CHAPTER 4: Learning about the “Other”: Encounters Between Arab and Jewish Students in Israel

Israel is a country where Jews and Arabs live together as citizens but in fact are two different ethnic groups. The Israeli-Jewish population constitutes the “majority,” while the Israeli-Arabs constitute the “minority.” The two groups hold different cultural, social, and national identities, thus forming two different, often opposing societies living together within one state. The relationship between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs has long been tense and conflict-ridden, laden with negative emotions and mistrust towards each other (Oren & Bar-Tal, 2007). Social scientists, educators, and practitioners on both sides of the Arab-Jewish conflict have been engaged in educational efforts aiming to improve relations between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs, intending to lessen the hostility between these two groups. Many governmental and non-governmental organizations have initiated and developed a variety of coexistence interventions, face to face (F2F), online intergroup encounters, and educational training programs (Maoz, 2004; Sagy, 2002, 2006; Walther, Hoter, Ganayim, & Shonfeld (2015). Designing such interventions between Arabs and Jews is particularly difficult as the tension between the groups is high and trust is low (Ross, 2000).