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Hello, gentlemen. My name is Dr. Ben Malov. I'm a lecturer here at Bar-Ilan University

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in political science and conflict management. And my particular area of expertise is in the

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Jewish political tradition and political science, and particularly in terms of conflict resolution,

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interreligious, intercultural approaches to Arab-Jewish-Israeli-Palestinian dialogue,

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basically seeing religion as a bridge and not merely as a factor for escalation.

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Now, that's a very important issue in terms of planting the seeds of a culture of peace.

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I have heard about issues of inculcating a culture of peace in the Palestinian side. I'm not an expert

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in that, but I would focus on the Israeli side. I think that there are efforts to do that within

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our educational system, but there needs to be more, frankly, on both sides. There needs to be more

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study of Arabic in our schools. There needs to be more appreciation of Islam. But in the university

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situation, there is, for instance, here at Bar-Ilan University, a very strong Arabic

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department, a very strong Islamic studies department. Jerusalem as a whole is the Islamic museum.

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And I myself, in terms of my own work, I've been running a special MA course called New Approaches to

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Conflict Management in Israeli Society, which sees Israel in terms of more of a, well, a Jewish and multicultural

15
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society as opposed to everyone having to be the same. Multicultural expertise, multicultural sensitivity,

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both within the different factions in Israeli society, everything from the ultra-Orthodox to

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the more secular, to those coming from a Russian background, and the Arab-Israeli sector in relation

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to the Jewish sector. And the students have had a wide-opening exercise, eye-opening exercise. Every

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year we have finished our work, our culmination of our special program of study in which hundreds of

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students have participated in a special inter-religious, intercultural seminar in the Arab-Jewish

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mixed city of Akko, which I think is known in the Muslim world, involving the cooperation and

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partnership between the chief rabbi, the chief sheikh, a municipality in which there is a Jewish

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deputy mayor from actually a right-wing party, but also an Arab deputy mayor from an Islamic party.

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And they cooperate very well on the local level. There are other examples of this. Unfortunately,

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we're in a period in which the extremism gains most of the headlines and more of these elements

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on the grassroots. I've only given a very small example from my own experience and involvement,

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but there are other people who, colleagues, who were very much involved in these initiatives

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and trying to develop a culture of peace. And we really need to elevate the consciousness and the

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awareness of this from the micro to the macro. And we're not just, you know, following the headlines

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of extremism. Well, I would say, I think you've hit something very important, that the Jewish people have

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common heritages with many European countries. For instance, even Germany, there was a German-Jewish

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heritage. The period of the Turkish Empire, and you're saying Turkey being a hospitable home for

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the Jews after the Spanish Inquisition. I think that common heritage can be a very important bridge,

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because this way it can remind us of the partnership between Islam and Judaism during the Golden Age of

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Spain, for instance. And that can be the type of bridge-building and bringing Jews and Arabs

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together, Israelis and the Muslim world, together under the ideal of the true service of God.