Negotiation and Conflict Management Research From Co-existence to Shared Society: A Paradigm Shift in Intercommunity Peacebuilding Among Jews and Arabs in Israel Ran Kuttner 1,2 1 Peace and Conflict Management Studies, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel 2 Academic Advisor, Givat Haviva, Menashe, Israel Keywords Abstract shared society, dialogue, relational peacebuilding. The discourse regarding Jewish–Arab intercommunity peacebuilding pro- cesses is undergoing major changes in recent years, gradually shifting Correspondence from “coexistence” as the desired outcome to “shared society.” This arti- Ran Kuttner, Peace and Conflict cle suggests that this transition portrays a paradigm shift that should be Management Studies, University acknowledged and taken into account by peacebuilding activists and con- of Haifa, Haifa, Israel; e-mail: flict specialists. The first section describes various common understand-
[email protected]. ings of this shift in the context of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. [Correction added on 4 August Section two will describe the underpinnings of the paradigm shift from 2017, after first online publica- individualistic to relational understanding of the self and argue that this tion: Other author affiliation has shift is consistent with the wish for transition to “shared society” and to been added.] develop more dialogic frameworks of groups’ shared living. Section three will present a case study, the work of Givat Haviva, emphasizing the rela- tional premises that can be found in its methodology to cultivate a shared society among Jews and Arabs in Israel. Transitions: From Coexistence to Shared Society in Israeli Peacebuilding Efforts The discourse regarding Jewish–Arab intercommunity peacebuilding processes is undergoing major changes in recent years, gradually shifting from “coexistence” as the desired outcome to “shared society.” This shift derives from a disappointment in the vision of coexistence, realizing that this is a thin, unsatis- factory vision of a cohesive society (Salomon & Issawi, 2009).