Dialogue with conflict: Education and conflict coping in Israel

Abstract

This article addresses educational encounter projects between Jewish and Palestinian Arab high school students, teachers and facilitators in the state of Israel after the outbreak of the intifada (year 2000). Through the display of ethnographic footage and commentary from particular workshops in a high school encounter program, some of the key obstacles to dialogic engagement, the problems of and potentials of narrative reconfiguration and the limitations of the intergroup approach are illustrated. The particular educational model is practised, with variations, at some of Israel's major and pioneering institutions for peace and conflict education. The workshops under scrutiny in this article were taking place at Givat Haviva—a centre for peace and conflict related educational and cultural programs, including language and art courses.