Intensive Arabic Semester

Former Knesset member Avshalom "Abu" Vilan welcomed the opportunity this week to pop in on overseas students participating in the 5-month MASA-Givat Haviva Intensive Arabic Semester program based on Kibbutz Barkai - just down the road from the Givat Haviva campus.  

The students, four British, four from the United States and another from Columbia, were hard at work studying Arabic with teacher Fawaz Mansur when Vilan came to call.  After introducing himself – and the students in turn explain their reasons for joining the innovative study program – the former MK and IAS students discussed issues connected to Jewish-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian relations. 

Presently director of the Israel Farmers Association, the Kibbutz Negba born and raised Vilan is also chairman of the Havazelet Fund of the Educational and Cultural Institutions of Hashomer Hatzair, Givat Haviva being one of those institutions.

Born and raised in Kibbutz Negba, Abu Vilan has been closely connected with Givat Haviva since his teen and young adult days in the Hashomer Hatzair movement.  He was an emissary in the United States on behalf of the movement and Kibbutz Artzi, returning to take up the position of General Secretary of the Artzi movement prior to election to the Knesset. 
In the 1970s Abu Vilan was a founding member of Peace Now.  A member of the Mapam political party he became party secretary in 1990 and following the merger between the Mapam, Shinui and Ratz parties to create Meretz, Vilan was elected on the Meretz ticket to the Knesset in 1999.  During his decade in the Knesset the kibbutznik from the Negev sat on a myriad of committees dealing with extremely diverse topics such as foreign workers rights, water and financial issues, education, sport, communications to name but a few.

Intensive Arabic Semester students, apart from tackling Arabic and Hebrew language studies, also undertake serious course work in Arab history, Middle East and Israel studies, Jewish-Arab relations and much more. The present Intensive Arabic Semester terminates June 15th and next semester gets under way the middle of July. Speaking to the students, the whiteboard behind him covered in Arabic script from that morning's lesson, Abu Vilan touched upon some aspects of the history of the Middle East conflict, spoke about various stages of the peace process – where there was progress and reasons for digress, coupled with political and practical thoughts with regard bringing about a viable solution acceptable to both Israel and the Palestinians.

"In my opinion, at the end of the day the only solution is to share the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, two states.  Anything else will be a disaster," Vilan said. "Just look at the situation demographically.  Israel has a population today of seven and a half million, of who one and half million are Arab Israelis.  In Gaza, there are one and half million Palestinians and in the West Bank, another 3 million, and therefore we can safely assume that in the next 10-15 years the Palestinians and Israeli Arab populations will be the majority."Until 1967 it is well-known that Israel was accepted as a Jewish state and after 1967, with Israel doubling land and population in six days, some people began to dream about the 'big Israel' between the Jordan and Mediterranean, but there is no way today that one big state can be based on one person. The students, four British, four from the United States and another from Columbia, were hard at work studying Arabic with teacher Fawaz Mansour when Vilan came to call.  After introducing himself – and the students in turn explain their reasons for joining the innovative study program – the former MK and IAS students discussed issues connected to Jewish-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian relations. 

Intensive Arabic Semester students, apart from tackling Arabic and Hebrew language studies, also undertake serious course work in Arab history, Middle East and Israel studies, Jewish-Arab relations and much more. The present Intensive Arabic Semester terminates June 15th and next semester gets under way the middle of July. Speaking to the students, the whiteboard behind him covered in Arabic script from that morning's lesson, Abu Vilan touched upon some aspects of the history of the Middle East conflict, spoke about various stages of the peace process – where there was progress and reasons for digress, coupled with political and practical thoughts with regard bringing about a viable solution acceptable to both Israel and the Palestinians.

"In my opinion, at the end of the day the only solution is to share the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, two states.  Anything else will be a disaster," Vilan said. "Just look at the situation demographically.  Israel has a population today of seven and a half million, of who one and half million are Arab Israelis.  In Gaza, there are one and half million Palestinians and in the West Bank, another 3 million, and therefore we can safely assume that in the next 10-15 years the Palestinians and Israeli Arab populations will be the majority.

"Until 1967 it is well-known that Israel was accepted as a Jewish state and after 1967, with Israel doubling land and population in six days, some people began to dream about the 'big Israel' between the Jordan and Mediterranean, but there is no way today that one big state can be based on one person, one vote and Israel remain a Jewish state.  If we continue to control the Palestinians, we will not be a democratic state and therefore there is little choice but to share the land," commented Vilan, who served in the IDF as a Master Sergeant in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit Sayeret Matkal.  Following his military service he studied Economics and Philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and, prior to entering full-time leadership and political roles, worked as an economist and agricultural adviser.

"Everybody must have full civil rights in Israel, but although this might sound relatively simple, it is extremely complicated," said Vilan, who was active in Knesset 16 and Knesset 17 Lobbies, among them the Knesset Forum on the Middle East, Lobby for Jerusalem, Lobby for Jewish-Arab Coexistence and the Lobby for the Advancement of the Third Sector in Israel.

Vilan told the students about one of the many pleas for help that he had received over the years from an Israeli Arab acquaintance. "Basically, a member of his family was getting married in a village in the Galilee.  The bride had a brother living in Gaza who was refused permission to come to Israel for her wedding.  I was told by my acquaintance that the Palestinian was the chief pilot of Palestine Airways," he reminisced, with a broad grin. Intrigued, the then member of Knesset had words with the security authorities and eventually a 4-day permit was arranged for the Palestinian. During the wedding celebrations, Vilan visited the village and spoke with the pilot.

"The fellow was in his mid-40s, rather handsome and very proud of his achievements.  It turns out that at the age of 17 he had an argument with his parents, and who doesn't at that age, but he ran away from home – over the border to Lebanon.  There, with no place to go, he ended up in a training camp run by the Palestinian Liberation Organization who decided a soldier he would never be but was obviously very intelligent and so sent him to be trained as a pilot – to Pakistan! "After 3 years training in Pakistan he joined the Palestine Airways, apparently then four planes based in Pakistan, where he was chief pilot.

"The most amazing thing to witness was what was going on around this man.  Arab children were coming from all over the area just to see him and I suddenly realized that a Palestinian pilot for them was equivalent to a super-hero as there is no opportunity for an Arab citizen in Israel to become a pilot," explained Abu Vilan.

"My kibbutz is a community of around 600 and we have six or seven pilots.  Although pilots are highly respected, they are not exactly super-heroes like this man was for Palestinians and Israeli Arabs and it was at that point that I realized that if an Arab citizen of Israel wants to be a pilot, he has to leave the country.

"Having served in an elite commando unit and with my political background, I know all the security issues at heart but the fact that an Israeli Arab cannot be a steward with El Al or obtain many jobs in the public sector is something that needs to change.  The vast majority of Arab citizens of Israel do not want to move, they are home, and we need to work harder to attain an equal society in this country.

"Because the majority of Arabs in Israel support bi-national parties this has become a very negative political reality as they are doomed to always be in the opposition but of course this is all part of the ongoing dilemma of identity and belonging."
The students fielded questions with regard the Arab citizens of Israel serving in a civil service as a step toward the goal of equality; the Iranian threat; Jerusalem and more.

Taking his leave as somewhat pressed for time, Vilan promised to return for another meeting with the students before the end of the semester. "This program is extremely important and I was very impressed with the students, their knowledge and the way they fielded their questions and look forward to meeting with them again in the near future," Vilan told Intensive Arabic Semester director Hilit Ben-Zvi.

"For our students this was a wonderful opportunity to meet an Israeli personality who in the past and continues to strive to bring about positive changes in Israeli society," commented Ben-Zvi.

"We, the staff of the International Department, Givat Haviva, are continually looking for opportunities for the students to meet and interact with Israeli Jews and Arabs who hold different political and religious views so that they can learn for themselves – as Abu Vilan pointed out – just how complicated solving many of the issues really has become."