Ebrei e arabi: la sfida dell’integrazione in Israele

Giovedì 8 ottobre alle 18.00, il Prof. Sammy Smooha, professore emerito di Sociologia all’Università di Haifa, ci illustrerà in una video-conferenza le sue ricerche e ci aiuterà a comprendere problemi ed opportunità nei rapporti tra cittadini arabi ed ebrei dello stato di Israele.

Per meglio descrivere gli argomenti che verranno trattati, riportiamo qui di seguito l’abstract della presentazione scritto di pugno dallo stesso Prof. Smooha.

Still Playing by the Rules: Arab-Jewish Attitudes in Israel

Sammy Smooha, University of Haifa

1.9 million Palestinian-Arabs (21% of the total population of 9.2 million) live in 2020 in Israel within its pre-1967 borders. Arab citizens are part of Israeli society and the Palestinian people. What do they think of Jews, the state and their life as a minority? Are they willing to integrate in residence, education and government coalitions? Is their identity Israeli or Palestinian? Do they accept Israel’s right to exist as a state, as a Jewish and democratic state and as the homeland of the Jewish people? Do they support a solution of two states to two peoples to the Palestinian question and in what terms? And what are they ready to do in order to have the Jews and the state treat them with equality, respect and trust?

And what do the Jews think of Palestinian-Arab citizens? Are they ready to integrate them in their own neighborhoods, schools and coalition governments and do they agree to work under an Arab superior? Is their identity Jewish or Israeli? Do they accept Arabs’ right to live in Israel as a minority with full and equal civil rights? Do they support a two-state solution and in what terms? And what are they ready to do in order that Arabs would feel that Israel is their state and they are citizens with equal rights in it?

These questions will be discussed in Prof. Smooha’s talk, drawing on his research project “Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel”, in which an annual representative survey of the attitudes of Arab and Jewish publics toward each other and toward the state has been conducted since 2003. This study presents the updated views of Arabs and Jews and the trends of change of them over the years. Are Arabs’ and Jews’ views becoming more moderate or more radical over time and are the two sides drawing apart of or getting closer to each other?

Prof. Sammy Smooha is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Haifa and the Israel Prize laureate for sociology in 2008. He studies Israeli society and democracy in a comparative perspective, with a focus on Arab-Jewish relations. He is the founding and ongoing director of the Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel.