Gilad Mulyan is an SFP graduate of the “Leadership Course for Agents of Change in the Mixed Cities”. He has also lately been part of a group that is leading the struggle to obtain certification of the bilingual schools of the Hand in Hand Association as full-fledged public schools. They recently co-hosted a historic Knesset conference titled “A Shared Language, A Shared Society: Advancing Bilingual Education in Israel”, on the importance of shared Jewish-Arab education and its pivotal role in transforming Israeli society.

The conference was sponsored by Members of Knesset Gilad Kariv and Ibtisam Mara’ana, who are working on a bill to standardize integrated education, and cement the right of any interested Jewish or Arab child to attend a bilingual school in Israel.

The bilingul primary school in Wahat Al-Salam ~ Neve Shalom was also represented at this conference, with Samah Salaime giving an emotional speech.

Mulyan also had the honor to speak before the committee. Here is a taste of what he said:

“We are now marking the first anniversary of the May 2021 events in the mixed-cities. And you know what? These children, these parents and these educators are part of the solution. Because it’s true that the education system is supposed to teach math, literature, English – I’m not underestimating these things. However, the education system should first and foremost deal with the rifts and problems in the society. And such a school tries to bridge the deepest rift in Israeli society: the Jewish-Arab rift.”

Following this conference, Einat Kalish-Rotem – the mayor of Haifa – sent an application to the Ministry of Education to register and recognize the bi-lingual school in Haifa as a full-fledged public school. This step, which has taken years of struggle, bore additional fruit, as she also approved the opening of a bi-lingual public kindergarten and a high school to ensure bi-lingual and bi-national educational continuity.

We congratulate Gilad and everyone who took part in this struggle, for their incredible and important achievement, and we wish them further success as they continue.

Watch Gilad’s full talk in the Knesset (in Hebrew)