between Jewish and Arab schools.
According to Hareven, Arab schools
and communities are generally more
eager for contacts with Jews than the
other way around.
Jewish teachers and principals who
would like to encourage interaction with
Arab schools often run into opposition
from local councils and parents who fear
that such contacts will lead to inter-
marriage.
Fear of intermarriage is also cited by
officials of the religious education
system, both public and private, for
their refusal to participate.
But Hareven is hopeful that
some will eventually relent.
"It would," he says, "be a
real challenge to bring
together traditional, obser-
vant Jews, Moslems and
Christians. I believe they
might find they have more in
common than they think."
Abdel Darousha, a
graduate of Haifa University
and an educator before his
election to the Knesset, is
both pleased and impatient
with the educational drive
toward better understanding.
"I'm not satisfied," he says,
"because it is not enough. To
turn the propaganda into
reality the government must
be prepared to spend money
and create jobs. Declarations
of good intentions are very
nice, but they won't change a
thing.
"The blame lies with the
Jewish majority. They simp-
ly don't see Arab-Jewish rela-
tions as a priority. As the
powerful majority, they don't
see the need for such rela-
tions. Most are content to go
on believing that Arabs are
dirty, untrustworthy and
stupid."
Is there prejudice is Israel?
"And how," says Yosef Goell. "But rela-
tions between Jews and Arabs in Jeru-
salem, for instance, are infinitely better
than relations between the Jews and the
Irish in the Bronx when I grew up — not
to mention between the Jews, the blacks
and the Puerto Ricans."
Goell believes that relations between
Jews and Arabs have deteriorated "after
a long period of getting better." The
1980s, he says, have given rise to
phenomena "which have enraged both
sides."
"On the one hand, the taboo against
Jews expressing open hatred for Arabs
was broken; on the other, the taboo
against Israeli Arabs giving open
support for the PLO was broken."
Terrorism in Israel, the war in
Lebanon and violence in the occupied
territories have done the rest, polarizing
the political extremes within Israel and
leaving the moderates floundering.
Darousha agrees, pointing to the erup-
tion of anti-Arab violence in the
southern Galilee town of Afula follow-
ing the murder of two Jewish school-
teachers from the town by a gang of
West Bank terrorists last year.
"The Jezreel Valley is known for its
good relations between Arabs and
prevented from passing through the
town. There were anti-Arab demonstra-
tions. We were shocked, traumatized."
Such incidents serve to highlight the
"many contradictions" with which
Israeli Arabs live, says Alouph Hareven.
They are torn between their identity
as citizens of Israel and support for
their Palestinian brothers striving for
selfdetermination. They are struggling
to come to terms with living in a coun-
try whose intensely Jewish goals and
symbols are not their own.
Continued on next page
0
a
Jews," says Darousha, who comes from
Iksal, a village of 7,000 people near
Afula. "There has always been close
agricultural and economic cooperation
and many friendships between families.
We visit each other, go to each others
celebrations and festivals.
"But when these terrible murders hap-
pened, it was the local Arabs who suf-
fered. It did not matter that we had
proved ourselves to be loyal citizens of
the state. It did not matter that there
is no phenomenon of terrorism among
Israeli Arabs. It did not matter that we
condemned the murders and expressed
our sympathy for the bereaved.
"The Jewish extremists were allowed
to take over. Arabs were beaten and
The funeral of Anwar
Nusseibeh, a moderate who once
served as Jordanian defense
minister before Israel took over
the West Bank in 1967, turned
into a nationalist demonstration
recently in Jerusalem after some
mourners shouted anti•Israel
and anti-Jewish slogans.
17