Conference Call: Shootings on the Temple Mount - Arab discou...

Shootings on the Temple Mount:
Arab discourse and state-minority relations in the aftermath

with

Dr. Yonatan Mendel, Head of Manarat, The Van Leer Center for Jewish-Arab Relations

and

Rawnak Natour, Co-Executive Director of Sikkuy

The July 14th shooting attack of two Druze police officers on the Temple Mount by three Arab citizens, and its aftermath, brought to the surface internal challenges within Israel's Arab community, deteriorated Jewish-Arab relations inside Israel, and reignited tensions surrounding control of the site.

How did Jewish and Arab reactions to the attacks, and to the conflict over security measures on the Temple Mount, reflect current trends in Jewish-Arab relations and within Israel's Arab society? What are the implications for internal Arab relations in Israel and state-minority relations going forward? 

Dr. Yonatan Mendel from the Van Leer Institute and Rawnak Natour from Sikkuy spoke about the events in their broader social and political context, and the related discourse on state-minority and internal Arab relations.

Read a Task Force summary of events and related discourse here. 

Call details:
Monday, July 31 - 12:00pm ET

About the Speakers

Dr. Yonatan Mendel
Dr. Mendel is the Head of Manarat, the Center for Jewish-Arab Relations at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He is also a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Centre for German-Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Research Associate at the Centre for Islamic Studies at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Mendel is a an Israeli sociolinguist whose research centers on the status of the Arabic language within Israeli society. He is a regular contributor to publications in Hebrew (including Haaretz, the Forum for Regional Thinking, Local Call, and more). Mendel is also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, as well as to publications in Arabic (most famously: Al-Mash'had al-Isra'ili published by Madar Centre in Ramallah). His latest book The Creation of Israeli Arabic sheds light on a unique corner of the Arab–Israeli conflict: the study and knowledge of Arabic in Jewish-Israeli society. The book explores how security considerations have shaped the study of the Arabic language and of Arab people in Israeli society. Based on research conducted in seven archives in Israel, the book uncovers a new 'type' of Arabic created in Israel passive and securitised. The book is based on the doctoral studies he conducted at Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Yasir Suleiman, the head of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. Since earning his degree, Mendel lives in Tel Aviv and dedicates much of his time to academic research on Arabic in Israel (including the history of Arabic language studies in Jewish schools) as well as to projects aiming to promote the place of Arabic in Israeli public sphere, academic institutions, and more.

Rawnak Natour
Rawnak was born in Kalanswa and received her BA in community social work and MA in early childhood education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where she was active in the Arab student's association. For a number of years she worked on the Shatil team advancing equal rights and coordinated the project for special education for the Arab community. She has 20 years of experience in a wide range of fields in social activism and human and civil rights. Among these activities, she led, managed and participated in projects to advance equal rights in employment, education and against discrimination. In recent years, Rawnak held a wide range of managerial positions in frameworks to advance employment opportunities for educated immigrants in Denmark.