Contact between Israelis and Arabs

Abstract

Based on social-psychological research findings, generalizations can be made as to the effects of certain situational and personal variables in interethnic contact situations on the attitude change of the interacting individuals. The purpose of this paper is to try to arrive at conclusions regarding the effects of contact between Israeli Jews and West Bank Arabs on ethnic change, based on evaluation of the existing contact situations and their potential effect. Following this theoretical evaluation, two empirical studies on this topic are briefly presented. Comparing the theoretical evaluation and the empirical results, there is a general consistency of conclusions for the Israeli group; for the Arabs discrepancies are detected. However, both approaches indicate that the effects of contact are relatively more positive for the Israelis than for the Arabs.