Palestinian children: a transformation of national identity in the Abbas era

Janette Habashi

doi:10.11143/fennia.71009

Abstract

The constant rendering of Palestinian national identity provides crucial insight not only to the current Palestinian community’s political status, but also to past and the future experiences. National identity echoes the intersectionality of history and local politics. For the last few decades, Palestinian national identity has been evolving with continuous alteration that encompasses local political discourse in the Palestinian community. Whereas it once embraced unity among different political ideologies, a shift occurred with Hamas election victory in 2006, which resulted in the division of the Palestinian community, whereby the Palestinian Authority, under Abbas leadership is ruling the West Bank, and Hamas is governing the Gaza Strip. This political tension has served to render national identity. Palestinian children echoed such politics in the construction of their national identity through their interpretation of personal experiences that are intertwined with current political events. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to show how Palestinian children articulated national identity in a post-Arafat/Abbas era, recognizing that national identity is not static.

Highlights

National identity serves to unite communities within nation-states, as it provides a sense of belonging and connection among people, despite never knowing, or meeting each other
In Palestine for example, national identity shifted with the local political reality, and emerged alongside the concept of nationalism that spread throughout Europe in the 20th century, as anti-Semitism fueled Zionism and the quest for a Jewish homeland (Tyler 2011)
National identity within the Al-Nakba era captured experiences of Zionist colonization, collective expulsions and international betrayal. It centered on pan-Arab ideology for the liberation of Palestine which failed. This is contrary to the Palestinian national identity during the AlNaksa era, though it was associated with the same sentiments of oppression and goals for liberation, as the establishment of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964 emphasized that the liberation of Palestine would achieve Arab unity, contrary to the initial phase of national identity

Summary

Introduction

National identity serves to unite communities within nation-states, as it provides a sense of belonging and connection among people, despite never knowing, or meeting each other. Global politics of the 20th century shaped the colonization of Palestine, aiding in the formation of a unique national identity that is embedded in collective and individual accounts of oppression and expulsion Such narratives of colonization did not dissipate but were reconstructed according to different local political realities. Within the first Intifada era, religion as a part of national identity was profoundly expressed and manifested in local politics, as Hamas remained the only political party in Palestine that did not join the PLO, due partially to ideological differences regarding secularism in Palestinian society, and largely to its perception on the existence of an Israeli state (Tuastad 2013).

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