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The Hand in Hand Jerusalem Bilingual School is a small place, a quiet enclave that seems far away from the realities of the stormy Israeli-Palestinian conflict taking dozens of lives just a few kilometers away. Located in the low to mid-income Gonen section of southern Jerusalem, not far from the Israeli Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa, this Arab-Jewish elementary school is one of just two of its kind in the country. (A second school is located in the Galilee region between the Arab town of Sakhnin and Jewish Misgav).

Just under 89 Arab and Jewish Israeli children attend the Jerusalem school, set up in 1999 and run by the Hand in Hand non-profit organization which was established two years earlier by Lee Gordon and Amin Khalaf, Israelis of Jewish and Arab origin, respectively. Visitors to the state-recognized school face a difficult, if not impossible, task at attempting to distinguish between the mostly bilingual Jewish and Arab children who switch with relative ease from one language to another.

The school's entrance, though which pass a constant rushing stream of giggling kids, is graced with a mural handpainted with Hebrew and Arabic slogans: "We children want Jews and Arabs to live in peace." The white sheet is decorated with colorful doves, suns and grinning stick figures holding hands. At the Hand in Hand school, Ahmed is friends with Avraham; it is entirely normal to head to a friend's house in Arab Beit Safafa or Jewish Ir Ganim for a sleepover party. There is nothing pioneering here as far as the kids are concerned ; they just want to have a good time.

"The children are the next generation to be the teachers, to be the parents, to be the ones that influence" said Paul Leventhal, associate director for resource development at The Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel. "We want our children to push this idea. The whole basis of this school is to provide a society that is coexistent, tolerant and literate. And the only way to do this is through the children."

The contrast between the realities inside and outside the school's front gate is striking and the escalating violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has indeed had an effect on this idyllic island of tranquility.

School principal Dalia Peretz-Amzalag said the intifada has, perhaps ironically, strengthened the school at a time when most joint Arab-Jewish endeavors have collapsed. "The situation is very unclear," she said "There is now fighting and there is no sort of horizon to look towards. But

the situation has not effected day-to-day interactions between the staff or the children. You can even say that the intifada has had a positive effect because people here know how important their work is"

"We are not disconnected from the reality in which we live," he said. "During the last month [of escalated violence], everyone tend to stick within their own camp. It is very difficult for Jews and Arabs to live together now. I see the school as a pretty flower that is attempting to survive in a

desert of war and hate. Our advantage is that we are able to hear the "other". Parents now have friends on the other side and they can see the situation from a different perspective."

Each class of roughly 20 students (compared to an average of 28 in regular Israeli Jewish schools) is led by two teachers ; an Arab and a Jew who instruct together in their own mother tongues.

(Hand in Hand now includes classes from kindergarten through grade three. Every year, the school adds an additional older class and plans to continue on this track until the oldest class reaches grade 12). Students at the school celebrate and learn about Jewish, Muslim and Christian holidays and observe Israeli and Arab national days in varying ways. The school has been receiving a lot of attention both within Israel and overseas.

The Jerusalem Foundation in Israel and Germany is presently in the process of arranging a new independent site for the Jerusalem Jewish-Arab school with the active cooperation of the Jerusalem Municipality. "Were it not for [Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert] we wouldn't

be sitting here," Leventhal said. "He's actually stifled opposition in the municipality by two vice-mayors from the [ultra-Orthodox] Shas Party who wanted to close the school."

Educationally, the program is grabbing top honors and has been honored for excellence in teaching by the Histadrut teachers' union and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The program is entirely new in Israel. There has never before been an attempt to create a bilingual, multicultural

"In the Arab sector, there are not many other educational options," said Georg Roessler, a father with two children at the school. "If they want to enjoy the benefits of the Israeli Jewish educational system, they can do so here without losing their Israeli-Palestinian identity."

"As someone who grew up in this country, it is very difficult for me to see the great disparities between the two neighboring populations here ; the Jews and the Arabs," said Jerusalem native and parent Danny Bar Giora. "I would very much want to live in a cooperative world different than ours, and I was very happy to find such a world in this school, a sort of model that tests the option of creating another reality."

Arab and Jewish parents have different priorities when sending their children to study at the Hand in Hand school, Leventhal said. Jewish parents select the facility primarily out of ideological

reasons and only then due to the high standard of education. Arab parents, in contrast, place emphasis on the top-level education and only then on ideological reasons. Not surprisingly in a country where everything is political, the school has run into its fair share of roadblocks and

A five percent dropout rate in the first year was the result of a crisis over observing Israeli and Palestinian national days. Jewish and Arab children were separated is what Leventhal described as a very haphazard manner. "It confused the kids, it confused the parents, and it was basically a failure," he admitted. No permanent solutions have been determined and the parents committee continues to discuss the issue.

As a pioneering project moving into waters previously uncharted in Israel, teachers and parents at the school make things up as they go along. Basic components such as elementary curriculum " which is not standardized throughout the country " are constantly evolving at the Hand in Hand school.

"How do we teach history?" Leventhal asked. "What history do we study? Which narrative? What is right and what is wrong? How can it be that both the Jewish and Arab historical narrative are correct? We deal with things here in this school that no one else deals with."

The school has Israeli flags on its premises and some Arab parents have noted at committee meetings that they feel unrepresented by the Jewish national symbol. However, as an institution supervised by the Israeli Ministry of Education, Palestinian flags are forbidden within the school.

With the dramatically increasing violence of the intifada, the situation has come to a head. Israel's Independence Day and Memorial Day have come and gone and the nation's streets remain aflutter with national flags.

"People are now much more concerned with the importance of national symbols, especially the Jews at this time," Khalaf said. "It has become much harder to understand the "other"

"These are problems that we have to deal with, "Leventhal agreed. "You can't put a Palestinian flag in an Israeli school ; [officially] there's no such thing as binationalism in Israel " I'm here because I'm a Zionist and, according to the Declaration of Independence, there is to be equality for all

There are other burning issues that haven't yet been confronted. "More questions are going to arise in a few years. Is my Jewish daughter going to go out with an Arab guy?" surmised Leventhal. Critics have argued that joint educational endeavors will end up producing children who are essentially stuck between cultures ; neither Arab nor Jewish.

"One of people's greatest fears is the blurring of cultural identity," Bar Giora admitted. "A little Jewish, a little Christian, a little Muslim ? People are very afraid nothing will come out of this mishmash. But we, our entire family in fact, are actually much more Jewish as a result of this experience. There is something here that really sharpens one's own identity. It is very important that you have a clear identity of your own when you meet with someone from another background."

"My son asked me: "Are there a lot of Arabs??" Roessler said. "We looked at a map and saw that here, here, here, and here are other Arab nations. He suddenly realized that this is really a rich world. And it became clear how small we are and what a big world we live in."

This revolutionary school has also effected parents in dramatic ways, many of whom are also now studying in Arabic classes. "Our social world as parents has broadened as a result of this school," Bar Giora said. "This is the first time that we as adults ; and I've lived 38 years - have had very close connections with Arab citizens of the state. This is the ways things should be."

"But it was nevertheless very difficult, very complicated when my son went to sleep in [Arab] Beit Safafa," said Bar Giora, who described himself as a product of Israel's extreme anti-pluralistic educational system. "For me, it was an existential crisis. But for him, he just went to stay at a friend's house. What we are doing here is very difficult. It goes against the mainstream of Israeli life. There are situations in our classrooms where one boy has family under curfew in Bethlehem and his friend's father is drafted to the reserve forces to fight there."

Unlike many multiracial North American schools where white, black, Hispanic and Asian students often stick within their own social groups, there appeared to be thorough mixing between Jewish and Arab children at Hand in Hand. "Reality is crazier than any imagined scenario you can come

up with," Bar Giora said. Indeed, just outside the bustling schoolyard on a recent spring day, Jerusalemites waiting for a public bus were discussing the emergency draft of Israeli reserve soldiers and the latest suicide bombing while warplanes roared through the sky overhead.

"The current situation has pulled the rug out from beneath our feet," Khalaf said. "But it is forbidden for the violence to destroy what we have built over the past years. Our way of

preserving this endeavor is through dialogue, by continuing to speak and to understand the other side." According to Khalaf, the school's kids are "smarter" than their parents and their ability to deal with the conflict is much greater. "For my son in grade three," he said, "it is very clear:

We are all human, we need a solution and we need peace. War is a bad thing ? The children are a smart nation. They have much to teach us."



	Arab-Jewish School By Mati Milstein, April 22 2002 NIW ? Dutch Jewish Weekly JERUSALEM ? There is a place in southern Jerusalem where you can't tell the Jews apart from the Arabs. The Hand in Hand Jerusalem Bilingual School is a small place, a quiet enclave that seems far away from the realities of the stormy Israeli-Palestinian conflict taking dozens of lives just a few kilometers away. Located in the low to mid-income Gonen section of southern Jerusalem, not far from the Israeli Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa, this Arab-Jewish elementary school is one of just two of its kind in the country. (A second school is located in the Galilee region between the Arab town of Sakhnin and Jewish Misgav). Just under 89 Arab and Jewish Israeli children attend the Jerusalem school, set up in 1999 and run by the Hand in Hand non-profit organization which was established two years earlier by Lee Gordon and Amin Khalaf, Israelis of Jewish and Arab origin, respectively. Visitors to the state-recognized school face a difficult, if not impossible, task at attempting to distinguish between the mostly bilingual Jewish and Arab children who switch with relative ease from one language to another. The school's entrance, though which pass a constant rushing stream of giggling kids, is graced with a mural handpainted with Hebrew and Arabic slogans: "We children want Jews and Arabs to live in peace." The white sheet is decorated with colorful doves, suns and grinning stick figures holding hands. At the Hand in Hand school, Ahmed is friends with Avraham; it is entirely normal to head to a friend's house in Arab Beit Safafa or Jewish Ir Ganim for a sleepover party. There is nothing pioneering here as far as the kids are concerned ; they just want to have a good time. "The children are the next generation to be the teachers, to be the parents, to be the ones that influence" said Paul Leventhal, associate director for resource development at The Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel. "We want our children to push this idea. The whole basis of this school is to provide a society that is coexistent, tolerant and literate. And the only way to do this is through the children." The contrast between the realities inside and outside the school's front gate is striking and the escalating violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has indeed had an effect on this idyllic island of tranquility. School principal Dalia Peretz-Amzalag said the intifada has, perhaps ironically, strengthened the school at a time when most joint Arab-Jewish endeavors have collapsed. "The situation is very unclear," she said "There is now fighting and there is no sort of horizon to look towards. But the situation has not effected day-to-day interactions between the staff or the children. You can even say that the intifada has had a positive effect because people here know how important their work is" Hand in Hand's Israeli Arab cofounder Khalaf spoke more realistically. "We are not disconnected from the reality in which we live," he said. "During the last month [of escalated violence], everyone tend to stick within their own camp. It is very difficult for Jews and Arabs to live together now. I see the school as a pretty flower that is attempting to survive in a desert of war and hate. Our advantage is that we are able to hear the "other". Parents now have friends on the other side and they can see the situation from a different perspective." Each class of roughly 20 students (compared to an average of 28 in regular Israeli Jewish schools) is led by two teachers ; an Arab and a Jew who instruct together in their own mother tongues. (Hand in Hand now includes classes from kindergarten through grade three. Every year, the school adds an additional older class and plans to continue on this track until the oldest class reaches grade 12). Students at the school celebrate and learn about Jewish, Muslim and Christian holidays and observe Israeli and Arab national days in varying ways. The school has been receiving a lot of attention both within Israel and overseas. The Jerusalem Foundation in Israel and Germany is presently in the process of arranging a new independent site for the Jerusalem Jewish-Arab school with the active cooperation of the Jerusalem Municipality. "Were it not for [Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert] we wouldn't be sitting here," Leventhal said. "He's actually stifled opposition in the municipality by two vice-mayors from the [ultra-Orthodox] Shas Party who wanted to close the school." Educationally, the program is grabbing top honors and has been honored for excellence in teaching by the Histadrut teachers' union and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The program is entirely new in Israel. There has never before been an attempt to create a bilingual, multicultural educational system from the ground up. "In the Arab sector, there are not many other educational options," said Georg Roessler, a father with two children at the school. "If they want to enjoy the benefits of the Israeli Jewish educational system, they can do so here without losing their Israeli-Palestinian identity." "As someone who grew up in this country, it is very difficult for me to see the great disparities between the two neighboring populations here ; the Jews and the Arabs," said Jerusalem native and parent Danny Bar Giora. "I would very much want to live in a cooperative world different than ours, and I was very happy to find such a world in this school, a sort of model that tests the option of creating another reality." Arab and Jewish parents have different priorities when sending their children to study at the Hand in Hand school, Leventhal said. Jewish parents select the facility primarily out of ideological reasons and only then due to the high standard of education. Arab parents, in contrast, place emphasis on the top-level education and only then on ideological reasons. Not surprisingly in a country where everything is political, the school has run into its fair share of roadblocks and complications. A five percent dropout rate in the first year was the result of a crisis over observing Israeli and Palestinian national days. Jewish and Arab children were separated is what Leventhal described as a very haphazard manner. "It confused the kids, it confused the parents, and it was basically a failure," he admitted. No permanent solutions have been determined and the parents committee continues to discuss the issue. As a pioneering project moving into waters previously uncharted in Israel, teachers and parents at the school make things up as they go along. Basic components such as elementary curriculum " which is not standardized throughout the country " are constantly evolving at the Hand in Hand school. "How do we teach history?" Leventhal asked. "What history do we study? Which narrative? What is right and what is wrong? How can it be that both the Jewish and Arab historical narrative are correct? We deal with things here in this school that no one else deals with." The school has Israeli flags on its premises and some Arab parents have noted at committee meetings that they feel unrepresented by the Jewish national symbol. However, as an institution supervised by the Israeli Ministry of Education, Palestinian flags are forbidden within the school. With the dramatically increasing violence of the intifada, the situation has come to a head. Israel's Independence Day and Memorial Day have come and gone and the nation's streets remain aflutter with national flags. "People are now much more concerned with the importance of national symbols, especially the Jews at this time," Khalaf said. "It has become much harder to understand the "other" side." "These are problems that we have to deal with, "Leventhal agreed. "You can't put a Palestinian flag in an Israeli school ; [officially] there's no such thing as binationalism in Israel " I'm here because I'm a Zionist and, according to the Declaration of Independence, there is to be equality for all Israel's citizens. This hasn't happened. We are here because we want to give equality to all citizens." There are other burning issues that haven't yet been confronted. "More questions are going to arise in a few years. Is my Jewish daughter going to go out with an Arab guy?" surmised Leventhal. Critics have argued that joint educational endeavors will end up producing children who are essentially stuck between cultures ; neither Arab nor Jewish. "One of people's greatest fears is the blurring of cultural identity," Bar Giora admitted. "A little Jewish, a little Christian, a little Muslim ? People are very afraid nothing will come out of this mishmash. But we, our entire family in fact, are actually much more Jewish as a result of this experience. There is something here that really sharpens one's own identity. It is very important that you have a clear identity of your own when you meet with someone from another background." For Israeli Jewish children, studying at the Hand in Hand school can have an eye-opening effect. "My son asked me: "Are there a lot of Arabs??" Roessler said. "We looked at a map and saw that here, here, here, and here are other Arab nations. He suddenly realized that this is really a rich world. And it became clear how small we are and what a big world we live in." This revolutionary school has also effected parents in dramatic ways, many of whom are also now studying in Arabic classes. "Our social world as parents has broadened as a result of this school," Bar Giora said. "This is the first time that we as adults ; and I've lived 38 years - have had very close connections with Arab citizens of the state. This is the ways things should be." "But it was nevertheless very difficult, very complicated when my son went to sleep in [Arab] Beit Safafa," said Bar Giora, who described himself as a product of Israel's extreme anti-pluralistic educational system. "For me, it was an existential crisis. But for him, he just went to stay at a friend's house. What we are doing here is very difficult. It goes against the mainstream of Israeli life. There are situations in our classrooms where one boy has family under curfew in Bethlehem and his friend's father is drafted to the reserve forces to fight there." Unlike many multiracial North American schools where white, black, Hispanic and Asian students often stick within their own social groups, there appeared to be thorough mixing between Jewish and Arab children at Hand in Hand. "Reality is crazier than any imagined scenario you can come up with," Bar Giora said. Indeed, just outside the bustling schoolyard on a recent spring day, Jerusalemites waiting for a public bus were discussing the emergency draft of Israeli reserve soldiers and the latest suicide bombing while warplanes roared through the sky overhead. "The current situation has pulled the rug out from beneath our feet," Khalaf said. "But it is forbidden for the violence to destroy what we have built over the past years. Our way of preserving this endeavor is through dialogue, by continuing to speak and to understand the other side." According to Khalaf, the school's kids are "smarter" than their parents and their ability to deal with the conflict is much greater. "For my son in grade three," he said, "it is very clear: We are all human, we need a solution and we need peace. War is a bad thing ? The children are a smart nation. They have much to teach us."

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