About MADA

Mission and Goals

Mada al-Carmel - The Arab Center for Applied Social Research is a non-profit, independent research institute founded in 2000 and located in Haifa, Israel. Inspired by concern for its human and national development, Mada al-Carmel aims to promote theoretical and applied research on the Palestinian community in Israel. Mada al-Carmel focuses on the social, educational, and economic needs of Palestinians in Israel, as well as on national identity and democratic citizenship. Broader issues of identity, citizenship, and democracy in multi-ethnic states are also addressed.
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Goals

Mada al-Carmel’s primary goals are:

To provide an institutional base and an intellectual climate to study the needs and collective future of Palestinians in Israel, and their relationship with the Israeli state and Israeli society, the rest of the Palestinian nation, and the Arab World.
To enrich theoretical perspectives and applied work on national identity, citizenship, and democracy by stimulating cross-national comparative research with like-minded institutes in other multiethnic states.
To facilitate links with academics, NGO activists, and political actors, both locally and globally, to formulate public policy proposals designed to fundamentally change the economic, political, and social conditions of Palestinian citizens.
To encourage the development of a new critical discourse on Palestinian-Jewish relations in the country.
To train Palestinian social scientists in new critical approaches.

The Need for Mada al-Carmel

Mada al-Carmel was established based on the conviction that a Palestinian-run research center is needed in order to encourage new ways of thinking about social policy and political predicaments, and to contribute to changing the status of the Palestinians in Israel from that of an oppressed minority to that of a national community with the same collective and individual rights as the Jewish majority. In addition, it aims to promote thought and action about self-empowerment within a community that has too often been fragmented and ineffective in getting its own needs met and its voice heard.

Historically, Israeli research on the Palestinians in Israel has been guided by either security concerns or ideological concerns related to building the Israeli state. Although new trends are emerging, much of the recent academic work produced in Israel and outside it fails to take into consideration the asymmetric nature of the relationship between the Jewish majority and the Palestinian minority in Israel. New frameworks are needed to challenge the status quo that legitimizes unequal relations between Palestinians and Jews in Israel; to consider relations between national groups in multiethnic states; and to take issues of democratic citizenship, equality, and multiculturalism as the departure point for analyzing the status of Palestinians in Israel.

Mada al-Carmel fills an existing vacuum. By fusing theoretical social science research with recommendations for institutional intervention and empowerment of the Palestinian homeland minority, Mada al-Carmel seeks to develop new frameworks and models of applied social science and to provide Palestinians with tools for long-term social change. Mada al-Carmel aims to develop public policy recommendations, present new programs, propose institutional change, and provide alternative solutions to complex situations.

Mada al-Carmel’s Academic Program

Mada al-Carmel has at its backbone a comprehensive academic program that includes:

Research: Areas of focus include land and planning, economy, collective rights, education, Israeli academic discourse about Palestinians, and major issues of concern to Palestinian and Israeli societies.
Seminars and conferences: The Center organizes an annual conference which will generally focus on academic studies carried out by the Center's own researchers. Mada al-Carmel also organizes lectures, symposia, seminars, and conferences to support its research and to discuss issues the Center aims to place on the public agenda.
Publications: Mada al-Carmel aims to issue several publications:
1. Information Papers: Relatively short papers that present and focus on basic information on the Palestinians in Israel.
2. Research Papers: Long and in-depth research focusing on current issues.
3. Books and Monographs.
4. Palestinian Review of Society and History: An academic periodical on theoretical and applied issues of concern to Palestinian society.
5. Newsletter: A biannual update describing and reporting on Mada al-Carmel’s activities.

Mada al-Carmel will share its research with NGOs and other community groups to complement their social action initiatives on behalf of the Palestinian community in Israel.