Interreligious Dialogue and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: An Empirical View · 289This chapter explores the relevance of religiously based conflict reso-
lution efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the context of the de-
veloping area of religion and conflict management. The work will draw
primarily upon research and field efforts undertaken between 1994 and
September 2000. The goal will be to analyze micro processes and ex-
trapolate these dynamics toward macro processes including federal ap-
proaches to dialogue in the Middle East.
Religion and Conflict Management
The post–cold war world has seen a proliferation of ethnic conflicts as
documented in the literature and even the possible contours of intercivi-
lization conflict, as advanced by Samuel P. Huntington, which is deeply
related to the assertion of cultural identity, an assertion connected, partic-
ularly in the Middle East, to religious foundations.^2 Indeed, in a broader
way Robert J. Fisher has identified the centrality of cultural identity “as
reflecting the unique heritage and way of life of the people that is con-
trasted with other cultures.”^3 Clifford Geertz has emphasized the im-
portance of religion to society, and Huntington points to the critical link
between culture, religion, and civilization.^4
In underscoring the centrality of religion to culture in the Middle East,
it is important to recall that religious traditions explicitly or implicitly un-
derlie the collective ways of life and values of both Arabs and Jews, even
for many who may not follow strict religious observance in their personal
lives. Indeed, it is my assumption that religious culture is the direct or
at least implicit foundation of national identities among Arabs and Jews
in the Middle East in general and the parties to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict in particular.
Given the centrality of religion to identity and conflict in the Middle
East, it is vital to connect the role of religion in peacemaking in a variety
of ethno-national conflict venues, which is achieving scholarly recogni-
tion only fairly recently.^5 Indeed, work in this area has pointed to the
potential of religion to serve as an exacerbating as well as a moderating
influence on the attitudes of parties involved in intense interethnic con-
flict.^6 The key question to be addressed here is how religion can serve
as a factor contributing to the moderation of conflict as opposed to its
escalation.