The discourse of nation and culture: Its impact on Palestinian - Jewish encounters in Israel

The purpose of this study is to examine the discursive resources which shape national majority-minority rhetoric used in the context of the Nation State, as manifested in the case study of Arab-Jewish intergroup encounters in Israel. By discursive resources, I mean the deep-rooted cultural schemes that organize the way we interpret our environments in verbal communication. The research method adopted is qualitative and based mainly on discourse analysis of data gathered during Arab-Jewish encounters conducted in a university setting. The findings point to two prominent rhetorical patterns: one guided by the discourse of nation and the other guided by the discourse of culture. The interpretative work uncovers the discursive resources, which seem to guide and shape the encounters communicational exchange. The analysis sheds new light on the basic paradigmatic premises that sustain the difficulties encountered in this educational effort and suggests possible avenues for their amelioration.