Ismael Abu-Saad

State-Controlled Education and Identity Formation Among the Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel:

In many modern nation-states, national identity is not inclusive of all of the state’s citizens; rather, it is limited (in varying degrees) to the members of the dominant group. Because such states are structurally unable to meet indigenous/minority groups’ basic human needs for identity, inclusion, and equality, the formation of ethnically based identity and political organization is a natural alternative. To the extent that such alternatives are considered threatening to the state, it will deal with indigenous/minority groups by developing systems of control, based on varying degrees of force, depending on the state’s claim (or lack thereof) to be “democratic.” In this article, the author examines the role the state educational system plays in identity formation and the state’s system of control among indigenous Palestinian youth in Israel.

Separate and unequal: the role of the state educational system in maintaining the subordination of Israel's Palestinian arab citizens

The state educational system in Israel functions effectively to maintain the cultural, socioeconomic, and political subordination of Israels Palestinian Arab citizens through the imposition of aims, goals and curricula to which the students cannot relate, and the substandard and discriminatory provision of educational resources, programmes and services; all of which result in markedly poorer levels of educational achievement and lower rates of students qualified to enter higher education. As with every other aspect of the education system in Israel, these inequitable outcomes are not a matter of chance, but rather a matter of policy. In this paper, I will explore the ways in which racially derogatory attitudes towards the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel have been translated into discriminatory practices in the state‐run educational system. I will examine the mechanisms by which these practices have placed Palestinian Arabs on an unequal footing with regard to their social, economic and political development vis à vis the Israeli Jewish majority, and have led to the institutionalisation of an education system that perpetuates racist attitudes and practices.

Spatial Transformation and Indigenous Resistance The Urbanization of the Palestinian Bedouin in Southern Israel

Indigenous peoples share a history of exclusion from the dominant society decision-making processes that directly affect them, including their displacement and relocation, development initiatives, and the process of urbanization. This article begins with a review of indigenous experiences of and responses to urbanization in a number of nation-states throughout the world. It then examines the experience of the indigenous Palestinian Bedouin community in southern Israel, whose traditional lifestyle of land-based seminomadic pastoralism is being replaced by landless, labor force, government-planned urbanization. Issues of key importance to that process are explored, including the historical political context and state-indigenous relations, the conflict over land, and the settler-colonial vision inherent in the conceptualization and implementation of the urban models. Finally, Bedouin responses and resistance to the governments urbanization program are discussed.

Identity and Political Stability in an Ethnically Diverse State: A Study of Bedouin Arab Youth in Israel

This study deals with the relationship between the state of Israel and its Arab minority, with a particular focus on the Bedouin Arabs of the Negev. This relationship has been problematic from the outset, given the discrepancy between the corporate national identity of Israel as a Jewish state, and the actual composition of its population (a 17 per cent non-Jewish minority). The Bedouin are one of the segments of the Arab population that the government attempted to separate from the others and transform into a de-Arabised group loyal to the interests and institutions of the state. This study examines the responses of Negev Bedouin Arab youth to questions regarding their individual and collective identities and their relationship to the state of Israel.

Islamic work ethic among Arab college students in Israel

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate the Islamic work ethic (IWE) and individualism among Arab college students in Israel, who represent an ethnic and religious minority in a western‐oriented state.Design/methodology/approach – The participants included 837 male and female Arab college students from an academic and a technical college in northern Israel. Most participants (64 percent) were Academic college students. Two measures were used: the IWE and individualism scales developed by Ali. Correlation analysis and two‐way multivariate analysis were used to analyze the data.Findings – There was a strong and highly significant correlation between the IWE and individualism scales. Academic college students scored significantly higher than technical college students on both scales. There were significant interactions between gender and marital status, and college type and year of studies, on the scales.Practical implications – Within the multi‐cultural context of Arab college students in Israel, ...

The Work Values of Arab Teachers in Israel in a Multicultural Context

The subjects of this study, 143 Arab elementary school teachers, represent an ethnic and religious minority in Israel, and work in schools based on a Western educational model. Their work values were measured by using the Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) and work individualism scales developed by Ali (1988). Based on the factor analysis of the IWE scale, three factors emerged: (1) personal and organizational obligations; (2) personal investment and dividends; and (3) personal effort and achievement. The relation of Alis Islamic work ethic and work individualism scales to the traditional Western work values theory is discussed. The results of this study are compared to the findings of Ali (1988, 1992) obtained using the IWE and work individualism scales among Arab students in the United States and Arab managers in Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: A Historical Context of Palestinian Arab Education

This introduction reviews the historical and political context that provides an essential background for exploring key contemporary issues in Palestinian Arab education in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Formal public education in Palestine, from its very beginnings, was never under the control of the Palestinian people but instead, has been controlled by successive colonial/external administrations. This introduction examines how major historical periods have affected the development of Palestinian Arab education from the Ottoman period (1516 to 1917) to the British Mandate period (1917 to 1948) to the post-1948 period after the establishment of Israel, which includes the post-1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Oslo agreement period from 1993 to 2000, and the first and second Palestinian Intifadas.This introduction reviews the historical and political context that provides an essential background for exploring key contemporary issues in Palestinian Arab education in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Formal public education in Palestine, from its very beginnings, was never under the control of the Palestinian people but instead, has been controlled by successive colonial/external administrations. This introduction examines how major historical periods have affected the development of Palestinian Arab education from the Ottoman period (1516 to 1917) to the British Mandate period (1917 to 1948) to the post-1948 period after the establishment of Israel, which includes the post-1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Oslo agreement period from 1993 to 2000, and the first and second Palestinian Intifadas.

Provision of public educational services and access to higher education among the Negev Bedouin Arabs in Israel

This paper deals with the provision of educational services and access to higher education of the Negev Bedouin Arabs in Israel, in the context of the social change this community is undergoing. The Negev Bedouin have been transformed from semi‐nomads and agriculturists to urban town dwellers. Education in general, and higher education in particular, are crucial to their adjustment and development. As members of the Arab minority in Israel, they face a number of inequities in the provision of educational services, access to higher education and access to job opportunities. The Negev Bedouin schools face additional problems related to the lack of qualified teachers and proper facilities. These schools have the highest drop‐out rates and the poorest success rates on the matriculation exams in the country. As of the 1993‐94 academic year, there were only 135 Bedouin Arab university graduates and 163 university students. Their higher education ratio is 2 per 1000, which is far below the Israeli national avera...

De-Arabization of the Bedouin: A Study of an Inevitable Failure.

This paper offers an assessment of the efforts to de-Arabize the Bedouin Arab youth of the Negev. We show that despite the extensive efforts to achieve this goal, they have become pronouncedly alienated from the State of Israel, and are increasingly perceiving themselves as an integral part of Israel’s Palestinian Arab national minority. The findings of our research illustrate the futility of the policy to de-Arabize the Bedouin and to instill in them the unfounded belief that they are full and equal citizens of the State of Israel. We argue that the failure of the policy in this regard is inevitable primarily for the following reason: Israel’s national identity is constructed in a manner that leaves no room for Arab culture and heritage and this identity provided the legitimization for discriminatory policies against the Bedouin, as well as against other Arab groups. Thus, the shift toward Palestinian national and cultural identity found among Bedouin youth, can be partly explained as a result of their growing awareness of this political reality and their decreasing readiness to accept it. But then again, this shift is nothing but another manifestation, albeit a sobering one at that, of the challenge facing Zionist ideology since the pre-state era, more than 50 years ago. To put it succinctly, the challenge is this: if Israel aspires to be judged as a liberal democracy and to ensure its legitimacy and political stability, it must make significant changes in its basic governing principles. It must either incorporate the culture and collective aspirations of its Arab citizens within the national identity, and/or allow them some form of political autonomy.

The dynamics of negation: identity formation among Palestinian Arab college students inside the green line

How does granting certificates of ‘business clean of Arab workers’ to owners of shops, stores, and Jewish businesses who prove they are not employing Arab workers shape identity? Identity development involves making sense of, and coming to terms with, the social world one inhabits, recognizing choices and making decisions within contexts, and finding a sense of unity within ones self while claiming a place in the world. Since there is no objective, ahistoric, universal trans-cultural identity, views of identity must be historically and culturally situated. This paper explores identity issues among members of the Palestinian Arab minority in Israel. While there is a body of literature exploring this subject, we will offer a different perspective by contextualizing the political and economic contexts that form an essential foundation for understanding identity formation among this minority group. We argue that, as a genre of settler colonialism, ‘pure settlement colonies’ involve the conquering not only of land, but of labor as well, excluding the natives from the economy. Such an exclusion from the economy is significant for its cultural, social, and ideological consequences, and therefore is especially significant in identity formation discussed in the paper. We briefly review existing approaches to the study of identity among Palestinian Arabs in Israel, and illustrate our theoretical contextual framework. Finally, we present and discuss findings from a new study of identity among Palestinian Arab college students in Israel through the lens of this framework.