Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 60, No. 2, 2004, pp. 437--452 Coexistence Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Evaluating Intergroup Encounter Interventions Between Jews and Arabs in Israel Ifat Maoz ∗ The Hebrew University of Jerusalem This article presents a paradigm of process evaluation of intergroup contact in- terventions that has two objectives: (a) to classify intergroup encounters by their ideology and (b) to define and apply criteria that evaluate the quality of intergroup interaction, focusing on symmetry between members of both groups in active par- ticipation in the encounter. This paradigm was applied to evaluate 47 encounters programs between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs that were classified into two major approaches—those that emphasize coexistence and similarities between the sides and those that emphasize conflict and confrontation. Equality in partici- pation of Jewish and Arab participants was found in the vast majority (89%) of programs. However, symmetry between Jewish and Arab facilitators varied and was higher in programs including confrontational elements. This article presents a paradigm for evaluating intergroup contact interven- tions that focuses on symmetry or equality in the interactions between the two groups in these encounters This paradigm is applied here to evaluate a sample of 47 different programs of planned encounters between Jews and Arabs in Israel that were conducted in the year 1999–2000 and supported by the Abraham Fund for Jewish-Arab coexistence. The first part of the article presents the conceptual ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Ifat Maoz, Department of Communication, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel [e-mail: msifat@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il]. This study is based on a larger research project invited and supported by the Abraham Fund, that supports a large part of the coexistence activities in Israel. I thank the Abraham Fund for the generous support that enabled this study. I thank Rona Refaeli, Summer Jaber, and Keren Wasserman for their help in conducting this study. I thank, also, the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, at the University of Pennsylvania, and especially Dr. Roy Eidelson and Dr. Clark McCauley for the sabbatical support, advice and encouragement while preparing the final drafts of this article. 437 C  2004 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues