The Impact of Israeli-Palestinian Inter-Religious Dialogue

This chapter will focus on the prospects of inter-religious dialogue as a means of fostering the Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding process, both from a theoretical and empirical perspectives. The two authors come from the disciplines of political science and social psychology and employ qualitative and quantitative methods, respectively. Although counter-intuitive as part of an ongoing research project, the authors suggest that, in line with other research, religion can indeed serve as a bridge between Israelis and Palestinians and not merely act as an escalatory influence as is commonly assumed. The authors have drawn on earlier work of these researchers and others, which have provided empirical evidence over time that inter-religious dialogue encounters between Israelis and Palestinians can help nurture perception change based on social psychological dynamics for intergroup relations as both sides discover strong commonalities between their respective faiths. This opportunity also offers a means to mutually explore the basis of the narratives of both sides in a non-confrontational atmosphere. Perception change between groups locked in conflict is an essential element for moderating strife and encouraging dialogue. However, in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict clashing narratives––as succinctly analyzed in the Peel Commission Report of 1937––rooted in religious and cultural identity informs the conflict and must be addressed through dialogue with the hope of mutual accommodation. Ideally, the transcendent elements of religion can also serve as positive points of meeting. Research data collected primarily from the work of the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA) will be presented to demonstrate the advantages of the inter-religious approach. In addition, the authors also refer to the case study of a special annual inter-religious dialogue by mid-level leadership in the “spirit of social partnership” in the Jewish-Arab City of Akko (in Northern Israel) in the context of an annual graduate seminar organized by the first author.