Jewish Arab Research Articles

Application of Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy Principles to the Jewish–Arab Interface in Israel: Dialog, Awareness, and Identity

Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy has been implemented in many, diverse fields; in this article, I will present the implementation of Freirean thought in a new field that has not been mentioned in the literature to date—the encounter between groups in conflict. I will do this through the educational encounter between Jews and Arabs in Israel. In this article I will argue that the principles of the Freirean approach, mainly the dialog proposed by Freire, are most suitable for running educational dialog between groups in conflict. The use of Freirean dialog principles in meetings between Arabs and Jews is preferable to dialogs based on psychological principles. Freirean dialog does not ignore reality; on the contrary, it originates in reality and combines it with theory. Thus, it allows the participants to reach an awareness of the conflict and their role in it, and enables them to reconstruct their identity and take action if they so desire in order to change reality.

Social justice attitudes in a deep divided society: the case of Jewish Arab bilingual schools in Israel

ABSTRACT This paper uses Israel as a case study to investigate the contribution that schools have on their graduates’ social justice attitudes. Using (Ajzen, I. 1991. “The Theory of Planned Behavior.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50 (2): 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T) theory of planned behaviour alongside the social justice scale developed by (Torres-Harding, S. R., B. Siers, and B. D. Olson. 2012. “Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Social Justice Scale (SJS).” American Journal of Community Psychology 50 (1-2): 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-011-9478-2), this study aim is to investigate whether Jewish Arab bilingual elementary schools who foreground social justice as part of their educational mission contribute to their graduates’ attitudes towards social justice. In order to carry out our investigation, a quantitative method was used and two types of schools were chosen: state schools, whose main objective is to create solidary among the Jewish majority in society, and Jewish-Arab bilingual schools, whose aim is to promote understanding among Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel and a social justice agenda. Our hypothesis was that perceptions of social justice would be significantly higher among Jewish Arab bilingual schools’ graduates when compared to state schools’ graduates.

“We Are All the Sons of Abraham”? Utopian Performativity for Jewish–Arab Coexistence in an Israeli Reform Jewish Mimouna Celebration

“We Are All the Sons of Abraham”? Utopian Performativity for Jewish–Arab Coexistence in an Israeli Reform Jewish <i>Mimouna</i> Celebration

Trying to Build Shared Education in a Divided Society – Jewish Arab Bilingual Schools in Israel

This article describes an educational attempt to overcome an ongoing divide in Israel society. The Jewish - Arab or Israeli Palestinian divide in Israel is harsh and influences Israeli society in various realm such as social, political and economic. Israel's educational system reinforces this divide by separating Jewish and Arab schools. The Jewish Arab bilingual schools (JABS) in Israel attempt to change this segregation reality and create a shared and educational space for both Jews and Arabs. This article presents JABS principals, goals and model and a review of relevant recent research. It will suggest a new stream of study for the future.

Arabs in segregated vs. mixed Jewish–Arab schools in Israel: their identities and attitudes towards Jews

ABSTRACT In Israel, the majority of Jewish and Arab students attend ethnically-segregated schools. However, a new phenomenon has emerged in recent decades: ethnically mixed schools – either because they are intentionally designed to be bilingual and multicultural, or the circumstantial outcome of a demographic mix. The research compares the self-identifications of Arab students attending segregated schools and mixed schools of various kinds, and examines their attitudes toward Jews. The findings suggest that students attending mixed schools tend to define themselves in national terms, as social identity theory predicts. In addition, while Arab students attending circumstantially-mixed Hebrew schools tend to define themselves as Israelis, those attending multicultural and segregated schools tend to define themselves as Palestinians. The “Arab” self-definition is common to all research participants. Additionally, Arab students who identify as Israelis tend to have more positive attitudes toward Jews, but no significant correlation between Palestinian self-identification and negative attitudes toward Jews was found.

Advancing support for intergroup equality via a self-affirmation campaign

Members of historically advantaged groups are often unwilling to support actions or policies aimed at reducing inequality between advantaged and disadvantaged groups, even if they generally support the principle of equality. Based on past research, we suggest a self-affirmation intervention (an intervention in which people reflect on a positive trait or value in order to affirm their positive self-image) may be effective for increasing the willingness of advantaged group members to address inequality. Importantly, while self-affirmation has been only operationalized as a written exercise in the past, in this project, we adapt it into video messages for use in public campaigns. In Study 1, we experimentally tested an initial video adaptation of self-affirmation and found that it was effective in increasing the willingness of advantaged group members to address inequality in the context of Jewish–Arab relations in Israel. Based on this study, two NGOs developed a real campaign video and used it in their public campaign, and we tested this applied intervention (in Study 2) and found it to be effective compared to a control condition that only presented information about inequality. Together, these studies represent the first implementation of self-affirmation in real-world campaigns and indicate that it can be an effective way to increase support for action to address inequality.

Israel: Political Developments and Data in 2021

AbstractThe year 2021 can be described in Israeli politics as one of change. After 12 consecutive years in power as Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu left office. After four election campaigns in two years, the ‘Anti‐Netanyahu bloc’ managed to form a minimum winning coalition of 61 Knesset members (one Member of the Knesset did not vote with the coalition). A rotation government was agreed upon, with the post of Prime Minister switching between Naftali Bennet, Yemina (right‐wing party) leader and Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid leader (the largest party in the coalition). Bennet served as Prime Minister first, even though his party only had six seats in the coalition. During 2021, Israel experienced terrorist incidents and a major military operation, as well as severe riots in mixed Jewish–Arab cities. Economic performance improved as the COVID‐19 restrictions were lifted, with economic indicators being better than for other OECD countries.

“Under the Radar”: How is the Jewish–Arab Conflict Reflected in Internal Jewish Dialogue?

This study explores the role of intergroup conflict in the identity exploration process among 83 Jewish participants in a dialogue in a multicultural college in Israel. Thematic analysis has shown that the behavior of most of the participants has been affected by the Jewish&amp;ndash;Arab conflict as follows: they centered on internal commonalities among Jewish subgroups; they neither engaged in conflict among Jewish subgroups nor explored their Jewish identities, and they expressed confusion regarding who the out-group was: the Jewish subgroups&amp;rsquo; members or the Arab students in the college. These findings expand the knowledge about the identity exploration process in a social context of religious&amp;ndash;ethnic conflict and may pose a practical contribution to the field of intergroup dialogues and conflict resolution in divided societies.&amp;nbsp;&#x0D; &amp;nbsp;

Factors associated with seasonal influenza and HPV vaccination uptake among different ethnic groups in Arab and Jewish society in Israel

BackgroundParents in the Arab population of Israel are known to be “pro-vaccination” and vaccinate their children at higher rates than the Jewish population, specifically against human papilloma virus (HPV) and seasonal influenza.ObjectivesThis study seeks to identify and compare variables associated with mothers’ uptake of two vaccinations, influenza and HPV, among different subgroups in Arab and Jewish society in Israel.MethodsA cross-sectional study of the entire spectrum of the Israeli population was conducted using a stratified sample of Jewish mothers (n = 159) and Arab mothers (n = 534) from different subgroups: Muslim, Christian, Druse and Northern Bedouins. From March 30, 2019 through October 20, 2019, questionnaires were distributed manually to eighth grade pupils (13–14 years old) who had younger siblings in second (7–8 years old) or third (8–9 years old) grades.ResultsArab mothers exhibited a higher rate of uptake for both vaccinations (p < .0001, HPV – 90%; influenza – 62%) than Jewish mothers (p = 0.0014, HPV – 46%; influenza – 34%). Furthermore, results showed that HPV vaccination uptake is significantly higher than seasonal influenza vaccination uptake in both populations. Examination of the different ethnic subgroups revealed differences in vaccination uptake. For both vaccinations, the Northern Bedouins exhibited the highest uptake rate of all the Arab subgroups (74%), followed by the Druse (74%) and Muslim groups (60%). The Christian Arab group exhibited the lowest uptake rate (46%). Moreover, the uptake rate among secular Jewish mothers was lower than in any of the Arab groups (38%), though higher than among religious/traditional Jewish mothers, who exhibited the lowest uptake rate (26%). A comparison of the variables associated with mothers’ vaccination uptake revealed differences between the ethnic subgroups.Moreover, the findings of the multiple logistic regression revealed the following to be the most significant factors in Arab mothers’ intake of both vaccinations: school-located vaccination and mothers’ perceived risk and perceived trust in the system and in the family physician. These variables are manifested differently in the different ethnic groups.ConclusionsThis research shows that all Arabs cannot be lumped together as one monolithic group in that they exhibit major differences according to religion, education and access to information. Ranking of variables associated with uptake of the two vaccines can provide decision-makers an empirical basis for tailoring appropriate and specific interventions to each subgroup to achieve the highest vaccine uptake rate possible. Media campaigns targeting the Arab population should be segmented to appeal to the various sub-groups according to their viewpoints, needs and health literacy.

Revisiting Israel’s Mixed Cities Trope

This article offers a critical examination of the term mixed cities, concentrating mainly on its usage in Zionist and Israeli discourse. It posits that the term is uniquely reserved to denote Israel’s Jewish Arab urban spaces. Presented as bureaucratic and value-free, the term sharply contrasts with the anti-Arab reality of Israel’s mixed cities. The article traces the origin of the term to pre-State, Zionist discourse, which denounced Arab Jewish “mixing,” situating it between “pure” Zionist and “foreign” Palestinian Arab spaces. The article identifies four general forms of urban (anti-)mixing: pluralistic, racial, sovereign, and colonial. It locates Israel’s mixed cities within the latter two categories. Abandoning this ideologically charged trope and replacing it with Urban Studies concepts are proposed. The advantages of this perspective are demonstrated with a test-case analysis of Arab-Jewish cities in British Palestine (1918-1948) through the lens of Scott Bollens’s model for the study of ethno-national contested cities.

The exploration of the doubleness of belonging in Naim Kattan’s "Farewell Babylon"

This paper studies the origin of Jewish existence in Iraq by examining Farewell Babylon, written by Naim Kattan, a Jewish Iraqi writer who lives in Canada. In past decades, Jewish communities moved from one location to another as a result of displacement and emigration, thus the Jewish diasporic movements created new territories. This paper explores the sense of doubleness of belonging by investigating a Jewish diaspora . The investigation studies the relationship between home and neighbours in Kattan’s text which focuses on the concepts of belonging, the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other.’ The study of the relationship between Jewish identity and Arab identity in Iraq permits us a wide knowledge of the concept of belonging.

Place-making: Toward a place-aware community practice agenda

AbstractSince its very inception, the field of social work has acknowledged the importance of place in shaping communal identity, construing shared meanings and generating collective actions. Nevertheless, the analytical framework of place-making, which enjoys growing interest in other disciplines, has little impact on social work and its incorporation into social work community practice is still embryonic. The place-making perspective is particularly relevant to the multiple challenges faced by community practice in the twenty-first century. This qualitative study aims to encourage the inclusion of place-making analytical perspective in community practice research by examining community practitioners’ engagement in place-making processes within the complex context of Israeli Jewish–Arab mixed cities. Based on semi-structured interviews with thirty community practitioners in the public services, the findings reveal that participants were highly engaged in four main interrelated aspects of place-making: shaping the ethnocultural meanings of place, managing the meaning of space in power relations, re-constructing the conflicted meaning of space and framing the history of place. The study illustrates the usefulness of the place-making analytical framework in community practice, especially in the context of increasing contested and divided urban realities.

Responses of Arab teachers of Hebrew in Israel to an Israeli novel on Jewish-Arab relations

Purpose This study aims to examine the responses and perceptions of Israeli Arab teachers toward multicultural and educational issues concerning Jewish–Arab relations. Design/methodology/approach This study is a qualitative research. The study included 44 novice Arab teachers, who teach Hebrew in the Arab sector and are currently studying toward their masters’ degree at a teacher education college in northern Israel. The teachers were asked to read the novel Nadia by Galila Ron Feder–Amit. Published in 1985, the novel describes the complex integration of Nadia, an Arab village girl, into a Jewish boarding school, and it is narrated in first person. After having read the novel, the teachers were requested to answer the writing task, which addressed the character of the protagonist, the issue of teaching the novel in the Jewish and Arabic educational systems and the anticipated responses of Jewish and Arab students to the novel. Findings Phenomenological analysis of the teachers’ responses found that the reading experience was complex and resulted in a variety of responses toward the protagonist. Some were based on identification and appreciation, while others on criticism and judgment of the heroine’s restraint vis-a-vis the racism that she was experiencing. However, most of the teachers demonstrated moral courage and thought that the novel should be taught, as they viewed it as a bridge leading to understanding between the two nations. The teachers anticipated conflicting responses of Jewish and Arab students to the novel, according to the students’ political views and values. Practical implications These findings indicate that the educational system should include political texts relating to the Jewish–Arab schism, especially texts that voice the Palestinian narrative. This view differs from the current situation in both sectors, whereby the tendency is to avoid political texts while ignoring the Palestinian narrative. Originality/value The study shows that the reading experience of a political novel affords various and often contrasting responses with the teachers facing the didactic challenges. The teachers who participated in the study anticipated complexity of the reading and teaching process, yet were not deterred by it, particularly in view of the novel’s messages – striving to understand the “other” and to bridge a discourse between the nations.

Review of the criticisms against Prophet Muhammad’s marriage with Zaynab Bint Jahsh

Since the 7th century, we have had criticisms of Prophet Mohammed for his preaching of monotheism by his non-Muslim Arab contemporaries and his discussions on Jewish Faith by Jewish Arabs. During the middle ages, various western and Byzantine Christian thinkers described the Middle East as a hotbed of sexuality and Prophet Muhammad‟s marriage came to be a focal point of criticism in biographical writings. Western critics such as William Montgomery Watt, Dermenghem, Washington Irving, Lammens, William Muir and Karen Armstrong considered Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) to be lustful in his marriage to his wives.His marriage with Zaynab bint Jahsh, more than others, attracted bitterer criticism. Unfortunately, the early Arabic sources relied upon by critics lack scientific. It is against this assertion that this paper re-examined existing literature on the issue and identified the relevance of the marriage to the contemporary time using a combination of historical and exegetical research methods. Historical method is necessary in this work because the author researched into works on biography to study the view of biographers on the personalities discussed. Exegetical works on the Qur‟an are also consulted to navigate the views of exegetes on the verses that relate to the subject matter. The aim of this work is to probe the authenticity of sources relied upon by critics and to relate the lessons in the marriage to the contemporary time. Findings show that the criticism of Prophet Muhammad‟s marriage to Zainab lacks objectivity and so requires a review for the sake of moral justice.

The destruction of old Jaffa in 1936 and the question of the Arab refugees

One outcome of the Jewish–Arab conflict at the time of the British Mandate was the Arab refugee problem. It usually accompanied any escalation in hostilities and was evident at foci of the friction between Arabs and Jews. Reprisals by the authorities against the Arab population was an additional cause. At the time of the Arab Revolt the refugee issue assumed for the first time significant proportions as a result of destructive actions by the British army, the greatest being the home demolition operations unleashed in Jaffa. As a result many families became refugees inside and outside their city. For the first time in the Mandate period the British government was obliged to contend with the problem of Arab refugees that it itself had created, and resolve it. The article aims to shed light on a unique operation by the Mandatory government intended to establish a locality to house Arab refugees, which was implemented and completed in the Mandate period. The article shows that for the authorities the establishment of a quarter for refugees was the required and most appropriate solution to the problem that had arisen.

Oriental Neighbors: Middle Eastern Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine

Oriental Neighbors: Middle Eastern Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine

The impact of implicitly and explicitly primed ingroup–outgroup categorization on the evaluation of others pain: The case of the Jewish–Arab conflict

Despite the automaticity of affective sharing, many studies have documented the role of top-down effects, such as social categorization, on people’s empathic responses. An important question, largely ignored in previous research, concerns empathy to ingroup and outgroup members’ pain in the contexts of ongoing intergroup conflict. In the present study we examined how implicit and explicit ethnic social categorization of others affects empathy to pain in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. To meet this aim, we assessed the evaluation of pain by Jewish and Arab participants who viewed a series of visual stimuli depicting painful and non-painful familiar situations. The stimuli were associated with explicitly or implicitly primed typical names depicting ingroup, neutral outgroup, and adversary outgroup members. Results demonstrate that pain ratings in the explicit priming condition provide support for the ingroup empathy hypothesis, positing that empathy is higher for ingroup than for outgroup members for both Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Conversely, when the targets’ categories are primed implicitly, results revealed difference in empathy by the two ethnic groups where an ingroup bias was detected only for Palestinian Arabs. This suggests that the activation of ingroup bias on the subliminal implicit level among Palestinian Arab participants might be mediated by the amount of conflict permeating in their daily lives and by deeply rooted cultural values and behavioural patterns.

Oriental Neighbors: Middle East Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine by Abigail Jacobson and Moshe Naor

Reviewed by: Oriental Neighbors: Middle East Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine by Abigail Jacobson and Moshe Naor Liora R. Halperin Abigail Jacobson and Moshe Naor. Oriental Neighbors: Middle East Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2016. Xiv+ 286 pp. Cloth $95.00, paper $22.57, e-book $21.44. ISBN: 978-1512600063. The diverse Arabic-speaking Jews in the Middle East and North Africa, called Sephardim, Mizrahim, or Oriental Jews, depending on context, have often been presented as external to the Zionist project, victims of that [End Page 295] project, or as its principle internal critics. In Palestine, Oriental Jewish perceptions of European Zionists as foreign and lacking appropriate regional knowledge and themselves as locally embedded allies of Palestinian urbanites and peasants alike have at times provoked nostalgia among scholars. Abigail Jacobson and Moshe Naor, in their book Oriental Neighbors, share some of that nostalgia for figures who continually engaged with, travelled within, and wrote for broader Middle Eastern audiences as they "lived in a Levantine space and belonged to an intellectual community that encouraged a debate on the nature of past and future relations between Arabs and Jews." (4) Oriental Neighbors is not a wistful reflection, but rather an exploration of the difficulty—and ultimately the impossibility—of maintaining a strong commitment to the brotherhood of all native Middle Easterners, Bene ha-Aretz, while promoting the Zionist aims of Jewish immigration and settlement. Oriental Neighbors focuses on the British Mandate Period, defined both by Sephardi loss of prestige and influence within the Jewish community and by new communal and organizational attempts at self-definition vis-à-vis the newly configured Arab Middle East and the ascendant Zionist movement. While insisting in organizational and literary forums that they were natives who could and should constitute a bridge between Arabs and European Jews, they repeatedly rebuffed suggestions, both by Arabs and by Ashkenazi Jews, that they were outside of or resistant to the Zionist project. They asserted that Zionism could be a force for good, though they insisted that this could only occur if the project were implemented with sensitivity to and out of an affinity with its Eastern setting. Using Jewish organizational documents and the Hebrew periodical press, and occasionally Arabic sources written by non-Jewish Palestinians, Oriental Neighbors explores modes of engagement between Sephardi/Oriental Jews and Arabs, and between Oriental and European Jews, on two levels: elite and popular. The first three chapters offer a history of circles of Sephardi Jews who created organizational, institutional, and journalistic structures to communicate their affinities to the East both to Ashkenazi audiences and to Arabs. As they articulated their stances in a variety of forums, they reiterated their belief that "they could be both loyal Zionists and mediators between Jews and Arabs." (23) The Jewish Agency's Arab Bureau and the Arab Department of the Histadrut employed Oriental Jews as leaders and mediators to strengthen ties to Arab activists, undertake diplomatic contacts, and encourage Arabic study. Zionist Arabic newspapers like Al-Akhbar, Al-Salam, Ittihad al-'Umal, and Haqiqat al-Amr not only promoted Zionism but sought to mediate between Jews and Arabs and connect the Jews of Palestine to the broader Middle East. Pushing back against scholars who have emphasized the Zionist goals of these papers, they emphasize the writers' engagement with the regional Arab press and claim that the Sephardi writers "used newspapers as much more than a propaganda tool." These papers sat alongside efforts to promote Arabic study, write textbooks, and arrange for teacher visits to the Middle East as expressions of an "Arab-Jewish cultural hybrid identity." (89) [End Page 296] The later chapters shift to the popular level with a cultural history of life in the Jewish-Arab mixed "frontier neighborhoods" or "Oriental Ghettos" in Tel Aviv–Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Haifa. These spaces were characterized by coexistence and cooperation, but also the sort of conflict borne of proximity. As Jews and Arabs played at the same playgrounds, shopped in the same markets, and employed one another, they defied broader trends in the Yishuv toward Jewish–Arab separation. This chapter is a fascinating work of cultural and working-class history, but unfortunately...

The Second World War as a turning point in Arab–Jewish relations: the case of Jaffa and Tel Aviv

ABSTRACTOne of the gravest outcomes of the period of the Arab revolt was the heavy economic damage caused to the Arab community. Jaffa, which suffered greatly in the years 1936–1939, sought to rebuild and restore the city to its status as a leading economic center in Palestine. This need intensified still more with the outbreak of the Second World War. Hence, it was in Jaffa's evident interest to bring about an improvement in relations with Tel Aviv and with Jews generally. Problems regarding the proper management of economic life in wartime exercised the Jewish settlement also; therefore, Jewish–Arab cooperation steadily grew in this period. The article gauges the measure of this cooperation and the nature of the ties that consolidated between Arabs and Jews during the war. The situation of Jaffa and Tel Aviv serves as a test case well exemplifying the force of the subsequent change in relations between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.

Plus ça Change: The 1922 U.S. Congressional Debate on the Balfour Declaration

This essay looks at the hearing held by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives in April 1922 on the subject of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, as well as the broader congressional debate over the Balfour Declaration at that crucial time. The landmark hearing, which took place against the backdrop of growing unrest in Palestine and just prior to the League of Nations' formal approval of Britain's Mandate over Palestine, offers a glimpse into the cultural and political mindset underpinning U.S. support for the Zionist project at the time as well as the ways in which the political discourse in the United States has, or has not, changed since then. Despite the overwhelming support for the Zionist project in Congress, which unanimously endorsed Balfour in September 1922, the hearing examined all aspects of the issue and included a remarkably diverse array of viewpoints, including both anti-Zionist Jewish and Palestinian Arab voices.