We are glad to publish the first issue of Bayan – a quarterly on contemporary Arab affairs in Israel, published by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation, which operates at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, in Tel Aviv University. The Konrad Adenauer Program was established in 2004 by the Moshe Dayan Center and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany, and functions as an extension of the Program of the Study of Arab Politics in Israel, which was established at Tel Aviv University in 1996 by the Moshe Dayan Center and the Adenauer Foundation. The goal of the Adenauer Program is to enhance the knowledge and understanding of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. One way the Program uses to achieve this goal is to provide a platform for original research on current-event issues at the center of the national-political, social, and religious agenda of the Arab public in Israel, and on issues relating to the nature of the relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
The current issue contains two articles. The first article by Iyad Zahalka focuses on the development of local Muslim law for the Muslim community in Israel. The second article by Yusri Khaizran discusses the effects of the Arab Spring on Christian Arabs in Israel.