Israeli Students’ Understandings of and Attitudes to Human Rights and Literacies: Future Directions

The aim of this research is to investigate the understandings and attitudes to human rights of Israeli students who study at a religious university in Israel. The connection between human rights and religion is still uncharted territory from both a theoretical point of view and in terms of practice. Human rights are nurtured within liberal modern societies. They are the epitome of modernity and a direct outcome of a liberal tradition and thought. Yet we do not have enough information and empirical data on the status and role of human rights within more traditional, religious settings. This research will provide insight into the way students who come from a more traditional orthodox background perceive different angles of human rights issues. First, we will analyse the Israeli context, then we will discuss the connection between human rights, human rights education and religion. This will be followed by an analysis of human rights education in Israel and finally we will establish the connection between human rights and human rights literacy in Israel. In conclusion we will present our findings of research which was conducted among university students, then discuss them and pose some implications for higher education.