Organized encounters between Arab and Jewish students as a means of education for coexistence are questioned vis-à-vis the recent politicization of Arabs who are Israeli citizens, and the subsequent shift in their self-identity from “Israeli Arabs” to Palestinians. A survey of 268 seventh grade Arab students in seven segregated and mixed Jewish-Arab communities reveals that their perceptions of Jews and of their own deprivation are determined by their political self-identity rather than by earlier contact with Jews. These perceptions further influence their readiness to associate with Jewish children. Concluding that the contact hypothesis may not enhance interethnic relations in situations of political conflict, we suggest that the school system shift its focus from students' encounters to curricular programs dealing directly with the conflict issues.

This article addresses ethical dilemmas linked to using in-depth interviews while researching blended families in Israel, mainly during the analysis phase and while getting interviewees' final written approval, prior to publication. Amongst the dilemmas presented are: should we publish statements that we thought might harm the interviewee even though we got their approval? Or those including pejorative statements on members of the interviewee's extended family who weren't asked for consent as they weren't interviewed? We bring several types of changes our interviewees requested and demonstrate how we responded, not always successfully. Finally, we rethink dilemmas related to the complex issues of confidentiality and consent and raise questions-still open-these dilemmas generate. We discuss our own frustrations vis-à-vis the power vested with our interviewees that might affect the quality of any research when too many requests for substantial changes are done as a precondition for a written approval.

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