Dialogue in the midst of violent conflict: A research on the impact of the Hamas attack and violence in the Gaza Strip on the NGO The Center of Learning and Dialogue and its network.

Abstract

In the midst of the violence in Israel, the Gaza Strip, and beyond, dialogue organisations in Israel continue their efforts to organise intergroup encounters, and transform the hostile relationships between Jewish and Arab-Palestinian Israelis. This research sheds light on the work of the NGO The Center of Learning and Dialogue (CLD) as well as dialogue organisations and initiatives in its network, especially with regard to the impact of the violent events from October 7, 2023. I analyse changes in the work environment of dialogue workers, changes in attitudes towards dialogue, and adaptations that dialogue workers made. For this purpose, I conduct online interviews with Jewish and Arab-Palestinian Israeli dialogue workers in the network of the CLD. I use five theories on violent conflict to analyse my findings: SIT, the theory of optimal distinctiveness, the discursive approach, self-censorship, Allport’s contact hypothesis, and Maoz’ four intergroup encounter models.

My findings show that dialogue workers have to deal with hardened relationships between Jewish and Arab-Palestinian Israelis, and increased tensions within dialogue sessions. Moreover, many dialogue workers and Israelis turned away from the dialogue work because of grief, fear, and scepticism. Others turned towards the dialogue work, because they find it more important than ever to build relationships. Next, dialogue workers adapted to the current situation by using both direct and indirect methods, organising more long-term dialogue programs and uni-national dialogue sessions, working solely based on voluntary participation, and giving extra trainings to dialogue workers. These findings provide pointers for Israeli dialogue workers on how to adapt their work to an escalation of violence. The findings furthermore address the academic gap regarding the consequences of an escalation of violence on grassroots dialogue work.

Keywords: grassroots dialogue work, Israel, violent conflict, adaptation.