Transcript of recorded interview by Jenny Nemko with Clare King Lassman of the Akko Arab Jewish Community Centre and Younited (formerly the Givat Haviva International School) in Israel
‘If it weren’t for these two projects I couldn’t get up in the morning – It gives me great hope that things can be differently. it’s like everything in this country – one step forward and ten steps back’.
JN – Jenny Nemko
CKL – Clare King Lassman
Younited
JN Tell me about the school.
CKL The school’s nearly seven years ago – half Israeli and half Arab and half Israeli Jews, some Druze and 20 other countries including African countries, eastern European, Turkey and Armenia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ukraine and Russia. Often the students are coming from other conflict zones which makes the Israeli students understand that this isn’t the only conflict in the world.
JN How did students cope on October 7th?
CKL First of all they retreated to their own camp. Needed strong pastoral support – all going through major trauma – literally on October 9th lessons went on zoom. Some of the Internationals were evacuated by their own countries, some very poor countries not able to do this. Many students on scholarships.
JN Did this change as time went on?
CKL I must explain that the young people of 15-18 years live together in dorms – 3 in a dorm – an Arab, a Jew and an International. When they get to know each other deeply – the differences are not at the forefront – what’s more important is – are you ready for the maths test? what music do you like?
JN Do the students begin to question the narrative that they have grown up with?
CKL They do begin to understand that there is not just one narrative – some have pre-conceived ideas which are shattered when they hear the views of others. And we encourage to deeply listen and to take a breath before they respond. First come a lot of shouting but then they quieten down.
JN How do the Arab students react when the Israeli students talk about going into the army?
CKL Once the Arab students get to know the Israeli students, build up trust and meet their brothers, sisters and fathers they get to understand that it is these people that make up the military – not necessarily because they want to but because they have to then they have to no longer see the army as a threatening force in quite the same way – understand it is a defence force. Negative feelings often change because they understand that it’s compulsory.
And our Israeli alumini can effect change in other Israelis. One alumna told me about when he was in the army in Gaza. He felt that what he learnt at the school about listening and trying to find common ground actually helped him to speak in a way that is not confrontational. This helped him with some of his soldiers some of which held very extreme views ….. he spoke up very clearly and people listened as he tried to get people to understand that there are other different ways of doing things.
Akko Arab Jewish Community Centre
JN What happened after October 7th in Akko?
CKL To start with the Centre closed. It was very difficult during the war particularly the war with Hizbollah in Lebanon.
War is polarising …..there are views that are held – ‘Jews do not behave like this, Muslims don’t behave like this, Christians do not behave like this therefore xyz cannot possibly have happened.’
So where do you try to find out what is happening if that and this can’t be happening – something must be happening – that’s the back drop to the work that we do over the years bringing people together showing that we are not enemies that we have a lot more in common that divides us
JN So how did the people who come to the Centre behave in this crisis?
CKL I think that when there was this crisis the people that had been coming to our centre said that they had a role in reminding their families and communities ……….they said we know Jews don’t behave in this way, we know Arabs want to live with us in peace. They reminded their families and communities that not everybody is Hamas and not everyone is extreme and that is why we have survived
JN So how are things working out right now?
CKL It’s quite hard at the moment – it’s all on a low flame at the moment simply because we are in this sort of limbo – it’s really hard to talk about full recovery because we are still in it whether it’s the hostages still in Gaza or whether the children are dying every day in Gaza and it’s very hard to breathe deeply.
At the moment we have after school activities for about 50 children – martial arts, dance, art , music. And parents come for yoga and language sessions.
We are planning to do programmes to try and cope with some of the trauma that’s continuing to take place – in a way it hasn’t stopped – that’s the problem – 15 seconds to get to a bomb shelter – suddenly children who were quite old start wetting the bed. Lots of fear, didn’t want to leave their parents’ side. A bit like covid we don’t quite know what it will be like in 5-10 years’ time for these children who are 5, 15 or 20 at the moment – we know that we want to be there to support them – one of the things we are looking at are a lot more therapeutic work .
And things are changing in the town of Akko – the whole neighbourhood is expanding and It’s going to create an opportunity for the centre . We are currently working on a new programme to create a centre that is going to meet the needs of the whole population – to bring in lots of young families – a diverse population – there’s now a massive commercial centre near train station and a lot of people go to Haifa and come home on the train .
JN What is the difference between the two projects that you are involved with?
CKL It’s very necessary to have places where people meet. The centre in Akko is an accidental co-existence project – people come because it’s high quality and low cost so they meet each other when dropping off children and picking up – it’s low social economic
The Younited School by contrast is an intentional community – you can discuss issues head on – both are necessary – most of the people in the Akko Centre would not come to the school
We need both.
I just want to say, If it weren’t for these two projects I couldn’t get up in the morning – It gives me great hope that things can be differently. it’s like everything in this country – one step forward and ten steps back.
