Intergroup Contact and Well-Being under Military Occupation: The Case of Hebron

Swiss partners

• UNIL: Eva G. T. Green (main applicant)

 MENA partners

• Birzeit University: Mai Albzour (main applicant)

Other partners

• UNIGE: Sandra Penić, Simon Hug

Presentation of the project

Since October 2023, military operations and settlement expansion in the West Bank have intensified, with Hebron among the most affected cities. Dense networks of checkpoints, barriers, and settlements fragment neighborhoods, restrict mobility, and expose residents to repeated and often involuntary encounters with armed soldiers and settlers. While the psychological consequences of direct physical violence are well documented, far less is known about how the built environment of military occupation shapes everyday well-being through chronic, structural forms of harm. 

This project examines how proximity to occupation infrastructure - particularly checkpoints, barriers, and settlements - affects psychological well-being among Palestinians living in Hebron. Building on emerging evidence and Palestinian scholarship on structural violence, it tests whether negative intergroup contact constitutes a key mechanism linking these physical structures to psychological harm. Whereas classic intergroup contact research has emphasized the benefits of contact under conditions of equality, encounters in Hebron often occur under extreme power asymmetries and may involve surveillance, coercion, humiliation, and anticipatory stress, making them a distinct and cumulative source of psychological strain. 

Hebron provides a uniquely informative setting for this analysis. Its division into the H1 and H2 areas generates substantial variation in exposure to occupation infrastructure, enabling fine-grained comparisons across neighborhoods and everyday mobility routes. Using a mixed-methods design, the project combines qualitative interviews with Palestinian residents and community stakeholders, a representative survey, and geo-spatial data on occupation infrastructure. This integrated approach captures both lived experiences of the local community and population-level patterns, while allowing rigorous measurement of individual exposure to structural constraints.

By conceptualizing occupation infrastructure as a chronic driver of psychological harm and identifying negative intergroup contact as an empirically testable pathway, the project advances research on structural violence, intergroup relations, and mental health in conflict settings. The findings will be relevant to interdisciplinary scholarship, local stakeholders, human rights advocacy, and policy debates on the long-term psychological consequences of conflict infrastructure.