Diversity & Inclusion on Israel’s College Campuses

Israel's Arab and Jewish populations are separated throughout the education system until they reach college or university as young adults, reinforcing the alarming divisions between the two communities and creating a fertile ground for the early development of negative stereotypes. Consequently, Israel's Higher Education sphere, as the main and often first arena for Arab-Jewish interactions, has an important opportunity to leverage the diversity of its student/teaching body, and become a model and platform for equal and shared society. This is of increased importance with the significant recent growth of Arab participation in Higher Education.

However, this multi-cultural reality is not yet translated into the Higher Education frameworks, in terms of their accessibility, inclusivity, inter-cultural awareness, and social cohesion. The generally accepted norm remains - Jewish and Arab students can attend the same college, yet remain separated and never engage in meaningful dialogue or experience a shared society. Furthermore, colleges have not developed holistic diversity and inclusion policies or offices, similar to those found at colleges in the United States and Europe.

Therefore, during 2016 and 2017 we support the development and execution of a pilot model of cultural competency training for staff in Higher Education and advocating for its adoption across the field together with our partner The Abraham Initiatives. So far, the cultural competency training was implemented successfully at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is continuing there this year as well as at the Tel Aviv University.

The cultural competency course rests on a specially commissioned syllabus, which is facilitated by Arab and Jewish co-facilitators. The course comprises of 5 sessions focusing on the following topics: Arab society in Israel; introduction of the concept of campus as a multicultural space; reality of Arab student life at Hebrew University; the complexity of Jewish-Arab relations on campus; developing a perception of a multicultural professional with the goal of improving communication and services provided to Arab students; developing skills tailored to the professional capacity of the participants. In addition, the participants meet with representatives of the Arab student population on campus and have a full tour day to Arab towns.