Throughout much of Israel these days, the idea of creating a genuine shared society between Arabs and Jews feels hard to imagine. At the recent Givat Haviva Conference for a Shared Society though, students, politicians, educators, and economists presented a vision of hope.
One of the strongest messages came from two high school students, one Jewish and one Arab, studying at the Younited boarding school, which serves both Jewish and Arab students. The two teenages spoke about their experience of coexistence at school in the wake of October 7.
Ori Hefetz is originally from Nirim, a kibbutz near the border of Gaza, and Hadi Nasr comes from Tur’an, an Arab village in the north of Israel.
“I was at my parents’ house on October 7th,” Hefetz said. “They woke me at six in the morning, and we went into the shelter room. We were trapped there for 36 hours, as terrorists ran around outside. I thought about calling Hadi to ask him to translate what they were saying, but I had left my phone in my room.”
Hefetz added that the next day she had already decided to return to the school, where both Jewish and Arabs youth study. “I’ve made strong connections at the school. I knew that if I didn’t return, I would be closed to different people and opinions,” she said.
“I sat in front of the screen that day,” Nasr said. “It was only a month after I had started at the school. I understood that I represented the Arab community, and I had to return to the school. In Tur’an as well, I try to explain that Jews are not the enemy.”
Nasr said that for the first few days, the Jewish and Arab students sat separately in the cafeteria. “And I’m between them,” he said. “Now everyone sits together”.
The conference was held in late January at the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv. Activists for a shared society gathered alongside politicians and public figures, and their speeches raised the challenges and hopes of Jewish-Arab coexistence in Israel in the shadow of the war and government policies. The conference touched on educational and social aspects of the partnership and its challenges, as well as on the political challenges.
MK Gilad Kariv (The Democrats) called for creating Jewish-Arab partnership in the Knesset. “It’s a huge mistake that there are no meetings of the opposition leaders which include parties that represent the Arab public,” he said, adding that the next government “will be based on a coalition with Arab parties.”
MK and Head of the Arab party Hadash-Ta'al Ayman Odeh echoed Kariv’s sentiments. “There is no true, ethical opposition in the state of Israel,” he said. “We need to be in this struggle together, but the opposition leadership needs to be severely criticized so that it can present a political alternative to the government. Peace should be the foundation of the coexistence camp—there is no democracy without peace.”
It wasn’t just opposition members who participated in the event and emphasized the importance of partnership between Jews and Arabs. Minister of Interior Moshe Arbel from the religious Jewish Shas party praised the importance of living together. “The shared conversation and mutual commitment are evidence that we have the strength to reach out to each other, despite the challenges that threaten us,” he said.
“Unequal decisions and the denial of citizenship to Israeli Arabs shatter the fabric of shared life in the country, harm their dignity and their constitutional and Jewish right to equality as citizens, and play into the hands of our enemy,” Arbel said. “In Arab society, there is an expanding attitude of condemning violence and seeking partnership, and the Jewish majority has the obligation to extend a hand in return.”
He also criticized discrimination against Arab-Israeli workers since the war, and called for more humane treatment of Palestinian workers from the West Bank.
“As our sages say, a person is created in the image of God,” he noted. “It is the duty of all authorities to treat every citizen with respect and equality, Jews and Arabs, Christians, Druze, and Circassians, all alike. … We must allow people life, livelihood, and hope, preferably yesterday.”
Yizhar Shai, the former science and technology minister and bereaved father of Yaron Shai who fell in battle on October 7, 2023, proposed in his remarks the principles of Israel’s Declaration of Independence as a basis for renewed consensus and building a shared life in the country. He demanded that the Arab public embrace national civilian service as an equivalent to military service.
“Educators must hold on to hope,” said Liat Atzili, an educator from Nir Oz who was released from Hamas captivity after 54 days during the first hostage deal. “The decided segregation in the education system is a disaster. A shared society cannot form from segregation.”
Jewish-Arab coexistence is not just threatened by the war, but also by rising violence and crime in the Arab community. Dozens of Arab Israelis have lost their lives since the beginning of 2025 in circumstances related to crime and violence.
Ola Najmi Yusef, director of the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace in Givat Haviva, described how violence has manifested itself in her life.
“A year ago we celebrated my brother’s birthday. Suddenly, we heard shooting in our neighborhood, and the phones started ringing, ‘there’s a shooting in I'billin,’” she said. “Normally, you’re startled and then you move on. I opened a message and saw a picture of my brother Bilaal bleeding. He went out to buy pastries ten minutes prior. He made it through, but the trauma is still with him.”
Najmi Yusef demanded of the conference participants to participate in shared Jewish-Arab spaces. “It’s in your hands,” she said.
The head of the Authority for Economic Development in Arab Society, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Social Equality, Hassan Tawafra, focused not only on crime, but also on the daily life of the Arab citizen. “There is no way to build a partnership without closing gaps,” he said. “The ability to create equal opportunities relates to everyone's quality of life.”
In a discussion about government policy, Marian Tehawkho, head of the Center for Arab Community Economic Policy at the Aharon Institute pointed out the connection between government investment and improving the quality of life, and noted that in recent years civil society and philanthropic organizations have filled the vacuum created by the government. She stated that “an economy cannot grow without living together.”
Umm al-Fahm Mayor Samir Mahamed said that it is the Jewish public which will determine the future of relations between the groups. “The Arab community expresses a willingness to integrate. The Jewish community must decide where it is heading, towards coexistence or isolation,” Mahamed said. “There is an opportunity here to restore relations and create a new framework for partnership."
This article was translated from Hebrew by Tzivia Gross.
