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Conflict and Education in Israel: University Educators and Challenging Conflict Narratives

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Conflict and Education in Israel: University Educators and Challenging Conflict Narratives Conflict and Education in Israel: University Educators and Challenging Conflict Narratives By: Katerina Standish A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba In partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Peace and Conflict Studies University of Manitoba Winnipeg Copyright © 2012 Katerina Standish Abstract This research represents an innovative examination of the role of university educators in protracted ethnic conflict. In this exploratory qualitative case study, Israeli professors from five universities were asked to share their experiences and opinions as educators. They were invited to share their perceptions and perspectives when asked if they chose to challenge conflict narratives in the classroom. Research participants were asked to picture the future and to communicate their fears, worries, hopes and wishes. The educators interviewed in this study felt the atmosphere in Israel was hostile to individuals who teach from a critical standpoint and that there could be repercussions for persons who challenged the Zionist narrative. Educators used a variety of methods regarding contested materials: some spoke freely, many used a comparative approach using examples external to Israel, and some refused to discuss sensitive issues in the classroom. The results of this study point to an escalation in extreme positions in Israel, an inhospitable atmosphere for critical academics and a general pessimism regarding the future. However, this study also revealed the majority of those interviewed used strategies to challenge narratives of conflict in the classroom and most felt it was essential and beneficial to do so. Many respondents felt worried and uncertain about the future, most struggled to imagine a future that encompassed the qualities of ‘positive peace’ including mutual cooperation and equity among individuals and even fewer could imagine the means to manifest such a reality.When asked to imagine the future, responses were conservative, pessimistic and fearful and few educators articulated their professional contributions to social change. I List of Figures Figure 1: Jewish Pogrom Victims in Yekaterinoslav (Public Domain)…………………………………..-35- Figure 2: The Pale Settlement (Public Domain)………………………………….………………………,……..-36- Figure 3: Members of the 1st Aliyah (Public Domain)………………………………………………………….-37- Figure 4: Refugees after Al Nakba (Public Domain)…………………………………………………………….-41- Figure 5: Yasser Arafat (Public Domain)……………………………………………….……………….……..…….-43- Figure 6: Separation Wall in East Jerusalem (Author’s collection, 2005)………….…….…….…….-65- II Acknowledgements The author would like to express her gratitude for the support she received from fellow Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) ‘Mauro-ites’ Stephanie Westlund and Maureen Flaherty. She is indebted to all of the Israeli Educators who volunteered to share their time, contacts and impressions with her despite the time difference, dropped calls, poor connections and crying baby. She thanks her committee members Dr. Tami Jacoby and Dr. Roewan Crowe for their support, insight, input and encouragement. She is overwhelmingly grateful to her husband Corey for incalculable support, encouragement and outright threats! She is thankful for her loving, intelligent and instrumental parents Wendy and Nick and her sisters Nounie and Titi. The author would like to thank Sean Byrne and Jessica Senehi for their vision, and inspiration, and for being role models for what it means to create, share and manifest peace. Finally, the author would like to thank her lovely daughter Madelin for showing up during the author’s candidacy exam and making absolutely everything more difficult, more challenging and worth every second. III Table of Contents ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................... I LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................. III TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................... IV CHAPTER ONE: LEARNING CONFLICT, LEARNING PEACE ............................................................ - 1 - INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ - 1 - STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: PEACE AND CONFLICT AND EDUCATION ...................................................... - 2 - RESEARCH QUESTION ........................................................................................................................ - 5 - CHAPTERS OVERVIEW ....................................................................................................................... - 6 - THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS EVALUATION ................................................................................................... - 7 - CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................. - 8 - CHAPTER TWO: THE ISRAELI/PALESTINIAN CONFLICT .............................................................. - 10 - INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. - 10 - Protracted-Ethnic Conflict .................................................................................................... - 10 - CONFLICT ANALYSIS ONE: HISTORICAL ANALYSIS .................................................................................. - 11 - CONFLICT ANALYSIS TWO: SOCIAL CUBISM (BYRNE & CARTER 1996) ...................................................... - 14 - Culture and Social Class ....................................................................................................... - 18 - Religion ................................................................................................................................ - 22 - Gender ................................................................................................................................. - 25 - Politics .................................................................................................................................. - 28 - CONFLICT ANALYSIS THREE: THE NARRATIVE ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT ....................................................... - 33 - Ideology ............................................................................................................................... - 34 - IV Armed Struggle/Resistance ................................................................................................. - 46 - Religion ................................................................................................................................ - 51 - Jerusalem ............................................................................................................................. - 57 - Exile and Return ................................................................................................................... - 71 - CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................................... - 82 - CHAPTER THREE: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE STUDY ............................................... - 84 - INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. - 84 - Ethnicity, Ethnic Pluralism and Ethnic Conflict..................................................................... - 85 - Perspectives, Theories and Causes of Ethnic Conflict .......................................................... - 88 - Cultural Memory, Collective Memory and Conflict Narratives ............................................ - 92 - Narratives in Ethnic Conflict ................................................................................................ - 93 - CONFLICT AND EDUCATION .............................................................................................................. - 95 - The Role of the Teacher in Society ....................................................................................... - 97 - The Conflict of Teaching .................................................................................................... - 103 - Symbolic, Cultural and Alienating Violence ....................................................................... - 105 - EDUCATION FOR PEACE ................................................................................................................. - 108 - Encounter Groups .............................................................................................................. - 110 - Coexistence Education ....................................................................................................... - 112 - The Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME) Shared History Textbook ......... - 115 - CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION AND THE MORAL IMAGINATION ............................................................... - 117 - Sentimental Education ....................................................................................................... - 118 - Indirect Peace Education
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