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From Enemies To Friends: Personal Conflict Resolution At Imagine

Guidance and Training Center in Bethlehem, Palestine

Samuel Schwartz

University's extension in Netanya, Israel

Can individuals on opposing sides of an armed conflict become friends? Can such individual friendship serve as a basis for collective conflict resolution or moderation? This article begins by introducing the Aristotelian friendship types and evaluates how they might apply to a relationship between individuals hailing from opposing sides of an armed conflict. The article will then evaluate the genesis of the friendship between the article's authors, a Palestinian Muslim woman and an Israeli Jewish man, who met at the 2006 Imagine Conference and assess how their friendship compares to the models presented. The article concludes by attempting to reconcile individual friendship with a national—religious conflict that flares unabated. In this context, the authors consider the utility of building networks of friendships based on Aristotelian virtue. The hopeful hypothesis is that networks of such friendships can have a practical application in changing social and political structures in an effort to resolve the underlying conflict.

Key Words: Israelis • Palestinians • friendship • Imagine

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