Université Charles De Gaulle Lille 3 (Lille, France) Uniwersytet Wrocławski (Wroclaw, Pologne) Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Dakar, Sénégal)

RELATIONS BETWEEN ARAB AND JEWISH STUDENTS

A case study at the University of during

the 2014 Gaza- conflict

MASTER 2 ERASMUS MUNDUS MITRA MEDIATION INTERCULTURELLE: IDENTITES, MOBILITES, CONFLITS

BY: SUPERVISED BY:

Tiphaine Guignat Patrick Picouet

Ouzi Elyada

Marcelina Zuber

June 2015 Declaration

The author hereby declares that, except where duly acknowledged, this thesis is entirely her own work and has not been submitted for any degree in University Charles De Gaulle Lille 3, University Wroclaw, University Cheikh Anta Diop or in any other University in France, Poland or Senegal.

Signature

2 Table of Contents:

Table of tables ...... 5 Table of figures ...... 5 Acknowledgements ...... 6 Abstract ...... 7 Introduction ...... 8

Chapter I: One country, two populations ...... 13 A. Creation of minority-majority relations ...... 14 1. The Jewishness of the new Israeli state ...... 14 2. The Arab Israelis: a non-Jewish minority ...... 16 B. The Israelis: innergroup differences ...... 20 1. Jewish ethnicities: a multicultural Jewish society ...... 20 2. The Arab Israelis: a dual identity ...... 24 C. Common citizenship, distinct nationalities ...... 28 1. Two different statuses within the Israeli state ...... 28 2. Two national memories ...... 31

Chapter II: Daily interactions at the University of Haifa ...... 37 A. Haifa: a mixed city in Israel? ...... 37 1. Coexistence in Israel ...... 37 2. Haifa: between coexistence and segregation ...... 42 B. The spatio-temporal context: inter-student relations, in time of conflict ...... 46 1. University: a space for intergroup contact ...... 46 2. Influence of the conflict on the daily life in Haifa ...... 48 C. An ethnographic methodology, in and outside the university ...... 52 1. Student semi-structured interviews ...... 52 2. Casual and formal ethnographic fieldwork outside the university ...... 58

Chapter III: Relations between Arab and Jewish students at the University of Haifa ...... 62 A. Two distinct groups, different degrees of sociability ...... 63 1. “How do you consider yourself in Israel?” ...... 63 2. “You don’t become friend with someone in the street, like that” (Yonit) ...... 67 B. Relations at the university ...... 72 1. “I don’t have any close Arab friends but I do have kind of friends.” (Ilan) ...... 72 2. “We don’t have many things in common” (Tal) ...... 78

3 C. The situation above all differences ...... 86 1. “We are speaking the same language, culturally and literally” (Reema) ...... 86 2. “It is very hard to make any relation with the conflict over our heads” (Mary) ... 90 Conclusion ...... 99 Bibliography ...... 104 Annex ...... 108

4 Table of tables

Table 1: Arab population per district ...... 19 Table 2: Interview setting with the Arab and Jewish students ...... 54 Table 3: Interview guide ...... 55 Table 4: Jewish students’ self-categorization ...... 63 Table 5: Arab students’ self-categorization ...... 65 Table 6: Jewish students’ background ...... 69 Table 7: Arab students’ background ...... 70 Table 8: Jewish students at the university ...... 73 Table 9: Arab students at the university ...... 73

Table of Figures

Map 1: Arab Israelis in Israel ...... 19 Map 2: University of Haifa ...... 75

5 Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thanks my three supervisors, Patrick Picouet, Marcelina Zuber and Ouzi Elyada, who followed my research from the conception to the final writing, while bringing essential comments and advice.

In addition, this work would not have been possible without the commitment and support of the Israelis, Palestinians and others, who helped me to conduct the fieldwork in a particularly tense context.

Finally, I am grateful to all the persons who stood beside me through the whole working process of this study on a daily basis. I include here the students I met thanks to the MITRA master, in France, Poland and Senegal. Moreover, I am thankful to my family and my dearest friends, they encouraged me to question myself and to keep going further.

6 Abstract

Arab Israelis compose almost one quarter of the population in Israel. They represent the largest non-Jewish minority, in a Jewish state where Judaism is considered as a nationality and not only a . Arab Israelis generally differentiate themselves from the majority by their distinct language, , schools, areas of living, interpretation of the past and perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Several studies approach the issue of relations between the Arab and the Jewish citizens, with one common conclusion: in general, the contacts are limited. This dissertation focuses on the students of the University of Haifa, one of the mixed cities in Israel. This research aims to analyze the way a selected number of Arab and Jewish students perceive intergroup relations at the university and outside of it. According to the perceptions of the interviewees, there exists a clear separation between the Arab and the Jewish groups, even more in time of conflict, as during the summer 2014.

Keywords: Israel, Arab Israelis, intergroup relations, stereotypes, cultural identities, Palestinian-Israeli conflict

Résumé:

Les Arabes Israéliens composent presque un quart de la population en Israël. Ils représentent la plus importante minorité non juive, au sein d’un Etat où le judaïsme est considéré comme une nationalité et pas seulement une religion. Les Israéliens Arabes se différencient de la majorité au niveau du langage, de la religion, des écoles, des lieux de vie, de leurs interprétations du passé et de leurs perceptions concernant le conflit Israélo-Palestinien. Différentes études se sont penchées sur les relations entre citoyens arabes et juifs, mettant en avant une conclusion commune: en général, les contacts sont limités. Ce mémoire se concentre sur les étudiants de l’université d’Haïfa, une des villes israéliennes mixtes. Cette recherche vise à analyser la manière dont certains étudiants arabes et juifs perçoivent les relations intergroupes à l’université et en dehors. Dans l’esprit des participants, il existe une séparation claire entre les groupes arabe et juif, d’autant plus en période de conflit, comme pendant l’été 2014.

Mots clés: Israël, Israéliens arabes, relations, stéréotypes, identités culturelles, conflit israélo-palestinien

7 Introduction

Arab Israelis represent 20% of the population in Israel (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2010, p. 2). They are the main non-Jewish minority in a country that is officially defined as a Jewish state. Judaism is not only a religion, but also a nationality, which links the and their relatives to the state of Israel. Today, Arab and Jewish Israelis share a common citizenship but they evolved separately within the Israeli society since the creation of the state. The events of 1948, the year in which the establishment of Israel had been declared, provoked two opposed flows of migration. Jews, including Holocaust survivors and populations from Arab countries, arrived massively in a territory previously inhabited predominantly by Palestinians. At the same period, 80% of these Palestinians had to flee to the current West Bank, to Gaza or to other Arab neighbouring countries.

The descendants of the Palestinians who stayed in the newborn state have, today, a specific and complex position in Israel. They speak Arabic where the first language is Hebrew, they are mainly Muslim, Christian or in a Jewish state, they mainly live in Arab cities, Arab villages, or Arab neighbours in Jewish cities, and they keep strong ties with Palestinian traditions and ways of life in a country which is considered to be part of the Western World. Above all, they are opposed to the Jewish majority perceptions and understandings on a global level, from the creation of Israel to the current actions towards the Palestinian territories1. This research focuses on the relations between two distinct groups, which share common citizenship and live on a same territory. Israel is therefore a very specific case in terms of minority/majority relations, taking into account they were “forged [...] in the tragic circumstances of war, destruction, evacuation and coercion” (SMOOHA, 2004, p.11).

The study aims to analyze relations at a personal level, and to define different degrees of sociability between individuals. Based on several studies, it begins with the observation that Arab/Jewish contacts are limited in general in Israel. The interest of this research is to study relations in a space where Arab and Jewish Israelis are physically in contact on a daily basis, without economic or interest connections. The

1 The Palestinian Territories include the West Bank, Gaza and East-Jerusalem. For a geographic location of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, please refer to ANNEX I. 8 fieldwork of the study had been conducted at the University of Haifa, a place with the highest rate of Arab students in Israel. They represent 30% of the student population2.

In this research, university is considered as a space encouraging the acquisition of knowledge, exchange and even more as a socialization environment and a central meeting place. I assumed that in this academic context, students are more open-minded and have better opportunities to communicate with members of the other group, which they do not necessarily meet outside of the university context. The students, because of their young age, may be less directly influenced by historical trauma (the Nakba3 or the Holocaust) or by the main wars which opposed Israel and the Palestinian territories or other Arab neighboring countries and, so, more ready to make changes. Moreover, Haifa is known as one of the most mixed cities in the country. Therefor, the key interviewees of this research are Arab and Jewish students from the University of Haifa.

Based on the perceptions of a selected number of Arab and Jewish students, this research aims to understand what kinds of relations are developed in and outside the university, and which elements might limit the development of interpersonal relations and friendships. A conflict between Israel and Gaza broke out at the beginning of the fieldwork. This unexpected context, and its possible impact on the Arab-Jewish relations will be taken into consideration.

Several factors that may limit the relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis had been defined, such as geographical separation (Arab and Jewish generally grow up, are educated and live in distinct villages and cities or neighborhoods), cultural differences (including language, religion, way of life, traditions etc.), the Israeli- Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflicts (from the war in 1948 to the actual Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories), the position of the as the biggest minority in Israel (the existence of discriminations, unequal political power, opportunities or repartition of resources might lead to conflicting relationships between the members of the majority and of the minority) and the fears of the Jewish population (linked with their historical and current, in the Middle-East, minority

2 According to a report of the Council for Higher obtained by the newspaper Haaretz, available online from: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-to-launch-campaign-to-attract- more-arab-students-to-universities.premium-1.471184, accessed April 4, 2015 3 “Nakba”, which means in Arabic “catastrophe”, designates for the Palestinians what they consider as a forced exodus after the war of 1948. 9 position). The negative impact of the 2014 conflict between Israel and Gaza on Arab- Jewish relations would put forward that the conflict situation is one of the major elements explaining the lack of relations.

I spent two months in Haifa for this research and I resided in a neighborhood not far from the university. I conducted an ethnographic research, including semi- structured interviews of students, casual observation and discussions outside the university and a participant observation during a trip organized by a coexistence project. The time I spent at the university gave me the opportunity to interview students and to discuss with professors and members of the administrative staff. With regards to the interviews, they were of qualitative nature. The research aims to analyze the perceptions of a restricted number of Arab and Jewish students, not representative of the population at the university, but from different backgrounds and with different positions. At the end of my stay, I also had the opportunity to participate in a weekend organized by a program intending to bridge the gap between Arab and Jewish students. All along the fieldwork, I used a notebook to transcribe daily observations and discussions, as well as to express my own perceptions of the city, the university, the Arab-Jewish interactions and the concrete impact of the conflict in Haifa. Even when I do not refer directly to the informal elements gathered during my stay in Haifa, it allowed me to question my perceptions, influenced my own understandings of the subject, and, thus, the way I will present my research.

At this level, it is unavoidable to specify my personal position, in order to let the reader understand the way I analyzed the material gathered for this master research. I have been interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a long period, and I took the opportunity to study two semesters, during 2011 and 2012, at Birzeit University, located near Ramallah, in the West Bank. During this long stay, I chose to visit regularly different parts of Israel, in order to be in contact with the Israeli society and to acquire a more global vision of the situation. My French passport enabled me to cross the checkpoints and the separation wall. It also means to be aware of the mental separation that exists between the Jewish Israelis and the Palestinians from the West Bank, beyond the geographical and concrete barriers. I took advantage of my external position, as neutral as it may be, to understand different interpretations of the common history, opposed understandings of the current situation and divisions concerning the future evolutions of the situation. This experience also enabled me to 10 deepen my knowledge concerning the existence and the position of the Arab minority, which is attributed different nominations such as Arab Israelis, Arabs of the interior, or Palestinians of 48. Because I have been interested in intergroup minority-majority relations for a long time, my experience in Israel and the Palestinian Territories led me to study the relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis. The master MITRA with a major in intercultural mediation gave me the opportunity to lead this research.

In general I always give a special importance not to let emotions or negative experiences have too much impact on my beliefs. This marked my position during my studies in the West Bank, and it is especially important within this research. I cannot pretend a complete objectivity, but I chose not to take any stance on matters of the profound debates concerning Israel and the Palestinian Territories. In order to make my research understandable, I will have to present an overview of the history of the region, as well as a contextual presentation of Israeli society. I do not aim to enter in polemical discussions but to present the existence of different interpretations and understandings. Unfortunately, time and space constraints prevent me to go deeply in the complexity of Israel. This does not mean that I ignore or deny what I did not refer directly to in this research, but I will only allude to selected events and contextual elements, which I believe are essential to understand well my subject. I am aware of the extent to which the context of the research can be polemical, and that I could be criticized in my choices.

The study will begin with an overview of the historical evolution of Israel, from 1948 to present day. This first chapter is essential to present the diversity of the Israeli populations, while pointing out the elements on which I have relied on to establish two distinct groups: the Arab and the Jewish Israelis.

Following this contextual chapter, I will focus on the Arab/Jewish relations in general in Israel and introduce the environment in which I conducted the fieldwork: Haifa and more especially its main university. This second chapter will allow me to detail the methodology I used in this research.

Finally, the results and findings of the study will be presented, based on the analysis of intergroup relations created at the university, according to the perceptions of the Arab and Jewish students interviewed. This last chapter points out the elements

11 which could explain certain limitations in the relations developed between Arab and Jewish Israeli students.

12 Chapter I: One country, two populations

This research focuses on relations between a minority and a majority within a same country: the Arab Israelis4 and the Jewish Israelis. The case of Israel is particularly interesting in terms of intergroup relations for two reasons. In Israel the present majority, Jewish, is the population that migrated to the territory where the minority, Arab, previously lived5. This does not mean that there were no Jewish communities before the creation of the state, but they were a minority population at that time. Moreover, what distinguishes the two groups are not only common elements in migration processes such as language, religion or culture6 but also the impacts of recent history marked by several regional or internal conflicts. I will present in this first chapter an overview of the evolution of the Israeli state, pointing out historical events and their consequences that I believe are important contextual elements. The history of Israel, although this is a recent one, is complex, and this research only allows me to give a general picture, omitting some important elements. A large part of this history still leads to profound debates. I will not take a position but insist on the existence of different interpretations that still have an impact in today’s Israeli society7. The aim here is also to explain the choice of a separation between the Arab and the Jewish Israelis, based on this particular history and using a specific vocabulary, adapted to the Israeli context. This research will focus on the historical period that begins in 1948, a symbolic year, today celebrated by a part of the population and commemorated by the other.

4 It will be necessary to explain the choice of this term later on. 5 I focus here on a contemporary period. 6 Culture is here understood according to the definition of Geert Hofstede, as "the collective programming of the mind distinguishing the members of one group or category of people from another", summarized on his website, http://geerthofstede.nl/culture, accessed April, 10 2015 7 For an historical timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which presents in parallel the Israeli and the Palestinian perspectives, please refer to ANNEX II. 13 A. Creation of minority-majority relations

1. The Jewishness of the new Israeli state

On May 14, 1948 David Ben Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, the State of Israel. Since the declaration of Independence, Israel is both considered as a Jewish State, with a specific project: the Jews’ right to national self-determination, and as a Democratic State, promising “a complete social and political equality for all inhabitants, without religion, race or gender distinction8”(DIECKHOFF, 2008, p.25).

The Jewishness of the State has had direct implications on the Israeli society since its creation, in link with the Zionist project, and above all since the adoption of the return law. It is important to point out that the founders of Israel did not consider Judaism only as a religion but above all as a nationality, which legitimates the need for a Jewish state. Since 1950 any Jew from all over the world has a right to immigrate to Israel. From 1948 to 1951, about 700 000 (DIECKHOFF, 2008, p.529) Jews accomplish Aliyah9, mainly from Europe and from Arab countries. According to a religious perspective, a person who is of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion is a Jew. The law of return allows a physical migration to Israel as well as the automatic acquisition of the Israeli citizenship for all Jews. In 1970, the law of return had been broadened to the spouse, the children and their spouses and the grandchildren and their spouses of a Jewish person. Thus, Jewishness is not only a religion but also an ethnicity, a group belonging beyond a religious belief.

The Jewish majority is associated to a national dominant culture, the Jewish holidays punctuated the daily life and the , the Jewish history and memory are significant in the society. Even if Judaism is not a state religion, Israel gives it a particular status and a privileged situation. The religious rules have a

8 My own translation of « la plus complète égalité sociale et politique à tous ses habitants sans distinction de religion, de race et de sexe ». 9 Hebrew term referring to the immigration to the Holy Land. 14 concrete impact on the daily life in Israel: Shabbat (from Friday evening to Saturday evening) as a day off, pig breeding, kosher food in public kitchens, etc. The Israeli flag and the national anthem carry Jewish symbols as well. Moreover the Jewish religious authorities have had a particular power in the fields of education and family law in Israel since the creation of the state. The secular Jewish majority had to rely on the support of the religious groups and thus granted them counter-parties. Religious schools receive public funds, and Jewish traditions and Bible are studied in secular schools, from a more historical perspective. Concerning the family law, the main regulation concerns marriage: rabbis have exclusive competence on marital law. Thus Jew and non-Jew cannot legally get married in Israel. It represents there the importance to preserve the unicity of the Jewish community. Therefor, Judaism is central in the Israeli society, linked with national symbols and independently of the religiosity of the individuals.

The Jewishness of the state also appears on a Zionist dimension. Beside the law of return, national institutions that connect Israel with the diaspora have specific status, and favour in priority or exclusively the Jewish population. The Jewish Agency, in charge of helping new Jewish immigrants, mainly intervenes in fields that are generally under the competence of the state as the creation of villages, the development of agriculture and industry (DIECKHOFF 2008, p.31). The Jewish National Fund, originally in charge of the acquisition of the land, owns 13% of the land in Israel: these 13% cannot be sold and can be rented only to a Jewish person. According to Dieckhoff, the State finally “benefits from an ideal way to favour the Jews, without officially violating the equality between citizens, since the state does not intervene directly” 10 (DIECKHOFF, 2008, p.31). Moreover, throughout indirect practises, the state favours in a way the majority population, in fields such as territorial development, distribution of public aid and water repartition.

10 My own translation from « L’Etat bénéficie donc d’un moyen idéal de privilégier les Juifs tout en ne violant pas officiellement l’égalité entre les citoyens puisqu’il n’intervient pas directement » 15 2. The Arab Israelis: a non-Jewish minority

1948, the official year of independence for Israel, represents a totally different event for the Palestinians: they refer to it as Al-Nakba, the tragedy or catastrophe. What happened in 1948 to the Palestinian population still creates significant debates. Some would argue that the Palestinians decided to leave because of the war and because of the creation of the new Israeli State. They believe that the exile of the Palestinians, as well as the following occupation of their territories, are normal consequences of a war. Others would affirm that the Palestinians were violently expelled from their villages, some parts of which were destroyed, and forced to leave to the West Bank, Gaza or to neighbouring Arab countries. The purpose here is not to discuss the two interpretations but to point out the existence of two different readings of a same historical period. I will also take into consideration the main consequence: the creation of Israel and the war of independence led 700 000 Palestinians to leave the new Israeli territory. From 1947 to 1949, the Arab population in Haifa, for instance, fell from 66 000 to 3 000 inhabitants (BENDELAC, 2008, p.26).

Palestinian refugees (some are still living in refugee camps, others are well integrated into new societies) claim to be enabled to return to their homeland. What Palestinians call the right of return is a position claiming that the refugees11 and their descendants have a right to return, and a right to the property that they left or that they were forced to leave. The right of return is a central element in the Palestinian memory. One can see in the West Bank plenty of graffiti or official signs representing a key, symbolizing those kept by Palestinians when they left their home as mementos. I recently met a young man in Lille who presents himself as Palestinian, from Jerusalem, whereas even his mother, born in Jordan, never had the opportunity to visit Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The claim for the right of return highlights the debates existing around the law of return. Some denounce the facility for the Jews to immigrate in opposition with the state refusal to accept any return of the Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Others explain this refusal by the fact that Palestinians, including refugees, have a tendency to delegitimise Israel as such. The Israeli law also prevents the Arab-Israeli citizens from bringing easily Palestinian

11 Of 1948 and also of 1967, when about 300 000 Palestinians left or were forced to leave following the Six-Day War. 16 members of their family over; they need to pass through a complex and long process, without being sure of its success.

The Arab Israelis, the subject of this research, are the descendants of the 160 000 Palestinians who stayed in the borders of the newborn Jewish state in 1948. It is, above all, necessary to explain the choice to use Arab Israelis to define this part of the population. It is the official term used in Israel, local and international media. However pro-Palestinian professors, associations, media, etc. would use Palestinian Israelis, Palestinians of the Occupied Territories, Palestinians of 1948, Arabs of Interior or Palestinian Arabs. Thus it seems there does not exist an entirely neutral term, as one of the Jewish interviewees12 notified me:

Amir: “They wouldn’t like to be called Arab Israelis I think. [...] It is not neutral. When you say Israelis, it is already not neutral, when you say Palestinians it is not neutral. You can say Arabs. Then it is the most neutral. But the moment you say they are Israelis or Palestinians you put them on one side of the conflict.”13

I could use Arabs, but this term seems too imprecise, evasive. The term Arab Israelis, used in the majority of the studies I will base my research on, includes two significant information, one ethnic element: being an Arab (without taking religion into account), and one practical and important fact: detaining the Israeli citizenship. I believe that it could include people who consider themselves as Israelis but also as Palestinians. Even if they do not feel emotionally linked with Israel, they still own the Israeli citizenship and thus are, on an exclusively administrative level, Israelis. It will not prevent me from giving a significant importance to the identity feeling. I am conscious that one could criticize this choice.

The ones who have constantly stayed on the Israeli territory since its creation became Israeli citizens thanks to the law on citizenship of 1952. Thus, they benefit from the Israeli citizenship on the basis of the jus soli (right of birthplace). The Arab Israelis, who supported the Arab countries during the war, were considered as a fifth column and thus closely monitored until the 1960s. From 1949 to 1966 the majority of the Arab Israelis were under a military regime, rooted in the emergency decrees settled under the British mandate. Some of the Arab Israelis needed a laissez-passer to

12 This Jewish Israeli speaks fluent Arabic and grown up in an Arabic neighborhood. 13 All the names have been changed. 17 go out of their villages until 1966. During this period, the need for travel permits limited their possibility of circulation and their access to economic activities and education were restrained. While the Arab population was mainly agricultural, they lost an important part of their land, legally acquired by the Jewish Institutions according to some, or confiscated during a massive expropriation according to others. Israel officially called present absentees the Arabs who left their lands during the war, staying in a neighbouring area. They were not anymore the owners of their property when they got back, property owned by the state. The land acquisition is very symbolic of their sense of oppression. Under the military rules, a part of the Arab Israelis were paradoxically able to vote during elections but deprived of the right of free movement. This situation ended in 1966, thus making it possible for the Arab citizens to better integrate the Israeli society and to improve their standard of living. However, these years under military rules favoured the separation between Arab and Jewish populations.

The 1967 war represents a turning point for the Arab minority in Israel. First of all, this minority understood the creation of Israel as an irreversible fact that the Arab countries would not be able to change. Moreover, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights became areas under Israeli control, which brought closer families that had been separated since 1948 (BENDELAC, 2008, p. 25-30). In the 1990s, the government of Yitzhak Rabin brought hope to the Arab Israelis who saw a possible improvement of their conditions. They were in their majority supporting the Oslo Agreement, hoping that a peace agreement and mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestinian Territories would have positive consequences for their position within Israel. The failure of the peace process and the second Intifada make them understand that their rights in Israel do not only depend on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since 2002, the construction of the separation wall has imposed a definite geographical split between the Arab Israelis and the Palestinians. In general their position has dramatically evolved from the 1950s when they were in their majority villagers, with low socio-economical conditions, a low level of education, under military rules and without leadership to nowadays. Today Arab Israelis have “a middle class, a network of organizations and institutions and a strong leadership” (SMOOHA, 1989, pp. 85-86).

18 At this level, it is necessary to present the geographical situation of the Arab Israelis today. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, they compose the major population of 129 localities, out of 1 205 localities in total in Israel, or live in mixed cities, mostly in separated neighbourhoods within Jewish localities. The following map and table show where the Arab Israelis live.

Map 1: Arab Israelis in Israel Table 1: Arab population per district

Districts Percentage of the Arab population (rounded up or down to the nearest whole number) Jerusalem 19% district Northern 43% district

Haifa district 14% Central 10% district Tel Aviv 1% district Southern 13% district

Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, 2014

Source: http://mapsof.net/map/arab-population-in-israel, accessed April 10, 2015

19 According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab population lives mainly in the Northern district. After Jerusalem, Haifa is the third district where the Arab inhabitants reside.

Based on this historical context, it will be interesting to analyse the evolution of the position of Arab Israelis toward the Israeli state and also of their link with the Palestinian Territories and populations. Before entering this controversial issue, it is necessary to describe what the Israeli society is made of, pointing out the existence of sub-groups within Jewish and Arab Israeli populations.

B. The Israelis: innergroup differences

1. Jewish ethnicities: a multicultural Jewish society

I chose for this research to consider the Jewish Israelis as one single group, but it does not imply that I will not take into account the existence of sub-groups, with different characteristics. Israel is a multicultural country not only because of the presence of non-Jewish minorities but also because of the diversity existing among the Jews. As often within a multicultural society, there is still a dominant culture, in Israel brought by the Ashkenazi Jews.

The newborn Jewish nation needed to be the homeland for all Jews and to be a cultural, social and political common entity. The founding fathers, in the early 20th century, aimed to build a new culture, based on the rebirth of Hebrew and the reinterpretation of biblical myths and symbols, as well as historical events and archaeological researches. Socialist values had an important place during the foundation of Israel, and even before. One concrete application of the socialist ideology is the kibbutzim, these collective communities created by Jewish immigrants since the beginning of the twentieth century. The culture of the Western European Jewish pioneers became the primary model in the new Jewish state. The descendants of the founding fathers, who did not endure exile but were born in the country, or

20 Tzabar14, developed a local version of the Jewish culture, the “nativist culture” (BEN- RAFAEL, in DIECKHOFF, 2008, pp. 161-164), more close to the nature and the community than to religion. The Israeli novelist , who grew up in Jerusalem, described well the gap between his father and his neighbours “with glasses and Western Europe accent, people that often attached the buttons of their shirts in the wrong order”15 and the figure of the new Jew, “when we say Tel-Aviv we directly imagine one of these guys, a worker with a cap, who don’t fear anything and smoke Matossian cigarettes [...] a worker, but a very cultivated man as well”16 However the “nativist culture” did not eliminate the importance of traditional Jewish symbols, considered as religious and national Israeli characteristics. Eliezer Ben-Rafael defines the culture of the middle class, mostly secular and constituted by a majority of Ashkenazim, as the dominant culture because it is the culture that is often considered as representative of the whole society. However the author points out the fact that not all parts of the Israeli society identify with this dominant culture (DIECKHOFF, 2008, pp. 161-164). It will be necessary to take into account two elements in the diversity of the Jewish Israelis: their origins and their degree of religiousness. I will not be able to take into account all the minorities in Israel but only the main groups of the Jewish Israeli population.

The Mizrahim, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa, constitute 43% of the Jewish Israeli population. Part of them left or were expelled from Arab countries and immigrated to Israel from 1948 to the beginning of the 1970s. Important socio-economical differences distinguished the Mizrahi Jews from the dominant Ashkenazi middle class. In 1971, the Israeli Black Panthers demonstrated in Jerusalem to denounce social difficulties and discriminations against Mizrahi Jews. The differences still exist today but more than half of the Mizrahi Jews are part of the middle class, and there is a large number of mixed Ashkenazi-Mizrahi couples (DIECKHOFF, 2008, pp. 161-164). While one part of the community became more and more secular, a large part of the Mizrahi community is still strongly attached to the Jewish tradition. In Western Europe, secularity and Zionism questioned and were opposed to traditional Judaism, but it was not the case for the Mizrahim, in an attitude “requiring the conservation of particular ancestral values, while affirming a

14 In English the cactus fruit, symbol of the native Israeli, prickly outside but sweet inside. 15 My own translation from Amos Oz, Les deux morts de ma grand-mère, Paris: Gallimard, 2004, p. 41 16 Ibid. 21 wholehearted commitment to the Israeli Jewish nation”(ibid.). Some devoted themselves to the study of the Torah and a new religious Mizrahi elite developed. Mizrahi Rabbis created in the 1980s the party, now an important political actor, which claim the recognition of the religious and cultural singularity of the Mizrahi community. This movement can be seen as an important element that redefines Israel as a multicultural society. It is pertinent to note here that some of the Mizrahi Jews coming from Arab countries have similarities with the Arab population in Israel, in terms of language, food, customs and traditions or music. However, these shared characteristics do not imply a link between the two populations in the Israeli society.

Another important wave of immigration took place from 1970 to 1973 and continued in 1989: Jews from the former Soviet Union constitute nowadays 20% of the Jewish Israeli population. This part of the population is designed as “Russians” even if they come from different regions, where Russian was not always the first language, but the majority come from educated classes who spoke Russian. Russian Jews are in general as secular as the Ashkenazi coming from Western Europe, but with this particularity that they have only a few links with a historical Jewish heritage. During decades, the communist regime prevented them to affirm cultural specificities, even if they were categorized as Jews. It also explains why an important number of Russian Jews married with non-Jews; the broadening of the return law allow Russian Jews to immigrate with their non-Jewish family. An important part of the Russian community deeply has been in touch with Judaism since they arrived in Israel. They learnt Hebrew and adapted to the Israeli Jewish culture, while they also continue to give importance to the Russian language and culture. Concerning the non-Jewish Russians who came with or to join a Jewish member of their family, they keep their cultural and religious heritage, but also learn Hebrew and celebrate Jewish holidays. They are fully part of the Jewish Russian community.

Despite the fact that the Ethiopian Jews represent less than 2% of the Israeli population, they are often considered as part of the cultural groups that question the supremacy of the middle-class Ashkenazi dominant culture. Israel recognized the Jewishness of this Ethiopian community, also called Beta Israel (the house of Israel) in 1975, which allowed them to benefit from the return law. A small non-official migration was followed during this period by several main waves of migration to Israel, depending on the will of the Ethiopian regime to let the members of the Jewish 22 community emigrate. Operation Salomon is symbolic in Israel, when the Israeli state provided an air bridge to bring more than 14 000 Ethiopian Jews in its territory. The socio-economical level of the Ethiopian-Israelis is low in comparison with the rest of the Jewish society: the gaps in employment rates have mostly narrowed but poverty rates and the rate of persons registered at social service departments are much higher17. April and May 2015 were marked by several violent demonstrations in protest against racism and police violence towards the Ethiopian Israelis. These non- Western European groups aim to have an influence on the vision of the Israeli-Jewish identity and demand the recognition of the cultural pluralism in Israel. Beyond these ethnocultural differences, an important element of distinction is the religious groups Jewish Israelis are part of.

Donna Rosenthal established three categories: the Haredim, the Orthodox, and the Non-Orthodox Jews (ROSENTHAL, 2008). The first group, also called ultra- Orthodox and opposed to modern secular culture, have specificity in Israel: they are not Zionist or even anti-Zionist. They oppose the establishment of Israel, but it does not mean they do not rely on the state. Israel financed their religious schools and they benefit from social helps from the government, since the men do not work to devote themselves to Talmudic studies. They live apart from the rest of the society. A large number of Israelis are questioning this way of life and even more its cost for the state, like it was during the 2011 Israel social justice protests, among other issues. The young Haredim are exempted to serve in the army, which, according to some, questions their legitimacy to benefit from the protection of the state. At the same time, their support is politically necessary for the Israeli secular sides of the government.

On the contrary, the Orthodox Jews do serve in the army and actively support the creation of Israel, which they see as an act of Divine significance. Also called the Religious Zionists, they took the centre of the scene after Six-Day War with a new mission: “relaunch Zionism by colonizing the territories of Biblical Israel” (KRIEGEL, in DIECKHOFF, 2008, p. 180). They did not hesitate to take illegal initiatives, and then to push the state to legalize it. If they first legitimize the creation of new settlements in the West Bank thanks to religious ideas, their discourse uses

17 “The Ethiopian-Israeli Community : Facts and Figures”, Full report, February 2012, Myers-JDC- Brookdale Institute, pp. 12, 17, 18, available on http://brookdale.jdc.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/The-Ethiopian-Israeli-Community-Facts-and- Figures-full-report-February-2012.pdf, accessed April 21, 2015 23 latterly security arguments more than religious ones. Maurice Kriegel speaks about a resurgence of religion in the 1970s and 1980s in Israel.

In parallel the Israeli society became more and more secular, with the installation within young generations of a “lack of religious culture as deep as in Europe” ” (KRIEGEL, in DIECKHOFF, 2008, p. 184). The economic growth in the 1980s and the integration in a globalized world changed the ways of life in Israel quickly, accompanied by a decrease of the link with Jewish tradition.

It is necessary to point out “it would be a mistake to ignore that, beyond these ethnocultural divisions, the Israeli-Jewish national identity is an element that linked Israeli Jews across all categories.” (BEN-RAFAEL, in DIECKHOFF, 2008, pp. 172- 174). Despite significant intergroup differences, the Jewish majority forms a common entity, even more united when they feel their existence threatened. On the contrary, the Arab minority is clearly distinguishable, because of cultural, religious and socio- economical differences and above all because of their ambiguous sense of belonging, divided between a Palestinian and an Israeli identity.

2. The Arab Israelis: a dual identity

The Arabs constituted 14% of the Israeli population at the end of 1949 and 11% in the 1960s due to the Jewish immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1967 and the Six-Days War the state has included the inhabitants of the Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem (reunified after the war) in the national statistics. Since the annexation of the Golan Heights in 1981, Israel has considered the as well in the national census (BENDELAC, 2008, pp. 11-14). Nowadays, the Arab population represents more than 20% of the population de jure in Israel18. However, the inhabitants of East-Jerusalem have a special resident status and, like the Druzes of Golan Heights, they do not possess the Israeli citizenship. Their case is particular, and this part will focus only on the Arabs who detain the citizenship, except in the statistics since all are included in the official statistics that I use here. Arab Israelis are

18 25% in 2012 according to the monthly bulletin of statistics “Population, by population group” elaborates by the Central Bureau of Statistics. Please refer to ANNEX III. 24 often distinguished in three distinct categories, according to their religions: , Christians and Druzes.

The Muslims constitute 83% of the Arab citizens19. The majority are Sunni, and there exist two main minorities in this group: the Bedouins who principally live in the South of Israel and the Circassians. The Christians represent 9%20 of the Arab Israelis. They need to be distinguished from the non-Arab Christians, counted in the group called Jews and others in official statistics. The Druzes compose the third Arab community, 8%21 of the Arab population (this percentage include the Druze of the Golan Heights). They have shared roots with Muslims but are considered as a distinct religious community, living mainly in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. Since 1957, Druze became an ethnic community in itself in the official census. The position of the Druzes within the Israeli state is particular. They are often considered as better integrated than other parts of the Arab population, even if the members of Druze communities give a strong importance to endogamous marriage in order to preserve the unity of the community. Druze Israeli men have served in the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) since 1956, which gives them a special status in comparison with other Arab Israelis, not subjected to mandatory conscription. This research will mainly focus on Christian and Muslim Israelis, as it will not be possible to take well into account the particularities of other Arab minorities.

Muslim and Christian communities live either in mixed cities with the Jewish population as in Haifa or Akko, but often in separated neighbourhoods, or in Arab cities or villages. Nazareth is the biggest Arab city, with Christians and Muslims, and some other towns such as Oum el-Fahem are primarily Muslim areas. Christian Arabs can be seen as a minority within the Arab minority. They do not feel linked with the Islamic movement whose power is increasing in the political sphere in Israel, or with Hamas whose legitimacy is growing in Gaza. A large part of the Palestinian population consider Hamas as the only movement that actually fights for Palestine, which does not imply that they agree with the means they use to fight. A symbolic proof of this growth is the last results of the students’ election at Birzeit University, in March 2015, won by Hamas. A Christian young man shared with me his feeling that

19 In 2013, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, “Population, by Religion”. Please refer to ANNEX IV. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid. 25 Christians are less and less included in the Palestinian fight, since they do not recognize themselves in some Muslim symbols used during pro-Palestinian demonstrations, as the slogan Allah Akbar. He also feels the Israeli government and society differentiate Christian and Muslim Arabs. In this sense, Bendelac considers that Israel uses divisions between ethnic communities to reinforce the fidelity of Arab Israelis to the state and to decrease their political power. This author considers that Christians “form the more modern and well-integrated non-Jewish community” who accepted in their majority, with the Druze, to be part of the Jewish state (BENDELAC, 2008, pp. 29-30). Even if there are elements of distinction between the two religious communities, they still share common characteristics in their link with the Israeli state and their position within the Israeli society.

Quoting a Muslim interviewee, Donna Rosenthal depicts the Arab Israelis under an “ongoing identity crisis” (ROSENTHAL, 2008, p. 265). The author puts forward the dual identity of Arab Israelis: between Palestinian and Israeli identifications. This duality is recurrent in the literature about the Arab Israelis. Authors explain in different ways the attitude of the Arab minority but are based on the same main temporal periods to analyse the political engagement and the behaviour of Arab Israelis in the Israeli society.

On a political aspect, Arab Israelis voted until the 1980s for labour or communist party, led by Jewish Israelis. The 1980s represent a turning point for the political influence of Arab parties, more or less linked with the ideology of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Since this period, the Arab Israelis have been more and more involved in politics, voting in their majority for Arab parties. The results of the last legislative elections, on March 2015, symbolize this engagement, with an important percentage of participation. More than 60% voted, mainly for the . This list obtained 14 seats in the (the Israeli Parliament), which gives some space for the Arab representatives to defend the rights of the Arab minority, on the side of the opposition. The ideology of Arab parties is based on an internal and external agenda: to fight for a total equality between Arab and Jewish citizens and, in solidarity with the Palestinians, to change the policy led in the Palestinian Territories by Israel. A new element was added in the 1980s: Arab Israelis are considered as part of the Palestinian people and should use peaceful means to take part in the struggle (LOUËR, in DIECKHOFF, p.194-198). The 1990s represent the 26 first period were the Arab parties managed to get advantage from the labour party in power that needed the support of Arab parties in exchange of significant counterparts.

Some analyses consider the increasing support from Arab Israelis to Arab parties as a radicalization of the Arab minority. According to the radicalization thesis, articulated by Eli Rekhess (quoted in SMOOHA, 1989, pp. 60-62), Arab Israelis has “become Palestinian in both their national identity and in their approach to Israel” since 1967, meaning that they share national orientation with Palestinians and that they are becoming more and more hostile to the Jewish state. Some authors, on the contrary, perceive the growing political engagement of the Arab Israelis as a “form of integration in the Israeli society”22, as they began to take part in the political debate and tried to influence political decision (LOUËR, in DIECKHOFF, 2008, pp. 194- 198). This Arab politicization thesis stands “as Arabs become increasingly politicized they have availed themselves of the political means to participate on an equal basis in Israeli society” (SMOOHA, 1989, pp. 60-62). The fact that they are a non-Jewish and non-Zionist group in a Jewish and Zionist society makes them a “threat to the status quo in Israel and the proponents of the most radical change” which also explains why the Israeli authorities had been trying to control this minority since the creation of the state. Sammy Smooha, an Israeli sociologist, believes that this last thesis involves Israelization, a process that “is reflected in the Arab’s growing bilingualism and biculturalism, their acceptance of Israeli standards and styles and their view of themselves as an integral part of Israel” (ibid.). Like Jacques Bendelac (BENDELAC, 2008, pp. 25-30), Sammy Smooha states that the Arab Israelis accepted the state of Israel and the fact that they are a minority within this state. Thus they begin to use their right as citizens of a democracy to fight for total equality with the Jewish Israelis and to ameliorate their life condition. This includes their will to change the position of Israel towards the Palestinian territories and to force the Israeli society to recognize their Palestinian identity.

Another study of Sammy Smooha puts forward the negative feelings of Arab Israelis on the way Israel deals with them. “70.5% of the Arabs say that the government today treats Arabs as second class citizens or as hostile citizens who do not deserve equality” (SMOOHA, 2013, p.14). According to the researcher, they do

22 My own translation from « Une forme d’intégration dans la société israélienne », p.198

27 not reject Israel but try to change a society they consider they are part of. As’ad Ghanem, professor at the University of Haifa, developed a different position, asserting that the Palestinians in Israel want full equality with the Jewish citizens, which is not possible in a Jewish and Zionist state:

“The Palestinians in Israel are not happy with their living conditions. (...) In their eyes the state must serve all citizens equally. In essence they demand that the state be ‘the state of its citizens’ and not a state that favours one group of citizens [Jewish] at the expense of others. All of this is expressed in their demand to modify the character of the state.” (GHANEM in NIMNI, 2003, pp. 98-116).

Palestinization, the reverse process of Israelization, refers to the feeling of being Palestinian before Israeli, when the last one is viewed as a citizenship more than an identity belonging. This position is well symbolized in the way members of the National Committee for the Arabs in Israel present themselves:

“We are the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, the indigenous peoples, the residents of the States of Israel, and an integral part of the Palestinian People and the Arab and Muslim and human Nation. The war of 1948 resulted in the establishment of the Israeli state on a 78% of historical Palestine. [...] This has transformed us into a minority living in our historic homeland.”(RINAWIE-ZOABI, 2006, p.5)

The identity or the sense of belonging of the Arabs living in Israel is a polemical issue, and there are contradicting positions between the authors, Israeli or not, and also between the Arab Israelis themselves. This issue has led me to analyze the way the state of Israel deals with this empowered non-Jewish minority.

C. Common citizenship, distinct nationalities

1. Two different statuses within the Israeli state

Directly or indirectly, the state of Israel favours the majority population and has a particular relation with its Jewish citizens. It can be considered as normal in a minority-majority situation, even more taking into account the historical position of minority of the Jews and the fact that a part of the population, including political 28 leaders, questions the legitimacy of the State. On the other hand, some authors do not consider Israel as a democracy. As’ad Ghanem developed with Oren Yiftachel the notion of “ethnocracy”, referring to “the domination of the Jewish ethnic group in the state of Israel and how the Palestinian minority is structurally relegated to a position of inferiority”23. Sammy Smooha points out the particularity of Israel, that he calls “ethnic democracy”, which defines itself as a state for the Jews, not as a state for all its citizens. All citizens are equal in the eyes of the law, but the majority group benefits from a preferential status (quoted in BENDELAC, 2008, p.30).

The purpose here is not to go through complex and rooted debates. I will present what I consider a more neutral but interesting position developed by Alain Dieckhoff (DIECKHOFF, 2008, p.25-38), to enlighten the distinction between nationality and citizenship. The author does not question the democratic dimension of Israel, since the expression of sovereignty belongs to all Israeli citizens, but he points out the distinction between citizenship and nationality. According to this French researcher, Israel cannot be considered as a nation state, because there is no such thing as an Israeli nation where all citizens can recognize themselves in. He argues that there is a unique and equal Israeli citizenship (including Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis) but that the Israeli nationality is defined on an ethnocultural basis. Thus Israel is not only a nation for the Jewish citizens but also for all Jews around the world, as potential citizens of Israel. To contradict the link between Israel and the Jews or to question the democratic character of Israel would prevent a candidate from taking part in the legislative elections. According to the Basic Law: the Knesset (1985):

“A candidates' list shall not participate in elections to the Knesset if its objects or actions, expressly or by implication, include one of the following: negation of the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people; negation of the democratic character of the State; incitement to racism."24

The distinction between nationality and citizenship is specific to Israel. It will be necessary throughout this research to define several terms and precise the semiology

23Interview titled “Israel's ‘Ethnocracy’ and the Demographic Threat”: Dr. As'ad Ghanem on Israel's Palestinian Citizens” available on http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/2359/pid/895 accessed April 16, 2015 24 Available on http://www.israellawresourcecenter.org/israellaws/fulltext/basiclawknes850731.htm, accessed April 16, 2015 29 used to lead a study in Israel. Arab and Jewish have a common citizenship, but the nationality is linked with the ethnicity.

The way people are officially called should be given a special importance since it may have an influence on the way people define themselves and the others. The Israeli population is indexed within 138 ethnic groups in the Mircham Atochavim, the Israeli official registry of residents (as Jew, Arab, Russian, German, etc.). Because of the evolution of the population and the arrival or new groups, ethnic categories were modified. The ethnicity appears on identity cards issued before 2002. Today there are two kinds of statistical classification. First according to the religion, where six categories can be found: Jews, Muslims, Arab Christians, non-Arab Christians, Druzes and individuals without a declared religion. Christian was divided between Arab Christian and non-Arab Christian and indeed to be Christian will be considered differently if it refers to an Arab or a non-Arab Christians. It is important to point out a particular understanding and meaning of an apparently ordinary semiology.

Secondly, two broad ethnic groups exist: on one hand Jews and other (including Jews, non-Arab Christians and population not classified by religion) and on the other hand Arabs (including Muslims, Bedouins, Arab Christians and Druzes) (BENDELAC, 2008, pp. 8-11). These two categories appear on the official website of the Central Bureau of Statistics, in the document that indicates the number of population. Thus, the Jew category includes all minorities, except the Arab minority, which has a special status, separated from the rest of the population. The official categorization has a direct influence on the way people consider themselves, what they feel they belong to, and on the way others will consider them. The power creates categorization that will be perceived as legitimate (BRUBAKER & COOPER, 2000, page 15), such as in the official census. In this sense, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics gives life to social groups of belonging in the society. Individuals feel they belong to a certain group because they were categorized as members of this group without being necessarily aware of it. Categories to label people evolve. The Druzes, for instance, were defined as Arab and then in a particular group, which disconnects them on the ground from the other Arab Israelis. According to the self-categorization theory (TURNER and al., 1987 quoted in BAR-TAL & TEICHMAN, 2005, p.5), individuals also “categorize themselves as group members” and “create a common share identity”. 30 A primary element that distinguishes the Arab Israelis from the rest of the society is the fact that they do not serve in the army. This leads them to be discriminated against, on a state level and a daily basis. There exist laws that indirectly disfavour the Arab Israelis, such as a law passed by Ariel Sharon in 2002 whereby social helps of the family where no member did the military service are for instance reduced. The fact that they did not serve in the army also leads to daily discriminations. A job proposition would, for example, precise that the offer is exclusively reserved to individuals who perform military service, excluding Arab Israelis indirectly. The accomplishment of the military service is also very significant in the mentalities, as a symbol of the loyalty of the citizens to the state. It is also perceived as a fundamental duty that gives the right to be protected and to get benefit from the state, as social helps. According to the official version, the fact that Arabs are not going to army is a kind of a favour from the Israeli state, that agrees on the fact that Arab Israelis could not fight against their Palestinian fellows. Today few Christians and Muslims serve in the army, and their real possibilities to do it are questioned. In any case, the majority of the Arab Israelis categorically refuse to be part of the Israeli army. They are not officially exempted from the military service; they are simply not convened and it seems that this actual state suits everybody.

2. Two national memories

Two nationalities include the existence of two national memories. Avner Ben- Amos defines the national memory as “a collective memory that shapes our representation of the past”25 (BEN-AMOS in DIECKHOOF, 2008, pp. 81). The author depicts essential elements constitutive of a collective memory that are transmitted in order to preserve the identity of the community, such as personalities, values, events, symbols and myths. He states that national memory cannot be uniform and that minorities may develop a distinct memory. The case of Israel is really particular in terms of national memory. It will be important to consider the national

25 « La mémoire nationale est une mémoire collective qui façonne notre mode de représentation du passé. » p.81 31 memory of the Jewish majority and the “contre-mémoire” (counter-memory) of the Arab minority (ibid. p. 82).

The Zionist collective memory has two main common elements with the Jewish memory: the return of the Jews to Eretz Israel and an intensive use of commemoration days. On the contrary of the Jewish memory, the Zionist national memory developed at the end of the 19th based the past more on a secular history than on theological events. It created a new image of the Jew, from the Jew of the diaspora, submissive and disconnected from his Land to the new Jew, depicted as a proud pioneer and fighter, ready to die for his homeland. The national Israeli memory presented here is mainly based on the secular culture of European Jews and the Zionism of the Labour party, but there are in parallel “additional memories” (BEN- AMOS in DIECKHOOF, 2008, p.91), as for the Mizrahim, which keeps the Zionist vision but insists on different events that happened in the past.

The creation of Israel had an impact on the Zionist collective memory. New heroes, the soldiers that fought against the Arabs during the 1948 war or the next conflicts and the Jews that revolted against Nazis during the World War II, symbolize the new Israeli. Three national commemoration days were set in the 1950s: Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom Hazikaron (Day of Remembrance for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism) and Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence day). The image of Shoah and its importance in the Israeli memory have evolved since 1948: from a minor importance it becomes a central part of the national memory. Heroism, first assigned mainly to the ones who fought against the Nazis, is today ascribed to all the survivors of the ghettos and of the concentration camps. This evolution is partly explained by the fact that the Jewish Israelis felt several times their existence endangered, thus more connected with the Jews during the WWII. In this sense, the Six Days War and the Yom Kippur War represent a turning point (BEN-AMOS in DIECKHOOF, 2008, pp. 81-98).

It is essential to note that the Jews are the majority in the Israeli state but feel like a minority in the Middle East, surrounded by hostile Arab countries. Ouzi Elyada, specialized in media history, points out the role of media in the construction of

32 memory, depicting the Jewish history as a “consecutive series of persecutions”26. This discourse has been strengthened after Shoah and the “conception of the Jewish people as an eternal victim became preponderant.”27(ELYADA, 2008, p.110). The Jewish Israelis still feel their existence is threatened. The idea according to which all Palestinians and Arabs from neighbouring countries wish to “throw all the Jews into the sea” is well spread in the Israeli mentalities. The sense of threat also comes from inside, even more since 2000 and the Second Intifada, when Arab Israelis participated more actively in suicide bombing missions, directly involved or helping Palestinians from the Territories to target Israeli civilians. Today the Holocaust is central to the Israeli collective memory. Yad Vashem museum is the most important in Israel, established in 1953 “as the world centre for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust”28. War memorials and military cemeteries are also spaces for ceremony in Israel, in addition with archaeological sites such as the very symbolic Massada 29 . In Europe, Israeli pupils have visited massively the extermination camps in Poland since the end of the 1980s and also Eastern Europe cities where there were important Jewish communities before the Holocaust. Avner Ben-Amos insists on the essential role of school in the transmission of the national memory, especially in learning of history. The history curriculum in Israeli schools focuses mainly on Jewish history and establishes a long-term link between the Jewish people and the land of Israel. The army also includes an educative mission, using the same tools to transmit the national memory as schools while insisting on the primordial role of the army for the survival of Israel (BEN-AMOS in DIECKHOOF, 2008, pp. 81-98). As a multicultural state, Israel developed a particular education system, with different types of schools that take into account the group belongings of the pupils, including religious schools and Arab schools.

The instruction in Arab schools is in Arabic, with a focus on Arab history, culture and religion (for Christians, Muslims or Druzes). The minority developed a different interpretation of the national history elaborate by the Jewish majority,

26 My own translation from « L'histoire de ce peuple depuis la destruction du deuxième temple de Jerusalem peut être résumée en une série ininterrompue de persécutions. » p. 109 27 My own translation from « Après la Shoah, la conception du peuple juif comme victime éternelle est devenue prépondérante, voire hégémonique. » p.110 28According to the website of the museum: http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/about/index.asp, accessed April 30, 2015 29 A fortification where a Jewish-Roman war ended in the mass suicide of the Jewish population.. 33 reflected in the version of the history learned at school. Although some researchers denounce the content of Arab history textbooks, as George Mansour according to whom “the books ignore the presence of the Arab-Palestinian people in Israel and the stress is on the Promised Land of the Jewish people”30. Few Jewish Israelis are well aware of the existence of a different version of the past while Arab Israelis know well the two interpretations, thanks to school and also to the environment they have grown in. The position of the Arab Israelis towards the Shoah is diverse: from some who consider Shoah as a myth used to legitimize Zionism and the creation of Israel to others who understand the importance of the Holocaust for the Jews and try to explain it, such as Haled Mahmid at the initiative of a Shoah museum in Nazareth (BENDELAC, 2008, pp. 34-40).

The counter-memory developed by Arab Israelis includes elements that concern all Palestinians and events that are specific to the Arab Israelis, but also commemorated in the Palestinian Territories. The existence of a Palestinian national memory reveals the connection between Arab Israelis and Palestinians of the Palestinian territories and the diaspora. The central element of this collective memory is Youm alNakba (from the Arabic, meaning Day of the Catastrophe), which commemorates the expulsion of Palestinian populations in 1948. This day is commemorated each year by part of the Arab Israelis, on May 15, or on the official Independence Day celebrated according to the Hebrew calendar. In 2011, the Knesset approved a bill, also called Nakba Bill, which “imposes financial sanctions on institutions that commemorate Israel’s Independence Day as a day of mourning”31. This bill is a review of the original proposal elaborated in 2009 that makes the commemoration of the Nakba a criminal offense. The majority does not accept and forbids the Arab minority to commemorate the essential element of the Palestinian memory.

Several other commemorations take place each year: Kfar Kassem massacre, when Israeli border police killed 49 Arab Israelis, Naksa Day (Day of the setback) commemorates the displacement of populations following Israel’s victory in the Six-

30 Quoted in an article of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, http://www.haaretz.com/print- edition/news/israel-s-textbooks-in-arabic-are-full-of-mistakes-study-finds-1.360617, accessed April 30, 2015 31 Available on http://en.idi.org.il/analysis/articles/the-nakba-bill-a-test-of-the-democratic-nature-of- the-jewish-and-democratic-state/, accessed April 30, 2015 34 Day War. This is also a day when Druzes from the Golan denounce the Israeli occupation of their villages, previously Syrian. Yom al-Ard (Land Day), in remembrance of the Israeli Arabs killed by the Israeli police during a demonstration against expropriation of land announced by the government, is symbolic because considered as the first act of mass resistance by the Arab Israelis in Israel. Sabra and Shatila massacre, when Palestinians refugees were massacred in two refugee camps in Lebanon, by Lebanese forces and with the support of the Israeli army, is also an important part of the Palestinian memory. They developed a minority memory, well represented in the document Vision of Palestinian Arabs in Israel:

“Since the Al-Nakba of 1948, we have been suffering from extreme structural discrimination policies, national oppression, military rule that lasted till 1966, land confiscation policy, unequal budget and resources allocation, rights discrimination and threats of transfer. The State has also abused and killed its own Arab citizens, as in the Kufr Qassem massacre, the land day in 1976 and Al-Aqsa Intifada back in 2000”32.

This counter-memory of the national Israeli memory is attached to a global national Palestinian memory. Avner Ben-Amos uses also the term “alternative memories” (“mémoires alternatives”, BEN-AMOS in DIECKHOOF, 2008, p. 92) to describe the memories developed by Arab Israelis and non-Zionist Jews. Arab Israelis created associations, such as the Association of the Forty that ask for the recognition of some communities as independent villages, destroyed in 1948, and claim the right of return for the inner and external refugees. Several minority Jewish groups support them, as Zochrot (meaning to remember). This Israeli NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) developed an application for smartphone called iNakba, with an Index of the disappeared villages since 1948. This kind of organization challenges the national Zionist memory, trying to show the existence of negative consequences of the Independence War on the Palestinian population. According to Ouzi Elyada, the war in Lebanon in 1982 also brought an additional narrative to the one of the Jewish “beleaguered people” (my own translation from “peuple ‘assiégé’ ”, in ELYADA, 2008, p.177), surrounded by strong threatening enemies. It added a narrative describing the Jewish Israelis also as “normalized people” (ibid. “peuple ‘normalisé’”) in a society composed by victims but also persecutors.

32 National Committee for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in Israel, The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, 2006, p.5 35 Israel is a multicultural society, composed by heterogeneous groups in terms of ethnicity, socio-economical levels, religious beliefs or degrees of practice, languages or simply in terms of culture according to the definition of Hofstede. Beyond these differences, it is possible to establish two separate groups, with two separate nationalities and national memories. They are officially distinguished within Israel: the Arabs and the Jews. Because of the group they belong to, Israelis have different status, rights, expectations and link with the state. Thus, the contemporary history of Israel made these two groups separated, on a geographical level but also on a more symbolic understanding. Taking into account this very specific context, this research aims at analysing the personal relations developed by these two separated populations, focusing on a particular part of the population: students of the University of Haifa.

36 Chapter II: Daily interactions at the University of Haifa

“I don’t have any Arab friend, I didn’t ever discussed with one of them”. I was surprised when a leftist and open-minded Israeli young man, living near Tel-Aviv, shared that he never had the opportunity to meet with Arab Israelis, although they compose more than 20% of the Israeli population. The general theme of intercultural relations had interested me for a long time. Therefore I chose to learn more about the complex reality of relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis. Several authors, often specialized on the situation of Arab Israelis, have studied the relations between this minority and the majority in the Jewish state. The conclusions are unequivocal: all agree on the low level of these relations. The authors accord more or less importance to several elements that actually explain the limited interactions.

Following a necessary overview of the main literature on Arab-Jewish relations, I will explain in details my choice to focus on one particular part of the population, in one specific area and the tools I use to conduct this research. As a student myself, I was curious about the situation at the university, an environment that I personally consider to be a place of social contact. The summer break between the two years of my master in intercultural mediation (master Erasmus Mundus MITRA) was a great opportunity to conduct a period of field research. I believed that Haifa would be well adapted for two reasons: this city is generally considered as one of the most mixed cities in Israel, and the University of Haifa hosts the highest percentage of Arab students in Israel.

A. Haifa: a mixed city in Israel?

1. Coexistence in Israel

Arab and Jewish Israelis are basically separated on a geographical level. They mainly live in distinct areas, or in distinct neighbourhoods when they live in a same city. The members of the two communities grew up separately, in different schools 37 and environments. Arab and Jewish Israelis are “equipped with all the necessary means to preserve a separate existence and identity such as separate communities, education systems, and families” (SMOOHA, 2004, p.19). Thus, the Arab minority is given collective rights in order to preserve their identity, which also prevents assimilation with the Jewish majority. The two groups use different languages, Arabic or Hebrew, follow different religious practices, mainly Judaism, Christianity or Islam, and evolve within different cultural settings and different understandings of the world.

However they still live in the same country, which implies that there must be some interactions. Arab and Jewish citizens may meet in the streets, restaurants or shops, at the beach, university, work or hospital. It is clear that a large number of elements imply a separation but this research is concerned with the existence of relations in the complex Israeli environment. The theme of Jewish-Arab relations can be dealt with through global or personal approaches. I choose in this research to analysis relations on a very personal level, among a defined population and using a qualitative fieldwork approach. However, I will start by presenting an overview of the state of relations on a macro level in Israel, that have a direct impact on the personal relations developed by individuals. Several works have been done on the situation of Arab Israelis and their position within the Jewish state, but only few studies33 focus on the relations between the two communities.

The definition of coexistence by Daniel Bar-Tal points out the difficulty to create a pacific state of relations in a conflicting context:

“Coexistence is a state of mind shared by society members who recognize the rights of another group to exist peacefully as a legitimate, equal partner with whom disagreements have to be resolved in nonviolent ways. Achieving coexistence is a great challenge because of the negative relations between the two groups. These negative relations, the result of ethnocentric beliefs or intractable conflict, are widely shared and their abolition requires deep societal change” (BAR-TAL, 2004, p. 253).

Thanks to Arab and Jewish public surveys, Sammy Smooha affirms that a majority of each part of the two communities “agree that Arab and Jewish citizens live together in Israel” (SMOOHA, 2013, p.102) However a part of each group does not recognize the legitimacy of the other group to exist or to ask for changes. On one

33 Written or translated into English or French. 38 hand, Arab Israelis may be seen as taking advantage of the state without respecting their duties as citizens, mainly the military service, and without always considering themselves as Israelis but more as Palestinians. If the majority of the Jews “recognize the right of the Arabs to live in Israel (75,4%)”, a minority of them “accepts the legitimacy of a national Arab-Palestinian minority (31,7%)”(SMOOHA, 2004, p.103). On the other hand, a minority of the Arab citizens are strongly against the legitimacy of the state to exist, considered as an oppressor, and refuses coexistence. This position is reflected by the anti-normalization campaign led by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The idea of normalization can be described as a “ ‘colonization of the mind’ whereby the oppressed subject comes to believe that the oppressor’s reality is the only ‘normal’ reality that must be subscribed to, and that the oppression is a fact of life that must be coped with34”. Moreover, to be treated as “second class citizens”, or worst as “hostile citizens”, impacts negatively on their “confidence in coexistence” (SMOOHA, 2013, p.14).

Above all, the Jewish-Zionist character of the State remains a central issue. A large majority of Arab Israelis recognizes the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state but a small minority accepts its Zionist character. “A Jewish state is a state in which there is a Jewish majority and which grants equal rights to its Jewish and Arab citizens, while a Zionist state is a state that preserves its Jewish majority and gives various preferences to Jews” (SMOOHA, 2004, p.103).

On the contrary, the Jewish majority is not ready to question the Zionist character of the state, considered as essential for the survival of Jewishness. It agrees that changes should be made in order to achieve more equality and to help Arab Israelis to identify as citizens of the state, if and only if the national security and the Jewishness of the state are preserved. The more Arab Israelis want equal rights and better opportunities, the more they challenge the essence of the state, which the Jews are attached to, and the more there will be disagreements between the two parts of the populations on central issues of coexistence. The feeling of the Jewish Israelis as being a minority, historically and in the Middle East, has an impact on their resistance to change (SMOOHA, 1989, p. 86).

34Available on http://972mag.com/what-is-normalization/31368/, accessed May 15, 2015 39 Without losing its Jewish and Zionist character, it seems that the state cannot assure a full civil equality. The Arab minority asks for equality, while being recognized as a Palestinian national minority with its own cultural, religious and educative institutions, and with its own representatives. Moreover, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories also has an impact on the Arab citizens. Firstly, they are considered as active enemies, because of their identification with the Palestinian identity. Secondly, the two parts of Israeli society developed two distinct narratives regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and do not agree on the responsibilities of the belligerents and on the possible solutions.

Beyond disagreements on the character and the actions of the state and the position of diverse part of the society, stereotypes and prejudices35 also play an important role in Jewish-Arab relations. Both are linked, according to the intergroup relations approach, or realistic conflict theory (BAR-TAL, 2005 p.12), since stereotypes and prejudices appear when different interests divide two groups. “The representation of the rival groups is of special importance [...]. This representation, which includes cognitive-affective elements, determines the level of animosity, hostility, and mistrust between the groups that eventually may lead to violent acts that continue to reinforce the representation” (BAR-TAL, 2005, p.1). The context of conflict and the absence of direct social contacts create a negative psychological intergroup repertoire. Daniel Bar-Tal focuses his study on Jewish children. He asserts that they adopt at a very young age an extremely negative psychological repertoire about Arabs, in a context of conflict that particularly affects them. This has a clear implication in later life, with few possibilities for the image to evolve. Since a young age Jewish Israelis create two opposed groups: the self-reference group, Jewish or Israeli group, and the enemy group, composed by Arabs (BAR-TAL, 2005, pp. 13- 14).

The author elaborates that the label Arabs is global, “often perceived as a homogeneous hostile entity.” (ibid. p. 376). It includes Israeli Arabs, Palestinians and also Arabs from other Arab countries. The conflict is called Arab-Israeli conflict and the members of the main Israeli minority are called Arabs. Thus, a clear link is established in the label between the enemies of the state and its Arab citizens. Daniel

35 Daniel Bar-Tal defines stereotypes as the “beliefs about a group” and prejudices as the “attitude about a group” p. 53 40 Bar-Tal puts forward the role of the media, leaders, cultural products (theatrical plays, literature and films) and educational system in the transmission of a negative repertoire about Arabs. Arab Israelis may be aware of the existence of a negative image towards the group they belong to, since they also watch Israeli channels for instance.

The study analysed Jewish perceptions but is able to draw the same conclusions on the other side: “there is firm evidence for suggesting that representations of Arabs by Israeli Jews are a mirror image of those held by Arabs to represent Israeli Jews” (ibid. p. 375). In this sense, a census shows “About half of the Arabs harbour negative images of the Jews. They see the Jews as untrustworthy, as racist, as violent, and as lacking self-respect”(SMOOHA, 2004, p.21).

The existence of two distinct groups in the eyes of both Arab and Jewish Israelis and the negative image linked with each group limit the development of good relations. The geographical and institutional separation and the cultural and socio- economical differences tend to spread these negative images and do not encourage better relations. According to Sammy Smooha, “the general public in the state is well aware of the fact that Israel is a deeply divided society. [...] A majority on both sides evaluate the present state of Arab-Jewish relations are bad”(SMOOHA, 2004, pp.61- 62). Some percentages of the index are relevant in observing a difference between the level of social integration Arabs and Jews are in favour of, and the actual state of their relations. A strong majority on both sides think there will be friendly relations between Arabs and Jews. However, a minority of Jews agree that Arabs will live in Jewish neighbourhoods, study in Jewish high schools and spend time in parks and swimming pools in the Jewish sectors. 70,5% of the Arabs and 52,5% of the Jews meet members of the other group daily or often. Only 35,1% of the Arabs and 16,3% of the Jews have friends from the other group whose homes they visited over the past two years. 35,9% of the Arabs and 65,4% of the Jews do not have Jewish or Arab friends36 (ibid. p. 111).

The general Arab-Jewish relationships are limited in Israel, but the situation could be better when the two populations live in a same city. Localities in Israel are

36 More details are available on the document “Summary tables of Arab-Jewish Relations Index 2004: Social integration, Personal integration, Cultural integration”. Please refer to ANNEX V. 41 dividing in three categories: Jewish, Arab and mixed. A Jewish majority with an important Arab minority is described as a mixed town. Officially, Jerusalem, Tel- Aviv-Yafo, Haifa, Akko, Ramla, Lod, Ma’a lot-Torshiha and Nazerat Illit are considered as mixed37. Among these localities, Haifa is often described as a model in Israel. This explains partly why I chose to conduct my research in this city.

2. Haifa: between coexistence and segregation

Reading the touristic guide Lonely Planet, Haifa appears as the most mixed Jewish-Arab city in Israel38, where “Jews, Christians and Muslims live side by side in harmony, and the city is proud to serve as a model for Jewish-Arab coexistence.” Donna Rosenthal also insists on the specificity of the city in Israel: “In other mixed cities like Jerusalem, Acre, Lod, and Jaffa, coexistence means living together separately; in Haifa it means living together” (ROSENTHAL, 2008, p.260). Haifa is the third largest city in Israel, with about 270 000 inhabitants or 600 000 if we count the whole Haifa metropolitan area. 81% is Jewish and 11% is Arab39. Muslims constitute approximately 4% of the population and Christians 6%. The city is located in the north of Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. Haifa can be divided in three areas: the middle and the highest levels, on , are mainly residential neighbourhoods. The further we go up, the more expensive is the housing. The lower part includes the oldest part of the city, a popular residential area and the centre of commerce and industry, with the country’s main port.

Under the British mandate, the developed economy of Haifa attracted both Palestinian and Jewish populations. The tensions were limited in comparison with other parts of Israel thanks to a flourishing economy, but this situation did not last and

37 Cities defined as mixed by the Central Bureau of Statistics. 38 Available on the official website of Lonely Planet, https://www.lonelyplanet.com/israel-and-the- palestinian-territories/mediterranean-coast, accessed May 2, 2015 39 In 2013, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics “Localities and population by disrict, sub- district, religion and population group”, http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/text_search_eng_new.html?CYear=2014&Vol=65&input=religi on, accessed May 9 2015 42 the Jewish population became more and more active politically40. The Jewish forces took over Haifa in April 1948, defeating the Arab armies. Approximately 6% of the Palestinians stayed in the city, and the rest became refugees. A part of the old city was destroyed and a large part of the lands owned by Palestinians were redistributed by the state to Jewish immigrants. The departure of the Palestinians from Haifa is a symbolic event in the Palestinian memory and “the fall of Arab Haifa along with its [...] Arab inhabitants [...] constitutes one of the key events of the Palestinian Nakba” (YAZBAK and WEISS, 2011, p.1). The members of the Haifa project (ibid.) point out two different readings of the city of Haifa. The Palestinian perspective deplores the fall of Arab Haifa in 1948, while the city is considered as a symbol of coexistence in the Jewish Israeli perspective, ignoring a central historical event in the eyes of the Palestinians. The population has always been separated between Jewish, Muslim or Christian neighbourhoods, as it is the case in general in Israel, but Haifa is a city where, today, Arabs and Jews live in mixed neighbourhoods. Some neighbourhoods would be considered more Arab or Jewish, which does not necessary imply the homogeneity of the inhabitants. Some studies define Haifa as an exemplar mixed city in Israel, while others insist on the segregation that exists in the city. At this level, the aim is not to take position but only to present two opposed descriptions of a same city.

In a document titled Coexistence Initiatives in Israel, the Jewish Community Relations Council points out the specificity of Haifa in Israel.

“Unlike other cities in Israel where Jews and Arabs tend to live in their own ethnic neighbourhoods, Jews and Arabs in Haifa live together in the same apartment buildings and work together at the port, at the city’s Rambam hospital and at Haifa University. During the 2006 Lebanon War, Arabs and Jews huddled together in bomb shelters in Haifa” 41.

The Forum for cities in Transition dresses the same conclusion42, describing Haifa as the “most cohesive” of mixed cities in Israel. Despite an undeniable segregation it notes an improvement of the social interaction between Arab and Jewish Israelis. Indeed, the last decades were marked by several initiatives taken in the sense of a

40 The Forum for cities in Transition, linked with the University of Massachusetts (Boston), « Haifa », http://citiesintransition.net/fct-cities/haifa/, accessed May 9 2015 41 Available online on http://www.jcrcstl.org/documents/JCRCIssueSummaryCoexistence3-09.pdf, accessed May 9 2015 42 The Forum for cities in Transition, linked with the University of Massachusetts (Boston), « Haifa », http://citiesintransition.net/fct-cities/haifa/, accessed May 9 2015 43 deeper coexistence. Beit Hagefen, an Arab-Jewish cultural centre, was established in 1963 in order to bring together Arabs and Jews. Since 1993, the centre has organized in December the Holiday of Holidays, an intercultural festival celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah and Ramadan. This festival is a joint project with the municipality of Haifa and promotes the image of a multicultural and tolerant city. At a more academic level, the Jewish-Arab Centre, found in 1972, is based at the University of Haifa. This research centre also works on the campus and in the public sphere, and promotes good relations between Jewish and Arab Israelis. The Jewish-Arab centre organized, for instance, the Classmates for Coexistence program, a summer school in Germany that leads Arab and Jewish students to speak together about coexistence.

Beyond this apparent coexistence, several studies insist on the segregation that exists in Haifa. First of all, some studies put forward that the life levels of Arab and Jewish Israelis create a distinction between the two populations. In this sense, social and economical conditions would be different depending on the group belonging of the inhabitants. Arab Israelis generally “live in poorer neighbourhoods” and are “socially and economically disadvantaged in comparison to their Jewish counterparts”43. Other authors state that “citizenship is unequal, and resources and services are allocated on the basis of ethnicity rather than residency” (YELENEVSKAYA and FIALKOVA, 2011, p. 141). According to Yelenevskaya and Fialkova, there also exist intergroup differences. Christians have developed private schools, and they constitute a significant percentage of university attendees. A remarkably large part of the Christian population is part of the middle class, while the majority of Muslims belong to the working class.

In general, several researches show that Arab and Jewish Israelis do not have the same living conditions in the same city, nor the same access to economic and social mobility. This would reflect a more general situation in Israel, where “the income of Arab wage earners was [in 2008] 61% the amount earned by Jewish wage earners”44. The Central Bureau of Statistics also points out differences in terms of professional categories: Arabs are more unskilled or skilled workers than Jews, while

43 The Forum for cities in Transition, linked with the University of Massachusetts (Boston), “Haifa”, http://citiesintransition.net/fct-cities/haifa/, accessed May 9 2015 44 According to the report delivered by the Central Bureau of Statistics in 2010, “The Arab Population in Israel” 2008, p .7 44 they are less managers, associate professionals and technicians or academic professionals than Jews (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2010, p. 6).

Moreover, the fact that they live in a same city does not automatically mean that there is interaction between the members of the different groups. Daily interactions occur at the work place, at hospital, in malls and shopping streets and at university or simply in mixed neighbourhood. However, “Jews and Arabs in Haifa continue being apart maintaining social networks and engaging in leisure activities primarily within their own ethno-cultural groups.” (YELENEVSKAYA and FIALKOVA, 2011, p.142). Ghazi Falah symbolically titled his paper Living together apart. The author uses the terms “segregation” and even “hypersegregation” to describe the way Arab and Jewish Israelis live in mixed cities in Israel. It appears that the populations shares a “same urban space” but that the social and economic interactions are “underdeveloped”. He describes a “situation of neighbours without neighbourly relations [that] marks the residential reality of Israeli mixed cities.” (FALAH, 1996, p.823). Based on focus groups discussions, the NGO New Israel Fund states that “the majority of the town’s residents live in a sort of cultural indifference devoid of neither desire to interact with members of other populations nor outright hostility” (quoted in YELENEVSKAYA and FIALKOVA, 2011, p. 141).

Above all, the relations between the two parts of the populations evolve according to the political and conflict context. These relations have deteriorated since the Second Intifada, during which suicide bombings in buses or restaurants killed civilians or violent Arab demonstrations were followed by clashes between Arab citizens and the police. In October 2000, the Israeli police killed more than 10 demonstrators. One cannot consider coexistence in the city while ignoring the political context. I personally conducted this research during a period of tensions and conflict. I will consider carefully this conflicting background, and analyse its impact on the space I chose to base my research in, the University of Haifa.

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B. The spatio-temporal context: inter-student relations, in time of conflict

1. University: a space for intergroup contact

I am interested in the relations that people develop on a personal level, out of sociability and out of choice. Not because they have to or because of any economic interest. Thus, I aim to focus in this research on relationships that individuals develop voluntarily, such as friendships. I chose university because I believe this space can allow the kind of relations I want to study. I read and heard several times that it is one of the only place where Arab and Jewish Israelis have the opportunity to meet, other than in hospitals or at the workplace. Being a student myself, I am aware that university is a favorable environment for creating new relationships. It is a place of socialization, which includes the creation of new and possibly unusual relations. University is also a space in which to acquire knowledge, a critical spirit, and to question what we previously thought. Regarding the Israeli context, I believed, while conceptualizing this research, that the students may be less influenced by the heavy burden of the past, as part of the new generation, willing to build a better future. However, university is also a space to develop and express political ideas. Moreover, socialization also implies the strengthening of ties with the group of belonging and in parallel the deepening of the separation with the other group. It needs to be taken into account that Jewish students enter university after the military service, where their connection with Arab Israelis is limited but where they may have negative interaction with Palestinians. It also appears in different studies quoted previously that stereotypes and prejudices are created at a very young age, and, thus, still strong in the students’ mentalities. Thus, if university appears to be on the face of it a positive environment for Arab-Jewish relations, it is also essential to bear in mind possible negative aspects.

With the highest rate of Arab students in Israel, the University of Haifa is an appropriate space in which to conduct research on relations between Arab and Jewish students. During the two months I spent in Haifa, I was often at the university,

46 situated on the top of Mount Carmel, overlooking the Mediterranean Coast. It gave me the opportunity to experience the general atmosphere of this academic space. However I did not lead a scientific observation, useable in my research. I did not participate in courses but I walked throughout different parts of the university and frequented the cafeteria, the library and other common spaces. Israeli students would easily be able to judge the composition of groups of students, but it was not possible for me to determine whether the groups were mixed or composed exclusively of Jewish or Arab students. I need to precise here that I had to conduct this research in July and August, the summer break period in Israel. However there is a summer semester, and a significant number of students were still at the university, to follow classes or to take exams. The university was less crowded than usual, but far from being empty.

At the university, I had the opportunity to study, to observe the atmosphere on a daily basis and to meet students, professors and members of the administrative stuff. The dean of students shared with me general information about the university. For the academic year of 2013 and 2014, 3 988 students were Arab, out of 18 126, they compose 22% of the student population. At bachelor level 25,9% of the students were Arab students; they were 17,8% at a master level; and only 12,4% doing a PhD. During our meeting, the dean of students empathized on the efforts make by the university in order to give opportunities to the Arab students and to promote relations with the Jewish students. He described several programs and projects that prioritize the Arab students, financed by the state. For instance, a preparatory week and tandem with former students are organised in order to equip them with equal skills and reduce the linguistic or academic gaps to the Jewish students. The dean also refers to the Student Union’s activities, which organise Arabic book fair or a workshop to prepare Arab students for the job market. The students’ dormitories organize special events for the Arab students, such as Christmas party, dinner during Ramadan, movie projections or traditional dinners, “all in Arabic so they feel part of the Israeli population”, illustrating his description with pictures of some events. The dean also pointed out projects that aim to bring students together, such as the mixed football team, the Arab-Jewish Leadership social and academic program or Breaking the Ice. This last project organized by Beit Hagefen, an Arab-Jewish cultural community and youth centre in Haifa, will be dealt with in greater details in subsequent part. Finally,

47 the dean of students shared a very optimistic image of the university and described it as a positive environment in which to develop inter-ethnic relationships. To reduce the gaps between population groups is one of the goal of this university, where, apparently, “Jews, Arabs, and new immigrants come together to study, research, share knowledge, and socialize in an atmosphere of coexistence, tolerance, and mutual respect”45 It will be interesting to compare this official description with the perceptions of the students, Arab and Jewish, even more so during a period of tensions that may impact on the academic environment.

2. Influence of the conflict on the daily life in Haifa

My stay in Haifa was in its totality marked by the conflict between Israel and Gaza. Thus, it became an important contextual element of the research, since it had an impact on the daily life in Israel. This study analyses the Arab-Jewish relations among students of the University of Haifa in a period of conflict. I need first to present a chronological overview of the conflict46.

Two weeks before my departure, mid-June 2014, three young Jewish Israeli settlers were kidnapped in the West Bank. The Israeli government designated Hamas as being responsible and led a wave of arrests of presumed members and members of Hamas in the West Bank. A large campaign named Bring Back our Boys began in Israel and all over the world. The three young Israelis were found dead on 30 June. Arrests continued in the West Bank, and the tension between Hamas in Gaza and Israel increased. Some Palestinians were jailed, injured or killed in Gaza and the West Bank, and tens of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip. The conflict began officially on 7 July when the Israeli government declared the launch of a counter-terrorist operation, called Operation Protection Edge. On the same date, Hamas declared itself responsible for the rocket attacks. Hamas fired rockets and mortar shells into Israel and Israel bombarded targets in the Gaza Strip, and began a ground offensive in order to destroy tunnels between Gaza and Israel and to weaken Hamas forces. Several

45 According to the description of the university available at the beginning of the Index 2014 of Sammy Smooha , 2012, p.3. 46 As it is often the case, the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict leads to important debates. I will not go into details but only refer to the main events of the conflict. 48 cease-fires were initiated but not respected by one or the other side, until 26 August, which marks the end of the conflict, even if post-conflict events happened later on. More than 1800 Palestinian were killed, including more than 1300 civilians. On the Israeli side, there were mainly military losses, with three Israeli civilians and one Thai civilian killed as well as more than 60 soldiers47. The two-month long conflict was widely covered in the international media. It led to deep debates and to demonstrations, in Israel, in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere. Other than the casualties on the Palestinian side, the conflict had a direct impact in Israel on several levels.

First of all, the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip targeted different cities in Israel, mainly in the south but also reaching Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and even Haifa. Even if very few civilians died from the attacks, daily life in Israel was marked by the sound of the sirens, to warn the citizens of an attack and to let them hide in safe places as shelters. A significant number of Israelis, who already served or who were currently performing the military service, had to enter the battlefield. Thus, the majority of the Jewish Israeli population had a close member directly involved in the conflict. On the other side, the Arab Israeli population was worried about the Gaza Strip citizens, whether close family members or not. In general, the whole Israeli population was following day after day the evolution of the conflict, deploring its consequences in terms of human lives.

I followed the evolution of the conflict throughout Israeli, Palestinian and international newspapers that were focused for weeks on this small territory. These times were particularly tense, and the conflict also had an impact on my feelings on a daily basis. I was not directly affected by it, but I was living in the country, following the news, and spending time with Jewish, Arab Israelis and Palestinian friends. I also had the opportunity to see the central space that the conflict occupied in social media, mainly Facebook. Harsh comments, sometimes racist, against Arabs or Jews were regularly reported and criticized. It seems that the position of each party radicalized. An interesting article showed the tendency of social media to reinforce the opinions of each, while ignoring the arguments contained in the other interpretations of a same

47 According to the French newspaper Le Monde, « Gaza : 29 jours de conflit en chiffres », http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2014/08/05/gaza-29-jours-de-conflit-en- chiffres_4467168_4355770.html, accessed May 11 2015 49 event: “If you’re rooting for Israel, you might have seen videos of rocket launches by Hamas adjacent to Shifa Hospital. Alternatively, if you’re pro-Palestinian, you might have seen the following report on an alleged IDF sniper who admitted on Instagram to murdering 13 Gazan children.”48 Indeed different media insisted on very different aspects of the conflict, and as a consequence, people had very difference information on what was happening. I realized it while discussing with different parts of the population. The discussions in the West Bank and in Israel were largely focused on the conflict, and I had the opportunity to hear diverse opinions. The tension between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority was evident during the summer and had taken serious proportions. Newspapers reported several attacks, from Jews on Arab Israelis and vice versa. Following the discovering of the young Israelis’ dead bodies, Jewish citizens burned alive a young Palestinian from East-Jerusalem. The conflict opposing the Israeli military forces and Hamas and Islamic Jihad became in Israel a conflict opposing Arab and Jewish citizens, although the two parts of the population did not fully support the actions done by one or the other part.

Daily conversations, outside of the university, confirmed my idea that this conflict might have a direct impact on my subject. A young Jewish man told me about the best place to eat hummus in Akko, adding naturally that he and his friends do not go these days because of the conflict. A young Arab artist explained to me that she refused to take part to a project because it was a common workshop with Jewish Israelis, with whom she refuses to work, unless the Israeli state changes its position towards Palestinians. On a personal point of view, in Haifa, I mainly felt the conflict through signs of exacerbated nationalism. A Jewish girl was distributing Israeli flags to each car at a red light and few drivers refused to take it. A large number of cars but also the public transportation were adorned with the Israeli flag. Palestinian nationalism could also be felt during demonstrations that took place, organized by Arab Israelis and leftist Jewish Israelis to protest against the military actions in Gaza. During counter-demonstrations, a part of the population showed its support for the military operation and denounced the actions of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

48 “ Israel, Gaza, War and Data –The art of personalizing propaganda”, http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/08/04/israel-gaza-war-data-the-art-of-personalizing-propaganda/, accessed August 4, 2014 50 It seems relevant here to focus on the terms left and right. Both sides of the political spectrum are specific to Israel. More than referring to ideas on the socio- economical situation, being a leftist or more to the right gives information on the position of individuals on the global conflict situation. To be politically on the left would mean to be critical vis-à-vis the Israeli politics in the Palestinian Territories while to be on the right would imply to be rather in favour of the occupation. This impression does not aim to be scientifically proven, but to reflect the general idea that exists in the Israeli mentalities and the implication of being left or right. For instance, a protest against the war in Gaza could be reported in the newspapers as a leftist demonstration. The students I met established a clear link between the position of an individual on the political spectrum and position toward and image of Arab Israelis. To be right wing would mean to be reluctant to improve the position of the minority, or to have a rather negative image of Arabs.

Jewish and Arab students told me that some demonstrations were organized at the University of Haifa as well but I did not take part in any of them. Some Arab students claimed that these demonstrations were forbidden. I could not verify this information but it shows that students feel they cannot express their views on the situation, facing the university that has shown its evident support to the military operation and to the IDF soldiers. Indeed, the University of Haifa transformed the highest tower of the university into a giant Israeli flag “to express solidarity with Israeli soldiers and residents of the South and Center currently under rocket attack. [...]”49, while launching an emergency assistance fund and supporting the student reserve soldiers.

I decided to give a special importance to the impact of the conflict in the interviews I conducted. All the students I interviewed talked about the conflict before I referred to it, which proves the significance of this particular context in their eyes.

49 “The University of Haifa launches Operation Protective Edge Emergency Assistance Fund”, http://www.haifa-univ.ca/tempimages/Operation%20Protective%20Edge%20Fund.pdf, accessed May 12, 2015 51

C. An ethnographic methodology, in and outside the university

1. Student semi-structured interviews

This research aims to analyse social interactions and perceptions within two particular groups: Arab and Jewish students of the University of Haifa. An ethnographic methodology was used to conduct the study. I chose to focus in detail on a small number of participants. Thus, this research does not aim to be representative, neither of the Israeli society, nor even of the students of the University of Haifa. It rather provides elements towards understanding the visions and behaviours of a selected number of individuals, and the way they consider the environment they are evolving in. The research is first of all based on previous studies that focus on the Israeli society, the Arab Israelis and Arab-Jewish relations in Israel. I consulted this theoretical background before, during and after the fieldwork, in order to better understand what I obtained and to be able to question it. Concerning the methodology, I used data triangulation, adding participant observation, casual observation and casual interviews to the in-depth interviews that I conducted. This was useful to contrast what the participants shared during formal interviews with information that I gathered in and outside the university.

Semi-structured interviews constitute the first data of the research, and enabled me to know how the Arab and Jewish students interviewed perceive their own relations at the university, the state of relations in the university, in Haifa and in Israel in general, and how they explain a possible lack of relations. The point here is to compare the way they describe their own practices, and whether or not they considered the relations to be developed. I believed that the students would be easily reachable. My status is similar to them; we have approximately the same age and the same occupation. Moreover, we have an equal position in the sense that we are all students, not only one interviewee and one researcher. Indeed, it was not difficult to meet students who agreed to be interviewed, even if it was not always easy for them to devote time to this research.

52 I met the interviewees through different paths. Professor As’ad Ghanem gave me the opportunity to present my research at his class, with the following theme: The Palestinians in Israel, Politics and Crisis. The students I met through this political sciences course were particularly interested and prepared for the subjects broached in the interviews. Professor Ouzi Elyada advised me to contact some of his students, specialized in communication. They were also well aware of the issue my research tackled and concerned by the way the media might influence the Israeli society. I noticed that most of these students were careful in the words they were using and they way they were presenting their opinion. One Jewish interviewee, a member of Im Tirzu, an extra-parliamentary group that promotes Zionist values, had been contacted through the Facebook group of the movement. Some students advised me to contact friends of them, because of their specific position or opinion. Contacts and activities outside the university also enabled me to interview other students. Two students agreed to meet me thanks to a post on the Facebook group Haifa young English speakers. Outside of the university, I contacted Asaf Ron and Olfat Haider, both from Beit Hagefen and responsible for Breaking the Ice project. While sharing their opinion on the situation on Arab-Jewish relations, they explained the organization and the goals of the project. I interviewed one Arab and one Jewish students who participated in the project in 2014. At the university, the interviews were conducted in shared spaces, in coffee shops, in a room of the communication faculty, or in private rooms in the dormitories. Outside the university, I met the interviewees in coffee shops or at the place of residence of the students, in Haifa or outside. I had to interview three students I met in reality on Skype.

I separated my interviewees into two groups: the Jewish students and the Arab students. Because I could spend only two months in Haifa, I decided from the beginning not to interview more than 20 students. I planed to interview the same number of Arab and Jewish students but I finally conducted 10 interviews with Jewish and 8 interviews with Arab students. All names and information that make the students identifiable had been modified. The following table presents relevant information on each participant and interview:

53 Table 2: Interview setting with the Arab and Jewish students

NAME CONTACT FROM AGE DURATION / PLACE OF THE INTERVIEW TAHLIA Asad Ghanem’s class 43 46:30 / on Skype REEMA Uzi Elyada’s contact 31 01:00:00 / at the university, in a coffee shop AMANDA Asad Ghanem’s class 22 46:31 / at the university, outside LIVNA Facebook group Haifa young 31 01:10:51 / at a university office English speakers YONIT Facebook group Im Tirzu Haifa 26 55:40 / in a common space at the university (אם תרצו חיפה) HANAN Uzi Elyada’s contact 24 54:32 / at a university office NAVA Facebook group Haifa young 32 01:35:10 / at her place in Haifa English speakers MARY Riham’s contact 22 58:58 / at a coffee shop in a mall ADAM Asad Ghanem’s class 26 01:14:24 / at a university office ILAN Asad Ghanem’s class 20 51:17 / in his room, at the dormitory of the university KHADIR Rani’s contact 23 23:46 + 32:57 / on Skype AVI Asad Ghanem’s class 30 01:10:19 / at a university office OFER Asad Ghanem’s class 28 01:17:51 / in a coffee shop in a mall in Nazareth Illit MAI Coexistence project (Breaking the 24 59:31 / on Skype Ice) BISAN Asad Ghanem’s class 22 57:29 / at a university office TAL Coexistence project (Breaking the 28 59:13 / at his place in a Jewish village Ice) (Haifa District) AMIR Met at a party organized by a 26 01:19:53 / in a coffee shop at Massada German girl street RIHAM Maya’s friend 22 01:20:54 / in a coffee shop at Massada street Source: Interviews made for this thesis, in July and August 2014

The interviews lasted approximately one hour. The shortest lasted 46 minutes, the longest interview lasted one hour and thirty-five minutes. A good level of English or French was a must. One interview was conducted partly in French. Two interviews were limited because of this language issue and I make note of this when using the responses. Within the Jewish population, I paid attention to interview students with different origins: Ashkenazi, Mizrahi or so called Russian50. As for the second group, I decided to interview only Muslim and Christian students, but not Druze. It seemed that their position within the Israeli society is really specific and that it would not be possible to deal with it appropriately within this research, due to the lack of time. I tried to meet students with different political positions and religious beliefs or levels of practices. I didn’t take into account elements such as the gender, the age or the social status but focused on civic, national, and religious identities. I distinguished

50 Who comes from a former Soviet country, not only from Russia. 54 religious identity from religious affiliation. The latter does not refer to the religiosity of the interviewees but to the way they are considered in Israel. A student with a Jewish father but a non-Jewish mother is not considered as Jewish in Israel. However, he is affiliated to and evolves in the Jewish majority group.

The religious, civic and national identities refer to they way the students defined themselves. Indeed, this research attaches a significant value to the words the students used to refer to their group, and to the other’s group. According to Sammy Smooha, Jewish Israelis are “Israeli by citizenship, Judaic by religion, Jewish by nation, and Zionist by ideology” (SMOOHA, 2004, p. 43). The author insists on the fact that their identities are convergent, which does not prevent the existence of various self-consideration. Each Jewish participant gives more or less importance to one or the other identity. On the contrary, “the Israeli-civic component [of the Arab Israelis] does not conform to [their] national component (the pan-Arab and Palestinian) or to the religious component, because Israeli is not an Arab or Islamic state” (SMOOHA, 2004, p.45). The Arab students are Israeli by citizenship, which does not mean they would feel Israeli belonging. Each Arab Israeli interviewee attaches more or less value to Israeli, Arab, Palestinian or religious components.

I prepared a common interview guide before to be in Haifa, which evolved all along the fieldwork, because the students or my observations brought in light new elements. Some students shared easily a lot of information with only few questions, while others needed to be questioned deeply. The following document present the main topics discussed during each interview, with examples of question. Each questionary had been adapted to the responses of the interviewee, and the questions were often asked with more subtlety and in a different order than in this table.

Table 3: Interview guide

TOPIC EXAMPLE OF QUESTION Personal information about the students: age, place of origin, of Where are you from, where did living, language proficiency (mainly in Hebrew for the Arab you grow up and what mainly students), religious affiliation, military service (for the Jewish happened before you entered students) the university? Self-consideration in Israel: religious, national, civic identities How do you consider yourself in Israel? Personal interactions with Jewish (for the Arab students) or Arab Can you describe your relation Israelis (for the Jewish students): before and outside university, with the Arab/Jewish since the entry to university, degree of sociability: superficial population? Before and since contacts, interpersonal relations or friendships you enter university?

55 If relations are limited: reasons for limited sociability with members Why you don’t have Arab/ of the other group (age, cultural differences, religion, language, Jewish friends? Israeli-Palestinian conflict, others) If relations are well developed: description of these relations, How did you become friends? context of meeting At the university? And do you see each others outside? Perceptions of the relations in general at the university between How you would describe the Arab and Jewish: state of relations at the university, (if description relations between Arab and of limited relations) reasons for limited relations (age, cultural Jewish students in general at differences, religion, language, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, others), the university? which kind of environment is the university to develop relations with members of the other group Perceptions of the Other: evolution of the representation of people Since you entered the university, from the other group before and since university, elements that did your image of the influence the representation Jewish/Arab Israelis evolved? Perceptions of the external representation: influence of the group Have you ever felt that an belonging on the behaviour of the member of the other group Arab/Jewish Israeli did not feel comfortable in developing a relation with you because of the group you belong to? Perceptions of the relations in general in Israel and in Haifa: Could you define, more in different situation in the mixed city general, the relations in Israel and in Haifa? Influence of the conflict between Gaza and Israel, at the university, Do you feel the current conflict in Haifa, in Israel in general with Gaza has an impact on the relations between Arab and Jewish students? And more in general? The actions of the state towards the Arab minority What do you think about the way the state deals with the Arab Israelis? Solution for more developed relations between Arab and Jewish What could make the relations Israelis, at the university and in general better at the university? And outside? Source: Interviews made for this thesis, in July and August 2014

This set of questions had been tested first with one student. The basic questions were asked to every student, so the responses could be compared. In addition, semi-structured interviews allowed me to add questions according to the responses of each interviewee. Thus, even if they tackle common thematic, the questions were flexible. It let the students share their opinion and develop it on specific and relevant subjects that were not always included in the initial set of questions, and that I might not have expected. I took into account the location: where the student is from and where does he lives currently, in order to know in which environment he grew up, and whether he was in contact with members of the other group. It would also give me information on the level of Hebrew of the Arab students, if they were used to speak Hebrew before university or not. Concerning the Jewish students, I wanted to know if they had completed military service: I believed it might

56 have a impact on their image of the Arabs, since the distinction between Palestinians and Arab Israelis is not always clear in the Israeli mentalities. I also considered if the student worked before or was working during university, since the workplace represents an opportunity for Arab and Jewish Israelis to be in contact. The field of study also merits consideration since there are different percentages of Arab and Jewish students in each faculty. Moreover, a domain such as arts might lead the students to develop more contact between each other. At the end of each interview, the student was invited to add anything that could be pertinent for the research. I also asked what might allow better relations. It is more an opening question, while the goal is not to find solutions on a too complex issue. This question is also a way to get additional information on the reasons that explained a possible lack of relations. Each interview had been recorded and fully transcribed.

During each interview, I was careful not to transmit my feelings and emotions when the student spoke. I acted as neutral as possible and not judgmental, even when I disapproved of what the student was saying. I also paid attention not to reveal the hypothesis I developed, in order not to influence the person in a certain direction. I believed, due to my personal experiences and reading, that the relations at the university were limited but I did not ask questions on the reasons that explain it except when the student already tackled the subject.

Not any student questioned the distinction established between Arab and Jewish students. Only one Arab student made me feel that the subject of Arab-Jewish was not relevant, claiming that this issue exist in any country and that the situation in Israel was not specific. However, I found in his responses elements which show that the relations between the two groups are not natural, such as the fact that he participated in a coexistence project, aiming to bridge the gap between the two young populations. It was important during the interviews not to give a precise definition of relations, or friendship, in order to know how the students would define these terms. When I felt it was appropriate, I would add a question about the possible development of a romantic relationship with a member of the other group. I did not directly evoke the conflict in Gaza, waiting for the students to refer to it by themselves. It happened in most cases, which shows the importance of the conflict in the eyes of the participants.

57 I prepared the material to interview the students before I arrived in Haifa. However I had to adapt to my field research and to the possibilities offered by the University of Haifa. I also had to take into account the unexpected conflict context, which became central in my study. Moreover, my research is not composed only by the semi-structured interviews conducted with students but also by information I acquired thanks to my experiences in Haifa and thanks to the people I met outside of the university.

2. Casual and formal ethnographic fieldwork outside the university

This research provides a “thick description”, in the sense developed by Clifford Geertz (GEERTZ, 1973), of the data obtained during the fieldwork I conducted in Haifa. Indeed, the study does not only present factual accounts, and is not limited to what the students shared during the formal interviews. It also includes interpretations and meanings of the interviews, as well as participant observation, casual observation and casual interviews. I always had a notebook, where I would write any observations or commentaries that concern the research. I detailed on a daily basis who I met, how, where and when, what we discussed, and what I observed. Thus, this includes factual elements and personal interpretations, with a possibility to return later to these interpretations and to comment on them. I regularly transcribed everything on my computer, which gave me the opportunity to be aware of my own judgments and possible biases. Clifford Geertz considers that an anthropological study should contrast both the participant’s and the researcher’s points of view (GEERTZ, 1974). This includes the ability of the researcher to present an accurate representation of the reality of someone from another culture.

It was important for me to consider the specificities of the Israeli culture, and to avoid applying my own cultural understandings. I did not begin the research in a totally unknown environment. In addition to what I had read about the subject of this research, my previous experiences in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories allowed me to adapt faster to the Israeli mindset. Thus, I was already aware of specific meanings, for instance of what to be leftist, rightist, Jewish or Arab might

58 mean, what the individuals consider when they speak about the situation51, the importance of the military service in the life of the young Israelis, the possible link between Arab Israelis and the Palestinian question, the existence of two possible readings of a same event etc. However, the case of Israel is particular because there is not one culture that needs to be considered while studying Arab-Jewish relations but two cultures, the Jewish and the Arab Israeli ones. I previously had the opportunity to spend time within the Jewish Israeli part of the society, and within Palestinian society in the West Bank as well, but I had never been in touch before with Arab Israelis. Moreover, I had never experienced being in Israel at a time of conflict. In this context, it was particularly necessary to put aside my own feelings and judgments as far as possible. I believe that a total objectivity was not reachable, and not even desired.

The reader needs to be aware of my relation with the Israeli environment, which leads me to give a reflexive presentation of my personal position. In Haifa, I lived alone in a flat near the university. Outside the academic environment, I regularly met acquaintances who became, in some cases, key informants. It includes Israeli friends who I had known since my previous stay, Arab Israeli friends living in Haifa who my Palestinian friends advised me to contact and Arab and Jewish Israelis who I met though Couchsurfing 52 or through common friends. I will present these individuals only if I directly refer to them or to our discussions within this research. Some of these discussions are considered as informal and conversational interviews. The informants were not always students of the University of Haifa, but often students in other universities and with similar daily activities. I knew them in their private environment, surrounded by friends or family members. These data, even if I do not use it directly in the research, are interesting because the individuals were speaking freely and frankly. They considered me more as a friend than a researcher and did not hesitate to share with me personal opinions, without restricting themselves. It can contrast with the formal interviews I conducted, where the students might limit themselves when speaking about sensitive subjects, in a highly tensed conflict context.

51 The situation is the term commonly used in Israel to speak about the general Arab-Israeli conflict, which includes previous or current conflicts, between Israel and Arab countries, Israel and Gaza or inside Israel, and also the current occupation of the Palestinian territories. 52 A virtual community that enables its members to host or to be hosted in most of the countries for free. It can also be used as a social networking website, to meet people in a new city. 59 Throughout this study, I introduced myself as a French student, conducting a master research at the University of Haifa. I insisted on different aspects of my position according to the person I was with and to the context of our meeting. During the formal semi-structured interviews I rarely detailed my previous experiences, or at least not at the beginning of the interview. I felt that I could be perceived as neutral, because I am neither Arab nor Jewish. At the same time it could also be considered that I have kind of ties with each group. Being French, I evolved in a Western cultural background. I felt that some Jewish Israelis would perceive me as culturally closer to them than to the Arab group. Thus, they would confide in me certain elements more easily, thinking that we share a same mindset of ideas. On the other hand, I lived one year in the West Bank, where I learned Arabic. When an Arab Israeli was aware of it, I felt he or she would have a more positive image of me: from a European student living in Israel to a person interested in the Palestinian question and culture, who is aware of the situation of the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Technical and time constraints prevented me from conducting participant observation with the students I formally interviewed. However, I had the chance to take part in a weekend organized by Beit Hagefen, within the project Breaking the Ice. Beit Hagefen tries to develop shared spaces, in order to expose young Israelis to different narratives and to increase mutual tolerance. It organizes several kinds of activities, such as musical activities, photography workshops on the subject of identity, or meetings between children, teenagers or students. Breaking the Ice gathers Arab and Jewish students from the University of Haifa, the subjects of my research. Firstly, the students selected meet at Beit Hagefen, to discuss the purposes of the program, its main rules of functioning, and mutual expectations. Then, some weekends are organized in Israel, to mentally and physically prepare the students for the last and more important step. The students finally spend two weeks in Europe to hike together on Mont Blanc. Throughout the duration of the project, the presence and support of two moderators, one Jewish and one Arab, is essential. These two organizers gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in a particular context and to conduct participant observation within a coexistence encounter. I interviewed one Arab and one Jewish participant of the program, before we participated together in this weekend. Because it was the last one before the journey to Mont Blanc, several

60 students from the previous year participated, in order to share experiences and to give advice to the new students, who already knew each other.

The weekend began on Friday morning, when we met at the university. We spent the day and the night in a preserved natural area in the North of Israel, and came back on Saturday. A first activity was organized on Friday, to allow the students to get to know each other and to start a first discussion. Each of us had to find something in the area and to explain our choice. Then we walked all day until the place where we set the camp. Each one participated in the organization of the picnic and the night camp. During the night, groups of two, one Arab and one Jew, took turns to guard the camp. The breakfast on Saturday was the occasion to debrief about the weekend. Finally, the whole weekend was a space for discussions and exchanges, and allowed the students to deepen their relations. The common discussions were in Hebrew. Following each of them, I asked one or several persons to explain to me what had been said. Thus, I could get the main elements of the discussions through the perceptions of different students. Throughout the weekend I filled my notebook with factual descriptions, informal interviews, and personal observations and comments. The students I interviewed through this program, formally and informally, were personally interested in the subject of my study. It was really relevant to discuss with them, even more so as I had already conducted the majority of my interviews, since the weekend took place at the end of my stay. This weekend added interesting data to the rest of my fieldwork.

Jewish and Arab Israelis share a citizenship but grow up and evolve separately within Israel. However, there exists cities were the two parts of the population have the opportunity to be in contact, at least geographically. This is the case for Haifa, considered as a specific city in Israel due to its diversity. To share spaces does not imply that relationships are created on a personal level between individuals. This research focuses on Arab-Jewish students of the University of Haifa, aiming to understand their perceptions on the relations developed in this academic context and outside. The concrete results of the research, which used data triangulation, are presented in the third and last chapter.

61 Chapter III: Relations between Arab and Jewish students at the University of Haifa

The previous chapters presented unavoidable elements of the general and local context. The Jewish and the Arab citizens had evolved rather separately since the creation of Israel. A significant number of factors distinguish the two groups, such as religion, language, the way of life or socio-economical conditions and opportunities. Moreover, the link between the Arab minority and the Jewish state is specific, and the Arab citizens are considered as a particular kind of citizens, mainly because of their historical and contemporary ties with the Palestinian population. The Israeli- Palestinian conflict and its consequences have an important impact on the Arab- Jewish relations, since it has been continuously marking the daily life of both populations. Although the Arab and Jewish Israelis mainly live separately in the country, there are spaces where they are in contact, especially in mixed cities such as Haifa.

The interest of this research is to focus on Arab and Jewish students, and to understand if these contacts also take the form of developed interpersonal relations. This last chapter reveals the results of the qualitative research conducted during July and August 2014 at the University of Haifa. The study does not attempt to be representative but to observe the perceptions of a selected number of Arab and Jewish students. This chapter presents the kind of relations, developed at the university and outside, and the reasons for possible limitations. The environment in which the interviewees lived before and during their studies at the university is taken into account. I also refer to observations made at the weekend with Breaking the Ice and some meetings during my stay, outside the university.

62 A. Two distinct groups, different degrees of sociability

1. “How do you consider yourself in Israel?”

The existing literature that I refer to throughout this study is based on a division into two groups, between Arab and Jewish Israelis. As highlighted in the previous chapters, this distinction also exists at a state level, reflected in the national census separation between Arabs and Jews and Others. However, before beginning the fieldwork, I was not sure of the reaction of the students about this choice. Informants do not always accept to be considered as part of a group defined for a study purpose, which can be disruptive, even if it often results in interesting interviews. As far as my subject is concerned, no participant questioned the distinction established between the two groups, except for one, Amir, whose very specific case is discussed in greater details. It seems that each student directly knows which group they were supposed to be part of, from the beginning of the interviews, and even from their acceptation to participate. In order to understand better their sense of belonging, a question directly concerns the self-categorization of the interviewees: “how do you consider yourself in Israel?”. The majority directly understood the kind of information they were supposed to share, as if the need to take a position in the Israeli society was usual for them. The following table presents the responses of the students. The religious affiliation refers to the way they are considered by the state, not to personal religious beliefs. Livna and Ofer obtained the nationality because their fathers are Jewish, thanks to the Law of return, but they are not considered as Jewish because their mothers are not Jewish.

Table 4: Jewish students’ self-categorization

NAME RELIGIOUS, CIVIC AND NATIONAL IDENTITIES RELIGIOUS “How do you consider yourself in Israel?” AFFILIATION ADAM “I am Israeli. I think about the national Judaism but not as a religion. Jew Only for nationality.” AMIR “I don’t consider myself in Israel. It is like... the right term now is a Jew Palestinian creole.” AVI “I think that before I am an Israeli, I am a Jewish first, and then I am Jew an Israeli. This is how I define myself. Jewish Israeli.” ILAN “I define myself as an Israeli, as a Zionist, as an atheist, hum... left Jew wing.” LIVNA “I call myself a white Arab half Jew.” (She does consider herself Jewish father but 63 Israeli but did not refer to it directly) non-Jewish mother OFER “I consider myself an Israeli, I do not define myself as a Jew, because Jewish father but the country does not define me as a Jew […] Of course I am an Israeli non-Jewish citizen. No doubt.” mother NAVA “Jewish Mizrahi and Israeli, more traditional.” Jew TAHLI “Half religious, politically I am on the center of the political map of Jew A Israel, not in the right, not in the left.53” (She does consider herself Israeli but did not refer to it directly) YONIT “I love Israel. Really it is in my heart. I love people here. We are all a Jew big family I love it.” (She does consider herself Israeli but did not refer to it directly. Later she adds she is a religious Jew) TAL “ I am Israeli Zionist cultural Jew.” Jew Source: Interviews made for this thesis, in July and August 2014

All the students of the Jewish group undoubtedly consider themselves as Israeli, except for Amir, whose case is totally specific. Being Israeli is only a citizenship for him, and he does not even recognize the legitimacy of Israel.

Amir: “It is a colonialist state. My parents are not really colonialists but they are the kids of the colonialists. [...] This country is racist. Fascist.”

The Jewish students put forward different identities, a civic identity, a national identity, a religious identity, or/and an ideological identity. The participants render more or less significant each of these identities. We need to remind here that being Jewish does not only reflect a religious belief, but also a nationality, the one of the majority. Some of the students are not believers but still consider themselves as part of the Jewish majority, and it is even the case for Livna and Ofer, who cannot be Jewish according to the religious institutions. Again, all of them know where to place themselves in a research concerning relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis. The following quotations illustrated diverse possible meanings of being Jewish:

Ilan: “I consider myself as a Jew by culture and not by religion. [...] I consider myself as a passive Jew. A passive Jew is someone who is being Jewish mostly because of the people who hate the Jews [...], who would persecute me no matter what I believe. [...] If I was born a Jew, I will die a Jew. For the people who hate Jews because they are Jews. It doesn’t matter. So I embrace this culture”.

53She did not understand my question, “Define myself about what?” I added “Like in terms of nationality, religion, political, …”

64 Tal: “A cultural Jew […]. I don’t believe in god. I believe in my history as a heritage. [...] That’s why I mean cultural because it is my culture, it is my history. And it’s here.[…] The connexion between me and the State it is because I am Jewish and it is the only Jewish country in the world.”

Livna: “I can of course identify with the Jews but I know that by the Jewish law I am not a Jew. But I don’t let them tell me who I am.”

Table 5: Arab students’ self-categorization

NAME RELIGIOUS, CIVIC AND NATIONAL IDENTITIES RELIGIOUS “How do you consider yourself in Israel?” AFFILIATION AMANDA “I think that I am a Christian girl first of all and then I can say that I am Christian Arabic girl. […] When I am with Jewish students I say I am Israeli, I feel better. But with Arab students I am an Arab Christian.” (Palestinian? No) HANAN “I am a Muslim Arab. I don’t consider myself Palestinian all the time Muslim but I all the time consider myself as Muslim, second I am an Arab girl and that’s it.” (Palestinian? “It is too complicated. I believe in religious identity more than nationality” / Israeli? No) KHADIR “I born in a Zionist state, I born as an Arab native language from a Christian Christian family, and that is what I am. I don’t know more. But I don’t believe in all these stuff.” MAI “I am an Arab Christian Israeli.” (Israeli? Yes / Palestinian? No) Christian MARY “In Israel I define myself as an Israeli. “ (Palestinian? No) Christian REEMA “Israeli Arab citizen” (Palestinian? “I think I have Palestinian source Muslim […] It is okay, I am not denying, you can write it [smile]”) BISAN “I consider myself as an Arab Palestinian living inside Israel.” (Israeli? Muslim No) RIHAM “I am a Palestinian living in Israel” (Israeli? No) Muslim Source : Interviews made for this thesis, in July and August 2014

Khadir is the only student who seems annoyed by the question. He knows what I refer to but does not want to define himself as an Arab, as an Israeli or as anything. His case can be linked with a study about stigmatization, which states that Arab Israelis adopt an approach that “blurs the boundary between themselves and Jewish Israelis by referring to universal human traits” (LAMONT & MIZRACHI, 2012, p.374). The Arab students refer to civic, national or/and religious identities. The literature presented in the previous chapter insists on the link between either an Israeli identity or a Palestinian identity. Only two participants consider themselves as Palestinians, and three students refer directly to the fact that they consider themselves as Israelis. The latter, unlike Jewish students, present it as a factual reality more than they insist on emotional ties with the country. It seems that they consider themselves more as Arab than Israeli or Palestinian, without claiming a strong feeling of belonging to an Arab nationality since they cannot clearly define its meaning. The

65 interviews confirm the idea of the complexity of the Arab Israelis’ identity developed by many researchers (SMOOHA, ROSENTHAL). Several students highlight that they feel in between, and not linked with any side.

Hanan: “When you speak about Arabs here, you can speak about Israeli Arabs, about Arab Palestinians, about Arabs of 48, about Arabs in Israel, about Palestinians in Israel, about Muslims in Israel, about Christians in Israel. […] We don’t have even a name and you can’t define yourself without a name.”

Mary: “It is like we don’t belong here and we don’t belong there. We don’t belong to anywhere. Here they hate us for being an Arab and there they hate us because we are considered to be betrayers. […] I cannot say I am Palestinian. […] I am an Israeli cause I lived always here, I grown here.”

Bisan: “I don’t consider myself as an Israeli. It is not something that I feel a bound between me and being Israeli. It is just that I have an Israeli citizenship. For me that’s it. But I consider myself as an Arab Palestinian living inside Israel […] I see myself Palestinian as much as the Palestinian living in the West Bank and Gaza, and less Israeli.”

Riham: “It is not easy being there. It is not easy being Arabic in this thing. It is not easy being anything else other than a Jew”

Beyond the existence of two nationalities, Jewish and Arab, the interviews show that there are two levels of being Israeli in the minds of the students. It must be noted that during the interviews, the Jewish students often oppose the terms Arabs and Israelis. Unconsciously or voluntarily, some correct themselves, others do not, but in any case it reflects the idea that Arabs are not as Israelis as Jews are. Not only the self-consideration, but also the external categorization counts. A post-modernist framework is really pertinent to analyse the students’ identifications. First of all, Brubaker and Cooper define the state as one of the “most important agents of identification and categorization”. One cannot ignore the influence on self- identification of “formalized, codified, objective systems of categorization”, created by “powerful and authoritative institutions” (BRUBAKER & COOPER, 2000, p. 15). Here the self-identifications of the students correspond to the categorization developed by the Israeli state, and reflected by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The students instinctively know if they should be part of the Arabs or Jews and other, regardless of their personal sense of belonging to Israel. Jewish students are conscious

66 that they are part of the majority, Arab students of the minority, mostly due to the fact they are not Jewish and their mother tongue is Arabic.

Also, some of the Arab participants explain that even if they wanted to, they could not be fully Israelis. This needs to be linked, in addition with the power of the state, to the external identification developed by the individuals. Hall and Du Gay insist on the influence of “how we have been represented” on “how we might represent ourselves”. According to the authors, “identities are therefore constituted within, not outside representation” (DU GAY & HALL, 1996, pp. 1-17). In this sense, identity is constructed in opposition to an Other. Us can exist only in opposition to Them, and this separation clearly appears during the fieldwork. The social categories developed by the students reflect the environment in which they grew up, but do not necessarily reflect their personalities, each one considering in a different manner the different elements that constitute their identities. A same word can refer to plenty of different feelings. The following quotations emphasize the students feel they need to position, even if it does not reflect their personal feelings.

Reema: “I used to define myself as Israeli Arab as I told you but I think that I have Palestinian sources. It is okay, I am not denying, I am not a denial or something like that. You can write it [smile]”

Mai: “I just say I am Israeli because that is a fact. It is like saying I am girl and I am Christian. It doesn’t say anything about me. It is a fact.”

The analysis of relations between Arab and Jewish students is analysed in this study by considering identities not as an immutable reality but as a process, which cannot be understood without a particular context.

2. “You don’t become friend with someone in the street, like that” (Yonit)

This research does not only focus on majority-minority relations but also on relations developed on a personal level, between individuals and not only between members of two groups. It needs to be noted that, during the interviews, I did not give a definition of relation. I wanted to know what the students would understand by this general term. However, I analyse the material relying on three categories of possible

67 relations, developed within a social psychology framework (FISHER, 1999) and based on the understandings of the students. Mercklé defines sociability as “all the relationships that an individual have with the others, and all the forms taken by these relations”54 (MERCKLE, 2004, p. 38). According to this definition, sociability is the simplest form of interactions.

This research uses three degrees of interaction: superficial contacts, interpersonal relations and friendship. Superficial contacts describe meetings, for instance in the streets, cafés or shops, that rarely become more than brief encounters. A higher degree of sociability would be classified as interpersonal relations. These relations are created in collective framework, such as school, army, university, neighbourhood, leisure activities and within family and friends networks. One important element that defines these relations is the fact that they are imposed, which means that individuals engage in these relations because they have to, because they need to interact in a same social system. At university, for instance, the students develop relations because they are in a same class. It happens that these interpersonal relations strengthen and evolve independently of the social environment where they were generated. This represents a third degree of sociability: friendships, that Pierre Mercklé defined as a “chosen relation” (MERCKLE, 2004, p.39).

Friendships need a favourable environment to exist. At the level of this study, superficial contacts would be brief meetings or short discussions in or outside the university with members of the other group. Interpersonal relations would be created within a class for example, when students have to interact on a personal level with members of the other group. Concerning friendships, it is interesting here to focus on the students’ definitions of being friend with someone. The participants often highlight several elements in the interviews to specify the meaning of friendship. It means to meet the person on a regular basis, in public and private environments, to do activities together and to invite each other at the parental or personal place for example. It also includes being present in important steps of life, such as weddings, birth, or religious ceremonies. This is particularly relevant between Arab and Jewish Israelis since they do not follow the same religions. The participants also consider

54 “L’ensemble des relations qu’un individu entretient avec les autres, et des forms que prennent ces relations.”

68 that, with friends, they share personal information, feelings, states of mind and can speak about private subjects.

In this study, it is essential to take into account that individuals have facilities to start a relationship when they have actual or perceived common interests, way of life and opinions. Considering the environment in which the students evolved before entering university, as well as the environment in which they are evolving outside the academic field, is unavoidable in order to analysis Arab-Jewish relations. Obviously, it has an impact on the students’ mindset while getting in touch with their Arabic or Jewish fellows. The following tables present relevant information concerning the participant’s backgrounds.

Table 6: Jewish students’ background

Name Place of origin / of Arabic Army Contact with Arab populations or living language culture before university ADAM Jewish city / dorms No Yes Superficial of the university AMIR Arab Fluent No (he Intense, he has been surrounded neighbourhood in refused to by Arab Israelis since his birth. Haifa serve) AVI Jewish city / dorms Conversational Yes Worked in Jordan with of the university Palestinians / Mizrahi origin ILAN Jewish village / Basic Academic Superficial dorms of the reserve55 university LIVNA Europe / Haifa No No Negative contacts with Arab populations in Belgium / Work with Arab Israelis / Love relations with two Arab Israelis OFER Ukraine / Nazareth No Yes Superficial Illit56 NAVA Europe / Haifa Conversational No Positive contacts with Arab populations in Germany / Work with Arab Israelis and became friends with some of them / Mizrahi origins TAHLI Jewish city No Yes Work with Arab Israelis and A became friends with some of them YONIT Haifa No National Superficial service57 TAL Jewish village No Yes Superficial Source: Interviews made for this thesis, in July and August 2014

55 He does only camps during his studies and will accomplish his service for 6 years after university. 56 Nazareth Illit is really close to Nazareth, the biggest Arab city in Israel. 57 It replaces the military service for religious women.

69 Questioned about their relations with Arab Israelis, some of the Jewish students do not refer automatically to the Arab citizens. Indeed, several interviewees were referring to their experiences, negative or positive, with Arabs or with the Arab culture in a very general understanding.

Livna: “I came here as a very radical Zionist. Because in Belgium, really, the Arabs they are different, not really nice. So I came hating Arabs”.

Nava: “I grew up with the idea that Arabs are cousins or the closest thing to us. […] The language is very similar, food is very similar, music is very similar.”

Avi: “My first connection with Arabic culture was in a familial environment.”

Nava and Avi are Mizrahi Jews and feel that it links them with the Arab Israelis. This is uncommon according to one of the Mizrahi Jews I met during the weekend organized by Breaking the Ice. He states that, in general, Mizrahi Jews avoid speaking about their Arab origin, whereas he considers himself closer to the Arab Israelis than to the Ashkenazi Jews. Concerning the lack of differentiation between Arabs, some participants state that the experience in the army, with Palestinians, might have a negative impact on the further relations with Arab Israelis. On a linguistic level, only Amir speaks fluent Arabic, because he grew up in an Arab neighbourhood, studied in Arab schools and has been mainly surrounded by Arab Israelis. The other students who speak a bit of Arabic learn it in a family environment, at work or only because of a personal interest. Three students did not serve in the army, Amir out of conviction and Nava and Livna because they were not in Israel when they were eighteen. Let’s focus on the Arab student’s background before analysing the state of relations, before and outside university.

Table 7: Arab students’ background

Names Place of origin / Beginning of the use of Contact with Jews before university of living the Hebrew AMAND Arab village University Superficial A (majority: Druze) HANAN Arab village Watched a lot Israeli TV, Participated in mixed training programs (majority: learned Hebrew since a during high school/ worked with Jewish Muslim) very young age Israelis KHADIR Haifa University Worked with Jewish Israelis and became friends with some of them MAI Arab village University Worked with Jewish Israelis / her parents (majority: have Jewish friends Christian) 70 MARY Haifa At work Worked with Jewish Israelis REEMA Mixed city At school Jewish school / has a lot close Jewish friends outside university BISAN Haifa University Worked with Jewish Israelis / Coexistence program “Hand of Peace” before University / a part of her family is Jewish RIHAM Arab city University Coexistence program “Hand of Peace” (majority: before University Muslim) / Haifa Source: Interviews made for this thesis, in July and August 2014

As the majority of the Arab Israeli population, Arab students speak Hebrew fluently. It is a must since most of the classes and assignments at the university are in Hebrew. When they enter university, their language level mostly depends on their place of origin: it is higher when they grew up in a mixed city, and on their contacts with the Jewish population. Hanan highlights the fact that she grew up watching Israeli television, which had an impact on her fluency in Hebrew. None of the interviewees served in the army, like the majority of Christian and Muslim Arabs in Israel. The majority of the Arab participants worked in Jewish companies before they entered university. This is common according to the informants, and it explains why they enter university at approximately the same age as Jewish students, who spent two or three years in the army. While conceptualizing the research, I believed that the age difference might have an impact on the relations between the two groups, but the students never refer to this factor.

Before conducting the fieldwork, I assumed that students from mixed cities, such as Haifa, would have more interpersonal relations with members of the other groups than the participant coming from non-mixed environment. It rather appears that interactions in the city are only superficial contacts. Describing relations, the students relate to brief discussions with neighbours, Jews going to eat humus in Arab restaurants or Arabs shopping in Israeli malls. Individuals do not develop friendships just because they live in a same city. However, the students who grew up in Haifa have a better image of the general Arab-Jewish relations, using the lexicon of peace more than conflict. Moreover, living in a mixed city means there are more chances to be in mixed social environment, where it would be possible to go beyond superficial contacts and maybe to develop a “chosen relation” (MERCKLE, 2004). Workplace seems to be a favourable environment to create interpersonal relations, and some

71 students developed friendships with their colleagues. Bisan and Riham participated in a coexistence program in the States where they could speak about the conflict with Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. They consider it was the first time that they did meet and speak with Jewish Israelis.

It seems that the earlier the individuals are mixed with members of the other group, the deeper their relations are developed. It can be understood in conjunction with the work of Bar Tal, who asserts that individuals adopt at a very young age a negative “intergroup repertoire” (BAR-TAL, 2005). In general, few students had the opportunity to make friends before university. Only one Jewish participant is mainly surrounded by Arab Israelis. He grew up in an Arab neighbourhood, speaks fluent Arabic, learnt in an Arabic school, and refused to serve in the army. He himself insisted on the specificity of his case and his brother's. Among the Arab interviewees, the case of Reema is also specific. She learnt in Jewish schools and high school in a mixed city, so most of her friends are Jewish.

To be in shared space, with common activities, is favourable to go beyond superficial contacts. The university is this kind of place. This overview of the students’ backgrounds allows me to deal more directly with the subject of the study: the relations of the students since they entered university.

B. Relations at the university

1. “I don’t have any close Arab friends but I do have kind of friends.” (Ilan)

Beyond different pre-academic backgrounds and activities outside the university, the field of study and the activities within the university, presented in the following tables, have an impact on the perceptions of the students on Arab-Jewish relations. The table shows self and external definitions of the political movement in which some of students are engaged.

72 Table 8: Jewish students at the university

Name Studies / Year Activities at the university ADAM Political sciences / 2nd year BA AMIR Computer sciences / 3rd year BA Had been member of Ibn al Balad (Amir: “everybody say we are too radical. We were against the continuation of colonialism.”) AVI Political sciences and Chinese / 2nd year BA

ILAN Political sciences and history of Middle-East Participate in demonstrations against the / 2nd year BA war in Gaza, without being member of a student movement.

LIVNA Political Sciences / 3rd year BA OFER Communication / 3rd year BA NAVA Israeli studies (international program in English, with international students) / 1st year MA TAHLI Political Sciences / 2nd year BA A YONIT Psychology and Art therapy / 3rd year BA Member of Im Tirzu (Yonit: “Zionist group” / Others: “Extreme right group”)

TAL Geography and Israeli history / 1st year BA Coexistence project (Breaking the Ice) Source: Interviews made for this thesis, in July and August 2014

Table 9: Arab students at the university

Names Activities at the University AMAND Political sciences and A psychology / 2nd year BA HANAN Communication / 1st year MA Member of Iqra (Hanan: “Islamic group”) KHADIR General history / 1st year BA Member of Student Plus (Khadir: “for the students” / Others: “Zionist Jewish group”) / Coexistence project (Arab-Jewish linguistic tandem followed by a trip in Germany) MAI Physical therapy / 2nd year MA Coexistence project (Breaking the Ice) MARY Human services and English / 1st year BA REEMA Literature, history and communication BISAN Political Sciences and English / 2nd year BA RIHAM Art therapy / 2nd year BA Source: Interviews made for this thesis, in July and August 2014

Above all it is interesting to present the spatial organization of the University of Haifa (please refer to the map in the following page). This brings an overview of 73 the spaces frequented by the students interviewed. When they describe their daily life at the university, the participants refer mainly to the classrooms, but also to the library, cafeteria, and several common spaces outside the buildings where it is possible to sit, chat, study or relax. The majority of the participants study at Yitzhak Rabin Complex (green on the map). Other students study in education and sciences building, and Riham studies at the arts centre building. Dua’a, an Arab student I asked about relation at the university before conducting the formal fieldwork, told me that she couldn’t really answer since she feels that her building, the arts centre, is separated from the rest. She described a total different atmosphere, as if the geographical distance between this building and the rest of the campus would reflect a mental separation between students of different faculties. Her perception is also found in the interview of Riham, which will be analysed later in this chapter. Several Jewish students live in dormitories, one of the more mixed environments at the university, where Arab and Jewish students are sometimes flatmates.

At a personal level, I pay attention to the composition of the groups I daily met at the university. I could distinguish some of the students according to the language they spoke, mainly Hebrew or Arabic, and religious belongings for the ones who wear conspicuous religious symbols. However, these observations do not allow me to dress any conclusion about the composition of the groups. Thus this chapter only presents the perceptions of the interviewees.

74 Map 2: University of Haifa

Source: University of Haifa Campus Map, available online at http://www.virtual-rehab.org/2009/travel_info.html, accessed May 28, 2015

Questioned about their relations at the university, most of the participants directly highlight that they do not see any problem in being close to members of the other group. They describe the classroom as a mixed environment, where students discuss, help each other, and study together, regardless of the belonging of each. According to the interviewees, Arab and Jewish students develop intergroup relations at the university, which is totally new for the majority of them. Thus, the university seems to be a favourable environment to go beyond superficial contacts. It generally has a positive impact on the image that Arab and Jewish students have of the others. The “negative repertoire” (BAR TAL, 2005), mainly based on media and political discourses, evolves within the academic field. 75 Yonit : “Really it is normal. Everybody help each other a lot. If there is a problem to speak or to understand, always we help each other.”

Livna: “People come here all with the same intention. They want to learn things and they help each other learning these things you know. […] I think university can really bring them together.”

Riham: “When I first saw her [a Jewish classmate] I was very scared. It was a girl that was looking at me differently. Like everyone else in the street might look at me. But then after one exercise and another, I can say now that I really love this girl […] I love how human she is and how she could change her point of view because she got to know me.”

Ofer: “I was sort of okay with them before but I really learn to understand them better in the university. Because over here [we are in Nazareth Illit] it is mostly business relations, you know, I meet them in shops, in this mole, which is fine but it is not a personal level.”

Avi: “I think it is a challenge you know, you can study a lot from personal point of view, and not only from politics and TV, news. [...] If you want to know something and to learn about something, you need to learn it from primary source. And the primary source is the Arab Israeli citizens”

Few students state, at the beginning of the interview, that the relations are limited, even less among the Jewish students, except Amir who views the situation with a very critical eye:

Amir: “It is very hard to see the way in the university without the way outside because it is kind of a mirror. People in university don’t really do anything different. The fact that we have to seat in the same classes doesn’t mean we all mix with each other.”

However, some of the students highlight specific tensions that exist in the university. Some students, mainly Arab, became aware of the existence of negative representations towards Arab Israelis in the academic context.

Hanan: “In the beginning you start speak all the time to show that you are a nice person and wouah! They [the Jewish students] are so nice, they laugh to me, they smile, and then you get that you don’t have to think like that. […] I started getting that the distance between us is too large.”

Mai: “I grow up in a place where Arabs and Jews where friends and because my father is in the police and we had many Jewish friends coming over. So I went to the university like living in a utopia, like everything is cool, but then I started to get to know the other side of the Jewish society, the bad side, in my

76 opinion. The one that, how to say... the side that doesn’t want me because I am an Arab.”

Moreover, and beyond the positive effects of a mixed environment, classmates of different nationality rarely become actual friends. Different students share their disappointment concerning this fact, and the majority does not really know how to explain it and give only vague answers. Some of them state that they do have friends, but the relation they describe cannot be defined as friendship. According to the students, intergroup relations are not natural. It seems that it is not easy and it needs particular efforts to deepen a relation with members of the other group.

Mary: “In human services […] we answer to each other, we talk to each other as a group, whenever there is question for the exam, but we are not friends or something. At the English major it is pretty much the same, we have only one student who is Jewish and he actually talk to us [smile]. I can say that we are friend.”

Ofer: “My closest friends in the university are all Jews. I can say without a doubt. But I do have some not-so-close Arab friends […] The whole problem is the university in itself, it is very school-focused. There is no social life essentially.”

Bisan: “When you came to the class we were sitting like the Arab in one side and the Jewish in the other side, mostly like that. […] I have really one close friend, but it is mainly for studying together, sharing materials together and getting ready for exams.[…] It is not enough to sit in a lecture together.”

Avi: “It is divided groups. You can see an Israeli group seat on the grass and you can see a group of Arabic students who seat maybe next to them, on another side, but it is divided groups. […] I would rather like to have much more Arabic friends than I have now [but] even if I try to develop a conversation with an Arabic student, usually in group or something, I cannot reach a level of a real development, it is only basic things”

Hanan: “[They are] no friends, just mates. […] I really don’t know why but I find it hard to reach […] this level where I can go to their apartment or they come at my. […] I almost never see them outside of the university”

Tal: “I want to make that connexion but it is just that it didn’t come naturally so much. […] You really need to make an effort to make the connexion between the two sides. That’s how I feel.”

Mary: “We don’t hate each other, it is just like it is more comfortable like that. I don’t mind to be friend with a Jewish student, but, I don’t know, it is hard. […] I think that there is a wall or sometimes between us.”

77 The informants do not consider the university as a positive environment to develop deep sociability in general, and even less with students from the other group. According to the interviewees, the university does not fulfil his role described by the dean, to bridge the gap between Arab and Jewish students. In the mind of the interviewees, two separate groups clearly exist at the university. The following examples give an idea of the vocabulary used by the students to express their feelings towards the self-reference and the other groups:

Bisan: “It is not easy to make friends from the other side, Jewish friends, mostly we were like in groups.”

Mary: “There is no kind of relationship between us and them”

Avi: “Why do they hate us? And you ask these questions and try to understand their point of view.”

The use of us and them is omnipresent in the totality of the interviews. The students do not always explain to me what they are referring to, as if it was evident. Only one student, Amir, totally reverses his supposed belonging. His position is well illustrated by the following anecdote:

Amir: “In my first year I was staying in last row with my friends and there is this Jewish kid who was sitting in front of me and he told me’ you don’t look Arab’. ‘I am not Arab, yeah, I am Jewish’. I showed him my ID, there is a way to see if you are Arab or not in your ID, he said, ‘oh! You are one of us!’ I said [smile] well [insisting on the word] not really but whatever.”

It confirms that the relations should be analysed within the framework developed by authors such as Hall and Du Gay (1995, 1996), with the necessary creation of “us” in opposition to “them”. The aim here is to know how the students explain this distinction that they use, and what, according to them, differentiates members of the two groups.

2. “We don’t have many things in common” (Tal)

To explain that Arab-Jewish relations are not natural, even in the university, both Arab and Jewish students refer to the fact that they do not have enough in

78 common. The language is one of the first reasons for limited relations given by the students. Even if all Arab students speak fluent Hebrew, the participants believe more natural and easier to communicate with students that have the same mother tongue. Some of the Jewish students interpret the fact that Arab use Arabic between themselves as a sign they do not want to mix with Jewish Israelis. Above all, differences in terms of culture come up regularly in the interviews. By culture, the students refer to daily behaviours: how to call the eldest or how to eat when invited at someone's place for instance, as well as ways of living in general. For instance, the Jewish students often focus on the place of women in the two societies. The Arab students rarely refer to it, except Amanda who says she feel better being with Jewish girls because she can do whatever she wants, including smoke or dress how she feels. In the following extracts, both Arab and Jewish students refer to cultural differences to explain the limited relations:

Riham: [Love relation with a Jewish Israeli?] “Nothing matter if you love someone. […] But it wont be easy. You have to go through... not only knowing each other but you have to go through... to know a whole different culture, a whole different world. […] from basic things, food, family, a lot of things. It is really different”

Hanan: “We are too different. We are too different nations. We are not the same people. It is just we are totally strangers.”

Tahlia: “Why don’t you become modern? Break the chain and be modern! Don’t be as your father, let your wife go out and learn, and be modern and get out and not only in the kitchen and take care of the children. [...] They live like old people.”

Ofer: “I think it is a cultural thing. I am not really sure why. Just, I don’t know you kind of gravitate with people you more relate to so... with the Arabs we have some cultural differences between us. It is hard to point my finger on what exactly that is but you kind of feel it.”

In addition to that, Bisan feels that Arab and Jewish students do not attend the same places outside university, which prevents them from developing relations created at the university. Her position is interesting because she adds that Arab students do not go to Jewish places because they are excluded from it. Thus, she feels an actual geographical separation, as shown in this quotation:

Bisan: “The Jewish have different bars, restaurants and places to hang out in. And mostly like clubs and bars they go to, they don’t let Arabs in. so ... [smile] 79 They hear us talking in Arabic so they say ‘can we see the ID’ […] and they say ‘oh no the place is full or it is reserved only’. […] Not exactly in your face you are Arabic you cannot come in but kind of those. So we have our places, our bars and cafés.”

The point is not to know if the access to certain places is limited for Arabs in reality, but to present the perception of this Arab student. It also reflects a more general observation that different students express: outside the university, Arab and Jewish students do not hang out in the same places. This does not totally correspond to my personal observations. Outside the university, Arab Israelis often took me to Masada street (Hadar neighbourhood) or Fattoush café down the Baha’i gardens. These kinds of places are mainly frequented by Arab Israelis, who enjoy Arab food, music and alcohol, but not only. Jewish Israelis, “leftist Jews” according to the interviewees, also go to bars in Masada Street for instance, known as a very alternative place of Haifa. Moreover, young Israelis generally go to the same beaches, to common rave parties, to the same malls, etc. Students frequent different places according to their social levels, interests or religiosity for instance, more than their ethnicity.

Thus, above all, students feel the existence of a mental barrier without being always able to explain which elements separate the two sides. Most of the students refer to cultural differences but few explain exactly what they mean, or can give me daily examples. Other use stereotypes and generalization. I do not aim to discuss the real existence of these differences, but only to point out the importance it represents for the students.

The differentiation between two distinct cultures is often linked with the division on the way Arab and Jewish students consider themselves as regards the state of Israel. The following Jewish responses reflect that they question the link between the Arab minority and the state:

Tahlia: “I consider them as Israelis but they don’t consider themselves as Israelis.”

Yonit: “I love Israel. […] We are all a big family”. [Arabs are part of the family?] “If they want yes. But I am not sure they want. […] Few of them like Israel and recognize that the Jewish people can live here. […] It is difficult to speak with someone who don’t want that you exist.”

80 Nava: “I was thinking, an Arab demonstration, what is the goal? What if you know that you are making Jews more suspicious at you, I don’t know, […] wearing big Palestinian flags and like, I wonder, does it help coexistence? […] Are you really advocating for Palestinian State here? Inside the green line?”

The sense of belonging of the Arab students, real or perceived, to Israel has an impact on the construction of two separated groups in the mentality of the Jewish students. On the side on the Arab participants, it seems that their position as a minority also has an impact on their behaviour towards the members of the majority. All the Arab students told they feel discriminated against, in different levels.

Amanda: “The Arabic don’t get all the rights, like Jewish, and the Arabic want to fight to get the rights. And it makes a conflict between Jewish and Arabic. […] If the government give the Arabic all their rights I think it will be better.”

Mary: “Some company put a label on the store that they need a worker or something, and they need to be after military service. […] You don’t have to be in military service to know how to sell clothes”

Bisan: “Like for them, this will always be a Jewish country and we are the majority and we are the ones who decide. For me I don’t believe in that. So I think that’s is the biggest barrier”.

The Arab position as “second class citizens” (SMOOHA, 2004) has an impact on the relations in the mind of the Arab students. However, the students did not present a dramatic situation, and did not insist on the existence of discriminations, as Mai for instance.

Mai: “This is bad but not that bad. I mean... I can still work, I can still raise a family, I can still have a decent life.”

All the Jewish interviewees confirm the existence of discriminations. Some of the participants give me daily life examples when they feel a difference of treatment. However, most of them, presenting their own position or the position of the Jewish society in general, stress on the responsibility of the Arabs in this situation. These quotations reflect how Jewish Israelis explain the situation of the Arabs:

Tahlia: “The issue that Israel doesn’t treat them equal, absolutely make them very angry. But the other side, they don’t accept Israel as their homeland and their country so they are keeping fighting all the time.”

81 Tal: “We are kind of racist, Israelis, I have to be honest, we are kind of racist, we are against them, we don’t treat them equally like we treat the Jews. Not all of us but a lot of people. And on the other hand they don’t serve in the army they don’t serve the country they have lots of rights but no duties and I am upset about that because I think they should go to the army because it is also protecting them.”

Ofer: “Discrimination has some justification because they have political leaders, […] there is a lot of corruption. So the money that go to them generally don’t get to the public.”

The army often comes up in the interviews, because it makes the Jewish students question the legitimacy of the Arab Israelis to be treated as any citizen, but not only. Going to the Army represents two (for the girls) or three years (for the boys) of the life of the Jewish Israelis, and a central place of sociability. Moreover, it connects the young Jewish society, in terms of possibilities to share experiences and strong emotional feelings. In addition, some of the participants refer to a specific feeling of the Jewish Israelis, illustrated in the next citations. One needs to keep in mind that the Jewish Israelis are a majority in the country, but an historical minority, even today because surrounded by hostile Arab countries.

Adam: “The fear of another Holocaust make the country […] keep the right of the Jews but it is not only the right of the Jews in Israel it is hurting the right of Arabs and some of the rules are not democratic.”

Avi: “The root of this lack of tolerance at the Israeli society is fear. The history of Israel is full of wars, this is the only place that we have, in Israel, for the Jewish state, we do not have any other place to go, so we are really obsessively, taking care of this country. You can see it anywhere you go, by the security that you meet, in the airport, or in a mole, there is a security guard.”

All these elements need to be analysed in the framework of a minority/majority relation. First, Vinsonneau points out that the members of the dominant group have a tendency to make the other group responsible for the inequalities that are for their benefit (Vinsonneau, 2002, p. 202-204), which is the case according to the Jewish interviewees’ responses. Moreover, this author focuses on the situation where the superiority of the dominant group is questioned. This can clearly be linked with the case of the Jewish Israelis: beyond their will to preserve their privileges as members of the majority, they feel that a change of the

82 characteristic of the state would threaten the survival of the Jewish people 58 . According to Vinsonneau, this situation drives the dominant group to increase the “categorical differentiation”. This means to increase the “intra-category homogeneity” and the “inter-category heterogeneity” 59 (Vinsonneau, 2002, p. 202- 204). To put it in other words the inequalities between Arab and Jewish Israelis, and the will of the Arab minority to change the current situation, have a direct impact on the social categorization the members developed on each other. Individuals focus on inner group similitudes and on inter group differences.

In addition to this interesting view, it is relevant to consider the existence of two “national cultures” in Israel, as defined by Hall (1995, p. 611-612). This strengthens the feeling of separation between two groups in the students’ minds. According to Hall, “the formation of a national culture helped to create standards of universal literacy, generalized a single vernacular language as the dominant medium of communication throughout the nation, created a homogeneous culture and maintained national cultural institutions, such as a national education system” (ibid., p. 112). In this sense, there exist two national cultures in Israel, with, among other things, distinct languages and schools. The majority directly refer to cultural differences that put them aside from each other, it can be analysed throughout the existence of distinct national cultures.

Some Arab students put forward the existence of unbalanced knowledge, stating that the Arab Israelis know more about the Israeli culture.

Hanan: “I grow up on the Israeli television. […] I saw everything that any other Israeli child can see, a Jewish child can see. […] You know everything in details in the other side views. So it becomes a bit complicated because you understand them but you don’t agree with them.”

Reema: “They should know more about us. They know nothing except the hummus. […] We have other things, let’s speak about our authors, about Mahmoud Darwish, about the people that you don’t have the opportunity to learn them at your schools, let’s open the mind about our history, our cultural life.”

58 This point is developed in greater details in the second chapter. 59 My own translation from « différentiation catégorielle », « homogénéité intra-catégorielle » and « hétérogénéité inter-catégorielle ». 83 The position of Hanan puts forwards a certain superiority of the Arab minority in their knowledge of the other group, because they have a larger access to the Jewish Israeli culture than the Jewish majority has of the Arab national cultures.

In general, the feeling that they do not have anything in common is recurring, even if not all know how to explain it. The interviews reveal strong ties with an “imagined community”, well reflected in Yonit's answers, who considers the whole of Israel as “a big family”. According to Hall, the members of this community feel they share a common “narrative of the nation”, reflected through history, literature, media and popular culture (Hall, 1999, p. 611-612). Moreover, few Arab and Jewish interviewees refer to the pressure of both communities, which influences negatively the creation of relations and reinforce the impression, and existence, of separated communities. The pressure of Arab and Jewish surroundings on the students not to develop deep relations with members of the other community is, according to them, even stronger concerning love.

Moreover, the negative impact of the media, as well as the political speeches, regularly comes up in the interviews. Some of the students also point out the negative impact of social media, such as Facebook, that allow hate speeches. According to the students, media, politicians and social media have a tendency to radicalize all part of the population, even more in time of direct conflict. Speaking about the current events in Gaza, Nava deplores that members of both sides would be free to write “atrocities” on Facebook, celebrating Palestinian or Israeli deaths. Only Amanda states that Facebook or Instagram can have a positive impact, enabling people to be more open and to know the “other side”. In the eyes of some of the students, it appears the idea that one part of the other population would be less distant from them than another. Indeed, Jewish students consider Christian Arabs as less different from them than Muslim Arabs. They believe that Christian Arabs accept the state more than Muslims, and that the cultural gap is less important between Jews and Christians than between Jews and Muslims.

Tahlia: “Christians are very modern people, they don’t like the blood and the war, they want to live together and they do a lot of efforts. [They] want to be more Israeli people than the Muslims. [...] They are accepting Israel as there country, there are not fighting it, they are not fighting us. They are accepting us. They want to be equal with the Jews in Israel.”

84 Avi: “It is much easier for Israeli to be friend or in contact with the Christian community. […] The Israeli culture and the Israeli mentality is more similar, it is more open you know, so maybe we feel much more easier or comfortable to be with the Christian community than the Muslim community”

In this sense, Amanda, a Christian girl, feels a real difference between the Christian and the Muslim communities. The other Christian respondents did not highlight these differences but they put forward that they do perceive Jewish Israelis are more open when they know about their religion. Mai even stated that she uses it in some circumstances in order to be better accepted in the Israeli society. It seems that the Muslim interviewees are not really aware of this asymmetry, or at least they did not refer to it.

Hanan also establishes a distinction within the Jewish population, based on a political affiliation. According to her, it would be more possible for an Arab student to be friend with a leftist Jew, even if at the end the differences will still be too strong. In the same sense, Amir says that he can bear conversations more easily with leftist Jews, even if finally they all have “colonialized minds”. This concerns more political differences, which are discussed in the following part.

Taking all these elements into account, and understanding the analysis of the interviews through studies on cultural identities and minority/majority relations, it seems that there is a deep gap between Arab and Jewish students. Despite the perceived separation, the majority of the students cautiously avoid generalization. They also alert that the discourse of the students does not reflect the Israeli society:

Nava: “I think that the population you interview in the university of Haifa wont reflect the general population, as a general statement. And I think there is a lot of political awareness in the university of Haifa.”

Tal: “I represent the modern like liberal open-minded people. Most of people in breaking the ice are more like that right? Imagine those who are not. It is crazy. They hate each other. They see an Arab they think he is not a human being.”

They believe that the students are more open-minded and more aware of a necessity to question their knowledge and information they receive. The Arab and Jewish Israelis I discussed with outside the university were more direct in sharing their statements, and expressed frankly their points of views, even the most radical

85 ones. Thus, it seems to me that some of the informants, in order to appear politically correct, might have controlled their responses.

University seems to be a favourable environment to change the image they have on each other, but only the personal position adopted by the student would allow the creation of friendships. The students believe it is harder to develop a relationship with members of the other group. However, several students, both Arab and Jewish, share a more optimistic vision of the situation, and develop strong ties with the “other side”, a term that appears often in the interviews, beyond so-perceived cultural differences.

C. The situation above all differences

1. “We are speaking the same language, culturally and literally” (Reema)

If no students questioned the pertinence of my subject, neither the two groups distinguished within this study, some of them express reservations about the existence of a separation, on both geographical and mental levels. Nava and Khadir, among others, point out that the case of Israel is not specific, and that the relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis do not deserve more attention that any relations between a majority and a minority.

Nava: “I see some people coming from the outside and they think everything is separated but it is not true. It is not so separated. […] Majority population, everywhere, doesn’t really consider minority, in general. […] I think it is universal”

Khadir: “You have sometimes conflict, you have sometimes problems, it is like, you have everything. […] Like in any place in the world. […] Let’s not focused just about... how to say it... about this conflict. […] I am satisfied in my life, I am satisfied with the relations here. And like, I don’t have any problem. […] In France also you have problem with immigrants, like with North Africa people.”

Nava gives daily example of mixed contexts, in buses, in shops, in her building, in the English classes that she teaches, etc. On a more personal level, she

86 describes her very close friendship with Arab Israelis that she met mainly at work. Some of the participants bring elements in order to provide a more positive picture of the Arab-Jewish relationships, but they are aware of being a minority. Among the participants, four Arab students out of eight have Jewish friends, that they meet outside university on a regular basis, while only a minority of Jewish students has Arab friends, and if they have, it is rarely more than one. Again, the case of Amir is an exception.

Amanda: “All my friends are Jewish, more than Arabic […] I feel better when I am with Jewish girls than Arabic girls. I feel better and I can do what I want and what I think.”

Khadir: “Maybe I am not a good example because hum... let’s say that most of my friends they are from Jewish background. […] I am not a good example for Arabs (smile).”

Mai: “I have four Jewish very good friends but I think it is only because they are open to have a relation with me. But in general I would say there are few limitation in the relations.”

Riham: “I am always the one that annoying everyone with ‘no it’s possible if you do it’. And they always tell me ‘oh okay so you are not really someone that we can measure with, that’s okay’ [laughs] […] Let’s say it can be done but it can’t be easily done. […] For other people we look like... crazy people. […] In general in the university I don’t see any relationship going on.”

Riham insists on the specificity of her field of study. First, she feels that the arts centre is preserved, a “very safe place”, far from the tensions existing at the university. Secondly, she insists on the emotional aspects of theatre, stating that the students have to develop a close relationship and are forced to be open minded and to understand each other, which has a really positive impact on their relations, including between Arab and Jewish students. Few Jewish interviewees have Arab friends but they present, in general, a rather positive image of the intergroup relations, putting forwards coexistence. On the contrary, half of the Arab participants have strong ties with some Jewish Israelis, but they would rather insist on the specificity of their case. This can be read through the approach of Maoz, who studied power relations in intergroup encounters. The researcher states that the Arab group would emphasize “conflict, discrimination, and inequality”, in order to show their disagreement with the current situation, while the Jewish group support “the concepts of ‘symmetry’ and ‘coexistence’”, in order to preserve the status quo (MAOZ, 2000, p. 259-277). In 87 parallel with this idea, several Jewish participants assert that coexistence is totally possible in Israel, insisting on the multicultural nature of the state:

Livna: “Not two Jews are the same. There are the ultra-orthodox, the reformists for who a woman can be a rabbi, you have Jews that are not religious at all and they all get along well. So there is really no reason.”

Nava: “There is much more combinations than just Jews and Arabs. I think that it is more complex than that.”

Yonit: “Even for the Jews there are a lot of differences in the culture. My parents they are French it was very strange for them. […] The cultural difference it is not the problem”.

A Jewish Ashkenazi met outside the university stated that he would feel much closer to an Arab living in Tel-Aviv than to a religious Mizrahi Jew living in Jerusalem. In this sense, several students affirm that the cultural difference, based on religion, language or way of live does not prevent intergroup relations. They consider there are as much innergroup differences as intergroup differences. What seems very important here is to take into consideration the students who denounce the categorization, and this idea that Arab and Jewish Israelis do not have so much in common. The following quotations reflect the vision of some students who chose to focus on intergroup similarities more than differences:

Khadir: “All of us want good life. It doesn’t matter who you are, which religion you are, it doesn’t matter what is your native language, it doesn’t matter from which place you are coming from Israel, it doesn’t matter what is your color, what is hum... nationalism, what is... it doesn’t matter what.”

Reema: “We can speak the same language. Also the Hebrew but I am speaking about the cultural language yeah? So we are speaking the same language, culturally and literally. […] We are not enemies and we have the same lives.”

Even if they present their position as a minority, it is essential to consider their points of view. These students do have close relation with members of the other group, even love relation, and it is important for them to put forward the superficiality of cultural barriers. They believe in the necessity to meet, discuss, and be ready to enter these so perceived different worlds. In their opinion, the real issue that limits relations is stereotypes and prejudices, acquired since childhood.

88 Breaking the Ice has been developed based on this observation, in order to bridge the gap between Arab and Jewish young Israelis. One of the organizers of the program believes that students do share common spaces but evolve separately. He speaks about a mental barrier more than a physical one. In this context, the project of coexistence aims to create a shared space where students, from the University of Haifa, have the opportunity to overcome stereotypes and prejudices. The participant observation realized during a weekend of the program gave an image totally opposite to the situation described by the students interviewed within the university. As an observer, I did not feel a separation between the students. From the way they sat in the bus, and throughout all activities, the students were mixed. A Jewish participant even shared that he prefers to speak with his Arab fellows during the trip, since it is a rare opportunity for him to discuss with them. He was really interested in the way of life of the Arab participants, who came from distinct backgrounds: they were Christian, Muslim, Druze and Bedouin. I felt the students really open during this trip, ready to refer ironically together about a tensed situation. While we were all having a picnic around the river, one of the Jewish students saw a snake in the water: “okay, now it is an activity only for the Arabs”.

The times when the Arab participants were using Arabic represent the only moments I could actually distinguish the students. They naturally switch between the two languages, Arabic and Hebrew, depending on who was participating in the discussions, sometimes within a same sentence. One Arab participant pointed out the importance, in her eyes, to use Arabic in coexistence project, to let her Jewish fellows get used to the language. One of them said he was not disturbed by the use of Arabic, as long as the group discussions were in Hebrew. Different Jewish students attending the trip were learning Arabic.

Observing this specific encounter was interesting in order to get an overview of the intergroup behaviour of students who choose to take part in this kind of programs. However, this choice of participant observation is biased. It shows an optimistic and positive image of the situation. An observation led during a demonstration inside the university, at a time of conflict between Gaza and Israel, would bring out more negative aspects. The conflict with Gaza also had an impact on the encounter organised within Breaking the Ice, and some of the students told me each one is more careful during the discussions. They were all aware that in period of 89 tensions, the words might hurt the others stronger. But even without direct conflict, the discussions are always influenced by the whole Israeli context, or what the students often call politics. During a conversation in Hebrew, because she wanted to explain to me the change of atmosphere that I did not understand, a student told me: “When you see people don’t smile anymore, it means we are speaking about politics”. This finally leads to one of the main finding of the research: the Arab-Jewish relations cannot be understood without considering the impact of the so-called situation.

2. “It is very hard to make any relation with the conflict over our heads” (Mary)

The situation has a special meaning in the Israeli society, as well as in the Palestinian territories. It refers to the whole conflicting context in which Israel and its neighbours evolved. The situation refers to the occupation of the Palestinian territories and its consequences on both Israeli and Palestinian societies, at every level. The term often comes up in the interview, as well as the expression to speak about politics, or about the political situation. In the Israeli context, it mainly refers to the position of the Israeli state towards the Palestinian question, and rarely to general socio-economical aspects as it could be in other countries. What can also be defined as a general understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been omnipresent in the fieldwork, from the students interviewed and from any Israeli I met outside the university.

According to all respondents, the current conflict between Gaza and Israel had a direct impact on the relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis. In the mind of the students, it is evident that the conflict has a negative influence, since it rekindles the separation between the two groups. In the eyes of the interviewees, it seems natural that Arab Israelis would support Palestinian people (not so much the leaders in Gaza but the civilians) and Jewish Israelis the state of Israel. It might imply that Arab Israelis are against the country they are citizens of. This does not reflect individual positions, because it seems that a large part of the society simply deplore the loss in both sides and the continuous tensions, but a general atmosphere with the existence of

90 two opposed groups, beyond inner group differences. The lexica used in the quotation above reflect the perceptions of the student in time of conflict:

Hanan: “Arabs will always be Arabs, Jewish will always be Jewish, and when there is a crisis in Gaza Arabs here will feel pain and anger and Jewish here will feel they are betrayers because how comes that you live in my country and you are against it.”

Mai: “This war in Gaza I think it is a political war, a very personal war, between Arabs and Jews, I think these relations are getting too personal. […] People in situation like this start to split into groups. […] It is like, whenever there is something, special, a holiday or something, like people suddenly remember, ok I am a Jew, I am an Arab.”

Bisan: “Now I see people of the other group much more extremist. Much more racist. This is what I see. And that’s also keeping me away from them […] I have friends from first and second year that I am not in contact right now because of the situation. […] Like you can loose a lot of friends in situation like that.“

Ofer: “Every time a conflict is going on here the relationship at the university become kind of tense. Even among my Arab friends over there it become kind of tense. […] In a way you can say that what ever happen in Israel it kind of reflects on the university itself. […] It is kind of a mirror. Because as I said there is no problem at the university, when it is quite over there. You know, even if people don’t get along they kind of keep their distances and don’t really bother each other. But when things hit up, as it is now with the Gaza conflict, things start to go worst.”

Livna: “When the time come that they have to choose side, everybody will still choose their own sides. The Jews will probably turn on the Arabs and the Arabs will turn on the Jews because, you know, when your own people are in trouble this is how you stick with.”

According to Ofer, the relations at the university change from indifference to direct opposition. Thus, the conflict between Israel and Gaza has direct consequences on the general atmosphere at the university, and in Haifa.

I can give here several relevant examples on a daily basis. Students told me that very tensed demonstrations have been organized, but I did not attend any of them. One Jewish student felt awkward that his professor cancelled a class in opposition to the actions of the state in Gaza. Some of the participants told me that the Jewish Israelis limit their visit to Arab shops or restaurants in time of conflict. This can be understood as a form of boycott, prescribed by some political leaders according to

91 Ilan. Maria, an Arab girl I met outside the university who was working at a café in Haifa, shared with me her difficulty to serve Jewish consumer in time of conflict, because she did not want to risk having any contact with people supporting the actions of the state in Gaza. The Jewish company where Mary, one of the student interviewed, was working, explicitly forbid the workers to speak about politics at work, in order to keep a positive atmosphere between Arab and Jewish colleagues. An Arab girl I met outside the university told me that she was walking in the street when the passengers of a car, with an Israeli flag, were shouting “Down with the Arabs”. Nava describes the problem of her mother-in-law, who cannot pass by the road she was used to in an Arab village, because inhabitants would throw stones at the car. These are few examples that reflect how students feel that the whole Israeli society is implied in time of conflict.

Some of the students, as they denounce the idea of two separate groups, are against the idea that Arabs and Jews might be opposed in time of conflict. They state that this conflict does not have any negative impact on their friendships. The response of Reema reflects well this statement:

Reema: “I don’t think that what happen in Gaza has to impact on my personal relationship with the other side. […] We are all living in a continuing war, all the time. We have sometimes operations or clashes, but it shouldn’t impact or influence our relationships. […] I know in these days Jewish hate the Arabs. The hatred and the racism everywhere, on the TV, on the newspapers, on the streets. […] With my friends we are talking about the war and everything is okay. I think we are getting even closer in some way […] Because we ask each other about our feelings you know, more than in regular days.”

Based on the interviews, it seems that the conflict did not impact negatively on well-developed relations, but on limited interpersonal relations, between classmates or colleagues at work. Moreover, some of the students insist on the negative impact of the conflict on their relations, not only with members of the other group. Some of the Jewish students for example referred to the deep debates they went though with other Jewish Israelis, with who they do not share the same political position. This reflects the significance in Israel of being a leftist on the political map, more on the side of the Palestinians. This is an evident generalization, but this is omnipresent in the interviews, from Arab and Jewish students. One participant of Breaking the Ice told me that at a time of political debates, two groups are formed: the Arabs and the leftist

92 Jews, opposed to the other Jews. Arab students also make differentiation in the Jewish group. Jewish Israelis would believe that Christians are more reachable than Muslims, as well as Arab Israelis would feel more connected with so called leftist Jews. Finally, and based on the students answers, it seems that not only the conflict but also the general political situation has a direct negative impact on the relations. When a particular conflict arises, it only brings to light existing tensions.

Most of the participants state that they generally avoid sharing their political views with members of the other group, except when they already developed a very close and strong relation. They avoid speaking about politics at the university, but also at work or in any mixed activities, because they are aware it might have negative consequences on their relations. Some of the students do not want to lose friends, some others do not want to enter endless debates, so the majority keeps their political opinion for themselves or for accurate environments. Even in the classrooms, the students do not always feel comfortable to share their views, afraid from what the professor or the other students would think. The idea that people can get along as long as they do not go into political debates is omnipresent in the minds of the students, as the responses above reflect it:

Tahlia: “The students, Arabs and Jews are helping each other to pass the courses. We do assignments together. They are very nice, they are very nice people. When you take politics out, you can live together. In peace and harmony.”

Hanan: “A total relation of friendship it is almost not possible. There will always be these small little conversations about what happens in Gaza or what about Jerusalem or what about my land, your religion, that will make it harder. […] I know some people that have relation, I know some people who are married to Jews. […] But in the end of the day it is almost impossible to have these two people that can speak freely about everything and especially about politics.”

If discussions seem limited at individual levels, students do share contradicting views as a group, and the university seems to be a favourable space to be politically aware and involved. In this sense the tensions at the university can be really high, when students of both side use the academic environment as a way to express their views and protest. Several students give the example of Nakba Day, when the Arab students commemorate the Palestinian tragedy at the same time as the Independence Day. It seems to be a day that generally leads to tensions, between the 93 students and the university, because some of the Arab students state that it is always complicated to get the authorisation, and between the students themselves. The following examples show the political engagement at the university:

Reema: “Maybe the Arab students feel that they need to be political involved. To bring their voice, their political voice, like a counter to the extreme voices here. And it’s legitimate to do that. It is there right to, they have the right demonstrate, to share they identity during the study atmosphere”

Avi: “The Arabic students did a demonstration at the university […]. There are a lot of Arabic and especially Muslim Arabic who feel that they have a lot of empathy to the people in Gaza strip, and not to the Israelis. While they are living in Israel. […] Which Israelis have difficulty to accept”.

The situation on both sides has consequences on daily life basis. The main one is a high level of fear and distrust between the two groups. Nava, who places herself against any kind of generalization, still gives particular efforts in order to limit her fear concerning Arab Israelis. Fear that she sadly deplores as natural, mostly after Arab Israelis, directly or not, participate in suicide bombings that killed Israeli civilians. Ofer's answer, presented here, well reflects the impact of this omnipresent fear:

Ofer:“I think the whole conflict needs to end first before you can develop this kind of trust. Because first you need to get over the threat of dying by a stranger, before you can actually talk to him properly.”

According to Hanan, the Arab students are afraid of sharing their minority points of view with Jewish Israelis, even in an academic environment. She adds that in general Arab Israelis only develop relationships with Jewish Israelis because they have to, and not because they want to. Hanan told me that Arabs need to live, to work, to study, so they also need to be in contact with the Jewish population, even if they do not agree at all with them.

The conflict of the summer 2014 makes the fear even higher. Arab students told me they feel uncomfortable and even scared to speak in Arabic in mixed public spaces in time of conflict. Jewish students explain that the Jewish Israelis avoid going to Arab villages or cities, even to visit friends. Both sides give me daily examples when they or their relatives felt direct threats. The fear linked with suicide bombings that killed relatives of several students interviewed remains present, even if these

94 traumatising events did not happened for several years. Except that, the respondents rarely describe situations where the person was directly in danger, but still refer to the existence of fear in the society.

An interesting study denounces the focus on violence between Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel. The research shows that the level of direct violence is significantly low, the society preferring to oppose at a verbal level: “instead of attacking each other’s bodies and lives, we attack each other in words” (HAREVEN, 2002, p. 153). Indeed, the interviews put forward violence in speeches, even higher in time of conflict, reflecting the mutual fears that exist between the two groups. Finally, the relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis cannot be disconnected by the general Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as is shown by the statement of Reema:

Reema: “Normally we have very good relationships, normally. Specifically on Akko, Haifa, Tel-Aviv as I told you, but we can all the time feel the smell of the conflict. It is all the time there. […] When it is bad there [in the Palestinian Territories], it will destroy the relationships here. I think there is a big influence on the relationships between the Israelis and the Arabs here.”

It is clear in the minds of the majority that the relations cannot be positively developed without a change of the conflicting situation. The fact that Israel has been the theatre of several wars and conflicts since its creation and even before, and the complexity of the whole situation makes it hard to believe in any improvement in the close future. Mary describes a very bad situation in Haifa because of the conflict with Gaza, but believes the situation will become again normal and calm as soon as the “war will be over”. Some of the students are still optimistic, and believe in the necessity to discuss and to make everybody aware of the positions of each side, in their eyes less radical than what the media, social networks or political speeches reflect. Breaking the Ice is heading in this direction, as one of the organizers puts it:

Ron: “We don’t want to convince people about any narrative but to convince them that they must know each others, and that they need to accept the existence of another narrative.”

Discussions I had during the coexistence trip made me feel that the Jewish students learn more, in terms of other’s narrative, than the Arab participants during coexistence programs. It reflects what Maoz deducts from his observations during Arab-Jewish encounters: the minority is in some ways superior because they know the

95 existence of two stories, which is not always the case for members of the majority (MAOZ, 2000, p.267). The possibility to express their narrative is central in the Arab responses, and reflects a gap in the Israeli society. In this sense, the Arab informants feel that only the Arabs are forced to keep their opinion for themselves. At the university, several students told me that demonstrations had been forbidden, or give me examples of students who were expelled from their universities because they had publically shared their position. They give concrete examples: an Arab Israeli would be punished for supporting the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier online, while it would be fine for a Jewish Israeli to celebrate the death of Gazan children. The point here is not to know if it really happened but to put forward the feeling of many Arab students, who believe that only one side has to be limited.

They feel their minority position in the academic environment, when the university has clearly taken position. This is the same at work. Some of the Arab informants feel that the rule that prevents people from speaking about politics only targets the Arab workers. The majority of the Arab respondents feel they cannot express freely, even less in time of direct conflict. This brings back to two major issues that oppose Arab and Jewish Israelis. At a current level, they do not agree on the actions of the state towards the Palestinian territories. The conflict in Gaza and the contradictory visions of the students reflect this idea. This does not mean that all Jewish Israelis support the Israeli army, neither that all the Arab Israelis support the action of Hamas, but it seems that the majority of both sides have a tendency to take two opposite positions in time of conflict.

At a historical level, there exist two distinct narratives and two interpretations of a common past. Since 1948 and even before that, the two populations did not learn and did not believe in the same national stories. As it is the case for the participants, the majority of the children are separated at school, between Jewish and Arab schools. Al-Haj, in a study focused on the curriculum developed in each school, depicts a Jewish curriculum that presents only the “Jewish-Zionist narrative” and an Arab curriculum based on “the points of view of the Jewish people and of the Palestinian- Arab people” (AL-HAL, 2002, p.181). This observation seems to be universal: the minority is aware of the views of the other group, which is rarely the case for the majority. One of the Arab participant states that he did not learn anything about the Jewish narrative in Breaking the Ice, since he already knew everything from school. 96 What he learnt through the program, and it is the case for all the students I talked to, is how to express himself. The Jewish and Arab participants describe the necessity to use carefully each word, in order to be understood without hurting the other. They learn it within the program, which is not the case of the majority of the population, while social networks for example allow the expression of radical opinion, even hate speech. The following quotation summarize the communicational skills learnt through the coexistence program:

Tal: “[We have been told] how to talk to each other, how to express your opinion without hurting anyone else. We had a whole seminar about it, and I learn a lot. For example it is always good to start a sentence saying ‘in my opinion blablabla’, not to generalize, not to say ‘all Arabs’, ‘all Jews’, say ‘the Jews that I know’ or ‘some Jews’ or like, being more careful with your words.”

More than being able to share their own historical narratives and positions in time of conflict, some of the Arab students feel the necessity to consider themselves how they want, and to express it freely. Bisan, while denouncing that at her school they could not pronounce Nakba or wear keffiyeh, is one of the most engaged students in this direction:

Bisan: “Most of the Jewish people, and in the government, they denounce, they don’t like the idea of Arabs in Israel defining themselves as Palestinians. Like ‘you should be Arab Israelis, you are not Palestinians, Palestinians are in the West Bank and in Gaza’. And that’s really important for us. If I can define myself as an Arab and as a Palestinian, what else? I think that’s the most important thing.”

Her statement reflects the study of Hareven, who considers that the primary demand of Israeli Arab citizens is to “be able to express their Palestinian Arab identity as individuals but also as a national group” (HAREVEN, 2002, p.153). Even if the Arab interviewees did not insist on a Palestinian sense of belonging, the relation between Israel and the Palestinian territories have an impact on the Arab-Jewish relations. Regardless of their personal beliefs, Arab Israelis are automatically linked to the Palestinian populations in the Israeli society. Moreover, and even if they do not focus on a Palestinian identity, the Arab students still feel injustice concerning the right to express their perceptions on history and on contemporary issues, such as the occupation of the Palestinian territories. On the Jewish side, the sense of insecurity and threat is still very present, even among the young generation, as reflected by the 97 Jewish interviewees. Jewish Israelis fear direct violence from the Arab citizens, even more in time of conflict, as well as the Arab want to modify the Zionist and Jewish characteristics of the state.

98 Conclusion

Several studies had been done on the Arab Israelis, pointing out the specificities of this minority. Beyond differences in terms of religion, culture and language, the Arab and the Jewish citizens have distinct nationalities, interpretations of a common history and views on the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Few researches focus on the relations between the two populations, even less on interpersonal relations. The work of Smooha, an Israeli specialist of ethnic relations, depicts a rather pessimist image of the intergroup relations in Israel, putting forward that Arab and Jewish Israelis mainly live separately in the country.

This research focused on the university, a place where students are, at least, physically in contact on a daily basis. The University of Haifa had been selected, taking into account that this city is one of the more mixed in Israel. Based on interviews with eighteen Arab and Jewish students, the research analyzed how these students perceive their own relationships, the situation in general at the university, in Haifa and in Israel and the reasons that might explain limitations in the creation of developed relations.

As it was expected, the previous backgrounds of the students have an impact on their relations at the university. According to the city they come from, their activities, and the schools they studied at, they were more or less in contact with members of the other group. However, it seems that growing up in a mixed city, such as Haifa, does not imply directly the development of more than superficial contacts with citizens form a different belonging. Yet, Haifa allows the two populations to be in mixed space, for instance at work, where they have to develop interpersonal relations, which might possibly become friendships. This refers to different levels of sociability used in the research in the framework of social psychology. The students establish similar relationships at the university. On a daily basis, students have superficial contacts with members of the other group. Being students at the same university, often within common classrooms, they have to develop personal relations, but they rarely see their classmates from a different nationality outside of the academic environment. Thus, in addition to the physical separation, the research revels the existence of a deep mental separation. 99 In the mind of the students I interviewed, there are clearly two distinct groups: the Arab Israelis and the Jewish Israelis, or sometimes simply the Arabs and the Israelis. This represents two important findings. First of all, the students feel separated, because of important intergroup differences. Naturally, they refer mostly to the language, sometimes to the religion and above all to the culture to explain this separation. However, few students give concrete examples. Further on in the interviews, they often express that it may be not that important. Indeed, while analyzing the responses of the students, it seems that religiosity or socio-economical characteristics differentiate the young Israelis way of life, more than their nationality. It was relevant to analyze the interviews through the work of researchers such as Hall or Vinsonneau, who study the creation of mental separation between us and them, while increasing the innergroup similarities and intergroup differences. The sense of belonging of the students to distinct imagined communities is evident in this study. On the other hand, a minority of informants questions the existence of a clear separation and chose to focus on the similarities more than the differences, and on the positive effects of discussions and education about the others.

Secondly, it clearly appears through the research that there are two ways of being Israeli, according to the interviewees. Here it is necessary to look into the interactions between the identifications initiate by the power, as well as self and external identifications. The Arab students feel or are considered as less Israelis than their Jewish fellows. This is not surprising, the Arab Israelis composing the largest minority in the country. A lack of ties with the state, or of consideration from it, does not imply, according to the respondents, a strong link with Palestinian people. Researchers who study the position of Arab Israelis often debate about the duality of their Palestinian and Israeli identities, but this research shows that the Arab participants feel above all Arabs. This implies their difficulties to define their status within the Israeli society.

While the sense of belonging to the Palestinian people was limited in the Arab responses, the Arab students still disagree on the actions of the State towards the Palestinian Territories. The conflict that broke out at the beginning of the summer 2014 had a direct impact on the relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis, according to the participants of the research. It strengthens the mental separation between the two groups, with the representation of all Arabs supporting Gaza in opposition with 100 all Jews in favor of the actions of the Israeli state. This obviously does not represent the reality, but it is actually a categorization made by the different parts of the Israeli society. It seems that a conflict between Gaza and Israel rekindles the existence of continuing tensions. In the eyes of the respondents, one of the main reasons for limited relations is the existence of disagreements on so-called politics, which includes all elements linked with the creation of Israel on mandatory Palestine. Finally, one quotation from Edward Said seems particularly relevant to the findings of the research:

“No one can deny the persisting continuities of long traditions, sustained habitations, national languages, and cultural geographies, but there seems no reason except fear and prejudice to keep insisting on their separation and distinctiveness, as if that was all human life was about.” (SAID, 1993, p.407- 408)

Indeed, the conflict contributes for fear to take roots, as well as stereotypes and prejudices to reemerge. I expected that the students, since they are part of the new generation, would be less affected at an emotional level by the conflicts which opposed Israel and its Arab neighbors, including the Palestinian Territories. I discovered that fear is still really significant in the Israeli mentalities. Both groups feel they are a minority, the Arabs in the country, and the Jews in the region. Fear strengthens separation, based on negative perceptions of the Others. The university appears to be a favorable space to change representations mainly developed through media, political discourses and familial environment. However, this research reveals how deeply the negative representations are rooted in the minds of the students. While developing the research, I believed that the students might be more open-minded to develop relations but studying together appeared not to be enough. The students need to make a particular effort in order to overcome the mental separation between Arab and Jewish Israelis.

Casual observation and informal interviews made outside the university, all along the fieldwork, enabled me to question my own perceptions and the subject conceptualized before arriving in Haifa. Moreover, I felt a difference in the way the students, interviewed in a formal setting, and the young Israelis, met outside the university, reacted during our discussions. There is a possibility that the respondents did not express freely and it needs to be taken into consideration. What would be

101 interesting is to conduct a formal participant observation with the students interviewed, in the classrooms, in the shared spaces of the university and outside. This would allow for a comparison of the responses and the actual behaviors of the students. Two months period I spent in Haifa was too short to acquire a real understanding of the interactions in the city. On the other hand, I could feel the atmosphere, in time of conflict, which the students were referring to, and I could know the kinds of areas they frequent and spoke about. The participation in the trip organized by Breaking the Ice allowed me to observe the interactions between Arab and Jewish students, but only in the specific context where the students were willing to develop relations with members of the other group. I was able to understand which efforts the young Israelis need to do in order to create positive Arab-Jewish relations. Besides, group discussions I participated in during the coexistence project led students to develop their thoughts further, and brought up interesting elements. It would be relevant to organize focus groups in order to analyze more natural conversations between Arab and Jewish students with different opinions.

The fieldwork was conducted exactly while the crisis between Gaza and Israel lasted. The students interviewed refer to high tensions in the city, which I could feel, as well as at the university. In the academic area, I did not have the opportunity to witness a demonstration in support or opposed to the actions of Israel in Gaza. This might give an opposite image of the positive atmosphere that I observed during Breaking the Ice weekend, even if the conflict also had an impact on the coexistence project, where students needed to be even more careful of the words they were using.

It would be interesting to compare the findings of the research with the relations at the university in a relatively calm time. Intentionally, I do not use the term peace. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict lasted for decades, and it still influences negatively Arab-Jewish relations in Israel, even when there is no direct and violent confrontation. Nonetheless, some of the Arab and Jewish students decided to overcome the apparent separation. To agree on emotional and deep-rooted issues seems hardly reachable, but they believe in the possibility of that, and as well in the necessity to understand the existence of different perceptions. The more optimist students stand in favor of education about distinct narratives, within mixed environment at a very young age. This would be a first step towards breaking the vicious circle of fear, stereotypes and discriminations within the Israeli society. This 102 seems particularly difficult with the conflict situation, which remains, as stated by one of the participant, “a big cloud above [their] heads”.

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Ajami. Directed by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani. 2009.

107 Annex

Annex I: Israel and the Palestinian Territories in the Middle East

Source: Mapsof “Israel Map 2”, available on: http://mapsof.net/map/israel-map-2, accessed June 15, 2015

108 Annex II: History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli and Palestinian perspectives

This historical timeline presents the main events that marked the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It had been elaborated by an American public media enterprise, which states: “It is important to note that a historic timeline of events concerning this conflict is always difficult to present in an objective manner. For this reason, certain events of the timeline include both a Palestinian (on the right side) and an Israeli (on the left side) perspective”. Some parts have been deleted due to space constraints.

109

110 111 112

113

Source: POV “History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, available on: http://pov- tc.pbs.org/pov/pdf/promiese/promises-timeline.pdf, accessed June 15, 2015

114 Annex III: Population, by population group

Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, 2012 Monthly bulletin of statistics: “Population, by population group”, available on http://www1.cbs.gov.il/publications15/yarhon0315/pdf/b1.pdf, accessed April 16, 2015

115 Annex IV: Population by religion

Source: Central Bureau of Statistics, “Population, by Religion”, available on: http://www1.cbs.gov.il/reader/shnaton/text_search_eng_new.html?CYear=2014&Vol=65&input=relig ion, accessed April 16, 2015

116 Annex V: Summary tables of Arab-Jewish Relations Index 2004

Source: Smooha, Sammy, Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel 2004. Haifa: The Jewish-Arab Center, University of Haifa; Jerusalem: The Citizens' Accord Forum between Jews and Arabs in Israel; Tel Aviv: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. 2005, p. 111

117 Annex VI: Interview Mai

Length: 59:31

Place: on Skype

Tiphaine: So my research is for a master, and my university is in France and in Poland, and the subject is the relations between Arab and Jewish students at Haifa university, it is like, is the relations are limited and if yes how the students explain it.

Mai: Okay... so I think it is. I think it depends on who you are. And who is the person in front of you. Because me I have four Jewish very good friends but I think it is only because they are open to have a relation with me. But in general I would say there are few limitation in the relations. Myself I study physical therapy which is a subject that doesn’t really talk about stuff like this and the people in this subject usually are people who want to help otherwise they wouldn’t study physical therapy so I didn’t really find this confrontation with others and I didn’t really felt that I couldn’t have Jewish friends.

In which year are you?

Final. I just finish 2 weeks ago.

You finished your master?

Yeah.

And how old are you?

24 and a half.

Okay. Can I ask you just some questions about you, to know you a bit better?

Yeah.

I wanted to ask you like where are you from and where did you grow up?

I am from [an Arab village], it is a small village near Carmel here in the mounts. And I grow up there and I studied there, high school and school.

In which school?

In the village, it is an Arab school.

So the classes were in Arabic?

Yeah.

And the university is the first time you had classes in Hebrew?

Yeah.

Okay. So your level of Hebrew is...

Well. Now I can have conversation about mostly everything but first time I went to the university it was really really hard for me. Not to understand, I could understand anything, but because we didn’t speak Hebrew in the classes in the school so it was a bit hard for me to speak Hebrew.

Okay. Because before university you didn’t really have relation with Jewish people?

A bit. I worked for two years in a supermarket, in a Jewish city, but you know... all I had to say was like this costs you 40 shekels and ... nothing more. Not personal relation.

So it is really at the university that you began to have relation with Jewish people?

Yeah. Yeah.

And, I mean, because you told me that you have four very good friends, but like how it happened, was it at the beginning of the university that you met a lot of people or...?

Yeah. Because in physical therapy we were only four Arab girls and all the class was Jews. So you can not speak to anyone. So I just looked for anyone who looked like a happy person or someone you can talk to and this is how it developed, like when I see someone, I start to talk to her and, it all began. The first year.

Okay. And so now you consider some people as your real friends? 118

Yeah.

Can you tell me about more about your relation with them?

Like any other girl relation, you talk about anything you want, you hang out, you help one and other, you talk to each other, like any other good friend.

You see them outside of the university as well?

Yeah all the time.

And you go at the house of each other?

Hum... just one time. But I invited them to come at my place this summer so... we are planning this.

How you would describe the relations between Arab and Jewish students in general at the university? Like, maybe not yours but more in general?

Hum... I think in the daily life you... people hang out very rare. But whenever there is more... like a situation in the country, like right now there is war in Gaza, I think people in situation like this start to split into groups. Like now we are with them, we are with those one. I don’t know. Like, every Nakba Day there are some changes. I feel really tensions. But from the daily living, I didn’t feel weirdness between Arab and Jews. It is like, whenever there is something, special, a holiday or something, like people suddenly remember, ok I am a Jew, I am an Arab, so...

And how you would explain that? For example now...

Like why people suddenly start to...

Yeah.

I don’t know... because I am not a person like that. My relation with all of Jew haven’t changed. We actually start talking more, like, talking about this, because we are friends, I mean. But everyone else, I don’t really know. And I don’t really think that it is good. Because I can’t blame any Jew for this war, I can’t blame any Arab for this war. It is war, and anyone is loosing, in any side you are, and people are trying hum... like both side. We are both loosing. Because of this war I won’t not talk with my Jewish friends, suddenly.

But you feel that in general it impacts the relations?

I feel it yeah.

And outside of this kind of situation when there is tension in the country, you said in general they hang out but could you describe me a bit more this relation, like in normal context, without any political or conflictual...

I’ve told you my relations but I don’t know about people. Maybe most of them are just hanging out in the university, during classes or something, I don’t know outside of the university... I know few who yes go out, like, Jews friends and Arab friends that go out together. But... I just speak for myself. I personally yes go out and I... celebrate my birthday with my Jewish friends and it is like, normal.

Yeah you feel it is normal and there is nothing special about it? You didn’t feel it is not common to have Jewish friends or this kind of stuff?

For me not. For me not.

And I wanted to ask you, since the university, did your image of the Jewish Israelis changed? Since you entered the university?

Yes. It has changed to the... because I grow up... I did grow up in a place that didn’t speak about this conflict. So I didn’t really know that there is such a conflict between Arab and Jews, I am an anti-political person so... and my father is a policeman in the Israeli police so... I grow up in a place where Arabs and Jews where friends and because my father is in the police and we had many Jewish friends coming over. So I went to the university like living in an utopia, like everything is cool, but then I started to get to know the other side of the Jewish society, the bad side, in my opinion. The one that, how to say... the side that doesn’t want me because I am an Arab. Doesn’t want me in the country, or doesn’t treat me right or... I just got to know the other side of the people. That doesn’t mean that now the Jewish society in my opinion is a bad society because I still have amazing friends. And I still have, in my image, the good people haven’t change. So few radical people can’t change my opinion about a whole society so... but yeah it did get me to know the other side.

Can I ask you how you consider you in Israel? How you would define yourself?

I am an Arab Christian Israeli.

So you consider yourself as an Israeli?

Yeah.

119 And could you –I am sorry I have a lot of questions– could you tell me what do you mean exactly by Arab Christian Israeli? What does it mean?

Okay. I am an Arab and I am a Christian and I can’t hum... I mean I can’t just Arab because sometimes... I feel like sometimes people have a better image about Christians. So sort of, I use it as... I don’t know... Anyway. As for the Israeli part I mean, I grow up in Israel. My own state is Israel, I learn at school in Israel, my father is a policeman in the Israeli police and hum... I am not saying that I am ignoring the fact that Israel as a country doesn’t really hold like... sometimes I do feel a foreign here, like I am not from here, but I can’t consider myself as Palestinian because I don’t know what Palestine is about. I didn’t grow up in Palestine, I don’t know how it is like there, so... Israel is the only state that I know. The only country that I know. So I just say I am Israeli because that is a fact. It is like saying I am girl and I am Christian. It doesn’t say anything about me It is a fact.

And do you think like hum... you told me there is a different image between Christian and Muslim Arab but do you feel it, this difference, you?

I do.

Yeah? In which sense, like what is the difference according to you?

Hum... well actually we were talking about it in the project and one of the Muslim girl said that Jews always think of Muslim as better than us. And they ask her what do you think? And she say I think they are right. Because when you look at hum... in general a Christian village or a Christian city, I don’t know... I don’t know how to put it in words but... it is different. I don’t say that all Muslim are like that, of course, we just appreciate other things. And we... I don’t know how to put it in words...

But I don’t know is it because Christians are more... I don’t know, like feel more close to the Israeli state or Muslim are more radical or in which sense it would be?

I think it is because the people in the Muslim societies they are more radical than in Christian societies. And they are speaking and talking in the fear and they are doing some stuff so I feel it is like... the Muslim have a bad reputation or something. Again I say it is not everyone but these radical people they just created an image about the Muslim so...

So you feel that if you say you are a Christian people will be more tolerant maybe or something like that?

I think so, all the time. Because when I was doing, how you call it... an internship, to go to hospitals and... you work. And people were always asking how come you are an Arab and you work as a physical therapist, you know because it is a lot of touching and getting close to people. And so I said so what? And they always tell me ha! So you are Christian, you are not Muslim that’s why! And I said yes... it is not the reason for it. But I feel like Jewish... they think that Christians are more opened and... more like them.

But in general did you feel some Jewish students would...

Treat me differently?

Yeah. Because you are Arab.

Yes. Because I am Arab there are few, because I am Christian there are very very few. Because my Muslim friends there are more people that treat them differently. Some people have different image also about Muslims. So you are a Christian, even if you are an Arab, it is okay for them. Like my Muslim friends I think they had harder social life in the university.

But according to you these differences are just like an image? You won’t say that generally in the Muslim and Christian communities there is real difference? Because you just told me about image of the people...

I find differences but they are not differences that make you... hum... like treat others different. There are differences because there are differences in the customs. We have different religions, I grow up knowing different things. I am not, I am different from Muslim and from Jews. And Jews are different from other. And I am different from other Christians. So... it is about a person, how willing you are to know them. Hum...

I also wanted to ask you how you would define the action of the state of Israel towards the Arab minority. What do you think about it?

Hum... this is bad but not that bad. I mean... I can still work, I can still raise a family, I can still have a decent life. But... in the other hand, there are more striction I think... I don’t know... like getting accepted in the university, I am pretty sure that some of the Jewish students in my class weren’t that smart than other Arab students who hum... weren’t accepted. You feel that there are differences. And I feel that. And especially in physical therapy, most students who fail a whole year they were Arabs. And Jewish students always get a second exam, a third exam or a fourth exam sometimes! Hum... and some people always treat you like strangers. You always need to prove that you are citizens, that you did accomplish things as other, and even better than other. But some people they always look at you as strangers. And I remember after finishing high school I went searching for a job and yes, some people told me that we don’t want Arabs.

They told it to you directly?

Yeah. We don’t want Arab workers in here. You feel it. Again it depends on what kind of people you are. If you look at the full half of the cup or the empty one. And... personally I am a person who look at the full half. I have amazing Jewish friends that... hum... they make me still believe in this country, so. And they give me a reason to stay in this country.

120 And on a very general perspective, university and outside, would you say that the relations between, Arabs and Jews are limited? In a very general prospective?

I would say yes. It is not really... there are some relations. It is not as between Arab themselves and Jewish so yeah, there is some restrictions.

Which kind of relations there is and which kind of relations there is not?

I mean there is a relation as... I don’t know, I am an Arab who has a shop, you are a Jewish customer, that’s fine, hello, they treat each other very well in business relations let’s say. But as for more personal relations as hanging out and visiting, I think that it is the kind of relation that are missing.

And according to you what are the reasons for the fact that there is not so much personal relations between the people?

I don’t actually know. I think all the problems in this country made the... like this war in Gaza I think it is a political war, a very personal war, between Arabs and Jews, I think these relations are getting too personal, we can’t just forget... but I think, I really do believe that if someone is willing to have this kind of relation that we hang out and we go out I don’t think the other side would refuse, I really don’t. I have few friends like this who are friends only in the university. When you take a step and asking them to come over or to hang out they are so open to this kind of relations.

Like in the two sides people would be open?

Yes, definitely.

So why people...

People just don’t try.

And why they don’t try?

Because everyone has...everyone thinks that... they hate us. No matter which side you are. The other side will never be that close or... and I think it is not just because Arabs and Jews. And like the whole conflict. It is sometimes because of differences in hum... culture. Cultural differences. Like you feel different from Jews because they are very... they have a different culture. It is one reason why these relations are so limited, regardless of the conflict and...

And what in different cultures make the relations not so developed?

I don’t know like... when we sit on a table we have... for example like calling someone older by his name for Arab it is so... like disrespectful. And if you are younger and call someone over his name, it is not disrespectful in a Jewish house, absolutely not. Hum... I don’t know. Differences like when we sit in a table Arabs usually like eat few, and Jewish, okay you gave them food so why to throw it? They eat it. It is silly things but there are so many differences. I don’t know...

But you think that these differences can have an impact on the relations?

I think so. I think so. I personally had a relation with a Jewish boy, he was my boyfriend but also this cultural differences... he is a very good guy but these cultural differences made it weird for me. To have these kinds of relation.

Can you give me example? In which way?

Hum... it is silly but I really felt that, that when I was with this guy... cause, let’s say the Jewish women are more powerful than the Arab women, in their relations, in the daily life, like their personality is stronger I think. And so the guys they treat... they like... you decide, on yours, do whatever you want, and with Arabs it is a bit different. The guy wants to feel a man that he choose, I don’t know... I feel that and I sort of didn’t like it. That he is not the man in my head. I am not saying that I want a men who is... how do you say... hum.... I don’t know. But in the Arab world, a guy wants to feel a guy, and it’s okay if you are a girl you can always taking whatever you want but at the end he always want to feel the guy, the man. It is really... I don’t how to explain but I felt it that this Jewish guy is not a man because I don’t know... cause when you are an Arab girl you know how to play with guy. Like how to make them feel they got what they want but you are actually doing what you want [laughs] yeah it is like that. I don’t know it was missing with this guy and I felt, I don’t know, weird.

And does it happen often that a Jewish person is with an Arab person? In love relation?

I don’t know me. Just one girl with a guy and... no that’s it.

I also wanted to ask you, for example when you were with this guy did you feel kind of external pressure of the two different groups?

Of course. Yeah. A lot of pressure. I think that also affects the relation.

Can you explain me a bit more?

Because you know, in the Arab world, it’s so... I wouldn’t say forbidden but it is so not accepted to have a guy from other religion, either a Muslim or a Jewish or Druze or... Christian need to take Christian, Muslims take Muslims.

So it was more about the religion, so if you would have been with a Muslim I would have been the same?

121 The same, the same, even harder I think [laughs].

And you say that in the Arab world, but does he felt the same in his side? This pressure?

Yeah. Definitely. He was told me if my mother known that I am dating with an Arab girl she would kill me [smile].

Yeah?

[Laughs].

And it was because of religion or also because of other stuff?

Other stuff. Other stuff. The conflict. This is clear. Not about the religion. I think but I don’t really know.

I wanted to ask you as well because I understood that because Jewish students go to the army they begin university later right?

Yes.

So you’ve been at the university after high school?

2 years after high school.

Ha okay so finally it was almost as I you were in the military service. Because I wanted to ask you if you felt...

Differences?

Yeah because of the age of the people.

Definitely. I begin university 2 years after high school and I was still the youngest in my class. And I really felt, I felt they are more mature, more open, more... mature. That is the best word I can use. And I think it is good like having... not going at the university straight after high school. I don’t think it is a good choice because I really felt the difference. And when you are more mature, you know what you want and you study on studying, you focus on your learning and... and I see it also among the other Arab students who are not in physical therapy because they are more... they are teenagers. Teenagers, especially girls who go at the university after high school they are like teenagers. Like, grow up! [laughs] yeah I think the military is in their benefit, the Jewish benefit. Starting university at this age in my opinion it is better.

And what about the language?

There was difficulties as well. Because in high school, in the classes we didn’t speak in Hebrew. We spoke in Arabic. So I understood but it was so hard for me to talk, to speak, to express myself, to have conversations, this was the hard part. Not understand but talking. Yeah.

And did it affect your relation with Jewish students? The fact that you were not so comfortable with the language at the beginning?

Yeah. I think so. So that’s why, I remember, first month I haven’t spoken to any Jewish classmate but then I decided that you can’t be like that. Because I also found difficulties in classes to ask stuff that I didn’t understand. So that’s why I started having conversations with classmates to get to know them and I didn’t feel ashamed when I spoke... when I didn’t know the word in Hebrew. I just asked. They tell me. This is how I learn. And when I began to spoke personally with every person it was easy for me to speak in class, to do the presentations, but yeah. It was definitely so hard for me at the beginning. But I personally tried. Tried to speak and to improve myself, to improve my Hebrew. But one of my Arab classmate have a different personality let’s say and she will speak to me in class, because I am an Arab student, so... different personalities. Different choices. You can choose to have relation.

And, sometimes people criticize you because you did this choice?

No, no at all. This girl I told you about she always tell me wow I should be more like you, more open, more able to talk to other, to have relations with Jewish. So no, not at all.

You gave me different reasons, why the relations can be limited, as the conflict...

Yeah culture and the conflict.

What do you think is the more important?

Definitely the conflict. Yeah I really think so.

Can you explain me, with a bit of details, like how this conflict has such an impact on the relations?

122 Hum... it is all about... I don’t know. When I am an Israeli citizen and I watch the Israeli media, the Israeli media try to hum... look, the Israeli media is on the Israeli side, and the Arabic media is on the Arabic side, so Arab usually watch Arabic media. And they see different stuff from Jewish, who see the Israeli media. So... I feel like the city try to give the citizen what they intend to give them, not the reality. The media, especially the media. So I think the media hold the key because of it people have these limitations. Because on the eye of a Jewish for example, would feel like Arabs are against me. And an Arab would feel that Jewish are against him because it is what they show him in the media. And also the people believe stuff like that in the media and they tell it to their children. It is so sad to hear like a 5 years-old child to say... who curse Arabs or who curse Jews just because of what their parents said. People are not willing to know one and the other.

And what would be the solution to ameliorate the relations between these two groups?

Just... hum... I try to find the word in English... hum... like, from the house, like how you raise children.

Education?

All education [laughs] all. What you hear in the house, what you hear from your parents, what you hear when the other say, what you are taught, hum... and I think more combined project such as Breaking the Ice is a great idea. Or youngers I would say. Or maybe teenagers because this is the age that you start cheating let’s say... it would really change things. If the teenagers in Israel, the Israelis and the Arabs, sorry the Jewish and the Arab teenagers get to know each other more. They grow up to be better growing up, different ones, and, but, again, I mentioned the media, as long that there is this media who is trying to set this two people apart, hum... this thing will go on. Because, how I said I am an Arab citizen so I watch also the Israeli media and the Arab media and when you see the both sides you see how things are. You don’t know what to believe. You really see what one side try to give to the people and what the other side give to their people. That’s why I think the real problem is in the media.

Could you tell me more about this Breaking the Ice project?

Hum... I am so excited [laughs] I don’t know. I still having difficulties in sharing my thoughts with them. We make few trips here in Israel and we have other trip in a mount also. And we always have these conversations also about the conflict and hum... [The organizers of the project] they always try to give us, like, how to speak your mind. Not just the opportunity to speak your mind but how to speak without hurting or insulting others. Hum... I personally, I told you, I haven’t shared my thoughts as I would like to share with them because I still don’t know how to say these stuff without hurting people. Like, I don’t know, without accusing, without... like this thing about Muslims and Christians, I didn’t even know how to explain it to you and I don’t know how to speak it also during these week ends because I don’t know, other Arabs in this project are Muslims. And they are great friends. I don’t know how to say stuff without hurting them. We try to learn more, to learn how... because you can say whatever you want, this is how you say it. And I am more concerned about sharing my thoughts because of the Arab participants, not the Jewish participants [smile].

Since how long you are in this project?

Hum... from March I think.

And why did you decided to participate?

Because many reasons. First of all because they are giving me an opportunity to travel abroad [laughs] with really, how do you say, it doesn’t cost me. So it is the first thing. We are doing climbing and I really like to... hum... to challenge myself. Especially in the physical part. And also having this opportunity because it is an opportunity to challenge your thoughts and your beliefs. And hum... I am really interesting in sharing my beliefs with other because I think Jewish people, mostly Jewish people, have a specific idea about what is an Arab, especially an Arab girl. Like when I did my internship in hospital, Jewish people always ask me how come you are not covering your hair? How come your parents agree? This is not an Arabic girl. But an Arab girl is like any other Arab girl in the world, it is like... Jews have religious people who don’t do anything and they have the other people. That is the case in Arabs as well. I don’t know. I don’t like to make an image of the Arab girls better than what it is right now. Cause I do speak my mind and I do think what I would like and I go to the beach and I have a boyfriend and like any other girl. And some people find it like... I am true. I am natural. And they would refer to me as the different Arab girl. I am not the different Arab girl. Half of the Arab girls are like me, maybe more. I am not that special. This is really my... I really want to send this message.

And until now these trips and these discussions that you had, what did it change in you? What it brought you?

Until now? Beside the physical part?

What do you mean?

Because we have the trips, like 2 days trips, and climbing and... yeah.

Okay.

And the other hum... to control myself. Because when I start... because I don’t know... because I want to say my beliefs without insulting the other. I am not saying everything that I believe in and it is difficult when you hear people saying stuff that you don’t agree with. And... for example one of the Arab participants in the last meeting said that he supports Hamas. I wanted, like, to jump! What?! Hamas! How can you support them! But I didn’t. because I didn’t know how to say it. so... it is difficult for me. Until now.

So you had a meeting after the war began?

Yes, the last meeting was 2 weeks ago. 123

And how was it? Was it more hard than usual?

Yeah. Yeah. More tense than other meetings. Definitely.

But people still managed to speak?

Yeah. Some of them. Some are more... hum... I feel they are full of anger, they can’t have conversation, they want... they are not willing to have a conversation. What they want is to change your mind. Some people want to have a conversation to change your mind. And that’s not the point of this project. The project is about having conversation, we are not trying to change your mind, the way you live. I am just trying to tell you what I believe in, and making it a better way for you to understand me. You don’t have to agree you just have to understand.

Okay I think I asked you most of what I wanted to ask you. If you think about something that you think interesting you can tell it to me...

I think you cover many, various subject, thank you.

Okay.

I am glad I can help.

Yeah thank you, it was very interesting. I spoke with several people before but you told me different things so it was very interesting to hear your point.

Okay, thank you, bye.

124 Annex VII: Interview Avi

Length: 01:10:19

Place: at a university office

Tiphaine: So my research is about the relations between Arab and Jewish students of Haifa University, in the university and also outside the university, and I wanted, if it’s okay, to ask first questions about you, to know you a bit more, and after more about your opinion on this subject and the situation here and everything.

Avi: Sure.

Okay so we can begin. And also I prepared question but if you think about something I didn’t speak about just feel free to tell it to me.

Okay.

So first I wanted to ask you more general questions about you. Where are you from, where did you grow up and like everything that happened before that you are a student at Haifa University?

Sure no problem. So I grew up in the state of Israel, in a [Jewish city in the South], I don’t know if you know it. You hear about it now a lot because of the news, because of the situation over there. So I grow up over there. I went in the army at the age of 18 for 3 years. I finished my military duty and I went to work at the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs for almost 7 years. I came back last year and I start studying at Haifa University. Hum... I am studying political sciences and East-Asia studies with Chinese. I came to study at Haifa University because of two reasons. First of all my wife get accepted to speech. Here, at Haifa University, I am married, I didn’t mention, 30 years-old. And they accepted her to speech, school at Haifa University. So I saw that I can come here in Haifa and study Chinese and political sciences so it is very interesting.

So you live in Haifa?

Yeah we live in the dorms.

Okay. And where you were working for the ministry of foreign affairs?

Hum... I was going in many countries but the main countries were Jordan for 2 years, Taiwan for 2 years, Turkey for 1 year.

And I wanted to ask you how you consider yourself in Israel? How you would define yourself?

How I would define myself? Like an Israeli or?

Yeah.

Hum... like a Jewish or an Israeli or what first?

Yeah.

I think that before I am an Israeli, I am a Jewish first, and then I am an Israeli. This is how I define myself. Jewish Israeli. There is a lot of people who would say Israeli Jewish or only Israeli but hum... yeah.

And are you politically engaged?

Hum... yes. I study political sciences, it is very interesting. So you know in Israel it is, on daily basis you hear a lot of politics. In the news and everything so... yeah.

And can I ask you for which party?

Hum... well I think I am... you know the right and the left right? So I kind of, maybe center and a little bit to the left, kind of.

Okay. So my first question will be about your contact with the Arab population in Israel, like how is your contact from the beginning? And how it evolves in the university?

125 Hum... first I must say that the contact with the Arabic culture or the Arabic language was from my house, my father came to Israel when he was 18 years-old, he came from Tunisia, his mother language is Arabic. So I heard a lot of Arabic when I went to my grandmother and my grandfather when I was a child. They come in Israel all of them but when I went to their place they spoke their mother language, which was Arabic. And actually still today my father listens to news in Arabic or watching TV in Arabic sometimes. Sometimes it is more convenient to listen to the news in Arabic so you can see the whole picture. But they came; they did Aliyah in the 60s because they believe in the Jewish state. They came to Israel because they believe this is the Jewish dream to come true. And they studied Torah since they were child, my father studies Torah since he was child so he knew how to speak Hebrew but the Torah Hebrew which is not the same, so he came here and he joined to the army and he studied Hebrew during his military service and met my mother and... So this was my first connection with Arabic culture or language. Hum... I think that the, maybe the next step of this connection between the Israelis, the Jewish and all of this conflict was at the army of course. So... most of... today I am not sure it is the most but hum... many of the Israelis when they are the age of 18 have to go to the Israeli military, the IDF, Israeli Defense Forces, and have to do at least 3 years, so I went to the hum... to be a warrior, so you feel the conflict from different angles. So this is for 3 years, we studied a little bit Arabic, and we had a lot of contact with the Arabic population, especially in the conflict areas. I mean inside of Ramallah or Jenin, Tulkarem, all of the Palestinian cities. But hum... I went there as a soldier not as a citizen so... this is the second step of my connection with the Arabic world. And then I went to work at the ministry of foreign affairs as I told you and I went to Jordan. First I went to Ankara to Turkey, which is defined as a Muslim country, so it is like a continuation of the military because I worked as a military officer. So hum... we still have a lot of contact with the local population, politics, religion, so... Turkey is defined more Islamic Muslim country and see after my service in Turkey I went to Jordan for 3 years and there I had a lot of Jordanian friends I work with them on a daily basis for 3 years and I studied Arabic there.

And you don’t know Arabic from your father before?

No, no, unfortunately no. And this is something that I really regret that I didn’t study when I was a child because it is different so... then I went to Taiwan for 3 years so almost no connection to Muslim, Arabic, over there it is more related to the East culture. So... when I see the next episode, you know, as a citizen of Israel, you always hear from the news, from politics, from you family, from your friends, it is always on the agenda. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So as an Israeli we live it you know... and of course here, in Haifa University. Haifa University is a bi-ethnic university which the percentage of the Muslims and the Arabic students in Haifa University I think is the highest in Israel. I am not sure of the number of the Arabic students in Haifa University but I am sure it is the biggest percentage of Arabic students, more than , Jerusalem University or any other university. Beer Sheva University for example, Ben Gourion. Hum... yeah.

And what about your contact with Arab Israelis, more specifically.

Today or?

Before and today, how it evolves.

Hum... I think that even before, part of being an Israeli citizen, you know, an Israeli, we called it an Israeli food, but this is not an Israeli food, it is an Arabic food, so Israelis really like to eat Hummus, and like to eat middle eastern food so we were going to a lot of restaurants and... you know you live the Arabic culture in Israel also, you live it in Jerusalem, you live it in Akko, you live it in Haifa, you live it in many places so... from time to time you have contact with Arabs... Israeli Arabic. And hum... today I think that as a student here I don’t have many friends Arabic students. I have only one which is Christian. Also I study with them. Political Sciences and other courses. But I have only one, Christian Arabic, and he even came to my weeding. Yeah. So... unfortunately I have only one. Yeah.

And why do you think you have only one?

Hum... I think that I have only one friend because hum... I do not have any problem to be a friend with an Arabic student, even with a Muslim, or if he is Christian, you know, everyone, hum... but I think that you can see, especially here at the university, I don’t know if you are here for a lot of time but at university if you are going through the semester, and the breaks and everything, if you look from outside, as a visitor, not part of the students, you can recognize that it is divided by group, you can see the groups. I think that there is a lot of tolerance, especially from the Arabic students, and... to receive an Israeli friends in their group, hum... because they are a lot of Israelis who don’t have any problems, maybe there are some Israeli students they have their own group of course, their own friends, but hum... I think that most of the Israeli students, I think especially in Haifa University, do not have any problems to receive an Arabic student into their hum... group or friend circle. But I see it less. Like I see it less an Israeli in a group of Arabic student, than an Arabic which is in a group of Israelis.

It happens more that Arabic will be with Israelis?

126 Yes. Yeah. That is what I recognize. I am here for almost a year and this is what I see you know, during the lessons, and... of course you know there are reasons for it I am sure, you know the language is not the same, the mentality, the... mentality is not the same hum... so of course it is much easier to speak with someone or to be friend with someone who speaks your own language, or believe in the same ideology that you believe in, but hum... I think that there are also a lot of... especially here, you know in Haifa university, we have also Israeli students who are not afraid to receive an Arabic friend. First of all I think it is a challenge you know, you can study a lot from personal point of view, and not only from politics and TV, news, because it is all diverse. If you want to know something and to learn about something, you need to learn it from primary source. And the primary source is the Arab Israeli citizens. So I think that there is more curiosity of the Israelis in the Arab culture, than the Arab culture has at the Israelis, that the Arab Israelis have for the Israeli culture. What I am trying to say is that the thing that motivated the Israelis to know, or to be a friend, or to be in a contact with an Arabic student, is because we are curious, we want to know. We want to understand the conflict, we want to understand the problem, we want to know the ideology. Because I think that there are a lot of Israelis who are just saying, you know, all of the Arabs are like this and like that, and all of the Arabs are behaving the same. But no one really knows, we... our source of information is only from the news and... Politics and news. But if you try to speak with someone, with an Arabic student, you will see that the situation is different. Not all of the Arabs will think the same, as not of the Israelis don’t think the same. The ideology is different. There are Arabic students who believe different politic view. But I think you only can know it by conversations. Yeah.

And did you have this kind of conversations?

Hum... unfortunately I didn’t have these kinds of conversation with the Muslim Arabic student. I had, this is not like a conversation this is like a chat you know, we are chatting, not formal conversation and everything, with Christian Arabic, which is different. Because there are differences in the ideology between Muslim Arabic and Christian Arabic, it is like, not the same, at all, there are different views, points of views, the way that Muslim Arabic students define their relation to the country is different in the way that Arabic Christians define themselves to the country. So unfortunately no, I didn’t have the opportunity to have this kind of conversation with hum... a Muslim Arabic student. Yeah.

What do you mean when you say that the relation with the country is different?

Hum... I mean that, from my experience and my knowledge so far the Muslim side of the Arabic population feels less related with the country. They don’t recognize Israel as a Jewish country, they don’t recognize it you know hum... I think there is a higher percentage in the Arabic population that are not paying taxes because they don’t recognize the country, they don’t recognize Israel as the... that Israel can control this country, they believe it is their country, so this is different ideologies. But you see it less in the Christian population. Hum... so.... yeah.

But with this Christian friend so you could develop friendship?

Yeah yeah. But you know I could develop friendship with anyone, anyone has the right to think what he thinks and to believe his own ideology but I think that it is much easier for Israeli to be friend or in contact with the Christian community because the Christian Arabic community is more...open. Maybe more moderate. They don’t have the limitation that the Islam, that the Muslim religion has. Hum... you can see it by the way they dress, like if you would see for example a female Muslim student, she will dress differently from a female Christian Arabic student. Because the Israeli culture and the Israeli mentality is more similar to the... it is more open you know, so maybe we feel much more easier or comfortable to be with hum... in touch, or... with the Christian community than the Muslim community. It is just an assumption you know, it is nothing...

No but it is interesting to know what do you think. And how you would describe, just at university, your daily relation with Arabs, in general? Like, what you do together?

Unfortunately hum... a minimum. Like only things related to hum... to our studying. Or for example if we are in the same course, so it is only practical, when do we have to go there, when do we have to do that? Do you know what we have to do for the next lesson? And a really minimum. It is not really, friends. But... unfortunately this is the way hum... I would rather that I would have much more Arabic friends than I have now. Hum... but even if I am trying. You feel when it is not hum... I mean, usually, I am... even if I try to develop a conversation with an Arabic student, usually in group or something, I cannot reach a level of a real development, it is only basic things. Hum... yeah. So...

And this friend you told me about, how you met and how is your relation?

I met him because we are studying the same thing here at the university, I mean the same courses. But hum... with him it is much more open we can speak on everything, it is hum... as I mentioned before he was at my wedding and we can discuss politics, even though he believes the opposite from me, but we can discuss it in a friendly way you know? Each side respects the other side, ideologies and points of view so... I can understand where is his ideology from and he can understand where is my ideology from so... we respect each other.

And in a general way how you would define these relations between Arabs and Jewish? Not you but in general at the university?

Hum... how I would define? It is not developed enough. As I told you, try, if you will still be here in Israel at the next semester, try to work trough the races at the university and try to look on the people that you are the same and you will see that it is divided to groups. You can see an Israeli group seat on the grass and you can see a group of Arabic students who seat maybe next to same, on another side, but it is divided groups. I mean, there are so exception, of a mixed group, but hum... the most of... the way I see it, it is divided.

And for you what are the main reasons for the fact that it is divided?

Hum... first the differences that we have on ideology and politic views.

It would be the first thing? 127 Yeah. This is the first thing. Each side they live different things. I think it came from... that... many Israelis are doing their military service for 3 years and they... gives a lot to the country, to our country, to this country, and... all of the Arabic population are not doing it, are not giving from their time, they do not sacrifice for this country, so I think maybe, maybe, this is the first factor that cause this difference between Arabic and Israelis. Hum... because I know that many Israelis think we gave from ourselves 3 years, we sacrificed ourselves 3 years for the country and... you know you sacrifice your time, you beginning your academic studies at the age of 21, or 22, while an Arabic student begin at the age of 18, so... there is disproportion between what you give to the country and what you get back. Because many Israelis think that while I gave 3 years from myself to the country, they are some cases that the Arabic population get the same things. And in many ways, many Israelis think that they do not deserve it. Because a lot of them they do not recognize the country, there is a high percentage of non-paid taxes, and not a high percentage but 100% are not going to the military. So it seems this is the first factor. And of course there is the medias. The Israeli media. This is what we are seeing since the age of zero. I think nobody, maybe in a few Israeli Jewish schools, are studying the Arabic point of view of the conflict. We study only [insist on the last word] the Israeli point of view on the conflict. When you study, it is not political sciences, at school it is called esrarout, in Hebrew, you learn about the basic rules of the country and what country is and what democracy is at school, but you do not study about the conflict, nothing, so you are going to the military, without knowing anything, about hum... the conflict and the characters of this population, I mean, you learn it through a very, I think, only from outside.

At your class of history at school you don’t have something about the creation of the State, the war, and everything?

We do have but it is not developed enough I believe. It is not developed so you can really understand the roots of the conflict. You can understand it because you are... I don’t know if it is still today but when I was at school it was, we had to learn either French or Arabic at a third language. You know you learn English, of course you learn Hebrew, and you have to choose either French or Arabic. So I choose Arabic but hum... so it heard that today it is cancelled, you don’t have to take it, only if you want to, but when I was at school you had to take it and I think it is very important. Because the first thing in order to communicate you need to know the language. Hum... so I think maybe it is another factor of the, hum, not separation but the divided connection between Israelis to Arabic and Arabic to Israelis. So... I think that the language, the military service, the culture of course, is different. And... of course you can feel it more in a ... for example in this time, all the Israelis are joining together because of the war that we have now in Gaza Strip. A lot of IDF soldiers are over there, against the Hamas organization. And especially in these times, when it is a little but tense, or after there is a terror attack, or any military action published on the news, so... both of the sides are much more suspicious against each other. I think I saw it once or twice at the university when there were demonstrations, did you see it before?

No.

The Arabic students did a demonstration at the university and the Arabic students at the university are a minority, most of the students at the university are Israelis, Jewish Israelis, hum... so there is a lot of objections to this kind of demonstrations you know, nobody can tolerate it you know when there is hum... this kind of military actions or semi war like we have now. There are a lot of Arabic and especially Muslim Arabic who feel that they have a lot of empathy to the people in Gaza strip, and not to the Israelis. While they are living in Israel. So this is the thing that I think that the Israeli students or the Israeli population on general has difficulty to accept. Hum... we have difficulties to accept how come the Arabic population live in Israeli state, study in a Israeli formal academic institution, like Haifa university, and still look, it’s look like they are going against the country. So I think that there is the level of suspicious from both sides that, this is another factor of the hum... these groups that I mentioned before.

And do you feel it personally in your relations with either your friend or your flat mates? This impact of Gaza conflict?

Hum... you know now it is the summer vacations so... luckily, as my friends told me, we have not to study right now. Because if we were studying right now, you would really feel it at Haifa University. In Haifa University you feel it the most because it has happened in the past that each military action, or any conflict, political argument or something that went out of the agenda, hum... as a politic issue, you can see a lot of discussions between Arabic and Israelis. It can be shown in demonstrations or hum... by showing, the Arabic community can show empathy by taking the Palestinian flag and go with it at the university. Which Israelis have difficulty to accept, really. Hum... I think that the roots of the... of this lack of tolerance at the Israeli society is fear. Fear. Fear of... the history of Israel is full of wars, this is the only place that we have, in Israel, for the Jewish state, we do not have any other place to go, so we really obsessively, taking care of this country. Hum... you can see it anywhere you go, by the security that you meet, in the airport, or in a mole, there is a security guard. I think the root, the main root, is the fear because, in our... the Jewish history, we had the experience of the hum... holocaust, and... we cannot, the Israeli society, the Jewish society, cannot even think of something that can be close to something that will threat on the Israeli state again. So we are really obsessive, we take it to the other side. But this is my opinion right? This is my personal opinion.

Yeah. It is what I am interested in.

This is only my personal opinion, this is not something academic or...

Yeah yeah of course.

I didn’t do any research or something...

No but it is what is interesting, if I want research I can read books but to know what people think...

Yeah this is my personal point of view, yeah.

You told me you learn Arabic, your level of Arabic is enough to speak with someone?

Hum... yeah. Maybe not, you know, I will be stuck at some point but I can manage a conversation.

128 And you use it sometimes, now?

Hum... sometimes when there is something in Arabic in the News so I try to listen and understand, hum... and I use it when we are going to eat Hummus [smile], sometimes when I hear a conversation if an Arabic student here I can understand so sometimes it is funny, but I am not really using it as a language on a daily basis.

I also wanted to ask you about that, because you told me that Jewish Israelis are going to the army so they begin later the university, do you think that it has an impact the fact that Arab and Jewish students don’t have the same age?

Hum... it impacts on the aspect of the hum... not on political aspect. On the quality aspect. Not only against Arabic by the way, also against, it is called in Hebrew Havadim, the Orthodox, the religious people that are not going to the military at all. Israeli society have the same feeling, it is not only against Arabic population. It is against each population that are not serving the country as the Israelis serve the country. For example inside the Israeli society, there is a lot of people that decide not to go to the army. Even it is a law, you know there is a lot of way to avoid military service, and they are not going, they declare they are pacifist, they do not believe in weapons or anything like this, so they do not go to the army, but hum... also to this, hum... subgroup at the Israeli community there is less tolerance, it is not only against Arabic, it is against Arabic, the Orthodox radical Jewish and also the subgroup inside the society that do not do any military service.

I was thinking that the fact that people don’t begin university at the same age, it may have an impact on the relations between Arabs and Jews, you know what I mean? Because at the age of 20, 3 years of difference can make a lot of difference in mentality, and everything. Do you think it can also impact the fact that there is not so much relations between the people?

Hum... I am not sure because even if you are taking a 21 or 22-years-old Israeli group and 21 or 22 Arabic group, they still do not have relations. So the age is not a major factor in here. Because not all Arabic begin to study at the age of 18, they have the opportunity but some of them have to work before or...

Have you ever feel that an Arab student won’t be comfortable in having a relation with you because you are a Jewish Israeli? Did you feel it?

Yeah sure. Yeah yeah sure. I felt it. But not because what he believed in, I felt it because what the Arabic community would think on him if he would have a Jewish friend and especially a Jewish friend that serve in the military. Which hum... the Israeli military is doing a lot of things that are against their sets of ideology. The Arabic community will say how can you be friend with someone that went to the military? With someone against our people? Against our nation? So I felt that it is not personally, it is something that... the problem is in the society, not in the personal between me and him.

And do you feel it as well, like, if you have an Arabic friend for example, when you invite your friend some people would say how can you be friend with an Arab...

No he is Christian.

Yeah but he is an Arabic Christian right?

He is Christian and I don’t think he had any problem. The opposite, it was the opposite, he was asking questions, he came to my wedding and he was like, how is it the Jewish weeding, it is my first time, I want to know, so my friends explain to him, usually it is eat, drink and dance, a Jewish weeding. So I don’t think he had a problem with it but hum... I am quite sure that even if I was inviting my friend for example Palestinian friend from Jordan that I was working with them before two years, they would come, they don’t have any problem, but hum... but I don’t think they will tell all of their friends that they went to a Jewish weeding and I have an Israeli friend... no. No way.

And in the other sense do you feel that between Jewish Israelis there is also this kind of pressure that if you have an Arabic friend they will tell you, like the same thing that you describe to me but in the other sense? They would judge you?

I think it depends first how old you are. Because if you are 18 so you have a lot of influence of the society, around you, but for example at the age of 30, even if my friend tell me how do you have an Arab friend I don’t care, I want to be his friend because he is an interesting person. I don’t care. But I think in earlier age you are much more given to the influence of the society. So... but yes. The answer is yes. I think there is a lot of group in the Israeli society that it is the same. Especially in these times. When in Israel you have it... every two months you have something. Either a military action or either a demonstration at the Knesset in Jerusalem or either... we have always something, you know, to show the conflict, it wasn’t the war in Gaza, it was the military actions in Jenin or Ramallah, or the politics issues, yeah we have always things going on so...

I wanted to ask you, since you are a child, and after the army, and since the university, these different steps, how the image that you have of Arab Israelis evolve?

Let’s hum... this is a very interesting question because I was discussing with my wife about it few days ago. I think at the age of 18 the first time that you are allowed to vote, as an Israeli citizen, the age of 16 sorry. So... I remember exactly what I voted from the age of 16, every 4 years, so I, now I feel ashamed but when I was at the age of 16 I was very, you have a very narrow point of view of the reality. You do not, you are not mature enough to understand the politics or the all picture. And... I think if you would see all the result of my vote, my votes, you would see each 4 years, statistics, how my opinion came more mature, from the radical right to the, as I told you, now it is a little bit left. But the beginning was from here, from the radical right, that what I was at the age of 16. Now I think that was stupid.

And so how you would explain this change?

129 First of all... experience. At 16 you know nothing, about the conflict, you know nothing about politics, you know less than what you should know in order to vote. You, it is almost impossible to understand the whole picture at the age of 16, while it is much more possible to understand it after you have experience and touch with the Arabic community. Or any experience with the conflict. As taking part to the conflict. Not only watch from outside at the news or at the medias. So I think that the military, there are a lot of people that went from the other side, from the radical left to the radical right.

During the military?

Yeah. So it depends how you see the things and which specific experience you had at the military. There are a lot of people who had a lot of bad experience at the military with the Palestinian community in conflicts and war situation, that one of their friend is killed and that’s it, they will stay on the radical right all of their life. Because they had a specific experience with a very narrow side of the conflict. But this is what they see. The emotional aspect as a lot of impact on it. It is more emotional than rational. And both of the sides are very very emotional. Arabic and Israelis. It is what we are similar in. It is all emotional. If you love someone you love him, true love, but if you hate someone you hate him, true hate, you know? This is funny but it is the same emotions.

So for you it was more at the military that you changed your position towards Arab...

After the military. During the military service you... it is almost impossible that the political views influence on your action because you are really on a pattern of the unite that you are serving and the things that the unite does and it is almost, you are part of the system, so it is almost impossible that because of the political views I change and I did something. After the military service, you try to think, why? You start to ask questions. And it doesn’t happen at the age of 16. It happens at the age of 20 maybe or the age of 21. You wonder why? Why do they hate us? And you ask these questions and try to understand their point of view, the Arabic point of view, the Muslim point of view, and you understand that it is very complex issue. And, also I began to read a lot of books about this issue, you know, I was trying to look information about it, because it was very interesting things to me as a citizen. And... of course from my... you know the work experiences that I had in Jordan, I live there for 2 years, I see what they see all of their life, I see it from their side, so I see how something small that we are doing here as a lot of impact over there. And vice versa. So you live in both sides, I don’t think that a lot of Israelis have the opportunity or the option to actually live some times with an Arabic community or if they don’t friends of course but... hum... many Israelis are living all their life in an Israeli community. This is what they know. That is what they see all of their life. Nobody makes the effort and try to see so...

And in this class that I’ve been from Asad Ghanem?

Yeah it is a very interesting course. It is called: the Palestinians in Israel, politics and crisis. It is trying to explain the structure of the Israeli state and how it influences about the Palestinians in Israel and outside of Israel and how the Palestinians influence on the Israeli side, it is especially speaking about the definitions of Israel as a democracy. For example Israel is defined a s a democratic country, it is defined as a democratic Jewish country, but we learn and we read a lot of articles that it has also another name, it is called ethnocratic. There is a model who defines Israel not as a pure democracy. A lot of people think it is a pure democracy but it is not because it gives a lot of benefits to one ethnic group inside Israel which is the Jewish. And nobody hides it, nobody says other things. The prime minister, the president, the politics, the primary definition of Israel was as a Jewish state, not as a multiethnic state, and not as a Palestinian Jewish state. So this is one of the reason why the Israeli regime they are trying to keep all of the Jewish aspects of our life, and not let it go. I mean, if you want to get marry in Israel, both of you have to be Jewish, and you have to do it in the Jewish authorities of the state, and you have to get married with a Rabin. So the Israeli Jewish ideology is that we have to keep it, the Jewish, because otherwise, maybe there is a possibility that some day, if we lose our Jewish identity, we can also loose the Jewish state, which is Israel.

And what do you think about the actions of the state towards Arab minority?

Hum... I think that there is hum... it is not a secret and everybody knows, even the Israeli society, that there is hum... a level of discriminations against Arabic Israelis or Palestinians. It is obvious. Nobody hides it. But I think that there is a... you know, discrimination came into reality when it is regarding to infrastructure of the cities, in the Palestinian cities or Arabic cities. If you would go to the east Jerusalem for example, have you been there before?

Hum hum.

So you will see the, that, hum... you will go 2 kilometers away to a Jewish neighborhood and an Arab one you would see the difference. But there are a lot of reasons for it, I mean hum... the Arabic side would say that this is discrimination and the Jewish side would say well they are not paying taxes. So this is the conflict that we have all of the time. And I think that even in the Arabic population there are a lot of Arab people who says that they are lucky that they are under the Israeli regime. Any other regime, Palestinian or Arabic, would be much more, much less equal, to the minorities or to them, than the Israeli regime. So... it is complex.

And what do you think could be done to ameliorate the relations between Arab and Jewish Israelis?

Wouah... hum... I think that the key... first understand the conflict. I think many people still not have a lot of knowledge’s or information to understand the conflict. And... it could be done at the very beginning, first from education. From the roots to make it better it is education. But hum... this is also the problem, because the Arabic Muslim community the education is based on the Islam. Hum... while on the Jewish community it is based on the bible. You know for the Muslim community... This is the problem it will never be hum... to accept Israel as a country will never be part of the religion or part of the roots of education.

So you think an important thing would be accept Israel as a country?

130 This is my personal point of view. Yeah you live in Israel. I mean even if you want it or if they don’t want it. they live in Israel. Hum... and hum... I think that maybe after education there is hum... I mean the roots of the problem as I mentioned before if the suspicious that Israel have against Arab in Israel. But this comes from... a lot of people are saying that this is justified, suspicious. There are terror attacks inside Israel. And many Israelis are justifying to suspicious about Arab communities if the attacker is an Arabic. So the suspicious is also I think that... terror will always stay and... it won’t be disappearing. But if it would be disappearing, I hope, so maybe Israelis would be not that suspicious. And the declaration of the Palestinians that they want to take over Jerusalem and... the discussion is on borders, what is Israel for them. They want to come back of the 67 boarders agreement and Israel do not accept it, I mean, hum... so I think education, religion, it will never have... I am sorry I am very pessimistic about the future, of this conflict, but I don’t believe it will happen, I think it is a vicious circle of suspicious, war, hum... conflict, it will always stay, unfortunately.

But when you say education what do you mean exactly?

First from both sides. I mean, that Israeli Jewish schools, I think it is to be mandatory to learn Arabic. And to learn the history. The history of the Palestinians. I think it has to be done. In Israeli schools. And also in Arabic schools. To study Hebrew. And... to learn about the history of Israel, I am smiling when I am saying it because it is funny.

But, I don’t know a lot but I read that a lot of Arabic schools they have the Jewish national program?

Hum... maybe. I am not sure but maybe. That is what I believe. Education. Politics will never change, politics will always stay hum... it will never be... it will always stay in this kind of situation. Conflict. Politic of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. And... education, mentality, religious is the problem. And...

How religion should change to...

Religions can’t be changed. The fact that there is religion, this is the main... you know we believe in things and they believe in different things from the very beginning of our life. And... so this is a main factor to the conflict. But we have to think maybe how to use it in order to solve the conflict, or maybe to see how we could take advantage of the religion to, not to the war side, to the peace side, and I think that there is... I believe that in the Israeli side we have also a lot of walls. In the education side. Especially before the Israeli society has the first contact with the Palestinians, which is in the army, I mean, I saw in my military service that a lot of soldiers do not know how to speak Arabic and they are going inside Palestinian houses and they don’t know how to speak Arabic so it is a problem. And they do not receive any background. I mean if you are going to be in contact with a population, any kind of population, you need to get educational background, historical background, language background and... and I think that maybe in a way there is a lot of... it is difficult to say it these times that we have a war but in many aspects I think that hum... an education will lead more to a rational reaction against conflict than emotional reactions against the conflict. Hum... and of course to take care of the... you know if you would look back, not only the history but also the past, you will see that the... major factor which start the conflict is radical groups. The minority radical groups who control the other people, if you would look of this current conflict that we have in Gaza Strip, it starts, it begins three weeks ago, when 3 Israelis teenagers were kidnapped by two radical members of the Hamas. And... if the Hamas organization and the other organization are encouraging them to do that, so this is a circle. Nothing will break the circle. And them we have to do something back. And then they have to defend themselves. And then they have to resist. And then we have to do something. So it is a circle. So maybe in both sides, I don’t know if we call it regime but the hum... for example in Israel if the country can control... for example if you will see few weeks later the teenagers were kidnapped, there was a Palestinian teenager that was killed. Murdered by Israeli radical groups. And... when you see the prime minister, he condemned the murder of the Palestinian kid, he is not, it is not his fault, not the one of the Palestinian kid. But he was killed. As it was not the 3 teenagers fault but they were killed. But he condemned the murder. And this guy is going to prison. But if you see it on the other side, it is not the same rules, we are not playing the same game. If you would see it on now the current conflict, you will see that a terrorist that was injured by the IDF, are taking in an Israeli hospital to take care of them. A terrorist! But if you see an Israeli, for example, body, an Israeli body of a soldier who was killed inside of Gaza, they took him and they were taking advantage of the situation, they said that they kidnap him, and to give hope to the family and they are playing with it. While in the same time the Israeli side built a hospital to the citizens of Gaza, outside of Gaza, and three terrorists are taking care, as patients, in an Israeli hospital. It is funny. It is a war. But this is the difference I think, between the two sides. I am sorry that I am too pessimistic but this is the reality.

It is interesting to hear your point. I think I asked you all my questions but if you think about something that I didn’t ask and that you consider important...

Hum... I guess that you are going also to interview Arabic student, to see their point of view, so it would be interesting.

Okay.

Good luck with your research!

Thanks.

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