Intercultural Friendship: The Case of a Palestinian Bedouin and a Dutch Israeli Jew

Book excerpt: Listen to the podcast about this book. In Intercultural Friendship: The Case of a Palestinian Bedouin and a Dutch Israeli Jew Daniel J.N. Weishut focuses on the interface between interculturality and friendship in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a literature study, the author describes the socio-cultural context of his boundary-crossing friendship in the realm of the Israeli occupation and then investigates it through the perspective of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The tremendous cultural differences as they appear are in line with Hofstede's theory for three of the value orientations but in the field of “uncertainty avoidance” they conflict with the theory. Challenges and opportunities in the friendship, and their implications for personal growth, among others, are illustrated by a series of intriguing stories of friendship.