Education, Empowerment, and Control: The Case of the Arabs in Israel

Higher Education

8 Higher Education Education in general and higher education in particular occupy a very important place among the Arabs in Israel. If one takes into consideration the low educational starting point of the Arab citizens of Israel and the absence among them of intellectual and political elites, then it is little wonder that Arab university graduates are perceived as the cornerstone of the social and political reconstruction of the Arab community of this country. As in other developing societies, the educated among Israeli Arabs are considered agents of social change, fulfilling an important mission in directing the collective and leading the struggle for status improvement (AI-Haj 1988b). The motivation for education among the Palestinians as a whole has been enhanced by the loss of land. In this sense, education has replaced land as a source of dignity and a reliable way to secure a livelihood and achieve socioeconomic mobility (Tahir 1985, 36). The experience gained by Arab students through their academic studies is unique. University is almost the only place in Israeli society where Arabs and Jews can meet on an equal basis. In most other cases, contact between the two peoples is asymmetric, with Arabs invariably placed in an inferior position. Arab and Jewish students learn separately in segregated systems throughout the elementary and secondary levels. They meet in mixed educational institutions only in the university. For Arab students, this meeting is doubly important. The university, a predominantly Jewish institution , largely provides Arab students with freedom ofexpression and a generally democratic atmosphere. In other institutions of higher 191 192 EDUCATION, EMPOWERMENT, AND CONTROL learning, such as teachers' seminaries, thils air of democracy does not exist (Mari 1978, 130). Therefore, the most intensive phase of political sodalization for Arab youth in Isrctel takes place in the university (ibid.). Within the Arab community, there is a strong perception that university education is a signifimnt factor in the struggle for dtizenship and national issues (Nakhleh 1979, 108). The sodal experience during their academic studies is no less important for Arabs. All Israeli universities are located at some distance from most Arab localities, which means that a large number of Arab students must reside far from their parents' homes and near the university during the course of their academic studies. Away from the sodal control of the Arab community, they have a unique opportunity to live more freely. This experience is espedally important for Arab women, who are subject to a relatively strong social control. From the perspective of Jewish-Arab relations, it is thought that Arab university graduates can form a bridge between Arabs and Jews in Israel. Higher academic educution provides an important resource by which Arabs are expected to increase their mobility opportunities and integration into the sodety, not only economically , but sodally and culturally as well (Benjamin and Peleg 1977, 139). Several questions may be raised: What are the main quantitative and qualitative changes that have taken place in higher education among the Arabs in Israel over time? Are there major differences among groups within the Amb community? What is the employment situation among Arab university graduates? To what extent has higher education contributed to the empowerment of the Arab minority? This chapter will attempt to answer these questions. The first part will deal with the major developments that have occurred among the Arab population in the field of higher education. A comparison will be made at two levels: between Arabs and Jews, on the one hand, and among the different groups constituting the Arab population, mainly Muslims and Christians, on the other. The second part will discuss the employment situation over time and analyze the returns of higher education . Major Developments The development of higher education among the Arab population in Israel has been affected by three main factors: the Arab educa- Higher Education 193 tion system as a whole, educational opportunities offered by the state, and returns to education. In 1956-57, only 45 Arab students were gaining higher education in Israel, all of them at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, only one of them a woman. Twenty-eight of these students were Muslims, 12 were Christians, and 5 were Druzes (State Archives 145/1292/GL). Since then, the number of Arab university students increased gradually, reaching a peak in the mid-1980s. Arab students could now also be found in each of the country's universities. Thereafter, stagnation set in, and even some...