed, this is disturb- ing.

“I've noticedChristina, she'll standand negotiate everything why this, why not that, I like this side, you don't want me to take this. Youknow,press this not that,ah, for me no problem, for others, other Arab friends it's aproblem” (Fadi)

For another Palestinian parentwho withdrew his children from aschool in East- JerusalemtosendthemtoHand in Hand, the disparity between the two school sys- tems is immense. For himthisbecomesvisible for example in the wayhis chil- dren's personalitiesdeveloped.They are less introvertthan before. Besidestheir knowledge of Hebrew enlargedimmediately and theyget taught different content through different methods. Amother describes the impactthe school hasonher child by telling astory.Her main expectation about the school was the reduction of prejudices toward Pales- tinians.She detects that this took place when comparing to other children the age of her daughter.

“[W]ewent with friends to akind of apicnic afew years ago and therewas an, ah, an Arab shepherdwho went throughand agirl herage wasreally afraid,was really frightened becausehe's an aravi, he's an Arab, butyou know,nearly cried, just be- cause, just he passed throughyou know,and Isaw that my daughterdoes not under- standwhat-what,Imean, (?)Iassume that's, thereisadifferent atmosphere,thanks to the school.” (Estephania)

Other Jewishparents observed as well that their children's attitude towardPales- tinianschanged.Thishas tworeasons.The firstone is thePalestinian narrative taught in the school, including the usage of the Arabic language. For one father,the Palestiniannarrative is even toostrong. He thinks thathis daughter feels sorryfor what the Jews have done to the Palestinians, for example in the war of '48, when Israel was founded. According to him,itwas terrible thatthiswar took place, but still she should appreciate thatshe was on thewinning side. He explains that he has to counterbalance his daughter's sympathy with the Palestinians because for him it

88 is too strong.Still, he prefers this overaregularJewish school wherehewould have to balance racist thoughts toward the Palestinians.

“Tobalance racismismoredifficult than to balance empathy.” (Ilan)

The second reason is the contact among the children. According to some parents the Palestiniansinschoolpresent adifferent picture than the oneyou confront out- side of school. So the picture of Palestinians changed. Onemother tells anicestory portrayingthe skillsofher daughterwho attendssixth grade to differentiate and consideravariety of perspectives. Even though her fatherisasoldier,she under- stands thatsoldiers can be seen as positive or not, depending which side you're on.

“[W]eopenedthe TV and therewas soldiers thereand my-my middle son said: "I don'tunderstand, soldiers arethey good or aretheybad?",itwas Israeli soldiers. He- he's neverseensoldiersasagroup,you know.He's seen my husband, but he hasn't seen,soShemrit told him, my daughter,she told him: 'Yoanitdependsonwhose side you're on.For us they're good, for theLebanonpeoplethey'rebad.' AndIthought wow” (Liat)

AJewish mother illustratesdifficult situationsher son gotinvolved in because he was accompanied by aPalestinian girl. The girl who was with him got into an ex- panded security check at Ben Gurion Airport. She is worried that herson might be feelasmember of aminority,get into an uncomfortablepositionand therefore feel uncomfortableinthis country. Somenon-Palestinian parents point outthatbecause of the close contactwith Pal- estinianstheir children would never talk about thePalestiniansinterms of others becausetheywould not refer to the Palestinians as agroup. And theywouldnever be abletothink of them in termsof“Arab terrorists”, even though they hear and know about suicide bombings.

“I don't know howitwould be if they wereinaregular Israeli school, but Ithink it would be much harderfor them to-to relate to the Palestinians as people as individu- als,rather than as the enemy.And Idon't think they relate in any way to thePalestin- ian as the enemy.” (Stefan)

But there are also otherexperiences aboutthe perception of the othergroup in school. AJewish motherbelieves that the school is responsible foreven stronger stereotypes her daughter gainedaboutthe Palestinians, even thoughshe recognized that the schoolassuresthe daughtertosee avariety of behaviors by Palestinians.

89 Still, the daughter learned through school thatthere are distinctions, and sometimes theyare presented in amore radicalway than in aregular school, according to this mother.

“[F]or example we say,the Arabs arealso people andweshouldbeequal to them,but if my daughter comesand say,mother,the Arabs children make alot of noise at school. It's some// it's a(resival?) if the Arabs arethe noisy and theJews arethe good, if you close their eyes,thatwhathappen […]the fact that she is in adivided school sometimesmakesharper thedifferences.” (Aviva-wife of Levi)

An American fatherobserves his son behavingnegatively toward his sisters some- times.Hewonders if he has learned that in school or if this is the result of being the onlyboy besides two sisters. Even though he knows that this is aprobleminsome classes in school, he wouldn'tblame the school for his son's attitude.

This chapter presents vividly,that even though all the students were exposed to extensive contact, theoutcome is very different. While some parents realizethat their children's picture of the other side, especially on the Jewish side toward the Palestinians, developed into apositive attitude, one mother mentionsthat shehas the impression that the negative stereotypes of her daughter were amplified. For many other parents the school succeeds in imparting different viewpoints.This does not only include the perception of the other narrative. Parents state thatchil- dren learn soft skills, whichgofar beyond political matters. The children learned skills in communication, openness toward themes like sexuality and so on. This shows that theschool's conceptofpeace educationhas an effect on abroad scale.

6.4.5Worriesabout the impact of school in the future

The question whether the children mightpay aprice in the future for having at- tended the school or if parents have anyfears or doubts about the future in consid- eration of the impact the schoolhas on their children, is partlyanswered differently by parents of differentgroups. Aspecific fear of parents belonging to the majority in society is that theirchildrenmight notfit into the mainstream. AJewishfather stressesthatitwould depend on the societalcircleshis daughter will move in. She might become aminority.

90 Another fear is typical for parents who belong to neitherside. Afather withanIs- raeli residency,thinks that it will be hard for his children to decide whether or not they want to fulfill the militaryservice. This decision makingprocess mighthave been easier, havinggrown up mainly on one side.

“[W]here the conflict is gonna come up for them is when they decide whether or not to serve in the army.Ithink that'sgonnabenot such an easy decision for them and that's aprice” (Stefan)

Amajor group specific worry for the Palestinians is the setting inside of school versusthe realityoutside. Theywonder how theirchildren will dealwith the dis- crimination theymight face in the future.

“[T]hey grew up in balance, equality,how they aregonna deal with the society,that in thefutureifIwanna study somewhere Iwill requiretofill papers if Iserved in the army or not? Which means, IamJewish or not? How they aregonna feel when they willbestoppedatthe airportbecausetheir names arenot Jewish? That gonna hurt them very very much.” (Rami)

This is awidespread opinion among the Palestinians interviewed, who havebeen quoted in different contexts before. For this it will not be closelydescribed here. Acommon concern on both sides is the the upcoming army. Someparents wonder how the school will deal with this subject.They're also interested in knowing how this influences the friendshipsoftheirchildren. Someofthemeven ask themselves if thefriendshipsare strong enough to overcome the army.

"When they come to tenth grade, Jewish, you know,ah, they wouldstartpreparing them for the army.What they would tell them about Arabs, they got Arab friends from this land,you know. What arethey going to tell them, Idon’tknow.And, ah, arethey goingtokeepfriendship with my kids,no. Idon't know.I'm verysurethat my kids would keep friendship with them, what arethey goingtolearn in the army,Idon't know.That's averybig question."(Fadi)

APalestinian fathertalksmetaphorically aboutasituation at the checkpoint and questions how much, in such asituation, the fact that they grew up in balance still has an impactonthem.

“So, they meet at thecheckpoint, one carryingagun and the other one does not have agun. How they aregonna feel?” (Rami)

91 AJewish mother describesthe situation at acheckpoint as acommon one in which Palestinians meet Israelisoldiers fulfillingtheir military service. For her,thisisa meeting betweensuspected terrorists and inhumanesoldiers and thatdisturbsthe perception of theother group theyhave learned at school. Another mother wonders how the school will approach this issue. Shethinks that the school, which just opened up for Junior High, has to help the students to deal with the complex situa- tion they're living in including friendships.

“I wouldn'tworry then about the friendship, Iwouldworry about helping them deal with the complexityofforming friendshipsinthis reality.” (Lea)

The future brings up worries and fears for the parents considering the impact the school has on theirchildren. On the Jewish side, some parents could imagine that their children might be marginalized in theJewishsociety.The Palestinian parents aremainly worried about the discrepancy of theclimateinside school, in compari- sonwith thereality outside of school.This might bring asurprising moment for the children. Aworrying factor on both sidesisthe army.Knowing that the military service pro- vides an opposite agenda than the school, parents wonder what effectthismight haveonthe childrenand theirfriendships.The army, as averypresent institution in Israeli life, alreadyconcerns the parentsasearly as having childreninprimary school.

6.4.6 Final conclusions in consideration of academic studies

It is stated, in astudy by Saguy,Dovidio andPratto(2008), that thecontact, in a setting of apower hierarchy, is more effective for the membersofthe majority. Theyconclude this because minority members have contact with members of the majority on amoreregular basis besides the set up encounter. Considering the con- tact Palestinians in the school have with Jewish people this thesis is verified.Some of themlive in Jewish neighborhoods,they work in Jewish settings and so forth. Also their children have far more contact with the Jewish side than, the other way around. Bar-Tal and Teichman(2005) found thatthe perception of Jewish Israelistoward the Palestiniansand Arabs in general is negative and changes with the political situation of the country. The Second intifada for example led toward amorenega-

92 tive attitude of Palestinians in the the Jewish Israeli society.Theyalso found that religious people tend to have amore negative attitude to Palestinians than secular Jews andthat there is acorrelation between the educationalbackgroundand the attitude. The higher the educational background,the more positive the attitudes toward Palestinians tend to be. Clearly,the backgroundofthe interviewees plays a central role. Whereas Jewish Israelis with an European or 'Western' background haveamore positiveopinion, Jews with African or Asian background hold more resentments (seeBar-Tal, Teichman 2005). Transferringthese results to the inter- views presentedinthis paper,this could be thereason whyonlyacertain group of Jewishparents, mainly with Ashkenasi background, were addressed. In this con- text, the demandofaparenttofocus more on parents and students who do notarise fromaliberalbackgroundgets adifferent dimension. This comment also reflects thecriticism of thecontact hypothesis, namelythat the theory decisively concen- tratesonparticipants willing to enter acontact situation. Thequestion of howto introduceaconcept forless motivated participants remains.

6.5Excursion –The impact of theschoolonits surrounding

The school's conceptdoes not onlytarget students and the staff but also the larger environment.This chapter summarizeshow parents see the impact of the school on the homesand the society in general.

6.5.1Impactonhomes

Parents were asked if they think the school has an impact on their homes. Similar to the question of the impactofthe school on the children, parents had difficulties to answer.This is partly drawnback to the little comparison they have to the devel- opment of their children in other schools. Butparents also claim, thatthe liberal homes have strong impacts on the children andthat they find it difficult to tell what comesfromschool and what fromhome. Other parentsanswer the question by ex- changing the direction of the impacts. Forone mother the school doesn'thavean influenceonthe homes, butthe liberalattitude of the parents is the reason for as whythey send their children to this school.

93 “I don’tfeel it, because […]our house is very open to these ideas. So, Idon’tthink that the fact, that shegoes to this school influence our house. […]It’sthe opposite, the fact that our house is like what it is, influencethe children to go there”(Aviva)

Amother stresses the point that the younger siblings of the student in Hand in Hand are little frightened about Arabs. She is notabletodistinguish if it's due to the atti- tude of her and her husband or because of the influence of their oldest daughter. Either way,the fact that the oldersister brings acertain worldview back home has astrong impact on the younger siblings. Also other parents experienceachangeof attitude, like areduction of fearconcerning membersofthe other group by younger siblings, since elder ones learn in the Hand in Hand school. Parents also speak about their own changedattitudes that were formed throughthe contactwith the school.Afatherdeclares that through the engagement in school and the child's world view,hebecame more optimistic. Amother points outthat being part of a community, that is working toward co-existence and changing the society in away she likesit, hasapositive impact on her. Anothermotheradds thatbeing part of this project makes her proud. Parents tell thatthey learn newthings through their children, for exampleabout feasts of other groups or at least are more aware and betterinformedabout them. AJewish motherisglad to practice Arabic with her son. Differentparents explain that Arabic is more presentathomethrough litera- ture, materialofthe children spread in the house and mainly through friendswho visit. An interesting aspect, opposite to the statement just named is mentionedbya Jewish mother.She explainsthatthrough school she became aware of problems in this country. Through her son, she got to experience grievances of the democratic system of Israel that she hasonlyheard of by media.

“Ifeel many problems in our country, from,ah, from the// not from newspaper,not from television,fromusual day” (Miri)

Through contact in schooland through students,the school hadanindirectimpact on the parents, as some parents explain. Some of themspeak about their directcon- tact with the school and otherparents andstudents while others emphasizetheir children's friendships, and their influence on the homes. Someparents found friendsonthe other sidethrough school, even Jewish parents, who have not had anycontact with Palestiniansatall.Othersstressthe high variety of the friendships of theirchildren, andonthe Jewish side, theamplified frequency of Palestinians visitingtheir homes.

94 “I'm almost certainthat it would havebeen much moredifficult for us on aregular basistohaveArab kidsat, in home that we nowdo. So yes, but positively,Imean posi- tively,I'm happy forthat.”(Stefan)

Parentswho have not been long attached to this school think that chances are very hightoget in touch with people and are very pleased about this. One parent replies to this question by referring to her expectations. Sheassumesthat the school would havehad an impactonhis home if herchild had gotten Palestinian friends, which has not yettakenplace. Another parent repliestothisquestionbyalluding his satis- faction thatthe child would go 'the rightdirection'. Other parents answer this question very pragmatically.Afewparents bring up that throughthe attendance of the eldest child in family in this school the decision of whetherornot to send theyounger ones to thesameschool is almost already de- cided. So the school had an impact on the school career on the younger children by sendingthe eldestone there. Besides the factthat they like theschool, the fact that the school celebrates holidaysofdifferent religions and through that has different days offthan aregular school makes it easiertoorganizeifthe younger siblings join in the same school.

“For family reasons,itmakes sense to send allthe children to this school because they havedifferentschedules.“they observeall threereligions holidays, so having schools –children in different schools in different times, but also Ijustfeltthat the school was something maybe we wanted to be part of.”(Stefan)

Others state that it is too earlytoconclude what impact the school has on the homesbecause the children arestill too young. But if the children getolder and will tell more when they get homeafterschool, parrents assume,itwillhave a stronger impactontheir homes. This chaptershows how differently parents getinfluenced by their children'satten- dance of the school. Whereas some learn about different feasts, languages andma- terials,others getaware of “problems in the country”. The mother who answered with this statementisthe same mother whotalked about the problems herson got into at BenGurionAirportbecausehewas with aPalestinian friend. In general,parents stress that contact amongst students and amongst parents is one of the strongest impacts on thehomes.Thesebuilt acquaintances and friendships result in awidervariety of languages, topics of conversation,besides the stronger presence of otherness in the house through school. Parents describe this openness as very positive andenriching.

95 Someparents find it convincingtosend all childrentothisschool if the eldestchild attends it for practicalreasons like holidays. This could be importantinformation for the school. If more than one child attends Hand in Hand, the households might be more strongly influenced by the students.Jewish children could include Arabic more easily into their everydaylife even if parents don't speak Arabic and the school could also considermulti-class projectstohave siblings join commonpro- jects.

6.5.2 Impact on society

The impactthisschool has on society is seen as rather limited by the parents. While some would say that there is no impact at all, others see it as limited and evenoth- ers have trust in theirchildrenand the future. Onemother is sure, thatthe existence is havinganimpactonthe society,atleast people who get in touch with it in adirectorindirectway.She gives the example of two teachers from school whotalkonthe bus, one Jewish and one Palestinian. Theymake plansoncommonactivities.For her,the passengers of thebus get in- fluenced by this conversation by the rather unusual normalcyofit. So she hopes thatthe school can change some mindsets here and there but does not see astronger impact so far. Others see the pure existence of the school as asuccess. Parentssee its characterasademonstration, asymbol of togetherness that has gained interna- tional support andrecognition. One mother figures thatthe internationalprestige of the school is muchstrongerthanthe actual impact on Israel.

“[F]or the image of Israeli society it does much, but for Israelis society in practice it does very little.” (Sarit)

She as well as others think thatunfortunately neither the Israeli nor the Palestinian societyisopen for the impact it could have on either society.

“Israeli societyisrather resistanttosuchimpact.”(Sarit)

Even though thesocieties are not as influenced as they wish,she as well as others seeitasasuccess that it is rununder theMinistryofEducation.The Ministry has to concernitself with this school because it is fully recognized and needs extra at- tention. Just thefact, thatthis option with an enlarged curriculumisregistered, challenges the system.

96 “[T]he Jerusalem Education Authority and theMinistry of Education gavepermission to openthis school,like this school, give money to this school, for me this by itself is important. But unless therewill be muchmoreschools, so it's not//its impact is very marginal, if it all.” (Dina)

Parentsthink that the impact of the Hand in Hand school would be bigger,ifmore people knew about it, as statedbythe samemother.

“[A]slongit’sinone, two, three schools, Ithink the impact will be very marginal. If therewill be much moreschools like this, yes” (Dina)

Someparents cannameapositive impactontheir close environment, proving that the school hasanimpactbeyondfamilies and staffdirectly engaged in school. A mother mentions that through the long commitment in school the closersurround- ing of her changed.The reactionsoffriendsand family whowere rather skeptical when theyfirst heard about theschool changed toward more positive comments. OnePalestinian mothercan name aclear prove for that. In her village more and more parents decide to send their children to Hand in Hand, since her songoes there.

“[A]tthe beginning it was just my sonfromthe village and nowit's eleven pupils from thevillage.” (Ameera)

Some parents trust in the future and the skilled children whowill then be leaders, and change society.Even though they don't see astrong influence these times, they hope for the next generation being educated in school.

“I think it’sraising ageneration of children,that have grown up in amindset of, ahm, we canlivetogether,you know,wecan, we don’thavetofight all the time, we can work through ourproblems […]theyare the next generation of leaders in this country and if we can givethem that mindset, Ithink it will be […]something very good to have in society,inthe leadership of tomorrow”(Marie)

Aparent points out, that the impact of the school would be bigger if more Jewish children would stay.

In this part, onecan see, thatparents sending theirchildren to the Hand in Hand school haveawiderange of understanding on how much theschool influenced the Israeliand Palestinians society.While someparents can listfirst results in their

97 close environment, others don't see results yet. One parent'sassumption that the international recognition of theschool is stronger than the local image is important to keep in mind. The schooljust gotanew building by the European Union and two parents namethe visit by Laura Bush, the wife of former US president George W. Bush, as an example. However,someparents find it very important to concen- trateonthe closeenvironment rather than internationalsupport. Quite afew parentshavedeveloped trust in thefutureand thechildren'sinfluence on the country.Toevaluate the impact the school has on the Israeli society,itmight be veryuseful to conduct aresearch in the future finding outwhat the children will have done with their education and how much and in which contexts they usetheir skills learned in the Hand in Hand school.

98 7Conclusion

“[I]n the middle of the madnessthereissomuchnormalcy” (Lea)

Bekerman and others (for example Amara, Mor-Sommerfeld)already evaluated the Hand in Hand school as well as other peace programs in accordance to certain as- pects. Still, asidefromananalysisonthe parents'choiceofschool and theirpercep- tions of multiculturalism and peace education (Bekerman, Tatar 2009), there has not yetbeen astudy that presents the parents' opinions in apeace education setting to the extentitisdone here. Therefore, this paper gives afirst insight in subjects like fears and doubts about the future of the children. Issuessuch as bilingualism havebeen the content of many studies before and there- fore the resultscan be compared.The interviews fit into awider contextofresults on this schoolaswell as otherbilingualschools or otherpeaceeducation programs. It is, for example,acommonproblemtokeep true bilingualisminbilingualsettings (see Escamilla 1994). Aprevious study by Bekerman(2005b), where bilingualism wasthe subject,lists similar shortcomings as identifiedhere.Afterthe first three years of the school's existence, for example, theinsufficientknowledge of Arabic by most of the Jewish teachers was already aproblem. Someofthe answers provided by parents reflect an academicdiscourseand verify or falsify atheorylike the contact hypothesis. Of more value, though, arethe thoughts of parents which cannot be found in academicpapers. The questionofthe impact the school has on the homes of the children is an examplefor that. Since parents are responsible for theenrollmentofthe students,this study provides im- portant information forfurther consideration for the Hand in Hand school as well as for other peace education schools. It helps to understand certain parentspecific aspects liketheir worries aboutfriendshipsmadeatschool. Referringtothe threecategories used to present the results, bilingualism, identity and contact, the following can be said: Concerning bilingualism,the dissatisfaction stated mainly by Jewish parents in this paperisbased on threemajor factors: Thehigh expectations by parents, the school's concept, and the impacts of the political situationonthe school. The school statesonits officialhomepage:

99 By the end of first grade, pupils have mastered both the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets andare reading at afirstgrade level on apar with theIsraeli national average. Ulti- mately, pupils become completelyproficientatspeaking, reading, and writing both languages.

The question arises why parentshave such highexpectations. What does the school tell theparentwhenthey enroll their children?Assomeparents state, reducing the expectations of the parents would help to prevent disappointment. Aside fromthat, the aim of the school to use bilingualismasatool for political changeshould be more emphasized in the presentation of the school to avoid expectationsbyparents which can not be fulfilled. The second factor is the conceptofthe school thatstill doesnot succeed in creating bilingualstudents even thoughveryspecific measurements have been installed. In the third year of the program, according to Bekerman (2005b) the school tried to counterbalance the predominance of Hebrew outside of school through adomi- nance of Arabic within school. However,this conceptfailed. According to the par- entsinterviewed,the school still needstofind an effective approach. Therefore some parents welcome the new concept of separating the classes in Hebrew native speakers and Arabic native speakers for language classes. As opposed to the internal factors, the third factor is an external one and therefore difficult to influence. The political situation outside of schoolimpacts on thehap- pening in school, in this case, the willingness of the studentstolearn and practice Arabic. Amin Khalf, aco-director of Hand in Hand explains:

There is aclash between reality and the Hand in Hand vision. We must accept many intermediate solutions to keep theschools open.The schools are, are not bilingualat the same time.Theyare bilingual from aperspective of the vision, butweaccept mid- dle solutions because of the outside world. (Amara 2005, quoted by Amaraetal. 2009, 28)

Even though Amara, Azaiza, Hertz-Lazarowitz and Mor-Sommerfeld (2009) point out that the parents have to agree to the philosophyofthe school, which includes democracy as across-sectionaltask, some parents argue thattheywant the school to be as apoliticalaspossible.Theydescribe theirfocus on optimalclassroom set- tings and special offersfor their children with special needs.True commitment to co-existence is lacking by some parents interviewed. When it comes to identity matters some parentsclaimcorrectlythat the schooldoes notprovide definitions for the terms'Jews'or'Palestinians'.Sofor some parents the

100 questionariseswhich identitiesdoes the school aim to strengthen. Generally,the school concentrates on two main groups,the Palestinians andthe Jews, in termsof national narratives; and Jews, Muslims and Christians in termsofreligion. The school should consider the parent's recommendation for aclearerdefinition of the differentgroupsand include it in its concept. Another issue raised by parents is the question of identity for childrenwho don't belong to either of these groups or chil- dren of mixed couples. This also applies to the minorities of thedominantgroups in school like Christian Palestinians, Druze Israelis or Christian Israelis. For them,it becomesanobstacle to decide which side they belongto, for exampleduringcer- tain ceremonies. Children of mixed couples needspecial attention. As stated on thehomepageofHand in Hand, the contactamong groups goes be- yond the stakeholders of the school.

Theeducation at aHand in Hand school extends well beyond the walls of theclass- room–it is afamilyand community venture. School steering committees include rep- resentatives from local volunteer organizations and municipal governments assuringa constant flow of ideas and activity from the school to the wider community and vice versa.

While some parents consider this goal achieved, others feel that the school mainly focuses on its international image rather than concentrating on the direct surround- ings of the school. The school should be awareofthe fact that notall parentswould want to be part of aschool community. By now, the school attracts acertain parenthood who agrees on the philosophy of the school but someparents choose this schoolfor educationalrather thanpolitical reasons.This hasdisadvantagesand advantages. Having fewer parents who truly promote co-existence, the political ideal of theschool might get lost. But the fact that the schoolbecomes aregular school, a'normative' one, has also advantages because it mightattract anew target group. Theschool would then have an impact on milieus whichsofar have been left outlike religiousfamilies.

To conclude, the long term effects and impacts the school has on its students, stakeholders andthe Israeli society can onlybemeasured when the students finish school and takeresponsibilities in theircountry.For now,itcan only be said that the survival of the two Hand in Hand schools during the intifada and the fact that more schools opened afterwards constitutesasuccess story.The interviews show thatthe Hand in Hand does have an influence on the reality of the families and the

101 surroundingsofthe families involved. It presents acounterbalance to the violent political reality in the Middle East. It starts with the youngestgeneration andhelps to avoid thinkingincategoriesofPalestinians and Jews. As parents state, the school doesnot help to losethese categories, buttonot develop them. Now that students of the first generation have entered Junior High School, it would be agoodnext step to address the students themselves in the evaluation of theschool. In asetting where criticalthinking is promoted, very enriching results can be expectedwhich illustrate thelongtermeffects of the Hand in Hand schools.

102 iAccording to Stephan, Hertz-Lazarowitz, Zelniker and Stephan (2004) coexistence is the term used to describethe peaceful existence of two people-Jews and Arab-Palestinians-,side by side iiNarratives are interpretations of experiencesand atoolfor constructing realities (Kacowicz 2005); Bar-Taland Teichman(2005) call it collective memory iiiThese numbersinclude residentsofthe internationally declared illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. ivFor further and more detailed information on the foundation of thestate of Israel see Bergman (2002) vvIsrael does not have aconstitution, that separates the state and the religion and for that referstothe halacha,the Jewish law in many contexts as fordefining whoisJewish in affairsof immigration. The intensive connection to religion is amajor aspect in defining Jewish identity, because it puts the common cultural heritage in perspective (Wolff-Johntofsohn 1999). viWith the murdering of Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin by an religious Jew in 1995 the tension among religious and secular Jews climaxed (Wolff-Johntofsohn 1999). viiAccording to Wolff-Jontofsohn (1999) theanti-Arabic attitude also resultsout of the self-defined objectivetokeepIsraelJewish. Inevitably,aracial consciousness develops towardthe non- Jewish citizens. So the fact that they are not Jewish is as significant as the fact, that they belong to the Arab people. viiiTheFirst and Second intifada impacted on the identity of Palestinians living in Israel. The problemisthey don't fully belongtothe Israeli society nor the Palestinian one in the occupied territories. ixIn the 1960s identity issues became amatter of concernfor many peopleall over the world. Political happenings like theindependence of many African countries, dynamicmigration throughout the world, the growth of civil rights in the United States and so on fueled this debate (García 1997). xThemainprincipals wereelaborated by Mor-Sommerfeld (2005) for another Hand in Hand school. However,all Hand in Hand schoolsholdasimilarconcept. Sinceeach school considers itself as alearning project, the staffexperiments in ordertoachieve amoreelaborated setting for biligualism(Bekerman2005b). xiIn the context of intergroup encounters, membersofthe samegroup formaningroup, whereas in confrontationwithanother groupacademics talk about outgroups. xiiASA is partofInWEntand is mostly financed by theGermanMinistry of Development and EconomicCooperation (BMZ).Eachyear,ASA enables240 youngpeoplefromEurope to take partinalearning and qualification program dedicated to to development education.

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109 Attachments

Questionnairefor the Interviews with the Parents of the Hand in Hand school in Jerusalem

Theparents

To begin with, it would be nice if youcould tell us alittle bit about yourself, about how/whereyou grew up, and what is it youdotoday, things like that. • Where were youborn?What wasitlike to growupthere and then? • Could youtell me alittle bit more about the wayyou were raised? • What about school?Could youdescribe your own school career for me?What kind of schooldid yougoto, what was it like there? Did youreceive any voca- tional training? Did yougotouniversity? • And what is it youdotoday?What is your job, your profession?

How about your religious and culturalbackground?How would youdescribeit? • Wasreligion important in your family when youwere achild? • And today,isitimportant to youtoday? • Do youthink of yourself as amemberofacertain religious or culturalgroup or community? • How about your relationship with othercommunitiesinIsrael? Do youknow anyJewish/Palestinian Israelis? • Can yougive us some idea about the way youwould characterize the Jew- ish/Palestinian society/culture? And/or Could youtell us something about what are the main differences and similarities yousee between the Palestinian and the Jewish culture/society?

And in more political terms, could youexplain how yousee thepolitical context here in Israel? • What is your view of the conflict between Arabs/Palestinians and Jews?

110 • How do youperceive the definition of the State of IsraelasaJewish democratic state? Do youagree the stateshould be so defined? Would youlike it to be oth- erwise?And if so how? • How would youprefer to define your self:Jewish, JewishIsraeli, Israeli, Arab, Palestinian, Arab Israeli, Palestinian Israeli, Palestinian living in Israel, etc.

Thedecisionmakingprocess

If we turn now to theschool, could youtellmefirst howmanychildren of yours areattending this school?Doyou have childreninother schools? Why?

If yes. Could you say alittle bit more abouthow youarrived to the decisiontosend your child/children to the school? How would youdescribe theway youreached this decision? • Howyou did learn about the school?What made youconsider sending your child/children there? • Can youremember at what point in the life of your child/children and of your family the decision was taken? • Wasyour decision to send your child/ children to school based on political /cul- tural/religious/educationalreasons? • Could youdescribe what youexpected fromsending your child/children to the school when youtook the decision?What were the advantages youhope your child/children will get fromattending the school?And did yousee there anyad- vantages for youasaparent, too? • What is it that youknew about the schools that really beought youtodecide to send them there? • And how about anyfears or doubts youmight have or mighthave had,could youdescribe them,too, please? • When youdecided your child/children would attend the bilingual school, what were thereactions yougot fromother people/family members/friends? • In termsoffees, do yousometimesfeelitisdifficult foryou to send your child/children at this particularschool?

111 Appreciation of the school

If youthink about the schooltoday, howwouldyou sayyou see it now? • Could youexplain in what way your expectations have been met, or have not been met? Havethese expectations changed over time? • What do youthink are the expectationsofthose (or the schooldirec- tion/principals) who started the school? • What do youpersonally think about these goals?Doyou feel their expectations converge withwhat youwant fromthe school? • Could youdescribe how youperceive theschool in termsofeducational excel- lence?How would youevaluate the quality of the education your child/children receives/receiveatthe school? Can youdescribe how youperceive the teachers?

Information andinvolvement

Some parents arevery much involved in their children’s life at school,someare much less so. How would youdescribe your personal involvement with the school? • Which side initiates the information transferthe school/teacher or you(the par- ent) • When thinking of the school, do youfeel youknow alot about what is goingon there? • In what language do youget the information and who do youget it from? • Could youdescribe your participation in the school life? • Do yousometimes visit the school?What is it likewhen youare going there? • Are youinvolved in the school’sPTA?Are youarepresentative? • Do youthink that the Palestinian/Jewish population in the school is representa- tiveofthe regular population of the grout outsideofthe school?

The child/children at school as perceived by the parents

Could youdescribe how yousee your child/yourchildren at theschool? • Does/do she/he/they like it there?Does/do she/he/theyget along well with the teachersand theotherchildren?Could yougive an example of what your child’s/children’s life is like at school? (or an exampleofwhat youbelieve to be

112 agoodexperienceyour child had in school ?oranexample of what youbelieve to be abad experience your child had in school?) • Does/do she/he/theyhave friends at school? • Do youthink that the participation of your child in the schoolhas changed the ways in which she talks/thinks about the othergroup?Ifyes canyou give us some examples?

Could youexplain in more detail what kind of relationshipsyou have established at the school? • Do youhave anyfriends fromthe Jewish/Arab community? • What does “being friends” mean, could youmaybe giveanexample? • Do yousometimesmeetwith other parents outside school? Do youinvite them over to your house; do yougoand visit themattheir place?

What about your child/children?Could youdescribe the relationships she/he/they has/have with other kids fromschool? • How do youfeelabout these relationships? • Do youactivelyencourage them? Has your child visited children(Palestin- ian/Jewish) and or slept over at their house? Have Palestinian Jewish children cometovisit/sleep over your house? • Is there anything that worries youabout these friendships/relations • How do feelabout the possibilityofintermarriage, for example? • Could yougive anymore examplesmaybe of how your children enjoy(or dis- like)school friendships or activities? • Is there anything youwould like your child to learn fromthe other group’s cul- ture/traditions? • Is thereanything youwould NOT like your child to learn fromthe othergroup’s culture/traditions

Ceremonialissues

When youthink about the way the school goesabout ceremonies,about cultural and historical issues, how do youfeel about that?(e.g. Memorial Day and or the Nakbe) • Would yousay theyare going the right way about it?

113 • Is thereanything youwould like to change about the way thoseissues aredealt with? • What do youthink about the school’sexplicit goal of strengthening the two communities’ group identities? • Do youthink that because your child participates in the bilingual school it is important to strengthen his ethnic identity?(if yestell us why) • Has your point of view changed since your child/children attend the school?

Bilingualism

Couldyou describe, please, howyou feel about the bilingualaspect of the school? • If at all, why is it important to have abilingualschool • Is it importanttoyou that your child/children learn Hebrew/Arabic? Why? • To what extent do youthink it is important? • Do youthink your child will be successfulinlearning the two languages? • Do youthink the school should give up on its bilingualpolicy or change it?

The future

If youthink about the future, when your child/children will be leaving school, what do youexpect him/her/themtobe? In termsofpersonality,values, capabilities, I mean. • Do youthink they will be different than if they had gone to another school? How and why? • Whydoyou make the effort of sending your child/children to this school? In your point of view,what do children gain at this school that an ordinary school could not offer them? Could yougive an example, maybe? • Do youthink your children payany price for going to the bilingual school? If yes, what price youthink theypay? • In what way do youhope the school will have an impact on Israelisociety?Did your hopes and expectationsinthis respect change over time? • If youcould change one (1) thing about the school, as it is right now,what is it youwould change? • If youwould have onlyone thing to keep fromthe school as is right now what is it youwould liketokeep?

114 • Has the participationofyour child in the bilingualschool influenced in any way your house?Ifyes how?

Interview 2–Extract

N: Couldyou giveand example of what youbelieve to be agood experience your child your children had at school? I: Agood experience? N: An exampleofagood experience. I: There're kindofmany smallthings, every daythings, but ah, Idon't know something that is kind of symbolic is the,isthe-the celebration of the IndependenceDay.Ahm,and Idon't know if it was that important for her,but the teachertold me,she was happythat Yerad, the older daughter,ah demonstrated her// she really looked at her Jewish identity instead of, instead of, it's not instead of, but ah// school is notthat simple because you, you know,the Arabs go to haveone ceremony,the Jews go to haveanother ceremony// they do it separately, and, ah, the fact thatshe was able to-to speak abouther proudlyofher own iden-identityasaJew is something which is important for me,because there is aquestionofidentities there, in this bi- bilingual, there is aquestion of where does your identity go?Does it interfere with adifferent identity,does it collide with aseparate identity? Or is it kept? Doesitget stronger?Orweaker?What else?Iwas happy, that she. But that was me.Idon't know if it's (?)for her to have. N: So youknowone goal of theschool is to strengthen the two communities' group identities. So youthink that is right? I: Yeah, yeah. (..) N: Do youthink that it's because your child participates in abilingual school, that it's important to strengthen identity or just in general? I: That it is important to strengthen identity? N: Yeah. I: Ithink,Ithink thisquestionisraisedmore sharply, more (.) because yougoto thisschooland Ithink, Ithink it is an important question for everybody. Peo- plewho go to this school or don't but when yougotoakind of aregular state, ah, Jewishschool, so you-youcan not really kind of define your identity in re- lation to adifferent one, because youreally don't have the opportunity to see, to imagine, to see, to view adifferenttypeofidentity and how it is being// what's adifferent narrative,what are different stories, what is the identity of

115 thePalestinian, ah, (..) the Palestinian. What is my identity?How is it differ- ent?Ithink this kind of schoolmakesits' possibility more, ah,more realistic to-to defineour identity. And Ithink thatisimportant. N: When youthink about the waythe school goes about ceremonies, about cul- tural and historical issues, how do youfeel about that? I: It's different.Insomecases Ithink the school dealt with it, ah, well, in some casesitdoesn't. Imean. For exampleonce we had apartywhere both Hanu- kah, the Jewish holiday,and-anditwas, ah,Hag ha molad Christmas and the New Years, ah, celebrated. Maybethere was,Idon't remember (laughing) if we had also Eidal-Adha// we mentioned Eid al-Adha which is aMuslim holi- daythat was near that time. So,for example we went to apartythat all the, two or three, ah,holidaysofdifferentreligions were celebrated together. I think that for examplecaused some of amess.Imean youget your presents forChristmas andyou lit the Hanukahcandles and I'mnot sure what the kids get of all of this. Theymight have an idea, that we// and they did have this idea because they-theygot kindofasmall symbol of each holiday.Sothey thought that at Hanukahweget the presents in the sock fromFather Christmas and//whereisthe FatherChristmas of Hanukah// and something was, ah (laughing),kindof, ah, youknowkind of ajam,or, ah, abit of amess. Ithink theideaofcelebrating separately holidays butcelebrating by everybody, each holiday,belonging to adifferent religion is more of a// is more of sense be- cause thenyou learnthe customs of the other,you know that youare not the other, but the customs are related to the other and youknow it's your holiday or it's not your holiday. Ithink that's important questionsofidentity, as we mentioned beforehand. Ahm,and Ithink, and as Isaid, the most important thing that// Ithink the school went through afew phaseshere. I'mnot (equated?) to the details of historybut it's// the Independence Day, the Nakba// and Ithink the school does-do the right thingstoday, the way, it deals with the dates. Ahm, and, ah, Ihope it to stay (laughing) that way. N: Okay. Do youthink thatthe participation of your child at school has changed the ways in which she talksabout the othergroup? I: I'msure. ImeanIdon't have achild to compareitto, but, ah, just Idon't know// we went with friends to akindofapicnic afew yearsago and there was an, ah, an Arab shepherd who went through and agirl herage was really afraid, was reallyfrightened because he's an aravi, he's an Arab, but youknow, nearly cried, just because, just he passed through youknow, andIsaw that my daughter does notunderstandwhat-what, Imean, (?)Iassumethat's, there is a differentatmosphere, thanks to the school.

116 Interview 17 –Extract

N: Is thereanything// it'sabit difficult, because you're not one group or the other group. But is thereanything youwould like your daughter to learn fromthe other group? I: What-what do youmean, Idon't understandwhat youmean (Nele laughing). Which group? N: Yeah, that's the problem. Like saying you're Palestinian. I: Aha. N: Would youlike your daughter to learn something fromthe Jewish people? I: Ah, of course yes. There's no, ahm,she can learn anything good fromany so- ciety and anygroup. N: What is good from the Jewish society? I: Ah, there is alot (laughing).For example there is a, youknow, they, ah, love of the country and the love of the society,thattheybelong to, for example. There is alot, Idon't have it in my mind, but I-I all the time, all the time, tell- ing my children that there is no good group, no good society,nogood nation- ality,nogoodreligionspeople, there is everywhere and in everything, there is goodand bad. And if they want to learnsomething, they have to take the good fromhere and the good fromhere.Wecan't sayall the Christians are very nice and all the Muslims are very bad, for example.Isaidfromour,you know, so- ciety. When there is, ah, say that, Ican't, youknow,shut up on the, if Ihear somebody saythat.Iall the time sayno, of course no. Ihave friends fromhere and Ihave friends fromhere and Ilike my friends here and Ilike my friends here,thereisalot of people, verygood people fromhere and verygood peo- ple fromhere and there is very bad from here and verybad fromhere. And also in the Jews society also, American society,let us say,not onlyfromArab, betweenArabs andJews, youknow? For exampletheysaidall the timefor me,all the timethey told me,whenmychildren wasinthe, were in the, ah, in theAmerican schools,you want your children to be like Americans? Idon't want my children to be not Americans, not Jews, not Arabs. No, Iwant my children to be good and that's it. N: Okay, then the opposite. Is there anything thatyou'd sayingeneral there is a tendency in Jewishsocietythat youwould not like your children to learn from? I: Ah, Iforgot the word, it's, ahm, racism? N: Racism? I: Racis, yes.

117 N: Can youexplain that abit more? I: Yeah, because Ithink especiallynow the-the Jews here become more racism than before. N: Here youmean Jerusalem? I: No, no, no, in Israel. If you, if youimagine, Idon't think thatyou know, or I don'tknow if youare fromIsrael before, or,ah, Idon't know.But if Ican look after,for example twenty yearsago, youcouldsee that alot of friends, Jews and Arabs they come here and theycomehere. Maybeit's not the problemof Jews, youknow, Idon't sayit'sthe problemfromonly the Jews, but it's, ah, also fromthe Arabs, of course, but before they, it was alot of friendsfrom here and here andnow theyare separated more and more and more. N: So youthink it's because they're just physically more separated or what do mean by separated? I: No,mentally. N: Mentally. I: Yeah, of course. Because everything is, youknow,again Itold youit's very big (3) N: Question? I: Subject (Nelelaughing). It's, if you, if you, if youcan see all the, ah, changes that wasinthe wars, youknow,inits influence the society here and allthe problems and allthe, everything.There is alot of circumstances, that, ah, help to do this and Ithink that both the Arabs and the Jews are, ah,they have part of thisthing. Notone of them. N: Could yougive maybeone example? I: Forexample there is alot, ah, of Jews, that theybelieve of, ah, for example, ah, that, this country for both, Arabs and Jews and, ah, that we,the Arabs had, havethe rightsineverything, but they do nothing. We set in alot of, you know,societies with alot of Jews, friends, andweare very friendsand very friendly and we-we laughed and youknow,each other andwesit and we speak, but when-when we spoke about politics, theyall said yesand we see this and we feelthat, and we seethat and nobody can do anything. Nobodytry to do anything. To have anotherparty,tohave, ah, like committees, to have, to do something for this. Theysaid, yes, yes, we have to do something and that's it. And we meet afterone year and we speak about the same thing. And they saidyes, yes, we have to do something. All the timelike this and nobody do anything.

118 Acknowledgment

Firstofall Iwould want to thankthe parents interviewed for their frank and sincere answersand openness.Then Iwould like to thankZvi Bekerman for his patience andcritical viewonmyinterpretations. Besides Iwould want to thank Matthew Minns, Jeremy Milgromand Paul Schneider for their amazingeffort correcting my English. And finally Iwould want to thank Prof. Dr.Marianne Kosmann for em- powering me in this project andmakingthispublication possible.

119

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