Gary Fitleberg, February 23, 2005

Arabs learning Hebrew? Jews learning Arabic?

Will language be a bridge to peace?

In Israel both are official languages. In Arab/Islamist nations the notion or thought of Hebrew as a national language is non-existent.

A pilot project launched in February in 14 elementary schools in northern Israel is meant to bridge the deep divide between Jews and Arabs.

Over the next two years, hundreds of Jewish fifth-graders will be taught conversational Arabic, and learn about Arab culture and traditions.

The project, financed in part by the Abraham Fund, a U.S.-Israeli non-governmental group, focuses on Jewish children. Hebrew is mandatory in Arab-Israeli schools and most Arab youngsters can speak the language to some degree by middle school.

The main trigger for developing the new curriculum was rioting by Arab Israelis in October 2000 in support of the Arab "Palestinian" intifada in the ancient biblical and modern disputed territories of Gaza, Judea & Samaria (wrongfully called "West Bank") that rightfully belong to Israel and the Jewish people. Thirteen protesters were killed by police fire in what a government commission later ruled was excessive use of force.

The riots deepened distrust, and local Jewish and Arab educators decided to step in, said Menachem Chishel, head of the education department in the Jewish town of Karmiel in the north. As a first step, they set up joint after-school programs for children from Karmiel and surrounding Arab towns.

However, the language barrier proved a persistent problem.

Malka Gilboa, an educator in Karmiel, said Arab and Jewish youngsters were eager to get to know each other in the after-school meetings, but couldn't communicate. "They hug, then ask us how to say things to each other," Gilboa said.

The language program hopes to fix that with four hours of instruction a week.

In one of the first sessions, at the Kalanit Elementary School in Karmiel, about 20 Jewish pupils practiced meeting Arab children on a bus and repeated Arabic greetings after the teacher.

"When I'm on the bus, I just want to know what they're talking about ... and are they talking about me?" said Amit Goldner. Nodding, many of his classmates said they felt the same way.

Hala Tannan, 11, doesn't have that problem, because she began learning Hebrew in elementary school. Along with hundreds of pupils from surrounding Arab towns, Hala participates in activities with Karmiel's Jewish kids. She said she expects the Arabic-language program to help the area's two communities live together with "a better peace, a stronger peace."

She said of her Jewish friend Liya, "I ask questions about her life. We talk about our families." Hala said she and her Arab friends like to speak Hebrew and want Jewish kids "to speak Arabic like us."

Teachers echo that, hoping they will raise a more open generation. "My dream is to succeed at what the politicians have failed to do, bring peace to the Galilee," said Roshde Khalaila, head of the education department in the Arab town of Majd el-Kurum, near Karmiel, which sends kids to the joint after-school activities.

However, many of the barriers will be difficult to tear down.

Only a few towns in Israel have mixed populations, including the northern port city of Haifa, widely seen as a model of coexistence. Twelve of the 14 schools participating in the pilot program are in Haifa, and mayor Yona Yahav said his goal is to make his city bilingual.

Across Israel, schools remain largely segregated, reflecting the preference of both communities. However, the relationship remains lopsided.

A three-year-old government report acknowledged that Arab schools get 40 percent less investment than Jewish schools. At the same time, Education Minister Limor Livnat, a member of the Likud Party, wants more "patriotic" content in all schools, including flying the Israeli flag, singing the national anthem each day and teaching a course on Jewish heritage and Zionism.

Hebrew is a graduation requirement in Arab schools, while Arabic is only mandatory for Jewish youngsters between grades 7-10. However, most Jewish schools don't comply with the requirement, offering Arabic only as an elective. In grades 7-9, fewer than 60 percent of pupils take Arabic, and in 10th grade, the figure drops to 18 percent, according to the Education Ministry.

Most schools teach literary Arabic, which is very different from the spoken language.

Daniel Aschheim, 16, student body president at a public high school in Jerusalem, said his two years of Arabic in junior high school were not sufficient for starting a conversation with Arab teenagers who share the neighborhood park near his home.

"I wish I'd continued studying Arabic, but I chose French," Aschheim said.

Livnat has promised to expand the language program nationally if it succeeds.

Dan Pattir, executive vice president of the Abraham Fund, said it was in the interest of the Jewish majority to learn more about the large Arab minority, and that schools should play a key role in teaching Jewish children how to relate to their Arab neighbors.

Moral of the story: My own grandfather, born a true blue Jew and "Palestinian" in Meashearim, Jerusalem, Palestine in 1896, who came from many generations of "Palestinians" spoke and wrote fluently Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Turkish as well as English, French, German, and Yiddish. So anything is possible.

Gary Fitleberg is a Political Analyst specializing in International Relations with emphasis on Middle East affairs.

Copyright © 2005 Gary Fitleberg