Ifat Maoz

Does contact work in protracted asymmetrical conflict? Appraising 20 years of reconciliation-aimed encounters between Israeli Jews and Palestinians

In the past few decades, planned contact interventions between groups in conflict have played an important role in attempts at improving intergroup relations and achieving peace and reconciliation. This article focuses on such reconciliation-aimed intergroup encounters between Israeli Jews and Palestinians that seek to reduce hostility and increase understanding and cooperation between the two nationalities. Like other contact interventions conducted in settings of intergroup conflict, encounters between Israeli Jews and Palestinians represent a paradoxical project: this is a project that aspires to generate equality and cooperation between groups that are embedded in a protracted asymmetrical conflict. Though existing research teaches us valuable lessons on the effectiveness of contact conducted under optimal conditions, little is said about contact between groups involved in asymmetrical protracted dispute. The goal of this analysis is to examine the evolution of reconciliation-aimed contact interventions between Israeli Jews and Palestinians in the past 20 years. The research method is qualitative, relying on ethnographic data assembled during the relevant period of time. The findings identify and trace the evolution of four major models of Jewish—Palestinian planned encounters: the Coexistence Model, the Joint Projects Model, the Confrontational Model, and the Narrative-Story-Telling Model. The strengths and limitations of each model in transforming intergroup attitudes in asymmetric conflict are discussed.

Power relations in intergroup encounters: a case study of Jewish–Arab encounters in Israel

Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine processes and patterns of power relations between majority and minority groups, as manifested in a case study of intergroup encounters between Jews and Arabs in Israel. The research method was qualitative, relying mostly on ethnographic data assembled during the last 4 years of an educational encounter project aimed at reducing hostility and promoting coexistence between the sides. The findings point to two parallel processes of influence: the more expected process of dominance of the Jewish majority, together with an interesting pattern of dominance and influence of the Arab minority that emerged primarily when the encounters focused on the conflict between the sides. It is suggested that the latter process of minority influence is related to a dispute that appeared throughout the project regarding the legitimacy and desirability of discussing the conflict inside the encounter. These processes are outlined and analyzed in accordance with social-psychological theories of majority and minority influence (Moscovici, 1980; Mugny & Perez, 1991) [Moscovici, S., 1980. Toward a theory of conversion behavior. In: L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 13, pp. 209–239). New York: Academic Press; Mugny G., & Perez J.A. (1991) . The social psychology of minority influence . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press].

An Experiment in Peace: Reconciliation-Aimed Workshops of Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian Youth

The goal of the present study is to examine workshops of Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian youth conducted in the post-Oslo era with the aim of promoting reconciliation and peacebuilding between the sides. The workshops were organized by an Israeli-Palestinian organization, in the framework of a peace education project. In these workshops, youth from pairs of Israeli and Palestinian high schools met for two days to discuss social, cultural and political topics. Each workshop included approximately 20 youths from each side that were led jointly by a Jewish-Israeli and a Palestinian group facilitator. The study examines four facets of these dialogue events, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods: (1) structure of activities and practices of transformative dialogue used in the encounter events; (2) attitudes and mutual stereotypes held by youth from both sides prior to the beginning of the workshops; (3) mutual perceptions and attitudes expressed by participants during the encounter; (4) effects of participation in the workshops on stereotypes held by the Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian youth (pre-post comparisons).

Reactive Devaluation of an “Israeli” vs. “Palestinian” Peace Proposal

Three studies used the Palestinian-Israeli context to investigate the tendency for political antagonists to derogate each others compromise proposals. In study 1, Israeli Jews evaluated an actual Israeli-authored peace plan less favorably when it was attributed to the Palestinians than when it was attributed to their own government. In study 2, both Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs similarly devalued a Palestinian plan when it was ascribed to the “other side.” Furthermore, both Arabs and Jewish “hawks” (but not Jewish “doves”) perceived a proposal attributed to the dovish Israeli government as relatively bad for their own people and good for their adversaries. Study 3 explored the role that differences in construal of proposal terms play in mediating “reactive devaluation.” These studies expand theoretical understanding of this devaluation phenomenon and the barrier it creates to the resolution of real-world conflicts.

The Dialogue between the ‘Self’ and the ‘Other’: A Process Analysis of Palestinian-Jewish Encounters in Israel

This study assumes that the collective identities of both Jews and Palestinians in Israel have long been constructed around the Jewish-Palestinian conflict, a major focus of social and historical reality in the Middle East region. Monolithic in their early stages, these constructions of identity underwent a process of deconstruction and reconstruction, primarily due to changes in the political reality (the peace process), globalization, and the surfacing of conflicts that were hidden within the monolithic construction. The deconstruction process, though painful and problematic, creates new opportunities for a dialogue that engages elements of identity, which no longer ‘fit’ the contenders. Such a dialogue took place in ‘laboratory’ form at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev from October 1996 and June 1997 between two leading participants in an ongoing workshop for Jewish and Palestinian Israeli students. Most conflict group encounters are measured by outcomes, not by process. We identified problems when the method common for these groups was used at Jewish-Palestinian encounters and this led us to try another way. This study employs a qualitative methodology to analyse the process of groups in conflict. It looks into how the process of questioning one’s own self and the other’s perception takes place in this context. In describing the dialogue that evolved between a Jew, Avner and a Palestinian, Nasser (both pseudonyms), the tension between the individual and collective identity levels, between the internal group process and the asymmetric social and political reality, is revealed. We suggest that the confrontation and friendship between Avner and Nasser created a new quality of dialogue, enabling a more complex identity construction to emerge on both the Jewish and the Palestinian sides.

Troubles With Identity: Obstacles to Coexistence Education in Conflict Ridden Societies

This article questions the redeeming power of education and intergroup educational initiatives and their potential to contribute to coexistence and reconciliation. We critically analyze the apparent perspectives that guide intergroup educational initiatives today. We show these perspectives to rest on monological understandings of identity and culture and uncover their historical roots as they evolved within positivism and within the historical development of the nation-state. We posit that, as such, they stand little chance of serving as factors of change and can, for the most part, only support a reproductive mode. Finally, we consider educational approaches based on postpositivist realist perspectives, aided by liberatory pedagogies, as a possible new paradigm through which to approach educational work for coexistence.

Threat Perceptions and Feelings as Predictors of Jewish-Israeli Support for Compromise with Palestinians

A representative sample of Israeli Jews (N = 504) completed a survey assessing attitudes towards compromise in the Israeli—Palestinian conflict. Support for compromise was well predicted (R = .63) by a combination of four scales: perception of collective threat from Palestinians, perception of zero-sum relations between Palestinians and Israelis, personal fear of Palestinians, and sympathy towards Palestinians. Feelings of hostility towards Palestinians did not make an independent contribution to this prediction. As hypothesized, respondents who perceived high collective threat and zero-sum relations were much less supportive of making concessions to Palestinians. However, respondents who indicated feeling personal fear were in regression analysis slightly more supportive of compromise. Sympathy toward Palestinians was associated with more support for compromise. Additionally, religiosity was strongly associated with decreased support for compromise. However, entering threat perceptions and sympathy into the equation substantially reduced the predictive value of religiosity, indicating that psychological mechanisms underlie, at least in part, the tendency of more religious respondents to show less support for making concessions to Palestinians.

Cross-cultural argument interactions between Israeli-Jews and Palestinians

This study examined the argument patterns that result when Israeli-Jews and Palestinians confront each other during group dialogues. We tested predictions derived from two theories. The first was a theory of cultural communication which predicted that Israeli-Jews and Palestinians would argue in a manner consistent with their respective cultural communication codes known as dugri and musayra respectively. Thus, the Israeli-Jews were expected to be assertive and the Palestinians more accommodating. The second theory was rooted in majority/minority power relations and predicted the opposite. The data were generated from reconciliation-based dialogue groups of Israeli-Jews and Palestinians. Communicative acts were coded according to the Conversational Argument Coding Scheme. Analysis of covariance was used to determine which patterns of argument distinguished the groups, and to identify variance attributable to lag sequences and individuals. The results were supportive of predictions from majority/minority power relations.

Is there contact at all? Intergroup interaction in planned contact interventions between Jews and Arabs in Israel

Abstract In the past few decades, planned intergroup contact interventions play an important role in attempts at conflict management and peace building. The present research raises a fundamental question regarding these interventions of “is there contact at all?” Based on previous research and observations, we claim that the occurrence of intergroup interactions in planned contact interventions between groups in conflict can subject to marked variability. Thus, this studys goal is to construct and apply a measure assessing the extent of intergroup interaction in such interventions. The data was collected through observations of planned encounters between Jews and Arabs that were conducted in Israel in 1999–2000. The findings show variability in the extent of intergroup interaction in the investigated programs. While the majority of these encounters (Some 65% of them) were characterized by a high extent of intergroup interaction, some 20% of them contained a medium level of interaction and some 15% a low level one. The findings further indicate that programs targeted at high school students and adults were characterized by higher levels of intergroup interaction while programs targeted at preschool to fourth grade children and especially programs targeted at fifth to ninth graders included a lower extent of such interaction. Theoretical and practical implication of these findings are discussed.

Learning about ‘good enough’ through ‘bad enough’: A story of a planned dialogue between israeli jews and palestinians

This study analyzes a dialogue process aimed at building relationships between Jews and Palestinians in Israel using an innovative research approach of following the story of the encounter. It attempts to explore whether such dialogue groups are able, in practice, to actually get away from the unbalanced political–structural conditions of the conflict between them. Usually we try to learn about such processes through successful ‘good enough’ encounters. This study takes the opposite position of looking at what we can learn from an unsuccessful encounter: A ‘bad enough’ one. Analysis of the dynamics that evolved in this dialogue shows the different tactics that were used by two Jewish-Israeli students to control the dialogue and emphasize themes of ‘togetherness’, ‘we want quiet’ and ‘we are all human beings’. We follow the futile attempts made by both other Jewish and Palestinian participants to counter these control attempts and to center the discussion on national identity and conflict. Finally, we discuss ways in which such a dialogue process could have been improved and could have served as a learning experience for its participants.