Palestinian Arab Citizens Research Articles

How Symbolic Boundaries Shape the Experience of Social Exclusion

Symbolic boundaries, understood as the conceptual distinctions used to demarcate in-groups and out-groups, are fundamental to social inequality. While we know a great deal about how groups and individuals construct and contest symbolic boundaries along lines of class, race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, less attention is given to (a) national belonging as a component of symbolic boundaries distinct from citizenship and (b) comparing how distinct symbolic boundaries shape individuals perceptions of, and reactions to, instances of stigmatization and discrimination. To examine these issues we compared two marginalized groups in Israel, Arab Palestinian citizens and Ethiopian Jewish immigrants. Analyzing 90 in-depth interviews, we find that exclusion based on boundaries of nationality engenders different ways of interpretating and responding to stigmatizing and discriminatory behavior, compared with exclusion based on racial and ethnic boundaries. While Ethiopians see everyday stigmatizing encounters as part of their temporary position as a recently immigrated group from a developing country, and react accordingly with attempts to prove their worth as individuals and ultimately assimilate, Palestinians view the line between them and the Jewish majority as relatively impermeable and attempts to fully integrate as mostly useless, viewing solidarity and education as a means to improve their group’s standing.

Differences in State Anxiety Responses to Combat Pictures between Young Adult Israeli Jews and Israeli Palestinian Arabs

The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether the different political realities of Israeli Jewish citizens and of Israeli Palestinian Arab citizens had differential impacts on the situational anxiety elicited by video clips of military operations. The pictures were taken during the November 2012 Pillar of Defense military operation in Gaza and southern Israel. Participants included 75 (49 female) students at an Israeli college. Of these, 39 were Israeli Jews and 36 were Israeli Arabs. Participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983) and then watched a video clip containing combat pictures. After that they completed the State Anxiety Inventory again. The results showed no differences between Israeli Jewish participants and Israeli Palestinian Arab participants on trait anxiety. Analysis revealed a significant group (Israeli Jews/ Israeli Palestinian Arabs) X condition (before/after watching the video clip pictures) interaction effect. Before watching the video clip, the groups exhibited no difference in state anxiety. After watching the clip, the Israeli Palestinian Arab participants showed greater state anxiety compared with the Israeli Jews.

Arab integration in Jewish-Israeli social space: does commuting make a difference?

Urban research on segregation and integration has been dominated by an obsessive focus on ethno-racial residential patterns, obscuring the multidimensional facets of separation versus encounter that define contemporary urban experience. In this study, we develop an explicitly multidimensional theoretical perspective that relates segregation/integration not only to residential location, but also to daily activity spaces, social networks, transnational media and communications environments, and aspects of identity and sense of place. To disentangle residential location from other facets of segregation/integration, we use GPS and interview data to analyze the socio-spatial experiences of 60 Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel who live in ethnically homogenous Arab towns—divided equally between “localists” versus “commuters” who spend most of their daytime hours working in Jewish-Israeli spaces. While results highlight many important consequences of commuters’ long hours of daily exposure to Jewish urban mileux, daily activity spaces are only marginally associated with other dimensions of socio-spatial integration. Our analysis reveals evidence of complex relations amongst the multiple dimensions of segregation and integration. Partial integration on a few of these dimensions is insufficient to overcome the structural stratification of Arabs in contemporary Israeli society.

Cui Bono? Arabs, football and state

Arab football clubs have been playing in the Israeli football league since the establishment of the State of Israel (1948) and have continued to do so to date, with a few clubs in the premier league. While Arab football clubs expanded to almost every Arab village and town, football became highly popular among the Israeli Arabs. However, because of the Arabs’ minority status in Israel and the ongoing conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinians (also with certain Arab states) football assumed a definite instrumentality for the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. This paper deals precisely with this issue: what did/does football do for the Arabs in Israel? Who gained/gains from the existence and the participation of Arab clubs in the Israeli football league? Certain gains can definitively be discerned and divided into three levels: the individual player that benefited from socio-economic mobility, the local club that became a hub of ethnic-national identification for many residents, and the entire Arab community in Israel whose internal debate about self-identification was encouraged by football and was instrumental both for integration and protest regarding the State of Israel, which has been dominated by the Jewish majority.

The decline and fall of the Israeli Military Government, 1948–1966: a case of settler-colonial consolidation?

The term settler-colonialism has recently gained traction among scholars of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who use it to address all forms of Zionist ideology and practices. This article, however, benefits from a conceptual distinction between colonial and settler-colonial Zionist policies when assessing the first two decades of Israel's existence. During this period, Palestinian-Arabs who remained within the state borders were granted nominal citizenship. At the same time, the state also subjected the majority of this population to the Military Government, a form of martial law which suspended many of the rights and legal protections that citizenship afforded. The article considers Israel's various forms of right-granting, social-democratic tendencies, and liberal policies as the post-Nakba continuation of Zionist settler-colonial consolidation. Conversely, Israel's Military Government and other forms of discrimination the Palestinian-Arab citizens endured could be considered colonial institutions that existed in tension with the logic of settler-colonial consolidation. My claim is that when Israel, during its first two decades, slowly dismantled the Military Government, it effectively abandoned a colonial form of interaction with the Palestinian-Arabs and thereby inched toward consolidating the Zionist settler-colonial project. I begin my article with a short discussion on colonialism and settler-colonialism as linked yet distinct historical phenomena. Then I present the colonial features of the Military Government and explain why they inhibited settler-colonial consolidation. After setting the stage, I analyze the Jewish-Israeli discourse formulated against the Military Government and show that in fact Zionists clearly saw a Zionist interest in adopting a more liberal attitude toward the Palestinian-Arab citizens. Finally, I show how this Zionist perception took over Israel's highest decision-making circles leading to the abolishment of the Military Government.

Stateless citizenship: the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel

List of Figures Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Liberal Citizenship: Ambiguities and Inconsistencies Framing citizenship Theorizing citizenship Citizenship beyond the state Problematizing legal categorizations Racial state, racialized citizenship 2. The Israeli Incorporation Regime Colonizing the land of milk and honey A multifaceted discrimination Legislative level Formal and declarative levels Structural and institutional levels Mass protests of October 2000 Acre Riots of 2008 The 2008-2009 War on Gaza Criminalizing Arab Political Participation and Discourse Targeting Arab MKs: From Bishara to Zoabi Arab civil society: A non-state alternative Response to the rise of Arab civil society: The case of Ameer Makhoul Operative and budgetary level Israeli apartheid: Beyond South Africa 3. Israeli Hostipitality From hospitality to Derridean 'hostipitality' Oscillating between host and guest Israeli 'hostipitality' 4. Liberal Pretence of a Jewish State The UN Partition Plan of 1947 The principle of 'two states for two peoples' Israel as a 'state for all of its citizens' Rashid Bey: The de-Palestinianized Arab Zionist democracy in a comparative context Israeli demographobia Liberal rubber stamp for Israeli crimes 5. From Citizenship to Stateless Citizenship 'Israeli' and 'Palestinian' as incomplete identities Defining the 'Israeli' nation Research on Palestinians in Israel: An Overview Formulating Palestinian citizenship - Stateless citizenship 6. The Anatomy of Stateless Citizenship Knowing the terrain: From the exception to the example An exclusive inclusion A perpetual state of emergency Coexistence without existence Conclusion Appendix I: Selections from The Democratic Constitution by Adalah: Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (20 March 2007) Appendix II: Selections from The Haifa Declaration by Mada al-Carmel: The Arab Center for Applied Social Research (15 May 2007) References Index

Higher education abroad

Purpose – This study aims to expand the authors’ exploratory qualitative study, describing the characteristics of the flow of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel (PAI) to Jordanian higher education (HE) institutes as an alternative to HE studies in Israel (Jordanization).Design/methodology/approach – At this stage of the study, 460 PAI studying in six Jordanian universities answered a questionnaire indicating the factors that led them to seek HE in Jordan. Respondents’ comparisons between the Israeli and Jordanian HE systems were analysed.Findings – Results showed that Jordanian HE attracts PAIs for practical reasons: lenient acceptance policy and better chances to graduate, while cultural and linguistic similarities between the PAI and Jordanian societies are less influential. Israel's HE is attractive for financial reasons and employment qualification.Research limitations/implications – Future research should compare the absorption of these graduates of Jordanian universities in Israel's labour market w...

Surprising Alliances for Dwelling and Citizenship: Palestinian-Israeli Participation in the Mass Housing Protests of Summer 2011

Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, or Palestinian Israelis, are marginalized in a society based on Jewish nationalism, religion and ethnicity. While Israel witnessed numerous social struggles for equality and inclusion, none attempted to challenge Jewish nationalism as its core principle. The 2011 eruption of mass social unrest, the largest since the 1970s, focused on popular demands for housing as a basic right of citizenship. Indeed, protest started with a housing act: the creation of dozens of tent camps all over the country. Protesters called for a new polity based on housing, expressed by one of the movement’s symbols: an Israeli flag whose national/religious Star of David was replaced by a house. The right to housing was thereby proclaimed as the primary criterion for social inclusion. While the housing-based social movement initially puzzled Palestinian Israelis, tents soon appeared in Arab towns. Palestinian-Israeli participation proved significant, forming surprising alliances among social strata previously understood as irrevocably polarized. Examining the camps of Jaffa and Qalansuwa, this article looks into the history and implications of housing for Palestinian Israelis, and for Israeli society at large. Using Chantal Mouffe’s and Bruno Latour’s work, we ask: ‘Can dwelling be a strong enough ground for a citizenry-based polity?’

Public Silence and Latent Memories: Yitzhak Rabin and the Arab-Palestinian Citizens of Israel

This article examines how Yitzhak Rabin is remembered by Palestinian citizens of Israel by juxtaposing analysis of references to him in the Arabic press in Israel with analysis of three surveys among Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel from November 1995 until July 2008. The findings suggest the existence of a latent nostalgia for Rabin's second term as prime minister (1992-1995) as a period when being Israeli looked like a realistic option for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Paradoxically, the image of Rabin among the Arab citizens of Israel moved in opposing directions in each of the two spheres of memory examined. At the public level, the extensive and mostly sympathetic attention given by some Arab political actors before 2000 was transformed into silence in the post-2000 period. The individual-based surveys, however, showed that Rabin's image remained salient and the sympathy felt for him even increased.

Within and beyond citizenship: alternative educational initiatives in the Arab society in Israel

In recent years, Arab-Palestinian citizens in Israel are in search of ‘a new vocabulary of citizenship’, among other ways, by resorting to ‘alternative educational initiatives’. We investigate and compare three alternative schools, each challenging the contested conception of Israeli citizenship. Our findings reveal different educational strategies to become ‘claimants of rights’, yet all initiatives demonstrate the constraints Arab citizens face while trying to become ‘activist citizens’ (E.F. Isin, 2009. Citizenship in flux: the figure of the activist citizen. Subjectivity, 29 (1), 367–388.).

Al Jazeera invades Israel: Is satellite TV challenging the sovereignty of the nation state?

Abstract The pressures of economic, geopolitical and cultural globalization have challenged the sovereignty of nation states by weakening their ability to control and safeguard their citizens. The main focus of this study is to analyse the TV consumption habits of an ethno-national minority such as the Arab Palestinian community of Israel (the APCI) in a global media environment characterized by satellite TV from the Arab World. The main hypothesis, which was supported by this study, is that virtual satellite broadcasting from the Arab World has weakened the ties of this community to the Israeli nation state and strengthened their affiliation with external ethnic, religious and political groups and transnational or regional identities and cultures. This study attempted to explore their viewing habits and their attitude towards the minorities’ collective identity by interviewing a representative sample of Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel using a closed questionnaire. The main finding of this study is that the APCI are active media consumers (particularly TV) who are dissatisfied with the media from the State of Israel. Therefore, our research population spent less time consuming TV content from inside the state and more time consuming TV contents from the Arab World. Finally, this challenge of the sovereignty of the nation state was also reflected in a higher degree of trust and credibility assigned to TV from the Arab World as compared with TV coming from inside the State of Israel.

Screening science, producing the nation: popular science programs on Israeli television (1968–88)

From 1968 on, the state of Israel deployed television as a tool in the service of its ongoing project of reproducing the nation and as a propaganda tool that targeted the population of the newly occupied territories and the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. With the collaboration of the scientific elite, the televising of original popular science programs, aired on the sole government-controlled channel at prime time, contributed immensely to these projects. Through these programs, the state disseminated a specific image of the nation’s scientific prowess for popular consumption in the euphoric aftermath of the Six Day War. This article examines the first 20 years of the state’s projects, during which the grip of Zionist collectivism was still strong, the monopoly of the government-controlled channel was not yet challenged, and the programs enjoyed astonishingly high ratings. My examination focuses on the ideology and motivations of the producers; the ways in which the communication elite and the scientific elite, enjoying a position of hegemony, collaborated by disseminating the nation’s accomplishments in both the Arabic and Hebrew programs; and the actual content of the programs at large and specifically that of four episodes of Tazpit, the popular science program of the 1980s.

Two concepts of group rights for the Palestinian-Arab minority under Israel's constitutional definition as a "Jewish and democratic" state

The article identifies two distinct concepts of group rights in respect of the Palestinian-Arab minority that developed under Israel's constitutional definition as a “Jewish and democratic” state. One concept labeled as the “thin” concept pertains to the Palestinian-Arab minority as one national group, and a second concept labeled as the “thick” concept pertains to the Palestinian-Arab minority as a cluster of religious communities. In introducing these two concepts, the article also identifies the limits of recognizing the individual rights of Palestinian-Arab citizens when considered in light of these two concepts of group rights.

A Dangerous Divide: The Deterioration of Jewish-Palestinian Relations in Israel

This article examines the relations between Jewish and Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel since the of October when massive Arab protests and riots took place and thirteen Arab demonstrators were killed. In the decade since then Arab-Jewish relations have been characterized by growing mutual mistrust, fear, and hostility. Together with these negative attitudes, political polarization between the two communities has also increased. This poses a serious threat to Arab-Jewish coexistence in Israel and to Israeli democracy itself. In the first ten days of October as the so-called al-Aqsa Intifada got underway in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, massive demonstrations were held in Arab-populated areas throughout Israel. In the course of these demonstrations, Arab protesters blocked roads (including major highways and junctions), burned tires, and set fire to buildings such as post offices, banks, and gas stations. Some Arab youth threw stones (and in a few cases, firebombs) at cars, police vehicles, and policemen as well as at some Jewish civilians (one Jewish passerby was even killed). In trying to quell the demonstrations, police officers (including police snipers) fired tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and live ammunition. Thirteen Arab protesters (including a Palestinian from Gaza) were shot and killed by the police, and many more were injured. This was the single bloodiest event for Palestinian citizens of Israel since the Kfar Qassem massacre in 1956. violence of October 2000 was not restricted to clashes between the police and Arab demonstrators. In reaction to Arab rioting, in some mixed cities (i.e., cities with a large population of both Jews and Arabs) Jewish mobs attacked Arabs and Arab property, and violent clashes occurred between Jewish and Arab rioters. worst instance of Arab-Jewish violence took place in the town of Upper Nazareth. Jewish mobs responded to Arab rioting in the adjacent Arab town of Nazareth by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at Arab neighborhoods and damaging Arab-owned property in (predominantly) Jewish Upper Nazareth; and on October 8, hundreds of Jewish rioters faced off against about a hundred Arabs on two sides of the road separating Nazareth from Upper Nazareth. mobs exchanged insults and threw stones at each other. In the melee, two Arabs were killed and many injured. Never before in Israel's history had there been inter-communal violence on such a scale.1 Now over a decade later, the events of October 2000, as they became known, remain an unhealed wound. They are also a watershed, marking the beginning of a new period of escalating tension and hostility between Jewish and Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel.2 This article examines Jewish-Palestinian relations in Israel since the of October 2000. In it, I argue that the October 2000 represent a turning point in Jewish-Palestinian relations in Israel. While these relations have always been fragile and uneasy, in the decade since October 2000 they have seriously deteriorated and the ever-present rift between the Jewish and Palestinian communities in Israel has widened even further.3 Attitudes on both sides have hardened, mutual distrust has intensified, fear has increased, and political opinion has become more militant and uncompromising. 4 In the words of a report by the International Crisis Group: The sense of alienation among Palestinian citizens of Israel is mirrored on the Jewish side by the feeling that Arab Israelis are increasingly disloyal.5 Palestinian minority and the Jewish majority in Israel have been caught up in a negative spiral in which the suspicion, fear, and animosity of one intensifies the suspicion, fear, and animosity of the other. While the outcome of this negative spiral cannot be predicted, it clearly does not bode well for the future of Jewish-Palestinian coexistence in Israel. Palestinian Minority since Octo ber 2000 To this day, the of October 2000 stand out as the most visible and violent manifestation of the alienation, frustration, and discontent felt by many Palestinian citizens of Israel. …

The Nakba in Palestinian Memory in Israel

Changes in the international, regional and domestic arenas in the late 1990s resulted in discursive change with regard to interpretation of the Al Nakba in the political and civil societies of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. Apart from fuelling a discursive challenge to the Israeli dominant discourse about the 1948 events, this reinterpretation allowed the Palestinian Arab citizens to discuss the historical roots of the problems they experienced within the Israeli political and civil societal spheres. This article analyses the nature and significance of discursive change of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel on the Nakba by referring to its impact on their identity politics as well as their political and civil societal activities.

The Quest for Victory: Collective Memory and National Identification among the Arab-Palestinian Citizens of Israel

The interdependence of collective memory and national identification has become a widespread scholarly axiom. While the related literature recognizes the role of memories of victimization and heroic victories, this article illustrates the importance of a ‘semiotic balance’ between these two for the maintenance of national identification. The study is based on an individual-centered quantitative method, which has never been used to investigate the national identity—memory nexus before. Using a survey with a representative sample ( N = 530) of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, the association between individuals’ memories and national identification is examined. It was found that remembering a combination of victory and victimization is a better predictor of national identification than either theme separately. These findings indicate the crucial importance of a balanced mythical structure that includes both themes of victimization and triumph.

Entertainment and Stereotype: Representation of the Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel in Reality Shows on Israeli Television

The present study aims to gain an understanding of the patterns of representation and appearances of Palestinian citizens of Israel in the genre of reality shows in Israel. This genre has become extremely dominant in the television-broadcasting schedule. The mere fact that Arab people are visually present in TV entertainment, and in reality shows more specifically, should not lead us to conclude that Israeli TV is witnessing a move toward pluralism. It is important to examine the precise mode of representation of the “others.” That is to say: we must look at the visibility of Arab participants in those reality shows in which they appear (research question 1); how Arabs are represented in such programs (research question 2), and at the types of interaction between Arabs and other, Jewish-majority, participants in the program (research question 3). Content analyses were conducted for all reality shows broadcast on Israel's commercial TV channels between 2003 and 2007 that included Arab participants. Results show the reality show genre is still firmly ruled by a Jewish hegemony that represents the Palestinian Arab as the “other” and that the overwhelming majority of spectators are Jewish.

The Israeli Palestinian‐Arab Vision of Transforming Israel into a Binational Democracy

The idea of binationalism has risen anew as a result of several developments. It was invoked by the weakening of the nation-state which is identified with a single nation, a single language and a single culture. It was further stimulated by the ideology of multiculturalism that calls for the recognition of diversity and bestowal of cultural rights on cultural minorities. Transnationalism (i.e., activity of a certain nation in more than one country), facilitated by economic and political globalization, was an additional push. In the sphere of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the idea of binationalism rises as an option because of the political impasse and the spreading despair of the two-state solution. The Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel are also attracted to binationalism because they seek a radical remedy for their minority status in the Jewish state and fear lest the formation of a new Palestinian state alongside Israel will strengthen Israel’s Jewish-Zionist character and exacerbate their subordination. They are supported by a handful of post-Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.1 Four “Arab Vision Documents,” in which Paestinian-Arab elties in Israel state their views of the present and desirable status of the Arab minority and Israel’s character, were published from December 6, 2006 to May 15, 2007.2 They share the demands to establish an independent Palestinian state and to turn Israel into a binational democracy. The adoption of this option entails renunciation of three other possibilities: individualbased liberal democracy in Israel in its pre-1967 borders; a single individual-based liberal democracy in the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea; and a single binational state in the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The common denominator of these four options is the eradication of Israel’s nature as a Jewish state. The ensuing discussion will focus on the binational option, addressing the following questions: What kind of binational democracy do the Arab Vision Documents advocate? What can be learned from the international and historical record of binational regimes? Does the Arab minority, apart from the Arab elites, reject Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and is it ready to wage an intense struggle for a binational democracy? Does the Jewish majority accept any form of binational democracy and what would be its reaction if Arabs fight for this goal? Will the Palestinian Authority deny Israel as a Jewish state and back up Arab minority’s endeavor for recasting it into a binational democracy? Would the international community lend legitimacy and support to the idea and campaign for setting up a binational democracy in Israel within the Green Line? Is the related idea of one-state in all of Palestine/Land of Israel acceptable and realistic? What are the likely repercussions of the spread of the Arab Vision Documents? The discussion has two dimensions: scientific-empirical and ideological-normative. Although a comprehensive scrutiny of the issues requires elucidation of both dimensions, this paper is limited to the scientific-empirical dimension as much as possible.

The Perils of Separation: Fouzi El-Asmar's To Be an Arab in Israel as an Allegory of Settler Colonial Anxiety

This essay uses Fouzi El-Asmar's To Be an Arab in Israel as a point of departure to examine the plight of Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens since 1948, while also exploring the inherent contradictions within the logic and political economy of Zionism that situate Palestinians as a persistent and disturbing reminder of Israel's settler colonial aspirations. By taking inventory of the various ontological crises attending what it means to be a Palestinian living in Israel, as well as the historical vectors informing Zionism's various attempts to prevent the development of Palestinian civil society, Abraham argues that there are clear analogues between Palestinian and Jewish suffering. After completing a theoretical survey of the arguments informing defenses of, and apologies for, Israel's occupation of the West Bank and destruction of Gaza, Abraham turns to the ways in which the Holocaust has been used to shore up connections between Zionist and Jewish history. Finally, the essay turns to recent intellectual and media controversies attending comparisons between Israeli and South African apartheid, focusing on the attacks on Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. In conclusion, Abraham argues that the Israel-Palestinian conflict cannot be solved until Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens are recognized as equals with their Jewish brethren.

Cautious Commemoration: Localism, Communalism, and Nationalism in Palestinian Memorial Monuments in Israel

In March 1998, the political leadership of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel was looking for ways to commemorate al-Nakba (“The Disaster,” in Arabic), referring to the war of 1948, during which about 700,000 Palestinians were uprooted and hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed. This leadership, organized in the Follow-Up Committee (FUC), nominated a Nakba and Steadfastness Committee (NSC) chaired by the author Muhamad Ali Taha. Among the Committee's several initiatives, one gained front-page headlines in the Arabic media: a call for Arab municipalities to establish memorial monuments for the Palestinian martyrs (shuhada) of 1948.