**4. Arabic and Arab culture in Israeli universities**

#### **4.1 The adjustment problems of Arab students**

The encounter between Arab and Jewish students in Israel's colleges and universities can be at times emotionally charged because of the cultural and national differences between the country's Arab and Jewish populations. For Arab students, the first year of college or university studies can be especially traumatic because these students are dramatically brought face-to-face with the sociocultural differences between these two populations. The vast majority of Arab college and university students in one research study noted that they had to invest much more time and energy than their Jewish counterparts in order to achieve progress in their studies. In comparison with the Jewish students, over 50 percent of these Arab students found it much more difficult to meet the demands of their academic courses, and on the whole, Arab students had more adjustment problems. Because of these difficulties, many Arab students in their first year change their study majors or abandon their studies altogether. Another problem is connected with language: Arab students find it difficult to read academic material in languages with which they are not so familiar, namely, Hebrew and English. The principal obstacles hindering the social and academic integration of Arab students are the teaching methods, which demand independent study, and academia's open, liberal atmosphere [14].

The educational gap between Arab and Jewish students stems from the gap between the country's Arab and Jewish education systems at the elementary, junior high, and secondary school levels. Furthermore, the fact that all of Israel's universities are Jewish hinders the sociocultural integration of Arab students in the country's institutions of higher learning.

The degree of knowledge of Hebrew has a major impact on scholastic achievement, particularly in the Arab student's first year on campus. What can be done about this issue? One very effective solution would be to give Arabic a strong presence as a language of study, especially in the first year of college/university studies.

#### **4.2 The integration of Arab students in Israeli academia: Social aspects**

The unique characteristics of Arab society in Israel strongly influence the ability of Arab students to integrate into Israeli academia, their aspirations for scholastic excellence, their social expectations before and during their studies, and their scholastic

#### *Perspective Chapter: Visible or Invisible? Arab Students in the Israeli Academic World DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110077*

achievements. The impact of the students' social environment on their scholastic aspirations can be seen in the fact that when they arrive at university, they form a minority group on campus and must face the challenge of dealing with a new culture and with the majority group in their institution of higher learning [15].

Regarding the majority-minority relationship and the Palestinian-Israeli dispute and their influence on the integration of Arab students in their respective college or university, it must first be noted that the most significant characteristic of Israeli society that impacts the country's Arab minority and the integration of Arab students in Israel's academic world is the fact that Israel is still entangled in a national conflict. The conflict impacts the scholastic achievements of Arab students and the nature of the country's school system, which is split into a Jewish education system and an Arab one [16].

In the relevant professional literature, there is considerable discussion of a country's education system as an effective tool for enabling the country to control its minority groups [17]. In the case of Israel, the use of the education system to control the country's Arab minority preserves that group's social, economic, political, and cultural inferiority through the establishment of educational goals that are not suited to the Arab population, thereby promoting the discrimination of the Arab education system in terms of resources, programs, and services.

The language-related challenges facing Arab students in Israeli academia include difficulties in understanding the lectures in Hebrew, an insufficiently rich vocabulary in Hebrew, the constant need for translations, difficulties in writing papers in Hebrew, and the lack of self-confidence and the awkwardness that Arab students invariably experience when they must express themselves in a language that is not their mother tongue.

In the past decade, the place of Arabic in Israel has been widely discussed. While, on the one hand, there have been attempts to undermine the official status of Arabic in Israel and to fortify the status of Hebrew as the country's sole official language; many people are advocating the increased presence of Arabic in Israel's academic world in order to make it easier for Arab students to adjust to that world, especially in their first year of academic studies.

Intercultural encounters in the academic sphere create an opportunity—sometimes the first opportunity—to turn university education into a positive experience. In order to promote such opportunities, Arabic and Arab culture should become far more prominent on Israeli college and university campuses, especially because, as noted above, colleges and universities are invaluable and highly influential social institutions and are vitally important in the molding of the society of which Arab students, like their Jewish counterparts, are an integral part.

Many research studies have shown that students who are members of minority societies tend to feel, during their period of postsecondary studies, that they are, as it were, living in a besieged city and that they are not welcome in their academic setting [18, 19]. From these studies, it can be concluded that in many respects, academic institutions are custom-tailored to meet the needs of the students who belong to the country's dominant group and that the absence of the language and culture of the Other creates an unfriendly, cold climate for those students who are not members of the dominant group [20].

The concept of the "cold climate" first appeared in the research study of Hall and Sandler (1984) [21], who wanted to understand the nature of the various obstacles in the academic world. The term "climate" refers to the attitudes, approaches, and emotions in a given setting [22]. It can be said that the term also expresses a complex organizational phenomenon whose features are replicated in the conduct of the persons in the organization. The assessment of an academic institution's climate can provide decision-makers with a better understanding of the manner in which the campus is experienced by various groups of students [23]. Such an understanding is essential because the climate impacts the scholastic achievements of the members of minority groups on college and university campuses [19].

The question that one must ask is: "To what extent does the climate on college and university campuses in Israel meet the needs of Arab students from the standpoints of language and culture?" In order to answer that question, one must review what is being done on college and university campuses in other countries that are dealing with the problems of students from minority groups in the academic world. The most prominent research studies focusing on similar issues are those that have been conducted in America and that are concerned with questions such as the structuring of college and university campuses and the inclusion of minority groups in the academic world. These studies base their findings on analyses that employ concepts related to race and on the examination of mechanisms in institutions of higher learning that replicate the inequalities existing in society as a whole. We can utilize these studies in order to better understand the Israeli college/university campus.

Special attention should be given to the Critical Race Theory, which centers on institutional racialization. This theory can be used to examine academic institutions from the standpoint of their mechanisms promoting "whiteness" and to consider the manner in which such institutions are built. The central argument raised by scholars utilizing this theory is that in the past, "whiteness" was a social category that was neither diagnosed nor marked, in contrast with "colored" categories, and this created a mental blindness regarding the role of the majority society and its institutions in the inclusion of the members of minority groups in academia.

It can be concluded that from the theoretical perspective, scholars analyzing mechanisms promoting "whiteness" assume that instead of examining the obstacles preventing the members of minority groups from effectively integrating themselves into the academic community, attention should be directed toward the mechanisms that create and then perpetuate "whiteness" or priority for members of "white" society. According to these scholars, the academic world is "racialized" and cannot be considered neutral from the racial standpoint. The paradigms and ideas of the members of the dominant racial group are invested in, and define, the academic institution's organizational space [24]. It should be emphasized that the racialization of the academic space is not carried out deliberately and that the privileges of the group for which the academic space is unconsciously molded are perceived as self-understood and not as a subject that is problematic.

The results of this racialization transform the academic space into a sphere that offends, and has many negative implications for, the members of minority groups who are students in a racialized college or university. In a racialized academic institution, students belonging to a minority group are liable to experience discrimination—open or concealed— as well as rejection; lack of support, protection, or self-confidence; even fear of physical injury [19]. In the United States, even if an institution is not explicitly racist, it bears within its walls a history of racial exclusion that continues to linger [25].

Scholars in this field have noted that success in the creation of a supportive climate for students from minority groups is generally linked to the position of the academic institution regarding the integration of the members of minority groups [26].

In Israel, the country's academic institutions were founded by Jews and for Jews, and the privileges these institutions provide to Jewish students perpetuate the inequality between Jews and Arabs. This inequality is particularly prominent in the considerable number of Israeli colleges and universities that do not promote the presence of Arabic and Arab culture on campus.

#### **4.3 The place of Arabic on Israeli campuses**

The importance of language goes far beyond the transmission of messages. Language is not just a collection of phonological, morphological, and syntactical structures, not just a vehicle for the transmission of messages but is rather a social and political declaration. In other words, a language is a message in itself [27]. Language is a basic tool for the expression of every human and social activity, expresses culture and identity, and has verbal and nonverbal aspects that embody a given cultural and social reality [28].

The place of a language in any context is sensitive and emotionally charged because, in its creation of systems that will institutionalize and preserve its language, a minority group depends on the majority group. The state has certain duties regarding the language of an aboriginal minority group. In contrast with aboriginal language minorities, which have comprehensive language rights, immigrant language minorities have limited language rights [29].

### **4.4 The culture of a minority group in academic settings**

Students who are members of a minority group experience social and cultural alienation because they sense that their academic institution discriminates against their culture. They note that there is social segregation in the common spaces on campus and that there is invisible interracial competition. As noted above, since social events on campus represent, and are oriented toward, the students who belong to the majority group on campus, the members of the various minority groups sense that they are excluded from these events, and as a result, they experience feelings of anger, frustration, and powerlessness.

The culture of a minority group is often transparent on a "white" campus. As noted above, "white" culture is perceived as neutral, as the culture of "everyone," which eliminates the need for the visibility of any other culture. The minority group's feeling of belonging to the academic space is undermined when the cultural "markers" represent only the dominant culture on campus.

#### **4.5 The extent of Arabic and Arab culture's presence on Israeli campuses**

In Israel, ethnic origin is extremely important and is expressed in all spheres of life. Institutions of higher learning are closely connected to the national sociopolitical context in which they are situated. The conflicts and tensions between Jews and Arabs outside the walls of the country's academic institutions are replicated on campuses in Israel and strongly influence the relations between Jewish and Arab students, as well as between Arab students and their academic institution's administrative and teaching staffs. The lack of sufficient communication between Arab students and administrative and teaching staff members is directly related to the fact that the knowledge of Arabic among these staff members is either inadequate or nonexistent.

A discussion of the place of Arabic in Israel in general and in the academic sphere in particular is particularly relevant to the issue of Arabic's presence on Israeli college and university campuses.

Arabic plays a highly important role in the life of Palestinian Arab students in Israel. Among Palestinian Arab students in Israel, Arabic has a vital symbolic aspect, which, for these students, is the language's most significant aspect [13].

In the reality of Israel today, the use of Arabic on college and university campuses in Israel is not always received with welcoming arms. Arab lecturers who speak Arabic in the classroom often face opposition from the Jewish students sitting in that classroom and receive no backing from their superiors [30].

## **5. Conclusion**

Despite the increase in the number of Palestinian Arab students, the Israeli academic world has not yet made Arab language and culture visible on the country's college and university campuses, except for a few isolated institutions of higher learning that display sensitivity toward Arab language and culture.

Generally speaking, the climate in Israeli college and university campuses is cold with regard to Palestinian Arab students. On these campuses, one clearly senses the presence of a history of ethnic exclusion, and special privileges are enjoyed by the Jewish students, for example, in the structure of the academic year, in the curriculum, in the attitudes of administrative and teaching staff members, and in the meager reporting on issues connected with the relationship between Arab and Jewish students.

The small number of research studies on the issue of the difficulties and cultural exclusion of Arab students attending institutions of higher learning in Israel is evidence either of a general lack of interest in this issue or of a reluctance to place it on the agenda. For example, there is little material in the professional literature on the role of teaching faculty and decision-makers with regard to that issue. The questions that therefore must be asked are: What role are Israeli academic institutions playing in the development of a comfortable multicultural climate that could enable Arab students to feel at home on the country's college and university campuses? Should they also play a role in the cultivation of a multicultural civic discourse between all the students who attend these institutions, a discourse that could serve as a model for a parallel discourse in Israeli society as a whole?

I have tried here to present a picture, even if only a partial one, of the problems involving the integration of members of minority groups in Israeli academia, but I have not attempted to offer immediate solutions to these problems. In light of what I have presented above, here are some ideas that might help decision-makers formulate such solutions:


*Perspective Chapter: Visible or Invisible? Arab Students in the Israeli Academic World DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110077*

