This thesis studies an island of civility embedded in an ethos of conflict, focusing on a shared society peacebuilding initiative between Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel. Undertaken in close partnership with the NGO Hand in Hand: The Centre for Bilingual Jewish-Arab Education in Israel using a semi-participatory approach, this research describes the evolution of Hand in Hand from a small grassroots organization to a multimillion-dollar NGO. Drawing on survey data (n = 107), personal interviews (n = 25), and key insights from a four-month ethnography, this dissertation analyzes the social change function of Hand in Hand, ordinary citizens’ motivations for enrolling their children in bilingual (Hebrew/Arabic) schools, and the drivers and barriers for attending peacebuilding activities for adults.

The study of intractable conflicts has risen in recent years particularly with the work of Daniel Bar-Tal’s work on the ethos of conflict. The ethos of conflict is an original psychological concept that captures the collective societal mindset of cultures locked in intractable conflicts and examines the various factors that keep groups in conflict or help them towards peace. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is arguably the most researched, publicized, and discussed intractable conflict in history. The purpose of this paper is to first examine the foundation of that intractable conflict through the lens of Bar-Tal’s theory and apply it once more how it has changed in the modern day. Particularly, this paper focuses on how the change in power structure in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has prioritized the different elements of the ethos of conflict differently for both sides. In the beginning of the conflict, both groups held equitable power that caused them to have similar manifestations of the ethos of conflict. Working with the foundation of Bar-Tal’s theory, this paper provides an analysis of how Israel’s rise to power in the conflict influences different prioritizations of the ethos of conflict for both parties.