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

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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 study's 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.

Introduction

In the past few decades, planned intergroup contact interventions play an important role in attempts at conflict management and peace building. These interventions are often based on theoretical premises of the contact theory according to which constructive or guided contact can improve intergroup relations (Allport, 1954). Critical discussions of this theory tend to claim that “contact is not enough” (Bargal, 1990; Brewer, 1996; Hewstone & Brown, 1986). While acknowledging the importance of the contact theory, these discussions raise and address several major questions such as what are the required conditions for constructive contact and what are the intervening variables through which contact is assumed to improve intergroup relations (Hewstone & Brown, 1986; Pettigrew, 1998).

The present research raises another fundamental question of “is there contact at all?” Based on previous research in desegregated settings that has recorded a preference for ingroup interaction over intergroup one, as well as on observations of planned encounters, we claim that the occurrence of intergroup interactions in planned contact interventions between groups in conflict, can be subject to marked variability, and therefore should not be treated as a given. Thus, this study's goal is to construct and apply a measure assessing the extent of intergroup interaction in such interventions. This is done in the context of planned encounters between Jews and Arabs that were conducted in Israel on 1999–2000.

Section snippets

Theoretical background

In the past few decades, planned intergroup contact interventions play an important role in attempts at conflict management, reconciliation and peace building (Kelman, 1999; Bar-Tal, 2000). Examples of different forms or practices of such interventions, organized to help cope with living in a conflict or living in the aftermath of conflict, can be found in Northern Ireland and between Greek and Turkish Cypriots (Saunders, 1999). In the Jewish–Arab or the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, encounters

Overview

The approach that was constructed and applied in this study focuses on evaluation of the extent of the intergroup interaction in planned encounter interventions. Previous approaches assessed the effectiveness of contact interventions primarily by measuring attitude change based on the assumption that when two groups are placed in the same room, interaction occurs which qualifies as intergroup contact. The approach presented here, on the other hand, is based on many observations of encounter

The research population

The research population consists of 46 encounter programs between Jews and Arabs that took place in Israel in the years 1999–20002. These encounter programs included a series of intergroup meetings that were usually held once in every 3 to 5 weeks. They generally extended from 3–4 months to a year, were facilitated by a Jewish and an Arab facilitator, and conducted in the

Research methods

For each encounter program, one intergroup meeting was observed and rated on the numerical scale described before, assessing the degree to which there was intergroup interaction between Jews and Arabs in the encounter. The rating was accompanied by verbal rationale and details. The observers also recorded factual background data about the encounter, such as where and when it took place, number of participants attending of each nationality and their age and provided a brief written description

Findings

The data analysis examined the distribution of the extent of intergroup interaction among the studied Jewish–Arab encounter programs. In addition, we examined if there are differences between programs targeted at various age groups in the extent of intergroup interaction in them. Table 1 below presents the ratings on the measure of the extent of intergroup interaction by the target age group of the program. In the intergroup interaction measure ratings, ‘1’ and ‘2’ were combined and ratings ‘4’

Conclusion

The results of this study show variability in the extent of intergroup interaction in the investigated encounter programs. The majority of the encounters (some 65% of them) were characterized by a high to very high extent of intergroup interaction. Results of previous research in concerning self-reported spontaneous contact with an out-group in ethnically mixed or desegregated settings, has indicated a linear correlation between the extent or frequency of such contact, the degree of its

Acknowledgements

This study is based on a larger research project invited and supported by the Abraham Fund. I thank the Abraham Fund for the generous support that enabled conducting the research. I also thank the members of the research team: Summer Jaber, Rona Refaeli and Keren Wasserman for their help.

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