Intercultural Dialogue as a Means for Building Mutual Trust: the Role of Civil Society

The paper addresses the complex and, in some cases, paradoxical relation between intercultural dialogue and trust-building with a specific focus on joint Israeli-Palestinian civil society dynamics that are intended as a crucial case-study to analyse trust-building in the most instable area of the Euro-Mediterranean space. The paper argues that, under specific conditions, intercultural dialogue is both an effective tool to build trust among people in situation of intractable conflict and an essential prerequisite for the development of succesful intercultural dialogue initiatives and policies. Civil society organisations and networks, as the paper claims, play the central, driving role in both contexts.