Using arts as a contact method in group work with latency age Arab and Jewish youth in Israel

Cultivating a positive interaction between two groups of youth, Arabs and Jews, based on joint activity was found to reduce hostility, prejudice, and separation, so that over time these destructive feelings were replaced by cooperation, friendship, and good neighborliness. Doing something positive together, setting and reaching a positive goal outside the issue of the conflict helped to reduce conflict between the groups and increase harmony between them.

The arts are an action-based method that focuses on ‘doing’ rather than verbal interaction, and as such was an excellent tool to apply in group work with participants in the age of latency. The arts also make it possible to approach conflicting issues indirectly, using symbols and metaphors. This chapter will outline the successes and failures of a project carried out with 3 groups of Bedouin-Arab and Jewish youth of the Negev area in Israel. There were 10 sessions in each group, based around producing a joint work of art. The group work was accompanied by qualitative research and the data were analyzed thematically. This chapter will discuss the case study, highlighting the complexity of creating these encounters and their value as well as pitfalls in order to illuminate the methodological and theoretical dilemmas of this type of encounter groups with young adolescents. In addition the chapter highlights how art created a transformation and social impact on the youth who took part in the project.