TEMPLATE DESIGN © 2007

www.PosterPresentations.com

Ideological Perspectives of Israeli Jews Involved in Continuous Jewish-Arab DialogueEncounters Regarding Israel’s character as a Jewish and Democratic State.

Yiftach RonThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Abstract

The study explores the impact of continuous involvement in

planned Jewish-Arab encounters on the ideological

perspectives of Israeli-Jews regarding the chatacter of Israel

as a Jewish and democratic state.

A thematic content analysis of 12 in-depth interviews with

Jewish facilitators of major encounter programs in Israel

reveals that the interviewees' continuous involvement in

encounters is associated, in most cases, with a reported new

awareness to the asymmetric relations between Jews and

Arabs in Israel, and with a more critical perspectives regarding

Zionism and regarding the character of Israel as a Jewish

state.

Methods

Research Population:

- 12 Jewish-Israeli interviewees, six women and six men. Their ages range from 28 to 54.

- All interviewees have been involved, as participants and as facilitators, in Jewish-Arab dialogue groups in established encounter programs in Israel.

- All hold academic degrees in the humanities or social sciences.

The Interviews

- Semi-structured interviews. Fully recorded and transcribed for analysis.

- Each interview lasted from one and a half to two and a half hours.

- All interviews were conducted in Hebrew, except one which was conducted in English at the request of the interviewee.

Analysis of the Interviews

-The interviews were analyzed thematically based on the grounded theory approach.

Findings

The Encounter as a Significant Experience, Confronting the Interviewees with their Role in the Jewish-Arab Conflict

- The encounter experience fosters a new awareness and precludes self deception.

- The encounter as an instructive experience in which Jews are confronted with their role in the conflict.

- The encounter experience as a process of self-scrutiny.

The Encounter with Power Asymmetries and Majority-Minority Relations in Israel

- A new understanding of the asymmetry of power reigning in the relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel.

- A first exposure to the perspective of Arab citizens on the Israeli society and the Israeli state.

Changes in Jewish facilitators' perspective on Zionism and on Israel as a Jewish-democratic state

- 10 out of 12 interviewees describe a significant transformation to a more critical perspectives regarding Zionism and regarding Israel as a Jewish state.

Conclusion

The findings of this study indicate that the repeated

involvement of Israeli-Jewish facilitators in planned

intercultural encounters with Arabs is associated, in the vast

majority of cases, with a significant ideological shift.

The interviewees described the encounters as raising their

awareness to the Asymmetric relations between Jews and

Arabs in Israel and to claims regarding the discrimination

towards the Arab citizens of Israel.

Moreover, the vast majority of the interviewees described

their continuing encounter with Arabs as leading them to an

increased detachment from Zionist ideology and to a

significant decrease in their support of the definition of Israel

as a Jewish state.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Prof. Ifat Maoz and Dr. Zvi Bekerman

from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for their supervision

and devoted guidance.