ABSTRACT
This paper explores the relationship among contact, friendship, and peace educa tion. The context is contemporary Israel, but the theory is universally applicable. The conventional view of the topic is that peace educators can set up situations such as those alluded to by Daviri that foster contact and conversation between groups that begin with hostile views of one another. These situations then lead to better understanding and possibly to friendship, which in turn leads to the possibility of lessening of tension between the groups, and of perhaps eventually establish ing peace between them. Daviri now despairs of reaching understanding even among his friends in the academy. Other Arabs and Palestinians who developed
friendships with Israelis as a result of organized encounters or joint work on peace negotiations now publicly declare that they cannot face their former friends. Perhaps this is a good time for hand-wringing and cynicism. However, it is also an opportunity to carefully review the literature on friendships and social networks on the one hand, and the Allport (1954) "contact hypothesis" on the other to glean some insights into these phenomena.
