National, Social, and Cultural Diversity - Opportunities and Challenges

A government that recognizes the national rights of the Jewish majority and the Palestinian Arab minority, and promotes multiculturalism and multilingualism, will be able to advance regional peace. This was the assertion of senior researchers including Prof. Amal Jamal, Prof. Oren Yiftachel, and Dr. Mason Arashid, who participated in the Mossawa Center conference on "Cultural, National, and Linguistic Diversity - Between War and Elections," held on May 3, 2024, in Haifa.

The opening panel of the conference was chaired by Mossawa Center Director Jafar Farah, who noted that this was the first time such an event provided simultaneous translation in four languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, and English). "We made efforts to communicate and understand each other, and to get to know one another with the goal of conveying messages to everyone present. We hope to set an example for civic and political spaces, like the Knesset, the Haifa Municipality, and even civil society organizations focused on human rights and coexistence. We need to regulate the national, multicultural, and multilingual relations of the citizens," Farah stated.

Dr. Mayson Arshid Shchadeh - Researcher and Lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the Open University:

Dr. Mayson Arshid Shchadeh addressed two key concepts in understanding the relations between Jews and Arabs: "social distance" and "hybrid identity." She explained, "Everyone here possesses a hybrid identity, due to encounters with the other and the different. Our identity is defined in relation to the other, shaping who we are and determining what activities will be enabled by state policy. Social distance in the country is not an immutable fate but requires external intervention."

She pointed out that the Weizmann-Faisal Agreement signed in 1919 stipulated that Jewish immigration would be dense and segregated, which was the case during the first immigration wave, separating Jews from Arabs. This situation persists to this day. During the protests against the judicial reform, Arabs were accused of sitting on the fence and waiting to see what would happen. For instance, in the Kaplan protests and the judicial revolution, Arabs did not take to the streets alongside Jews. While Arabs currently empathize on a human level with the return of hostages, they are not participating in the demonstrations because of the existing social distance and separation between Arabs and Jews, feeling a lack of belonging even in mixed cities.

Dr. Arshid Shchadeh stated, "The hostility reported in studies since October 7, 2023, is a result of the pre-existing social distance and alienation between Jews and Arabs, and not solely due to the war." She recommends implementing a planned and systematic policy to reduce social distance and feelings of alienation.

Arshid Shchadeh's research examined the policy of street naming across the country and in mixed cities. Her conclusion was that "the naming policy is a parameter of the ruling group's sensitivity to the partnership of other groups in the public space and the ruling group's willingness to recognize the history and culture of others."

Arshid Shchadeh argues that residential segregation allows the government to decide the intensity of its responses to what happens within the "Arab bubble" and the quality and level of social services. She also suggests recognizing Arabs as a national minority indigenous to the land, with national identity needs that are an essential part of mutual, respectful partnership.

Prof. Amal Jamal, a researcher at Tel Aviv University, highlighted that since the war, "there has been a significant retreat in legitimate discussion spaces and their boundaries. A process is underway of undermining and questioning the legitimacy of discourse and its importance as a space for representing different opinions. The boundaries of discourse are being eroded through a unity narrative that serves an exclusive perception, giving priority and even exclusivity to the truth held by those in power. There is an ongoing process of conservative, fundamentalist forces taking over various discussion spaces, intentionally narrowing the boundaries of legitimate discourse in various arenas, including the Knesset, the media, and social networks. The spirit of fascist thinkers who draw a sharp distinction between friend and foe has taken over the public space and government institutions."

Prof. Jamal adds, "The state is not interested in the Haifa model as a model for partnership. The state has created a rift between itself and civil society. Instead of addressing the needs of the citizens, it imposed procedures to unify cultures and fracture Israeli society. Therefore, it is necessary to unite to create change."

Prof. Nurit Alfasi noted that "in addition to the national conflict between Arab and Jewish citizens in Israel, there is also a gap between the worldviews of the planning system and the Arab space, which has led to informal urbanization in Arab settlements. She proposes an integrative planning model that addresses the cultural uniqueness of planning in Arab and mixed settlements."

She added, "Israel is in a state of segregation, spatial contortion, and isolation because people want to preserve culture, religion, education, etc. Such concentrations, by their own dynamics, do not see the other and then develop negative feelings towards them, compared to people on the seam line, for example, who are much more open." Alfasi offers a solution: "Once the space is homogeneous, it will create a sense of closeness through education, signage, and presence in all spaces. A mixed society should be throughout the country and not just in mixed cities.

 Prof. Oren Yiftachel, from Ben-Gurion University, argued that "the planning system in Israel has created clear patterns of deep ethno-class separation. Structural and legal separation that almost does not exist anywhere else in the world."

Yiftachel claims that mixed cities serve as relatively open spaces, and some of them are even binational and multicultural. He believes that civil society is the main hope in the struggle between a democratic space and apartheid. They promote equal rights, proper planning, redistribution of land assets, and distributive justice. He adds, "Israel is an ethnocracy, a state that will continue to be conflicted as long as it remains static. Sixty-eight new settlements in Judea and Samaria for Jewish settlement, something that must be stopped by civil society. Civil society must create a shared vision, establish metropolitan areas, and break down the borders and barriers that the state has set up, such as regional councils, acceptance committees in settlements that are difficult to enter, unrecognized villages, and 100,000 citizens in the Negev living without water and electricity." In conclusion, he says, "We are not obligated to the state; we are obligated to ourselves to act for cooperation among various identities."

Igor Kaminik, Director of the Dor Moriah Association, which operates among Russian speakers, emphasized that immigrants from the former Soviet Union have a unique cultural and linguistic identity, which should be recognized and allowed to flourish.

"We have been cooperating with the Mossawa Center for more than three years. This conference is important for developing a shared vision. Russian speakers are divided into several categories: non-Jews are communists, and Jews on the mother's side are not religious. There are also diverse opinions among Russian speakers. I left Ukraine in 2016 because I was against the government. Last year, our association conducted eight sociological studies and several expert surveys. Our goal was to learn about social divisions in Israel. We found several cleavages: Arab-Jewish, secular-religious, left-right, native-born-new immigrants, etc. We concluded that the radicalism of Israeli society is a clear fact. The rifts between groups are growing, especially after the events of October 7 and the subsequent war. Initially, the war seemed like a unifying event, but now it is seen as a cause of internal division. Israel has established two ideological clusters—liberals and conservatives. We see a clear division between these two worldviews. We saw this in Ukraine, where the clash between two visions—pro-European and pro-Russian—led to civil conflicts and eventually war. We see active collective traumas in Israel through the media and politicians."

Olga Bakushinsky, a journalist and TV presenter, added: "The commonalities between the current Russian-speaking immigrants and the Arab public are more significant than it seems. People who recently immigrated from Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet states are liberal and have European outlooks. Most Russian speakers did not come to Israel for Zionist reasons. Many of them are not Jewish according to Jewish law. They left Russia or Ukraine because of the war, to avoid prison simply for opposing the war. She asks: 'What prevents the Russian public from connecting with Arabs? Our past and history. The symbols of communism (the red flag, the hammer, and sickle) that some Arabs raise are problematic for some of today’s Russians who are protesting the war. Russia is not a friend of Israel's Arabs. It uses them for very specific purposes. This is how it looks from the perspective of those who want to stand by you and fight with you for a better future. It is very important for all Israelis (Arabs, Jews, Circassians, Druze, Ethiopians, Russians) to find a common identity as Israelis while preserving their culture. After the Nation-State Law was passed, I was so angry that I wrote a letter to Netanyahu. He didn't respond, of course, but the letter was published in Haaretz. We have common enemies in Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. They are leading the country to destruction. I am very sorry that the Arabs did not join the Kaplan protests against the government, which called for urgent elections. This government must be dismissed immediately and permanently."