Intermountain Jewish News
March 21, 2008
"Israeli Arab's Faith in Peace"
Dr. Raed Mualem would like to propose the following name and concept: The United States of the Middle East.
It would be, the Israeli educator explains, a state in which Jews, Muslims, Christians and Jews live in secure peace with one another; in which ancient conflicts were resolved; in which the differences between Jews, Arabs and others were preserved but mutually respected.
Cynics, of course, might laugh at such a vision – pointing to the long, frustrating and futile search for peace in the Middle East. Or grow angry – pointing to the bloody carnage left in the wake of that seemingly quixotic quest.
And Mualem, in his dignified and gentle way, would be utterly undeterred.
He is as determined and steady a believer in peace as one is likely to find, and even though his interview last week with the Intermountain Jewish News took place two days before the latest atrocity in a Jerusalem yeshiva, it’s very unlikely that that act of terrorism – or perhaps any such act – would cause him to forsake his dream.
He believes that the pen is mightier than the sword, that words are superior to power, even in the Middle East. He believes that his profession – education – is the best hope for peace there is.
It was that conviction which brought Mualem to Denver last week. The 46-year-Mualem – who leads a campus of schools teaching mostly Israeli Arab children from preschool to college in Israel’s Galilee region – is working with Denver’s Shaul Gabbay, director of DU’s Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East (ISIME) to organize a gathering of Mideast scholars in Denver next year.
Still in its planning stages, the conference hopes to attract as many as 40 university presidents from Israel, the Palestinian territories and a wide assortment of Arab countries, including many with no diplomatic relations with Israel. The objective is for the educators to formulate and plant the seed for a “peace curriculum” – practical and realistic studies devoted to achieving peace – in colleges and universities throughout the Middle East.
Although several political luminaries have also been invited to the Denver conference, and some have already accepted, the central thrust of the gathering will be to access the expertise of educators, Mualem says.
While recognizing the need for educators to “work parallel with politicians,” Mualem is convinced that peace needs to work from the ground up. The idea of peace, and a belief in its feasibility, is best nurtured in the hearts and minds of the young, and best introduced by their teachers, he believes. Peace, in other words, is something that can be taught. “From the top of the desk,” Mualem says quietly but with an iron conviction, “we can build peace.”
The campus Mualem leads is called Mar-Elias, named in honor of the prophet Elijah, a biblical figure revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which says a great idea about Mualem’s educational objectives.
About 60% of its student body – including at the university level, which operates as an international branch of the University of Indianapolis – are Muslims. The remainder are Christians like Mualem, who is a Roman Catholic. Like him, all are Arab citizens of Israel. Nearly half of the faculty is Jewish.
Religion is taught, as part of the humanities program, to students in kindergarten and elementary levels. The Muslims learn about Christianity and vice-versa, he says, “because we are teaching common and shared values. We respect Judaism, Christianity and Islam, so our kids are taught about shared values and ethics.”
At the elementary level, local Jewish children come in once a week to share a classroom with the students at Elias. These classes, taught in Arabic and Hebrew, expose Jews to their Muslim and Christian counterparts. “The focus,” says Mualem, “is to accept the otherness of the other – how studying the otherness of the other can enrich their lives and to see diversity as enrichment rather than as a threat.” He is not naïve about the challenge such a school faces in a country with as much ethnic and religious tension, violence and traumatic history as Israel.
“It’s work,” Mualem says with a smile. But he is convinced that the effort is worth it, not just the diversity and ethics his school offers, but the core education itself, which he feels is no less important to the cause of peace. “When people have access to good education, they can get jobs, they will not be radical in their religion,” he says.
“Religion, in fact, can come to replace fear, replace uncertainty and the lack of opportunity. When we can offer that, people will select the right leadership. When there’s no hope, no equal opportunity for good education or good jobs, people go easily to the radical fanatics. Hamas uses this gap.”
Although Mualem empathizes with the plight of the Palestinian people, whom he calls “my brothers,” he is clear in stating his opposition to Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida and any other group which practices terrorism or can be called Islamist. He compares Islamist radicalism with the Christian intolerance that prevailed during the medieval Crusades and voices confidence that it, like the Crusades, will pass into history once its host religion matures.
Mualem’s personal background – both as a Christian and as an Arab – provided him with the foundation for his present day hopes and beliefs. His family, who lived in the Galilee village of Mi’ilya, refused to leave their land and property during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 – 13 years before Mualem himself was born.
Israeli forces did not compel the Arabs of Mi’ilya to leave, he says, except during one instance when fighting was nearby. The Israelis asked the villagers to leave for one day, when the fighting was the most intense, and then allowed them to return. Later, when Arab forces were operating in the area, one of the high-ranking officers advised the residents to stay. “He told the people that it’s better for them to live with the Israelis, so the majority of the citizens in this area made the same decision. My family stayed there.”
Mualem considers himself very fortunate with this decision. “We are lucky, in fact, because compared to the Arab countries we had the opportunity to go to university, to live in Western culture. And today Israel is considered one of the top high-tech countries in the world. The economic status is very high compared to our neighbors in the Arab countries.”
In Mualem’s world view, peace and democracy go hand in hand, hence his conviction that Israel should have a primary role as a regional role model. “I see Israel as so important for promoting democracy and economy in the Middle East,” he says. “In Israel we still have challenges, but the democratic structure of Israel allows Arabs to struggle for equal citizenship. “Many people in Israel are looking for a better future. It is the kind of state where you can really express yourself, even to disagree with your government. “That’s not happening in the Arab countries. If you disagree and start to criticize the government, you’ll be in trouble.”
It doesn’t take long to determine that Mualem not only considers himself pro-Israeli, but a patriotic Israeli citizen. It should be noted that he also calls Jews “my brothers.”
His own ethno-religious-national identity is fairly complex, he concedes, but he takes pride in every dimension of it. “Our identity is a combination,” he says. “On one side we were born to an Arab family, a Christian family, and we are Palestinians. So we are Arab Christian Palestinians. And we are Israelis. And we are proud to be Arabs, Palestinians, Christians who are Israeli.
“There is no contradiction between each identity. “Arabs have contributed a lot toward civilization in science and in math. “To be a Christian is good because it had a big impact on my life, the meaning of love and forgiveness. “And I’m so proud to be an Israeli because I got my education and my critical thinking and have the opportunity to work with my brothers the Jews in building a better future for the Middle East.
“So yes, in the beginning you think it’s so complicated. But for me, it’s a very rich background.”
His hopeful optimism notwithstanding, Mualem is no Pollyanna. He does not shy away from the enormity and complexity of the problems in Israel and the Middle East. He does not deny that it hurts him to hear, as he did recently, that dozens of Palestinians, including many civilians, were killed by Israeli troops engaged in fighting against terrorist forces.
“But it does not hurt just me,” Mualem says. “I know many brother Jews who are hurt by it. There are many brother Jews, as with brother Palestinians, who don’t agree with what’s going on down there. We prefer to talk rather than to use power. This is the big challenge.”
Nonetheless, he defends Israel’s basic right to defend itself.
“It is not easy times,” he says. “I am not concerned about the Hamas leadership. I am concerned about the innocent people who were misled by these extreme and radical Islamic fanatics.
“I think the Palestinians in Gaza are peaceful people. I think they just want to live like their Jewish brothers, but they have the wrong leadership.”
Mualem accepts not only the fact of Israel’s existence but the historical justice of a Jewish state, although he feels that Israel could show more understanding of some of its minority citizens.
“I would like to have a flag that would have the Star of David but also something for the Christians and the Muslims,” he says. “I think Palestinians inside Israel [Israeli Arabs] have not been given the opportunity to celebrate the fact that they are Palestinians.
“But for me the flag is just a symbol. The most important thing is the daily life, the daily practice.”
Mualem’s concept of that “daily practice” does not include an automatic assumption that Jews and Arabs must be enemies. “To be a Palestinian does not mean to be against Israel, and to be an Israeli does not mean to be against Palestinians,” he says. “I hope that one day there will be a Palestinian state, but we can celebrate the fact that there are Arab Israelis. To be a state with a Jewish majority does not mean that you don’t have equal citizenship between Jews and Arabs.
“You can do that exactly as you do it here in the States. You can be an African American, you can be an American Jew, you can be an American Arab, but working and living in one state. The same thing in Israel.” Mualem understands that other Israeli Arabs are angry about Israeli’s flag and anthem, even about its self-definition as a Jewish state, but he feels they’re missing the most important things – Israel’s freedom and democracy.
“We need to take this struggle and spread it to the other Arab countries so hopefully in the future we can build a United States of the Middle East,” he says. “So rather than focusing on symbols, it’s better to focus on the principles and the framework, where the state is equal for all people.”
Utterly undeterred by defeatism, even though others might call it realism, Mualem is “absolutely” confident that his vision will come to pass one day. “I am an optimist, and you know why? People are born in the image of G-d. Each child has a vision. He wants to have a family, he wants to have a successful life. Our problem is not the people – it’s the leadership.”
The power of the terrorists now calling the shots in much of the Islamic world will fade, he predicts. “One day the people will wake up and say, ‘No, our Islam is not Hamas, our Islam is based on love and forgiveness, like Christianity and Judaism.’ We just need to give these people a better opportunity and things will change for the better. That’s why I’m optimistic. And it’s not just my idea. Every Palestinian that I’ve met has the same idea.”
The model for his vision, Mualem says, is America. He asks Americans to consider the reality that an African American man, a woman, and a man over 70 years old are the three remaining candidates for the presidency. “But it did not happen in the United States in one day. So to create peace in the Middle East will not happen in one year. But the foundation of peaceful education, the foundation of the acceptance of the other -- this is what education can do, and this is why I’m here.”
Mualem hopes that the conference planned for next year in Denver can begin to push that momentum beyond his school and beyond Israel: “To create a basic curriculum where the Jewish brother, with the brother Palestinians, Muslims and Christians, can sit around the same table and write their own future.”
Peace will come, he says, “if we have the compassion, the commitment, the faith and the education. This is the right way.”
Chris Leppek, IJN Assistant Editor.