Jewish-Arab relations in Israel: a psychology of adolescence perspective

Jewish and Arab high school seniors (61 Jewish boys and 51 Jewish girls, 57 Arab boys and 49 Arab girls) participated in a study of future orientation and described their hopes and fears for the future. The present analysis focuses on part of the data pertaining to the respondents' cross-ethnic references. More Arab than Jewish adolescents referred to the other ethnic group. The cross-ethnic references contained hope for peace and fear of war; the Arab statements, however, also showed discontent with Israeli authorities. More Arab than Jewish adolescents referred to collective issues (the people, the state, the world). The percentage of Jewish and Arab adolescents concerned with Jewish-Arab relations relative to the number addressing other aspects of collective concerns were similar (12% for Jews and 16% for Arabs). For Jews, this small number was related to adolescents' egocentrism and for Arabs, to adolescents' ethnocentrism.