Intercultural Dialogue in Israel: elements of transformative mediation

Abstract

As a multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual society, Israeli society has a high degree of social segmentation. One of the main tools to deal with the prevailing high level of social conflict is fostering the participation of youth in encounter groups, which promote dialogue and coexistence between social groups in conflict.

Within the various approaches and teaching methods developed for encounters between Arabs and Jews, we can identify the pros and cons of each model. This article refers to them, analyzing and characterizing the model promoted by the Gesher Foundation (Bridge), which has fostered dialogue encounters on the secular-religious conflict that led to the murder of the Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

The present study suggests that this model is characterized by adopting tools and techniques from the varied and various existing currents in the field of intercultural dialogue. It is also proposed in the article that the structure of the meeting sponsored by Gesher, its logic and workflow development reflects characteristic elements of the transformative mediation.

This model, it is argued, creates a rapport between the participants while calling for civil responsibility. Therefore, this study suggests that such models should be employed in societies with increasing social polarization, as is the case with Israeli society.