Bridges over troubled water

Jerusalem Post
Melissa Radler

Friday, August 8, 2003 -- Israeli schoolchildren, says Alan Slifka, founder of the Abraham Fund Initiatives, should receive coexistence inoculations as part of their routine vaccinations.

"We call them co-shots," he says. "You get a shot against prejudice and a shot against fear, and you end up having a degree of mutual respect because you're inoculated against demonization."

In the late '80s, Slifka was enjoying his first visit to Israel when he realized he hadn't met a single Arab. A Wall Street investor and founding chairman of the Big Apple Circus, Slifka, 73, then established the first organization dedicated to promoting coexistence between Jewish and Arab Israelis.

Created in 1989, the Abraham Fund has granted nearly $7.5 million to more than 500 grassroots projects across Israel, and is currently working with various government ministries to reach a broader range of the Israeli public.

With a foundation named after the two communities' common forefather, Slifka says he aims to tackle the major sticking point in their relationship: Jews, an oppressed minority for thousands of years, have to recognize their newfound majority status; Arabs, a majority in the Middle East for centuries, must learn to live as a minority in Israel.

And Jews, he's proud to report, are doing better than most minorities whose ascension to power is marred by the acquisition of their oppressors' worst traits.

"Respect for the stranger is part of our ethos, it's part of our culture, it's part of our history. If our country didn't express that politically and socially, it would be surprising," says Slifka.

"We're a young country, and may not have had the opportunity to focus on that as a priority, and the problem may have been exacerbated because we've been attacked by Arabs continually since the state was born," he continues, "but that doesn't mean we can't, as a Jewish majority, create a state where a minority feels comfortable and at home."

How has the intifada affected coexistence programming?

The professionals continue to want to do the work, but it's become more difficult because, for example, we run a number of school-pairing programs - where we pair an Arab and a Jewish school. What we found was that Jewish parents are reluctant to allow their kids to go into Arab villages for the programs. The Arabs are reluctant to come to Jewish schools. You had to find neutral venues, or modify the programs so there was less contact and more uni-national work. But the demand for programs has continued. We did a number of research studies during that period and discovered that where the programs continued, fear and demonization remained virtually unchanged, whereas in the control groups, there was a substantial increase in both.

There is a lot of demand for the work, but I would say there's also a degree of doubt, because people say if you are doing this work, how can there be so much separation and fear? If you do a program involving 20,000 people inside Israel, that will affect the psyches of those 20,000, but it won't affect the population of six million. It's impossible for coexistence projects to change a culture unless they're conducted on a much greater scale, and the numbers of those programs increase.

What's missing in the Israeli school system?

First of all, there's an inequality in the quality of education - the facilities, teachers, infrastructure. I read that 95 percent of Jewish schools are air-conditioned and virtually none of the Arab schools are. Beyond that, you have two different school systems, two different curriculums and different ways of approaching issues. Building bridges between the two communities isn't an integral part of either curriculum.

There are some people who feel that no child should graduate from high school unless they pass an exam in coexistence, which would require the development of some shared curriculum, shared understanding, the importance of shared citizenship, shared values, and making shared community-building a part of the Israeli culture. It requires a belief that by doing this you are not in any way going to diminish Arab culture and history, nor are you going to change the Jewish character of the state.

Is the participation of governments in the region necessary for coexistence to work?

It would be wonderful if every country in the region had a cabinet minister responsible for coexistence, because that would make coexistence between majorities and minorities a universal shared value. Obviously, implicit in that would be an acceptance of Jews as a minority that exists in the region. For that reason I would love to see the government of Israel end up with a minister of coexistence.

Who would you like to see in the post?

It could be anybody. We find that when we talk to high-level cabinet members, the principle of having a coexistence minister isn't something that people object to. We've found people from the Likud who were supportive of coexistence, and there are a number of Likudniks who could do a very good job. People from the Right, like Ehud Olmert for example, have spoken very positively of the need for coexistence. Benny Begin has appeared on behalf of the Abraham Fund. Moshe Arens has been a member of the Abraham Fund public council.

How has the terrorism and incitement emanating from the Palestinian Authority, and from some Arab religious and political leaders in Israel, affected your work?

There's no question that the Arabs in Israel have been increasingly exposed to negative propaganda, publicity and television for the past several years. There's an impact. Unfortunately, the Arab Knesset members by and large focus on the political issues - by visiting Syria, by talking about regional issues - and they haven't chosen to focus on the domestic agenda or the need for an integrated society. There hasn't been leadership and vision of a scale, stature or significance such that you have large numbers of Israeli Arab politicians talking about working together in the best interests of the Arab population.

Having said that, in the past six months we have seen some changes. The Abraham Fund has also been working with the police, for example, and we are gratified to have seen large numbers of Arab volunteers - around 6,000 - willing to serve as community policemen. That is an important development because up until now, the Arabs have been ambivalent about whether to join established Israeli institutions.

Do you think that drafting all Israeli Arabs would improve the situation?

That is an issue that hasn't been put on the agenda in a formal sense, but I think it would have a great deal of merit if it were, because you can't have the Jews wanting the Arabs to participate and then not offering them an opportunity to do so. And you can't have Arabs saying they want full equality when they're not willing to take on the responsibilities of citizenship.

What's your personal opinion?

I would be for it, because I think citizenship requires participation and responsibility. It may be awkward to put Arabs into military service in the middle of an intifada, but you certainly could do it with national service.

Why aren't there as many Arabs as Jews involved in coexistence work?

In Israel, we have Arabs on our board, public council and staff. In America, the Arab community is comprised of Egyptian Arabs, Syrian Arabs and so forth. You don't find Saudi Arabs or Syrian Arabs interested in the problems of Israeli Arabs. The only people who would be interested in Israeli Arabs in America are Palestinians who are interested very specifically in Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza.

How did Israeli Arabs fall off everybody's radar screen?

I think the views of Palestinian Arabs toward Israeli Arabs are mixed. They look at them as partial Israelis, therefore there's less sympathy. There's much more sympathy for the Arabs of Gaza or the West Bank, where the income levels are so much less. People understand that Israel is a country with a national network of health care and social care; the Arabs of Israel have a very high standard of living when it comes to their social needs being met. When it comes to coexistence, I think most Palestinian Arabs aren't really sure that supporting coexistence in a Jewish democratic state involves anything other than doing something that's good for the Jews.

Have you faced any criticism in the Jewish world for focusing on coexistence?

We get maybe one letter a month. You get a person here or a person there who just doesn't understand. They think a Jewish organization that has anything to do with Arabs is being disloyal. The fact is, we're five million Jews surrounded by 100 million Arabs, so an ability to create a society within the State of Israel where Jewish and Arabs can comfortably coexist is absolutely an imperative.

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