07.12.23

Editorial Note

The Knesset Committee of Education, Culture, and Sports, chaired by MK Yosef Taib, met on November 15, 2023, to debate “The Struggle of Higher Education During the ‘Iron Swords’ War.” The committee discussed several issues concerning higher education, including postponing the opening of the school year to December 24, 2023, because many of the students are reservists serving in the Gaza Strip and the North. 

The committee then discussed cases of students and lecturers in various institutions of higher education who supported terrorism and incitement. The universities established a forum to deal with this, and the Committee noted that there have already been cases where the instigators were expelled from the institutions. 

The Knesset committee resolved that,  

  – The war Iron Swords is not a war between Jews and Arabs. However, there will be zero tolerance for incitement. The Committee notes that the CHE established a forum to deal with cases of incitement on campuses. Cases that are claimed to have been taken care of will be re-examined. 

  – Institutions should define clear rules of conduct expected of faculty and students. These rules must be published clearly, in all languages, to make sure that everyone is aware of them. Orderly, transparent and equitable mechanisms must be established regarding sanctions on incitement. It is recommended that the institutions be called to maintain restraint and respectful discourse. 

– A sense of belonging to the institutions may serve as a basis for bringing together, and a common denominator between the different groups. It is recommended to encourage this feeling as a collective feeling, and it should be echoed prominently throughout the campuses. 

– Security forces on campuses are the main bodies entrusted with maintaining order. Training should be conducted and procedures refined to ensure equal and respectful treatment for all students. The security personnel must be well aware of the limits of their powers and the rights of the students. 

The Israeli media reported that since the beginning of the war, more than 270 publications encouraging violence, incitement, support, and identification with terrorist organizations have been dealt with by the police, of which about 130 investigation files have been opened for offenses of the type of incitement.

Israeli Arabs often claim that during hostilities Israel crackdowns on dissent. Mariam Farah, a Political Science Master’s student at Tel Aviv University, wrote in the online journal +972, a pro-Palestinian media outlet, that “Palestinian students and faculty have long encountered racism, discrimination, and harassment at Israeli universities and colleges.” She reported on a Technion student Bayan Khatib, who, the day after Hamas launched the massacre attack on southern Israel, posted a video on Instagram showing a skillet of shakshuka, a traditional dish of eggs, vegetables, and tomatoes, with the caption, “Soon we’ll eat victory shakshuka,” alongside an emoji of a Palestinian flag. The flag and the word “victory” signaled her support for Hamas. The Technion took this post seriously. On October 25, Khatib was arrested on suspicion of incitement. She spent one night in jail for sedition and was put on house arrest the following day. A complaint was also filed against Khatib at the Technion, and her hearing was held on Nov. 9. She was suspended from her studies while disciplinary proceedings against her are still ongoing. She said, “The allegations against me are absurd — merely over a video of shakshuka,” Farah reported. 

 According to Farah’s article, the following weeks since October 7 have seen a “significant spike” in the “crackdown on freedom of expression by Israeli authorities,” also impacting left-wing Israeli Jews, “creating an atmosphere of fear to silence any dissent” against the “Israeli army’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip.” 

Farah quoted an estimate by the Union of Arab Students that approximately 160 Palestinian students at Israeli universities and colleges have faced disciplinary proceedings since October 7. The legal center Adalah reported that 113 Arab students from 33 different Israeli academic institutions requested support. In half the cases, the students were temporarily suspended before disciplinary proceedings started. In 8 cases, students were expelled without a hearing. The Union reported also that “Arab students are being arrested simply for writing or ‘liking’ seemingly innocuous posts on social media.” 

Farah reported that “the National Union of Israeli Students called for the immediate suspension of anyone who expresses solidarity with Hamas’ attacks and encouraged students to anonymously report those suspected of supporting terror.” Farah added, “This call came frighteningly close to physical violence.” 

Describing “Toxicity and persecution,” Farah’s article also details the case at the University of Haifa, which IAM reported, “University of Haifa Students Suspended for Supporting Hamas.” 

Farah’s article touched upon the case of Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a Professor of Criminology at the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law that IAM reported on, who signed two anti-Israel petitions after the Black Sabbath of 7 October, accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians.

Among others, Farah also discusses the case of Warda Sada, an educator and peace activist, who has faced “similar persecution.” Sada was “dismissed from her position at the Kaye Academic College of Education in Be’er Sheva after a student published a few of her social media posts before and after October 7. All these posts, according to Sada, “condemned violence from both sides and against the war and the killing of civilians.” 

Farah’s article which claims “collective blame placed on all Arabs,” is a gross exaggeration and an example of propagandist writing to inflame passions. In reality, the number of cases of students and staff accused of incitement or supporting Hamas is very low. Opinion polls taken after the October attack indicate that more than half of Israeli Arabs support the war and reject the murder and horrific abuses inflicted on innocent civilians in the Israeli communities bordering Gaza. As stated by the Knesset Education Committee, the Iron Swords War is not a war between Jews and Arabs. The Committee even urged a respectful discourse and a sense of belonging to the institutions to help bring together the different Israeli groups on campus. The Committee thus stated that the security forces on campus are the bodies entrusted with maintaining order and should ensure equal and respectful treatment for all students. 

Stopping incitement is not a war between Jews and Arabs but rather an action against the support of a Jihadist terror group that used the ISIS-style protocol to commit horrific crimes.   

REFERENCES:

https://www.972mag.com/israeli-academia-crackdown-palestinian-students/

Israeli academia joins the crackdown on dissent

On Israeli campuses, Palestinian and left-wing Jewish students and faculty have been suspended, arrested, and intimidated for their views since Oct. 7

By Mariam Farah December 3, 2023

On Oct. 8, the day after Hamas launched a large-scale surprise attack on southern Israel, Bayan Khatib posted a video on Instagram showing a skillet of shakshuka that she had prepared. The 23-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel, a student at Haifa’s Technion Institute and a self-confessed bad cook, proudly captioned the post, “Soon we’ll eat victory shakshuka,” alongside an emoji of a Palestinian flag.

Construing her use of the flag and the word “victory” as signaling support for Hamas, Khatib’s fellow students widely circulated the post and demanded that she be punished — both by the university and by state authorities.

The complaints were taken seriously. On Oct. 25, Khatib was arrested on suspicion of incitement. She spent one night in jail, sharing a cell meant for four people with eight other Palestinian women, all of them arrested after Jewish-Israeli colleagues reported them to the police for sedition. Khatib was released to house arrest the following day.

A complaint was also filed against Khatib at the Technion, and her hearing was held on Nov. 9. Despite seeking assistance from professors at the university by email and phone calls, Khatib said she received no response. She remains suspended from her studies while disciplinary proceedings against her are ongoing.

Khatib told +972 that she has never felt so at risk for her identity as she does now. “Simply being Palestinian and displaying symbols of my heritage has become a cause for suspicion, making me feel inherently guilty,” she said. “The allegations against me are absurd — merely over a video of shakshuka.”

Palestinian students and faculty have long encountered racism, discrimination, and harassment at Israeli universities and colleges, but the weeks since October 7 have seen a significant spike in cases. A crackdown on freedom of expression by Israeli authorities — which is also impacting left-wing Israeli Jews — has created an atmosphere of fear that seeks to silence any dissent against the Israeli army’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip. 

According to the Union of Arab Students, approximately 160 Palestinians studying at Israeli universities and colleges have faced disciplinary proceedings since October 7, accused of supporting terror, supporting terrorist organizations, or incitement to terrorism.

The Haifa-based Palestinian legal center Adalah, meanwhile, reported that it has been approached by 113 Arab students at 33 different Israeli academic institutions in that time, all of them seeking legal support. Adalah further notes that in nearly half of the cases it is aware of, students were temporarily suspended before disciplinary proceedings had even started; in 8 cases, students were expelled without a hearing.

The Union reports that Arab students are being arrested simply for writing or “liking” seemingly innocuous posts on social media. For example, the arrests of four students at the Western Galilee College on Nov. 19, the Union said, were conducted in a particularly “barbaric” manner, intended to humiliate them and perpetuate a policy of intimidation.

Perhaps more frightening still has been the harassment of Palestinian students by their Jewish peers. Shortly after the war began, the National Union of Israeli Students called for the immediate suspension of anyone who expresses solidarity with Hamas’ attacks and encouraged students to anonymously report those suspected of supporting terror.

This call came frighteningly close to physical violence. On Oct. 28, a mob of extremist Jewish Israelis gathered outside the dormitories of Arab students at Netanya Academic College, chanting “Death to Arabs.” Police had to block the crowd from breaking into the building, and the threatened students were eventually evacuated to safety.

Together with Adalah, the Union of Arab Students has pressed for an investigation into the attack at Netanya College. It is also calling on the heads of Israeli universities to provide enhanced protection for Palestinian students and reinstate those who have been suspended, while encouraging progressive Arab and Jewish lecturers to intervene against unjustified punitive action.

The Union has also made the unusual step of seeking outside intervention, reaching out to foreign universities and donors affiliated with Israeli institutions and urging them to support Palestinian students, as well as asking the EU to reevaluate its academic collaboration with Israel’s Education Ministry.

Toxicity and persecution

The persecution of Palestinians on Israeli campuses extends beyond students, with faculty members also facing similar charges. On Oct. 9, 25 faculty members at the University of Haifa — including the vice rector — sent a private letter to the university’s rector, Professor Gur Alroey, raising concerns about the suspension of five students the previous day; the university had failed, they argued, to follow its own administrative regulations or explain its decisions.

In a letter that was later leaked to the public, Alroey wrote back to the professors, admonishing them for their alleged support of students he accused of supporting Hamas or terrorism. The rector even called for the resignation of the vice rector, but later retracted this demand.

Ameed Saabneh, a Palestinian senior lecturer at the University of Haifa and one of the professors who authored the letter to the rector, told +972 that the university lacks the authority to suspend students from their studies. “Hearing committees are the sole bodies empowered to make decisions regarding student suspensions,” he clarified.

Saabneh explained that after the incident became public, the atmosphere at the university became tense. “The relationship between students turned toxic, eroding the previously healthy manner of discussions,” he said. “I’ve been informed by my students that they feel persecuted by their peers, the student union, and the university administration.”

The situation has created a “crisis of trust” between professors and their students, Saabneh continued. “The most concerning aspect is that students began sending letters to the department head, threatening to boycott professors who signed the letter to the rector,” he said.

According to a recent report by Academia for Equality, at least six professors and junior faculty at Israeli academic institutions have faced disciplinary action since October 7 because of alleged incitement to terrorism or support for terrorist organizations. Some of them have been fired as a result.

One of the academics who has been targeted is Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a professor of criminology at the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law and at Queen Mary University of London. Alongside 3,000 other academics and students around the world who specialize in the study of childhood, she signed a petition last month criticizing Israel’s attack on Palestinian children, and calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the “genocide” in Gaza.

A few days later, she received a letter from Asher Cohen, the Hebrew University’s president, in which he accused her of “incitement against the State of Israel,” threatened her with legal action, and urged her to resign. Cohen shared the letter with other staff at the university, and it gained traction on social media. Shalhoub-Kevorkian soon started receiving online threats.

Her lawyer, Alaa Mahajna, accused Cohen of distorting the contents of the petition and said the university was potentially liable for having violated labor laws and inciting threats against a faculty member. He believes the university sought Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s resignation on the sole basis of her political views, which he sees as a dangerous and unprecedented overreach.

In response to a request for comment, the university’s director of international communications stated: “The [president’s] letter pretty much speaks for itself.” Shalhoub-Kevorkian has so far refused to tender her resignation.

Warda Sada, an educator and peace activist, has faced similar persecution. She was dismissed from her position at the Kaye Academic College of Education in Be’er Sheva after a student published a few of her social media posts before and after the war. All these posts, according to Sada, condemn violence from both sides and against the war and the killing of civilians. Kaye College is generally known for fostering a multicultural and multilingual learning environment, and prides itself on the diversity of its students and faculty, which mirrors the ethnic diversity of the Naqab/Negev region.

“As an educator with three decades of experience in the field and 28 years in academia, I never thought academic persecution would reach such extremes,” Sada told +972. “Our responsibility as academics is to foster critical thinking, encourage inquiry, and apply the theories we impart. We, as educators, aim to convey a message to the world, to empower fellow teachers to freely express their ideas.”

The purge has affected Jewish academics as well. Uri Horesh, a professor of Arabic linguistics at Achva Academic College near Ashdod, told +972 that on Oct. 15, while he was in New York, he received an email from the college with a complaint regarding a Facebook post of his that included the phrase “Free the Gaza ghetto.” Horesh initially shared the post a month earlier but reposted it after the start of the war.

“The college twisted the meaning of my post, claiming that I openly supported an act of terrorism,” Horesh said. “They accused me of tarnishing the college’s reputation.”

On Oct. 23, Horesh discovered that he no longer had access to the university’s online system and that his name had been removed from the college’s website; he had received no formal indication that he had been suspended. A week later, he was asked to attend a disciplinary hearing; he refused, stating that the process was illegitimate and that his personal political views were irrelevant to his employment. A few days later, he received a letter from the college confirming his termination and threatening to withhold compensation (though ultimately he was paid).

Horesh noted that many of his students were Palestinian citizens of Israel and that his dismissal wasn’t just a blow to him but also to them — a chilling message that discourages them from sharing their own views. Though he was scheduled to return to Israel on the day he received the first complaint, Horesh feared being arrested upon his arrival and so postponed his return indefinitely.

‘Collective blame placed on all Arabs’

The academic year in Israel was due to begin on Oct. 8, but the outbreak of war the day before meant that studies were postponed and repeatedly delayed. According to a recent statement by the Association of University Heads, the next target is to begin on Dec. 24, but doing so first requires a demobilization of army reservists. 

As that date approaches, there are fears about what the atmosphere will be like, especially for Palestinian students and faculty. A recent survey found that 17 percent of Arab students polled expressed uncertainty or lack of intention to commence the year, primarily due to economic and security concerns. 

Amid these heightened tensions, the Follow-Up Committee on Arab Education has voiced apprehensions about the upcoming academic year. On Nov. 27, the body penned a letter to Varda Ben Shaul, the director-general of the Council for Higher Education in Israel, highlighting the pressing mental, social, and economic challenges arising in this new reality, and calling for an immediate specialized program to support Arab students and foster their engagement in higher education. The letter also emphasized the need for collaboration with educational institutions and relevant government ministries to address issues of harassment and racism, and formally requested a meeting with Shaul to proactively address current and future challenges.

On Nov. 25, the Union of Arab Students convened to strategize for the commencement of the academic year. Their agenda includes arranging meetings with university administrations, conducting face-to-face sessions with incoming first-year students to offer support amid forthcoming challenges, and revitalizing Arab students’ committees within universities and colleges.

A university’s role, even amid a crisis, is to be a space of reason and open dialogue. Yet in a stark departure from normal procedure, Israeli institutions have cracked down on critical expression since October 7, with Palestinians and left-wing Israeli Jews facing persecution. 

“There’s a sense of collective blame placed on all Arabs within the university, including students who haven’t engaged in any posting [on social media,” Saabneh, from the University of Haifa, said. “This situation has escalated into a significant conflict on campus, creating an unhealthy environment for studying and discussions, which should ideally foster diverse viewpoints.”

Mariam Farah is a Palestinian journalist from Haifa

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https://fs.knesset.gov.il/25/Committees/25_cs_dec_3539875.docx

הכנסת

ועדת החינוך, התרבות והספורט

‏2023/084840

יום רביעי ,ב’ בכסלו תשפ”ד

15 בנובמבר 2023

לכבוד  

                                    יואב קיש                  חיים ביטון                              יואב גלנט       

          פרופ’ אריה צבן        פרופ’ רון שפירא      פרופ’ חיים שקד      

שר החינוך                שר במשרד החינוך   שר הביטחון             יו”ר ור”ה                 יו”ר ול”מ                 יו”ר רמ”א

ויו”ר המל”ג

פרופ’ יפעת ביטון

יו”ר ור”מ

מכובדיי,

הנדון: התמודדות ההשכלה הגבוהה בתקופת מלחמת “חרבות ברזל”

אנשי מילואים מגוייסים כבר 6 שבועות ואין לדעת את מועד השחרור. ביניהם, סטודנטים רבים.

פתיחת שנה”ל  במוסדות האקדמיים היא בסמכות כל מוסד אקדמי.  כל מוסד ניהל את פתיחת השנה , בנפרד. יש  שיקולים שונים ושונות בין המוסדות. כל מוסד חייב לוודא שכל סטודנט שנמצא במילואים, יוכל לסיים את שנת הלימודים, יחד עם חבריו.  דחו את פתיחת שנה”ל , ככל הניתן, מבלי לפגוע בסמסטר קיץ. הלימודים יהיו במתכונת שונה.

המוסדות להשכלה גבוהה המתוקצבים, נתנו פתרונות בהתאם לתקציבם. דחיית פתיחת שנת לימודים לתאריך 24.12.23, וחבילת הטבות למשרתים במילואים. למשל –הנחה בתשלום,  תרגול בקבוצת קטנות, תוספת נ”ז עבור השירות במילואים,  קורס מקוצר כשיחזרו, ועוד.

מוסדות לא מתוקצבים, נתנו פתרונות אחרים. מי שלא משרתים במילואים, שזה 80% מהסטודנטים, התחילו את לימודיהם . מי שמשרתים במילואים, יקבלו קורס שלם, כשיחזרו.

היו מקרים של סטודנטים ומרצים, במוסדות שונים של השכלה גבוהה, שתמכו בטרור ובהסתה. המוסדות הקימו פורום לטיפול בכך, וכבר היו מקרים שהמסיתים הוצאו מהמוסדות.

מסקנות הוועדה :                 

1.      הוועדה מודה ליואב קיש – שר החינוך ויו”ר מל”ג,  ולכל המשתתפים בדיון.

2.      30% מהסטודנטים משרתים במילואים. הוועדה מברכת אותם ומייחלת לשיבתם המהירה לשלום לביתם.

3.      הוועדה מברכת את כל הסטודנטים שנרתמו לעזור ולהתנדב בכל הנדרש, כתוצאה מהמלחמה.

4.      הוועדה מבקשת להרגיע את הסטודנטים, משרתי המילואים, שלא ידאגו לנושא הלימודים. עליהם להתרכז במשימתם. כולנו מאחוריהם, כולל מוסדות הלימוד שלהם. הוועדה קוראת למוסדות לא להוציא הודעות מבלבלות.

5.      הוועדה מבקשת  לוודא שלא ייפגעו לימודיו של אף סטודנט המשרת במילואים.  אסור שמילואים יהוו מכשול לסטודנטים המשרתים במילואים.  מעמד של כל משרת במילואים צריך להיות זהה  לחברו שלא שירת. הוועדה דורשת מכל  המוסדות להשכלה גבוהה, כולל הפרטיות,  לדאוג לכך.

6.      הוועדה מבקשת לדאוג לסטודנטים המשרתים במילואים, לכל צרכיהם האקדמיים, כמו: גמישות בתאריכי מבחנים, מועדי מבחן נוספים, טיפול פסיכולוגי, אם נדרש,  החזר תשלום למעונות, וכדומה.

7.      הוועדה דורשת להטיל סנקציות למוסד להשכלה גבוהה שלא יעניק את המעמד הזהה לסטודנטים משרתי מילואים.

8.      הוועדה קוראת למצוא פתרון לסטודנטים לרפואה, שמועד הבחינה שלהם חלף. יש  למצוא מועד חדש  לבחינה ולתקנן את היחסיות של הציון ליתר הסטודנטים שנבחנו במועד.

9.      הוועדה מבקשת למצוא פתרון, לימודי וכלכלי,  לסטודנטים במכללת ספיר שפונו מהמכללה בגלל המצב הביטחוני. הוועדה דורשת למצוא חבילת סיוע ייחודית למכללה, הכוללת: פטור משכ”ל לשנה הקרובה, וזאת כדי לעודד את הסטודנטים לחזור ללמוד במכללה.

10.  הוועדה רשמה לפניה ששר החינוך יתמוך בהצ”ח  פרטית  להחזיר את שכ”ל לשנה זו,  לכל סטודנט משרת מילואים.

11.  מלחמת חרבות ברזל אינה מלחמה בין יהודים וערבים. עם זאת, תהיה אפס סובלנות להסתה. הוועדה רשמה לפניה שמל”ג הקים פורום לטיפול במקרי הסתה בקמפוסים. מקרים שנטען שלא טופלו, ייבדקו שוב.

12.  על המוסדות להגדיר כללי התנהגות ברורים המצופים מאנשי הסגל והסטודנטים. יש לפרסם כללים אלה, באופן ברור, ובכל השפות, כדי לוודא שכולם מודעים להם. יש לקבוע מנגנונים מסודרים, שקופים ושוויוניים, לגבי סנקציות בנושא הסתה. מומלץ שהמוסדות יקראו לשמירה על איפוק ולשיח מכבד.

13.  תחושת שייכות למוסדות עשויה לשמש בסיס מקרב ומכנה משותף בין הקבוצות השונות. מומלץ לעודד תחושה זו כתחושה קולקטיבית, ויש להדהד אותה, באופן בולט ברחבי הקמפוסים.

14.  סגלי הביטחון בקמפוסים הם הגורמים העיקריים האמונים על שמירת סדר. יש לערוך הכשרות ולחדד נהלים כדי להבטיח יחס שיווני ומכבד לכלל הסטודנטים. על אנשי הביטחון להיות מודעים היטב לגבולות סמכויותיהם וזכויות הסטודנטים.

ב  ב  ר  כ  ה,

    ח״כ יוסף טייב

                                                                                                                                                                            יו”ר הוועדה

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  https://en.idi.org.il/articles/51567Challenges and Threats: Arab Society in Israel During the War in Gaza

November 17, 2023 | Written By: Dr. Adam AsadConciliation between Jews and Arabs in Israel is not just a moral imperative, but also a necessary condition for maintaining peace and stability in the country.

Arab society in Israel shares the suffering of the Jewish public following the October 7 attack—it, too, has felt this terrible pain. Arab citizens of Israel were also among those who were murdered and abducted by Hamas. Meanwhile, conflict and tension have spread from the Gaza border region to other arenas, including the Lebanese border and the West Bank. The threats from both the north and the south do not differentiate between Jewish towns such as Metula, Nahariya, or Sderot and Arab towns such as Arab al-Aramshe, Kafr Qasim, or Rahat.

Indeed, the Arab public has also been hurt and bloodied over the last month by the Swords of Iron War. The sense of personal safety among Arabs has taken a further blow, after several years of sharp deterioration due to failed government policy, including institutional neglect and disfunction, in response to rising violence and crime. Despite this, a recent survey published by the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute found that the sense of belonging and identification with Israeli society among Arabs has actually increased: 70% of Arab citizens of Israel now say they feel part of Israel and its problems, compared with 48% in June 2023. This is the highest such score in the Arab population since the Center began measuring it some 20 years ago.

Declarations of this nature have also been evident among the Arab leadership in Israel following the events of October 7. A large proportion of Arab Knesset members and mayors condemned the massacre, in which the attackers did not discriminate between Jews and Arabs. The head of the Ra’am party, Mansour Abbas, publicly stated that the attack was fundamentally opposed to the values of Islam, which he said were based on peace and dialogue rather than violent acts of terror. MK Abbas also noted that Arab society in Israel has a significant role to play, particularly at the current time, in promoting acceptance, conciliation, and peace.

With Israel in a state of war, the Arab public has been staying quiet and exercising restraint, despite various attempts at provocation which have included warnings of a repeat of the clashes of 2021. The delicate relations between Arabs and Jews in the country have become especially sensitive. Suspicion toward Arab citizens is on the rise, and Arabs fear the consequences of overtly showing their Arab identity or even speaking Arabic in public spaces. There are also fears about posting in Arabic on social media, regardless of the content, and about expressing any form of sympathy for the civilian population in Gaza.

According to the Israel Police, more than 190 Arab citizens have been detained for questioning since the beginning of the war, mainly for expressing views on social media or for attempts to demonstrate that were classed as attempted incitement, even if in many cases these were just expressions of dismay over the suffering of civilians in Gaza or criticisms against the harming of innocents. Some of those detained have been people who make key contributions to Israeli society, such as doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and teachers. These events raise a serious question of whether the voice of Israeli democracy is being silenced during the war.

In practice, then, Arab society in Israel is dealing with challenges on three different levels: the external threat of rocket fire from the north and the south, just like their Jewish peers, alongside the unique challenges of violence and crime within Arab society and this policy of “silencing” that is being radically applied to Arab citizens in Israel. This combination of challenges may ultimately serve to deepen the divide between Jews and Arabs when the war is over, and impinge on the ability of these two peoples to find a balanced way of living together.

Particularly during these difficult times, conciliation between Jews and Arabs in Israel is not just a moral imperative, but also a necessary condition for maintaining peace and stability in the country. There is no doubt that without conciliation and mutual understanding, the trends we are seeing today will continue to tear our society apart and pour salt on wounds that need time to heal. Israel’s citizens, both Jews and Arabs, have a responsibility to take an active role in the struggle toward conciliation and a peaceful, just coexistence in our shared society.