Reconciliation during an intractable conflict in a Hebrew mixed (Arabs and Jews) college

ABSTRACT

This study examines how a course that includes recognizing pain and suffering inflicted during intractable conflicts affects Indigenous Minority Group students’ willingness to reconcile. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative research tools with a pre-/post- questionnaire examining Israeli-Palestinian indigenous minority group students’ willingness to reconcile with the Israeli-Jewish majority group during an outbreak in violence (May 2021 Riots in Israel). Recognition entails creating space for minority students’ narratives and listening to their pain and anger related to their history and lived experiences as a minority. Findings show that students who received recognition maintain a steady will to reconcile and students who did not receive such recognition express a decrease in their willingness to reconcile. Such a distinction in results demonstrates the importance of recognizing a minority group’s narrative while an intractable conflict occurs.

KEYWORDS:

• Intractable conflict
• peace education
• mixed-college
• Palestinian students
• recognition
• Minority Group

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The term ‘mixed cities’ is often used in Israel to describe cities with large number of both Israeli Jews and Israeli Palestinians.

2. ^tThe quotes are translated from Hebrew

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noa Shapira

Dr. Noa Shapira completed her Ph.D. at the Faculty of Education, Technologies in Education Program, Haifa University. The Ph.D. was entitled: Fostering intergroup empathy in an online learning environment. Between 2015-2018, she was a member of the Learning in a Networked Society (LINKS) Israeli Centre of Research Excellence (I-CORE). She is now a lecturer at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, the Department of Education and Community. Noa is one of the developers of the MOOC course: Introduction to Multiculturalism.

Yoav Kapshuk

Dr. Yoav Kapshuk is a Senior Lecturer at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel, and Head of the Israel Studies Unit at the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies. Former Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Center and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt. Dr. Kapshuk focuses on peace research: peacebuilding, peace education, peacemaking, and transitional justice, especially about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israelis and Palestinians relationships. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from Tel-Aviv University (2017). His studies have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Defense and Peace Economics, Israel Law Review, and Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.