Can Education Contribute to Coexistence and Reconciliation? Religious and National Ceremonies in Bilingual Palestinian-Jewish Schools in Israel

In: Peace and conflict: journal of peace psychology ; the journal of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence, Peace Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, Band 8, Heft 3, S. 259-276

Abstract

This article considers the potential of educational efforts, specifically, school commemorative ceremonies, to help overcome long-standing interethnic conflict. We examine ethnographic data from commemorative ceremonies in two newly created bilingual Jewish-Palestinian schools in Israel. We focus in particular on the role of two different ritual ceremonial events that articulate both the struggle & attempts at reconciliation between Jewish & Palestinian Israelis. The first is the Hanukkah-Idel Fiter-Christmas ceremony, which addresses mostly cultural religious issues, & the second is the events that correspond in the Jewish Israeli calendar to Memorial Day, which is strongly connected to national issues. The analysis shows how both the macrosociopolitical context & the microaspects in the development of working relations within the two communities in conflict, seriously influence the potential of school ceremonies to serve coexistence & reconciliation efforts. 47 References. Adapted from the source document.