Residents planning dual language - Jewish-Arab school
in Wadi Ara
By Eli Ashkenazi
Wed., March 17, 2004
Most of the residents of Katzir who passed the billboard outside the grocery store on the neighborhood's central hilltop this week did not seem to notice the large ad for the upcoming opening of a Jewish-Arab school in the next neighborhood, Kfar Kara. The few who did stop to read the advertisement expressed doubt about the success of the idea: "Yes, of course I'll register my children there," one woman said sarcastically to her friend.
Three and a half years after the "shock," as a Kfar Kara resident called the "Al-Aqsa Intifada incidents in Wadi Ara,"a group of area residents who make up the Bridge Over the Wadi organization are publicizing the Jewish-Arab school they are initiating.
Mohammed Marzuk and Marwat Omri, a married couple from Kfar Kara and parents of Said, 4, and May, 3, are among the school's founders. "After October 2000 some groups emerged that wanted to improve the relationship between Jews and Arabs," Marzuk said. "That wasn't our motivation. We believe in somethingessential, deeper and more long-lasting. The concept of the school was relevant before the Al-Aqsa Intifada and it's relevant today."
Along with Marzuk and Omri, 10 other couples have joined Bridge Over the Wadi, half from Kfar Kara and half from Katzir. The group originally considered establishing a democratic school, but decided, as Marzuk said, that a Jewish-Arab school was "unique and more true to reality.
A democratic school takes universal ideas; a Jewish-Arab school must live the reality inasmuch
as its population is Jewish and Arab - with all the implications."
Until now, nearly 50 Jewish children and 50 Arab children have been registered at the school, and each class will contain 26 students, half Arab and half Jewish. The administration and faculty will also be split down themiddle.
Bridge Over the Wadi is currently trying to get the school approved by the Education Ministry, and expects to have classes from kindergarten through third grade. Classes are due to be held in Kfar Kara, which the local council head supports.
The most basic example of this reality is the language of instruction the school will use. The school will by definition be bilingual, but the parents want more than the simple presence of two languages; they want the students to be bilingual and for both Hebrew and Arabic to have equal footing in all respects. In practice, such a feat will not be simple, said Marzuk. Two teachers, a Hebrew speaker and an Arabic speaker, will teach in their own languages. Both languages will be
spoken fluently in class.
Each language contains elements beyond the actual words, says Omri. "The world of images, the
connotations and how the language is understoodinfluence the student," she said, adding that the students cannot escape the fact that a good grasp of Hebrew is more relevant for success in Israel than is Arabic. "The Jewish student filters out Arabic more than his Arab friend does Hebrew," she said. "A Jew thinks the world of images associated with Arabic has to do with a language
that represents an inferior culture. An Arab child associates other connotations with Hebrew: it's a
language that represents `the oppressive,' but it also represents `power,' that is, you can't move forward without Hebrew. We know this is a complicated matter, but we're prepared for this challenge."
Bridge Over the Wadi is joined by the Hand in Hand
center for Jewish-Arab education in Israel, headed by
Amin Halaf.
Hand in Hand
The Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel
"If we build something egalitarian and true between Jews and Arabs, there is no reason for it not to work," said Halaf. "We're breaking the mold of thinking that holds that the victory of one side must be the loss of the other. Both sides can gain. The way in which we believe is that we don't sweep anything under the rug; in a dialogue, we arrive at a formula that allows both sides to live in
peace." Halaf said people in other areas of the country have requested the establishment of similar schools.
But not everyone likes the idea. "There are also those who ask, `What's this about?' and express fear of assimilation and loss of identity," said Osnat Rifkin from Katzir, one of the founders of Bridge Over the Wadi. "These kinds of questions come up among the Arabs, too. The question of identity is important to both sides."
Rifkin, though, sees a Jewish-Arab school as emphasizing each group's individuality. "I think these
kinds of schools actually sharpen identity," she said. "When you describe things to members of the other nation, you check yourself and ask yourself questions on your own identity. When Independence Day arrives, which for the Arabs is the day of Nakba [disaster], I still don't know what we're going to do - I just know that we'll be dealing with both things."
