It is no coincidence that the first center to be inaugurated in the new campus is the Center for Peace and Democracy, one whose aim is closing the academic gap between Arab and Jewish students and developing effective tools to assist Arab students to feel more comfortable and be more active within a modern research-based environment. The Galilee is where most Israeli-Arabs live and thus, not unexpectedly, 15% of the student body is Arab. Describing the situation not so long ago when the institute was just a bold initiative, Director Dr. Tamar Hager reminisced about classrooms in which Jews sat on one side, Arabs on the other.

Gary and Debbie Levene, whose name the new Center bears, and who flew in from Kitchener, Canada especially to be present at the unveiling ceremony, were visibly moved when Hamoudi Akawi rose to relate what the Center had already done for him. As the son of one of the only two Arab families in nearby Rosh Pina his Hebrew has always been as good as his Arabic, his accent as Israeli as anyone else's. Nevertheless, he told the assembly, he was not the same, not quite like everyone, he still belonged to a small and isolated minority. Today, the new Center is there to help him feel at home and to help him become more involved in ongoing Jewish-Arab dialogue on campus. Turning to Gary and Debbie Levene, he thanked them emotionally "for believing in us and for sharing in our vision."