Triple jeopardy: special education for Palestinians in Israel

Research comparing special education for Jews and for Palestinian Arabs in Israel outlines major inequalities. This situation has remained largely unchanged for decades and there is little evidential reason to believe there will be improvement in the near future. Palestinian children requiring special education are adversely affected by a combination of institutionalised discrimination and neglect and the implications of living in a traditional society that is reluctant to adopt outlooks necessary for modernising education, particularly for children with special needs. To the best of our knowledge, no overview of special education for the Palestinian minority in Israel has been published in English to date. While change is most likely to occur as a result of effective activism within the Palestinian Arab community, high rates of poverty and political marginalisation remain a daunting obstacle.     

Preparing Minority Adolescents to Blend Work and Family Roles: Increasing Work-Family Conflict Management Self Efficacy

Ethnic identity, information about the world of work, and mastery in specific career skills crucially impact the process of career development among minority adolescents. Identity and conflict management skills also affect one of the major stressors experienced by employees today: the work-family conflict. This paper presents a culturally appropriate career intervention program for increasing Israeli Arab adolescents’ self-efficacy to manage work and family roles, and feedback from 15 participants in a preliminary pilot intervention. The program comprised three units: identity exploration, information, and skill transfer. The intervention was grounded in the career development literature on minorities, on work-family conflict research, and on social cognitive career theory. The proposed strategy also included process variables comprising critical career intervention components. The program is seen as having potential for being implemented in other cultural contexts.     

Entertainment and Stereotype: Representation of the Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel in Reality Shows on Israeli Television

The present study aims to gain an understanding of the patterns of representation and appearances of Palestinian citizens of Israel in the genre of reality shows in Israel. This genre has become extremely dominant in the television-broadcasting schedule. The mere fact that Arab people are visually present in TV entertainment, and in reality shows more specifically, should not lead us to conclude that Israeli TV is witnessing a move toward pluralism. It is important to examine the precise mode of representation of the “others.” That is to say: we must look at the visibility of Arab participants in those reality shows in which they appear (research question 1); how Arabs are represented in such programs (research question 2), and at the types of interaction between Arabs and other, Jewish-majority, participants in the program (research question 3). Content analyses were conducted for all reality shows broadcast on Israel's commercial TV channels between 2003 and 2007 that included Arab participants. Results show the reality show genre is still firmly ruled by a Jewish hegemony that represents the Palestinian Arab as the “other” and that the overwhelming majority of spectators are Jewish.     

Quantity,Type, and Correlates of Physical Activity Among American Middle Eastern University Students

The prevalence of hypokinetic disease among persons of Middle Eastern heritage is higher than whites and research on American young adults of this population is limited. Therefore 214 tertiary students of Middle Eastern descent self-reported their physical activity (PA) over a 1-week monitoring period using pedometers and daily activity logs. Daily step count averaged 9,256 (SD = 3,084) steps, while daily energy expenditure averaged 6.26 kcal/kg (SD = 4.92). Most participants reported no weekly engagement in sport (69.2%) and walk/run (52.8%) activities, and at least once-weekly engagement in conditioning (68.7%) activities. Moderately religious and highly acculturated men, and Muslims, and moderately/highly acculturated persons were more likely to average ≥ = 10,000 steps/day and engage in at least one sport activity per week, respectively. These findings may be related to religious and cultural issues unique to Middle Eastern American college students whose collectivist social affiliations with family and community members may facilitate or inhibit various aspects of PA behavior.     

Education for national identity: Arab schools principals and teachers dilemmas and coping strategies

Abstract

This article discusses strategies used by Arab principals and teachers in Israel to cope with dilemmas involved in education for national identity stemming from conflict between two national narratives. While the Israeli Ministry of Education expects the Arab education system to educate students according to the Jewish State’s values, Palestinian Arab society expects its schools to educate its children according to Palestinian Arab national-cultural values. A qualitative research employed a semi-structured interview to elicit views on this issue from 7 principals and 14 teachers in the Arab education system in Israel. The findings indicate a conflictual reality. Interviewees expressed fear, humiliation and affront when required to obey Ministry of Education instructions in contradiction to attitudes prevalent in their society. They therefore developed coping strategies to foster students’ national identity without disrupting the necessary balance; primarily the construction of a covert learning program through manipulations in the official overt learning program. This study contributes to our understanding of minority education in a reality of conflict between the state and its national minority.     

Modes of victim blaming in a case of stabbing: Victim and offender ethnicity and observer ethnicity and religious affiliation

This study examined the effects of ethnicity on victim-blaming in a case of stabbing by addressing victim and offender ethnicity as well as observer ethnicity and religion. Jewish (n = 285), Muslim Arab (n = 249), and Christian Arab (n = 51) students from Israeli universities and colleges read a single stabbing scenario, in which we manipulated victim (Arab/Jewish) and offender ethnicity (African/Arab/Jewish). The results showed that participants blamed a Jewish victim more than an Arab victim. Also, our findings indicated that Christian Arabs expressed significantly higher victim-blaming than Jews. However, victim-blaming among Christian Arabs did not significantly differ from victim-blaming among Muslim Arabs, and victim-blaming among Muslim Arabs did not significantly differ from victim-blaming among Jews. Furthermore, the interactions between observer and victim ethnicity and between observer and offender ethnicity were significant. The discussion addresses the findings in the context of prejudice against members of African and Arab communities, the black sheep effect, and defensive attribution. In addition, the discussion suggests that observer ethnic and religious background may be related to blame-attribution mode: fixed (not affected by victim and offender ethnicity) or modular (affected by victim and offender ethnicity). From the practical standpoint, our findings suggest a need for further education on prejudice against minorities and promoting ethnic diversity among practitioners assisting and treating victims.     

Louis IX in Medieval Arabic Sources: The Saint,the King,and the Sicilian Connection

This article examines the portrayal of Louis IX in medieval Arabic historiography to show the importance of cross-cultural Mediterranean interaction. It argues that the image of Louis was influenced by information originating from the Sicilian Hohenstaufen court and reports that Frederick II sent to Egypt. Arab historians connected to the courts of Frederick and Manfred disseminated a “Sicilian narrative” that shaped Louis's portrayal in Arabic historiography. This argument on the importance of cross-cultural transfer in understanding Arabic historiography is buttressed by reports about the King, the Pope, and the Emperor that are traced back to the entourage of prominent Muslims closely linked to Sicily. Moreover, it is argued that Arab authors were aware of Louis's proto-sanctity and pious reputation. This led to the infusion of medieval Arabic historiography with Western ideas about sacrosanctity. Finally, this research assesses how the portrayal of King Louis during his captivity was used in internal Muslim rivalries.     

Profiles of Multi-cultural Identity Integration in a Conflictual Context

This study addressed the phenomenon of multiple social identities in a conflictual context. It examined the case of Palestinian-Christians living in Israel, a nation imbued with ethno-religious conflict, a complex combination of three distinct collective identities: national (Palestinian-Arab), ethno-religious (Christian), and civic (Israeli). The current study proposed a conceptual and methodological expansion of the “Bicultural Identity Integration” (BII) model (Benet-Martinez & Haritatos, 2005) as a way to assess different levels of integration between three types of identities (national, ethno-religious, and civic) in a sample of 383 Palestinian Christians with Israeli citizenship. Results revealed that the three integrations of BII (Arab-Christian, Arab-Israeli, Christian-Israeli) are positively predicted by favorable intergroup contact with Jews and Muslims and negatively by discrimination by these groups. Further, Latent Profile Analyses revealed four distinct identity profiles: two (“Pro-Arab” and “Pro-Israel”) were highly conflictual and characterized by both discrimination and negative intergroup contact, and two (“Ambivalent” and “Peaceful”) were characterized by less conflict across pairs of identities. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical contribution to the study of multiple social and collective identities in contexts of conflict, and their practical implications for the groups under study.     

Unravelling Facebook: a pedagogical tool during the Syrian crisis

This paper aims to analyse the role of Facebook in academia during the Syrian crisis. Data were collected by means of an online survey from 726 students at Damascus University (Males = 446, Females = 280). Results indicated that Facebook facilitated communication and resource sharing in times of war and crisis where safe commuting posed a challenge for students. It served as an alternate trustworthy medium within the failure of the official web sites at Damascus University. The study suggests that Facebook is an effective pedagogical tool for countries going through crisis and war situations, and a promising educational tool that warrants further attention in underdeveloped and Arab countries in general.     

从《魏兹曼-费萨尔协定》看大英帝国所主导的犹、阿“合作”

英国、法国、阿拉伯民族主义者和锡安主义者是第一次世界大战时期的盟友．但同时又是争夺阿拉伯世界的竞争对手。在英国的主导下。阿拉伯民族主义者与锡安主义者签订《魏兹曼一费萨尔协定》,幻想通过在巴勒斯坦的妥协让步换取锡安主义者和英国的支持。反对法国对叙利亚和黎巴嫩的野心。英国利用《魏兹曼一费萨尔协定》取得政治上的话语优势的同时,又转而与法国妥协．在争夺巴勒斯坦、叙利亚、黎巴嫩和伊拉克的斗争中相互利用和施展阴谋．最终使阿拉伯人实现民族独立和与锡安主义者“合作”的梦想化为泡影。《魏兹曼一费萨尔协定》是阿、犹谋求合作的一个重要文件。它对我们理解英、犹、阿三方相互冲突与依赖的复杂关系具有重要意义。