ARAB-ISRAELI RESEARCH PROJECTS

Since the inception of the Truman Institute, its scholars have worked on academic projects involving peace in the very broadest sense in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, though our primary focus has been the Middle East. The Institute’s researchers pioneered developing relationships with Palestinian academics, even in times when very few Israelis and Palestinians were associating freely on any level. We also have a history of relationships and joint projects with Jordanian and Egyptian academics.

Of course, both arranging and implementing joint projects has been more difficult since Al-Aqsa intifada erupted in September 2000. The following list represents projects that are on track and new ones that have commenced in the last year – despite the difficulties – as well as others that have been postponed because of the current situation. We have indeed managed to maintain many of our contacts with Arab scholars and recent months have seen some new impetus, particularly with Jordanian counterparts.

Further information on these projects can be obtained by contacting the Research Coordi­nator at the Institute, email: mstruman@mscc.huji.ac.il or fax: 972-2-5828076.

New and Planned Israeli-Palestinian Bilateral Projects

Trilateral Land Exchange between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt:

A Solution for Promoting Peace between Israel and the PA

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been broiling for a century and has become insufferable for both sides. The last four years alone have seen over 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians dead in the intifada, and tens of thousands injured. And daily the question is asked, but is it possible to resolve this conflict and, if so, how? This project proposes an innovative – and heretofore-untried – approach to local and regional peace: a three-way exchange of territory between the Palestinian Authority, Israel and Egypt. The plan could help trigger a breakthrough in the peace process and facilitate the quest for a permanent solution to the conflict. Egypt's involvement would lend regional "muscle" and spawn other steps toward the attainment of peace in the Middle East. And, in fact, there is a precedent of a land exchange agreement in the neighborhood: Jordan and Saudi Arabia signed such an agreement in 1965, charting anew thousands of square kilometers on both sides of their shared border.

Peace Education in Violent Conflict: A Critical Appraisal and Re-evaluation of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Education Activities 

In this project, the research team will reassess the peace education field. Past years have seen a wide array of activities underway, even in the most difficult times, ranging from early childhood to adult education, dialogue groups to training courses. Comprehensive and interdisciplinary research will now be conducted and a critical appraisal and re-evaluation of Israeli-Palestinian peace education activities will be drafted (later to be distributed to policy makers). The results of this project will contribute to a better understanding of the intricate psycho-social, cultural and political issues that peace education in violent conflict must confront on its way to becoming an effective tool in conflict resolution. More specifically, it will suggest improved strategies for the planning and implementation of peace education interventions during ongoing conflict so as to maximize their potential impact. The project is envisioned as a first step towards an international comparative study of peace education in conflict-ridden areas.

Peacekeeping Forces: Roles and Models

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has no blueprint and no model for a peacekeeping force. The closest it has come thus far to non-mediated peacekeeping was in the form of the Israeli-Palestinian joint patrols, which were stipulated in the Oslo Accords. This interdisciplinary project will describe the models of peacekeeping forces that can be found in the conflicted world – the UN model, the MFO (in the Sinai Desert), the model developed by the Association for African Unity, and so on – and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Among its aims will be to highlight the difference between keeping peace and enforcing peace. Moreover, the project will underscore the necessity for third-party involvement in peacekeeping between Israel and the Palestinians. Several symposia and a final report are among the activities planned for this project.

The Economic Ties between Israel and the Palestinians: A Chance for a Better Future?

Economic interactions between Israelis and Palestinians have always been, and will continue to be, heavily influenced by what economists call “non-market institutions.” Such institutions include political and social arrangements, as well as various kinds of violent and non-violent exchanges, and these inevitably impact on market activity. In this project we plan to adopt an interdisciplinary approach (economic development, economic history, sociology, and war studies) to explore past and present economic interactions between Israel and the Palestinians (specifically incorporating non-market institutions into the analysis). We intend that the findings will serve as a valuable tool for policy-makers and practitioners in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and – in view of its interdisciplinary nature – in other areas of regional conflict as well.

New and Planned Projects Involving Israeli Arabs

From Checkpoints to Flowpoints

For Israelis, the army checkpoint represents security (though not hermetic), where the movement of people and goods can be scrutinized and approved. For the Palestinians, the checkpoint is the very symbol of everyday humiliation and subjugation. This project will explore the day-to-day interaction between IDF soldiers at checkpoints and the Palestinians who go through them. It aims to identify ways in which the strain of this meeting point may be alleviated, while taking both Israeli security needs and Palestinian views into account. The analysis will be two-pronged: at the micro-level (the checks themselves) and the macro-level (the role of the checkpoints in security policy). Peacekeeping models from elsewhere in the world will be examined, and at the project’s conclusion recommendations will be submitted to policy makers.

The Arab Economy in Israel

The Arab economy in Israel has been almost totally overlooked in the world of research. Knowledge is scant about the structure of this economy, the changes it has undergone over time, and the need for development. This deficiency can be discerned in both academic and policymaking spheres. In this project, a group of scholars, Arab and Jewish, are collaborating to probe the different aspects of the Arab economy in Israel. Aware that economic factors are influenced by and have an influence on "non-economic" parameters, the group raises economic questions and discusses them on interdisciplinary levels. The project's findings will include a list of policy implications and recommendations aimed at improving this economy.

Inter-Faith Dialogue  

The Institute has recently taken on coordination of the Inter-Faith Dialogue, held under the auspices of the President of the State of Israel. The project brings together leaders of all faiths for monthly meetings, with the participation of the President, to nurture ties and discuss ways to disseminate knowledge in an effort to break down barriers and fears which are based in ignorance and, thus, abate conflict.

The Arabic Language as a Promoter of Partnership

The Truman Institute and the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa are joining forces to conduct applied research on a new approach to the learning of Arabic as a vehicle for promoting coexistence and partnership. The potential of language as a tool for the development of the Israeli national identity has been widely recognized. We believe that a systematic and holistic program that encompasses the learning of the Arabic language, history and culture can make a difference in the socialization of students into the region. This project is planned for three years.

Towards a Code of Ethics for Palestinian and Israeli Academic Cooperation

In cooperation with Panorama, the Palestinian Center for the Dissemination of Democracy & Community Development we are exploring the joint drafting of a Code of Ethics for academics and intellectuals, to enable them to play a leading role in finding the modalities and avenues to contribute towards peace and encourage stronger social responsibility on both sides. Such a document could become a standard setting for Israeli/Palestinian civil society projects and even for others facing protracted conflicts.

Educating for Human Rights, Non-Violence and Acceptance of the Other

This project will introduce innovating educational models, in Hebrew and Arabic, whose aim is to develop and cultivate a cadre of skilled teachers and youth, in both societies, committed to values of democracy and human rights, with an emphasis on acceptance of the Other, tolerance and non-violence. The Institute and its co-facilitators in this project, the Hebrew University's Gilo Center and Minerva Center and Middle East Non-Violence and Democracy (MEND), intend to promote these programs within the Israeli and Palestinian formal and informal educations systems. Pilot courses will be held in the Jerusalem area (east and west) and the West Bank.

Ongoing Israeli-Palestinian Bilateral Projects

Israeli-Palestinian Public Opinion Polls  

A finger-on-the-pulse project, the joint public opinion polls are designed to measure what Israelis and Palestinians think, in real time, about subjects pertaining to peace prospects—and what the alternatives mean. This project began in July 2000, in the wake of the failed Camp David summit. Since then, the Truman Institute and the Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research have conducted six other polls, asking samples of the Palestinian and Israeli populations what they think of the prospects of peace, the impact of terror, how they view each other and, their views on the Geneva initiative. This project has garnered enormous public and academic interest. It offers an invaluable picture of attitudes on both sides, and enables reliable comparisons to be made. It enjoys the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Nationwide Non-Violence Network and Communication Channels

This project, conducted in cooperation with Middle East Non-Violence and Democracy (MEND), aims to strengthen, expand and consolidate a network of active non-violence at the national Palestinian level by training leading Palestinian activists to create affinity and support groups throughout the West Bank, and by establishing centers for them to operate from. The groups will use their skills to train others, to lead non-violent actions, and to work with the media to promote non-violence nationally, as well as to reinforce their network.   

New Model Textbooks

In a follow-up study to their long-term project on Palestinian and Israeli textbooks, the researchers will prepare new model textbooks to be used in early schooling, with instructions to the teachers. This reflects an attempt to encourage youngsters – with the assistance and guidance of their teachers – towards a more constructive and less prejudiced future.

The “Enemy,” as Portrayed in the Israeli and Palestinian Media

How did the Palestinian media portray to its people of the devastating Passover bombing in Netanya? How did the Israeli media cover the Israeli offensive in Jenin in 2002? In other words, how is the “enemy” depicted by each side’s mass media? This study analyzes how the news that Israelis and Palestinians read and see is constructed. Given what is known about media behavior during such conflicts there can be little doubt that the mass media play a considerable role in reinforcing and even exacerbating negative images of the enemy. It is critical to examine the professional norms and routines that perpetuate this destructive process. It is planned that the study’s conclusions will be presented at a joint conference, with Israeli and Palestinian ideas on how to improve the situation.

An Israeli-Palestinian Dialogue on Shared History

It has been a truism of Arab-Israeli dialogue and peacemaking efforts that the past must be avoided in order to deal with the present and create a peaceful future. However, despite the current violence, knowledge of the other side’s view of its own past is essential to create understanding. In this project, 14 papers were written (7 by Israelis, 7 by Palestinians) on aspects of Israeli-Palestinian history between 1882-1950. A series of transcribed sessions discussed the conclusions of the papers and a publication is forthcoming.

Teaching about the Religion of the Other

It has been remarked that the religious aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict has become increasingly prominent in the last 50 years, and that religious figures and movements are among the most intransigent on both sides. The Truman Institute is conducting an evaluation of this project, which aims at developing educational mate­rials for the teaching of the religion of the “Other” by concentrating on common themes in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions.

The Status of Religious Freedom in Palestinian and Israeli Societies: Current Situation and Normative Options

This project has generated research reports by a Palestinian and an Israeli scholar in an introspective analysis of the existing conditions of religious freedom with a view towards suggesting alternative legislation to ensure long-term progress in this area. The common threads include the legacy of a common Ottoman legislation; the fact that there are strong groups within the bodies politic interested in promoting a religious agenda; that both societies have a clearly dominant religious presence; and that the dominant religion contains a code including comprehensive laws of social and political order. The project will seek to use what can be learned from the longer Israeli experience that may be relevant to the more recent Palestinian experience.

The Common Heritage of Arabs and Jews

Moving forward has no meaning unless we know where we are coming from. Arabs and Jews have more than a millennium of shared experience – though that point is often forgotten today. This project has as its primary goal the development of university and high school curricula, as well as to raise general public awareness of our common heritage, based on language, history, literature, religion and philosophy. The current violence notwithstanding, it is only by knowing the other side’s view of its own past that we can hope to advance, even independently of each other. It is hoped we will be able to tap into support from Jewish and Arab Diaspora communities to launch this project. The larger purpose of the project is to bring to the attention of students and professors, as well as to the public at large, the positive historical experiences and encounters between Arabs and Jews that occurred in many places and spanned virtually all of recorded history.

Ongoing Projects Involving Israeli Arabs

The Truman Forum for Public Debate: Relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel 

Now one of the flagship programs of the Institute, with impact among policy makers from its inception, the Truman Forum sees leading Jewish and Arab public figures and experts debate the gamut of issues that affect relations between the two sectors. The sessions are held on a monthly basis and are open to the public. Indeed, all are welcome at these sessions in order to boost the importance of the subject on the public agenda, following decades of discrimination and neglect by Israel’s Jewish majority towards its Arab minority. The sessions are broadcast live over the Internet (via the Institute’s web site). Moreover, in the program’s first year two members of the audience would continue each month’s debate on Israel Radio immediately following the event and the lectures were screened on Community Television several times a month. A first book is currently in production; still planned are a position paper and a more detailed book comprising all presentations and their analysis, and recommendations for alternatives regarding future relations between Arabs and Jews in Israel. Knesset members and other decision makers are taking a keen interest in this project.

Social and Economic Distress among Palestinian Citizens of Israel

This project focuses on the more deprived sectors of the Israeli Arab population in this project. The research is based on figures gathered by the Central Bureau of Statistics as well as on extensive fieldwork and interviews. It covers such areas as poverty, health, education, the “unrecognized” Arab villages, and the Bedouin sector, and will examine the social services received by the Arab minority who need them. The project is not primarily a work of comparison, but necessarily contrasts the findings with the services received by comparable needy elements in the Jewish sector to provide some perspective. This study fills a major gap in understanding the social and economic grievances of Israel’s Palestinian citizens.

 

Civil Rights and Political Grievances of the Arab Minority in Israel—50 Years After

The events of October 2000, in which parts of the Israeli Arab community engaged in a form of limited civil revolt, have underscored the need for and importance of research into the full gamut of relations between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. This project will review how the role of Israeli Arabs has developed since the founding of the State, but will focus primarily on the present situation and also on developments that are likely in the near future. The theme of the research will be the developments within and between the two communities, how we reached the current situation, and prospects for the future.

Open Distance Inter-university Synergies between Europe, Africa and Middle East

This project was set up as a consortium of 15 institutions in a number of different countries that are developing curricula which will be tested on students in their home countries, and then be made available to other institutions in the consortia and on the Internet. The Institute is preparing a curriculum in peace education, one of our areas of specialization, which we believe will contain lessons for other conflict areas as well.

Ongoing Israeli–Jordanian Bilateral Projects

The Role of the News Media in the Israeli-Jordanian Peace Process

This project builds on a previous pilot, based on interviews with journalists, which explored their coverage of stories in the other country. The current project, in cooperation with the Al Urdun Al Jadid Research Center (UJRC), will deepen and extend this knowledge-base and, in particular, will provide a better understanding of how and why images of the two countries vary over time and circumstances. Negative news about the other has predominated the Jordanian media since the 1994 peace accord, while Israeli newspapers rarely carry anything about Jordan not directly related to the peace process. The often positive and reconciliatory personal inclinations of journalists on both sides have been overridden by professional or political dictates, generating mostly negative coverage of the other, on one hand, or no coverage at all, on the other. In the Arab-Israel conflict, where public opinion plays such a major role in the formulation of policy, it is important that journalists and their publishers, as well as academics, and policy-makers be aware of how their own and the “other” society are being educated about each other. This study will be the first ever to be carried out in the region on a comparative basis and will offer the opportunity to look at the press from both sides of the conflict during the same time periods.

The Role of Women in Managing Business Firms: A Comparative Jordanian-Israeli Study

The researchers are examining the business environment affecting women in Jordan and Israel and analyze the circumstances that affect their success, including social, educational, governmental, personal, financial and managerial factors. It will further identify particular problems that can affect women’s business success and suggest solutions, trying to profit from a comparison of experiences in the two countries.

Survey on Israeli-Jordanian Public Views on the Other

A public opinion survey will be conducted, in Israel and in Jordan, to examine how mutual views are affected by, reflected in and affect the national media. The objective is to gain knowledge on the reasons and processes behind each side's views. The survey will enable a better understanding of the fluctuations of public opinion, and the impact this has on what is expressed in the media.

Jordanian-Israeli Relations

This project aims to examine and evaluate the past 10 years of the Jordan-Israel peace treaty. It will consist of two explorative research papers, one from each side, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the treaty and the lessons learnt during this decade. A secondary aim is to create a multi-activity project with representation from different sectors in both societies.

Israeli-Jordanian Civil Society Cooperation Project

The goal of the project is to reinvigorate the dialogue between the two sides that began in the early 1990s, was endangered in 1996 and virtually ceased after the outbreak of Al Aqsa intifada. The aim is to explore the experiences of the past and to use them to suit the needs of the future. The belief is that it is possible to rejuvenate the relationship on a firmer footing, creating an environment where it will be possible for the two sides to communicate again. The Israeli-Jordanian dialogue will, if successful, extend to a Palestinian component, and as it is based on acceptance and tolerance it can influence events throughout the region.