Educating for a Palestinian-Israeli identity in the Young Communist League of Israel (Banki): Tensions and challenges

Abstract

This article examines the involvement of political parties in education, focusing on these parties’ youth movements. Specifically, the article examines the youth movement of The Young Communist League of Israel (Banki) and analyzes its educational goals and strategies in the context of the Arab Palestinian minority in Israel. In doing so, the article reveals some of the tensions and challenges inherited in Banki’s educational work as it attempts to integrate Arab youth into Israeli society, on the one hand, while strengthening their Palestinian identity, on the other. The overall picture that emerged from the data reflected strong counter-hegemonic political stances and actions via-a-vis the excluding ethnonationalism of the Israeli political regime and, to a lesser ex-tent, the leadership of Maki. Additionally, the article argues that Banki’s work could be considered counter-hegemonic because it challenges the separation between Palestini-an nationalism and Israeli citizenship by educating for an integrative Palestinian-Israeli identity.