Minimal exposure of Arab and Jewish children in Israel to each other's culture, language or history throughout their formative years is "a root cause of rifts within Israel's society, Limmud was told on Tuesday.

More than 100 people heard about the impact of separate school systems in Israel in a session presented by the Abraham Initiatives.

"They live divided lives," said Rania Laham-Graveb, a Palestinian facilitator and acting director of the organisation’s Shared Learning Project.

The project twins Jewish and Arab students from neighbouring schools to come together and learn English in a exercise designed to encourage relationships and understanding between the two communities. 

Yael Maayan, a Jewish facilitator on the programme, said, "We learn a lot about Arabs through our media and stories of violence and terrorism. 

"We choose to teach students in English so they come to the sessions as equals. Often for many of them it is the first time they meet anyone from the other community and we encourage them to think about each other in different ways. 

"It is also a chance for them to ask each other about questions burning them inside."

Ms Laham-Graveb said it was natural that during spikes in conflict that the programme became harder to deliver. 

"What we do is provide somewhere where they don't have to speak badly about each other,” she said. 

During the recent escalation of violence in May teachers were concerned that they would see similar instances of citizens attacking each other "but what we saw with the children is them asking each other if they were ok."