This paper discusses issues of identity associated with Palestinian students’ integration in an Israeli-Arab high school. These students were born to Palestinian families that are considered as ‘traitors’ by Arabs living in the Palestinian Authority and in the State of Israel. Their parents have working relations with the State of Israel and are therefore living in a large city at the north of the country. The students experience some kind of identity conflict between them and the Israeli-Arab students learning in the same school. The students who came with their parents from the Palestinian Authority, have difficulties to define themselves and they constantly try avoiding the question: Where are you from? They usually say they are from Jerusalem and they hold a blue identity card. Moreover, these students deal with language difficulties. School today constitutes an educational framework for a variety of students, characterized by different abilities and needs. This sets a rather complicated challenge to the school management and staff that have to open the school doors and provide a response to the students. This paper is grounded in theories of high school education, self-identity, conflict between identities of minorities and adolescence. It reviews the identity issues associated with the Palestinian children’s national and self-identity, as well as the steps that school and the education system can take in order to promote their integration.
INTEGRATION OF PALESTINIAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS LEARNING IN AN ARAB SCHOOL IN ISRAEL