Israeli Arab and Jewish Parents Unite to Form First Jewish-Arab Bilingual Western Galilee School
A group of Jewish and Arab parents and community leaders have joined forces to open the first bilingual Jewish-Arab school in the Western Galilee this September.
With its mix of Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Druze residents, the Western Galilee is one of the few areas in Israel where Arabs and Jews mingle on a daily basis. “It’s an unusual kind of interaction for Israel,” states Walid Mula, Director of the Duroob Institute for Leadership Development and Social Growth, yet the integration stops at the school door.
The educational system in the Western Galilee, like in the rest of the county, mirrors the divides of a fractious society. Rather than an equalizing, unifying public education system, Israel’s existing school system falls along national and religious fault-lines. Religious Jews don’t go to school with secular Jews; Arabs have their own Arabic-speaking schools, and even kibbutzim have schools for kibbutz children only. At the country’s inception, its founding leaders might have thought that giving different groups their own schools would decrease ideological head-aches and reduce conflicts about what to include in a school’s curriculum. But many critics now feel that not providing an integrated school system was one of Israel’s founding mistakes. And although students of all faiths come together at the university level, by that time, the segregation of students has become so entrenched that trying to bring diverse populations together is almost like gluing back Humpty Dumpty.
“How Israeli society advances depends on changing the fundamental separations between Arabs and Jews,” Mula said. “Children who study together in bilingual schools will undoubtedly influence the country’s future.”
The Western Galilee school, called Bustan—which means orchard in both Arabic and Hebrew—will attempt to ameliorate the rifts between Arabs and Jews by offering a completely bilingual, Arabic and Jewish education. Plans call for the school to begin with kindergarten and first grades and expand each year after that.
In addition, Bustan will emphasize what Judy Ben-Et, one of the school’s founding members, calls, “a high-quality, ecologically-oriented curriculum that emphasizes human rights.” The school will be located in the Druze village of Julis, about halfway between Acco and Nahariya, with breath-taking views of the Mediterranean Sea.
There are currently three bilingual schools operating in Israel under the umbrella of the ten-year-old Hand in Hand Organization, an established network of bilingual schools in the country.
Hand in Hand educates approximately 550 students in three schools in Jerusalem, Misgav in the lower Galilee and Kfar Kara, a village near Haifa. Another school is planned in Beersheva for next year. Bob Fenton, Director of Development, said that Hand in Hand “would love” to be involved with Bustan, but the organization’s budget does not permit it at this time. However, Hand in Hand will share with Bustan “its knowledge and experience” along with its curriculum.
Bustan’s curriculum would follow that of a regular Israeli school, but subjects would be taught in two languages. As in Hand in Hand schools, an Arabic-speaking teacher and a Hebrew-speaking teacher would work together in each classroom. Arab and Jewish co-principals would run the school.
Since there are no existing bilingual textbooks, Hand in Hand educators have created their own materials which they would share with Bustan. The bilingual schools have already learned how to tackle prickly issues, such as what to do on Israeli Independence Day. Rather than teach students a one-sided version of either Israeli or Palestinian history, Hand in Hand teaches two narratives that do not compete with each other but simply co-exist.
For Yael Levine, a mother of a four-year old son who she plans to enroll at Bustan next year, the idea of volunteering to build the school grew out of her growing political awareness.
“The school requires me to ask questions that are not necessarily comfortable to ask,” she said. Most of her friends believe that Israel should be a democracy based on equality—“which are nice words.” But, she said, to effect change, to make the country truly equal, then “we have to start educating Arabs and Jews together from a young age.”
Levine said that she was never involved in any political movements but hearing about the school-in-progress made her want to try to help it come into existence. A member of the steering committee, Levine said that she wants to help shape the school because she “would never sacrifice” her son’s education for her ideals.
The idea for the school grew out of a leadership seminar for community leaders sponsored by the Duroob Institute. At the seminar, attendees discussed ways to improve the quality of life in the Western Galilee. When someone mentioned the idea of starting a new school, Judy Ben-Et said, “People got really excited about it.” She views the school as a stepping stone toward a center of joint Jewish-Arab activities in the region.
“Jews don’t know us,” says Faten Khoury, a former criminologist and mother of three. “We live together in a very small area but we really don’t know each other.” A resident of the Arab village of Abu Sinan, ten minutes away from Bustan’s future location, she plans to send her middle child to the school this fall.
Khoury said she was prompted to become involved in Bustan because of what she sees as “separate and unequal” school systems for Jews and Arabs in Israel. The national education budget, she said, favors Jewish schools. Moreover, she feels that the educational integration of Arabs and Jews is vital for the health of Israel.
“I don’t believe in an autonomous Arab state within a state,” she said. “Yes, it’s important to maintain Arab religions, our identity and culture, but we also have to be part of the country at large.”
From the start, Khoury has tried small-scale integration on her own. Her oldest daughter, now eight, was the first Arab child to attend nursery school in a nearby kibbutz down the road from her village. Ironically, Khoury said she was turned away from renting an apartment in Jerusalem when she was studying there because she was Arab—but her daughter was “really welcomed” at the kibbutz school.
“The teachers and staff and other parents made her feel at home,” she said. Other Arab children have since enrolled at the kibbutz.
Attracting Jewish students to the fledgling school, however, has presented a challenge to Bustan’s leaders. Arab parents are eager to enroll their children because the school is an attractive alternative to over-crowded, under-staffed Arabic-speaking schools in the area.
“The Arab children are ready,” said Walid Mula, Duroob’s Director. “But not the Jewish children.” He wonders if the Jewish majority is simply not interested in establishing a kesher, or connection, with its Arab minority, or if it is simply the fear of making a change—and the unknown.
Yet there might be a number of reasons why Jewish parents have not shown as great an interest in Bustan. Jewish students in the Western Galilee have a variety of educational options to choose from. Often, Jewish parents living in kibbutzim, small moshavim and villages are reluctant to remove their children from their hevra, or small social group of friends. One Jewish parent, Anat Goren, said she supported the idea of a bi-lingual school in theory, yet she didn’t want her son to attend one school when all his neighborhood friends attended another.
Bustan leaders said they would like to attract Jewish students from the nearby cities of Acco and Nahariya. One educator in the Acco system, speaking anonymously, however, said that she wants to keep Jewish students within Acco. Due to a marked decrease in the Jewish population in the city, many Jewish schools are shutting their doors in recent years—a trend that Acco’s City Hall is trying to reverse.
Some parents have told Khoury that they don’t want to drive young children a long distance to reach the school. (There will be no school bus service.) Khoury said that might not be the whole truth, however, because these same parents are willing to drive their children to more established—and all-Jewish—schools. She added that Bustan school founders need to address Jewish parents’ concerns so that they can change their minds.
Another detraction for parents, said Mula, is the school’s precarious financial position. While the school has received all the necessary government permits, it has limited financial resources. It’s a Catch-22, he said. The school needs money to attract students, but it won’t be able to attract students without money. This might push back the school’s opening to September 2008.
That fact does not daunt Khoury, however. “This process of building the school and gathering a community is just as important as the result.”
Larry Rosenfeld, a parent of fourth and seventh graders who have spent their entire elementary school years at the Hand in Hand School in Misgav, said he believes the school is a success and he remains committed to the principles of bilingual education.
“The interaction among the Arab and Jewish students in the school, and their friendships outside of the school are real,” Rosenfeld said. “They’re not just for newspaper articles.”
