Perception of the minority's collective identity and voting behavior: the case of the Palestinians in Israel

The author investigated how Palestinian (n = 130) and Jewish (n = 153) Israeli university students perceived the collective identity of the Palestinian minority in Israel. The Palestinian and Jewish respondents perceived the "identity space" of the minority as linear, or bipolar, with 1 pole defined by the national (Palestinian) identity and the other defined by the civic (Israeli) label. The Palestinian respondents defined their collective identity in national (Palestinian, Arab) and integrative (Israeli-Palestinian) terms; the Jewish respondents perceived the minority's identity as integrative (Israeli-Palestinian). Different political outlooks among Palestinian respondents were related to their identification with the civic (Israeli) identity but not to their identification with the national (Palestinian) identity. In contrast, different political outlooks among Jewish respondents were related to their inclusion, or exclusion, of the national (Palestinian) component in their definition of the minority's identity. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of a minority acculturation model (J. Berry, J. Trimble, & E. Olmedo, 1986).     

Psychological Correlates of Support for Compromise: A Polling Study of Jewish-Israeli Attitudes toward Solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

A representative national sampling of Israeli Jewish adults (n = 550) reported attitudes toward solutions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that were salient in Israeli public discourse in 2002. Negative attitudes toward compromise were associated with zero-sum threat perceptions of the conflict with Palestinians, such that improvement for the Palestinian side can only come at the expense of the Israeli side. Positive attitudes toward compromise were associated with feelings of sympathy toward Palestinians, but, surprisingly, attitudes toward compromise were not associated with feelings of fear toward Palestinians. The possibility is advanced that it is fear of harm to the group, not fear of harm to self and family, that is related to willingness to compromise. Zero-sum perceptions of collective threat were not strongly related to affective reactions, and, contrary to a realist analysis of intergroup conflict, sympathy for Palestinians predicted support for compromise beyond what zero-sum perceptions of threat could predict.     

National Days,National Identity,and Collective Memory: Exploring the Impact of Holocaust Day in Israel

This study uses the case of Holocaust Day in Israel to examine the premise that national days impact national identity and collective memory. Specifically, the study examines whether a very unique type of national day—Holocaust Day—impacts national identification, nationalism, and collective memory in the form of Israeli Jews' perceptions of the “lessons” of the Holocaust. This study uses panel survey design data on national identity and perceptions of the Holocaust's lessons from the same sample of Israeli Jews (N = 665) collected two months prior to Holocaust Day and again during and after Holocaust Day. During and after Holocaust Day, respondents expressed increased levels of nationalism and more perceptions of both particularistic and universalistic Holocaust lessons. Participation in Holocaust Day practices had a stronger relationship with nationalism and national identification during Holocaust Day than before but a weaker relationship with the perception of a universalistic lesson during Holocaust Day. These findings indicate that Holocaust Day impacts national identity and collective memory and highlights the multifaceted nature of the relationships between national identity, collective memory, and national days. The theoretical implication of the findings as well as the case comparability are discussed in light of the findings.     

Alternative Measures of American National Identity: Implications for the Civic‐Ethnic Distinction

Studies of national identity distinguish between ethnic and civic nations and have sought to identify these alternative conceptions of national identity in public opinion. The standard measurement technique is to assess the normative content of American national identity by asking survey respondents to rate the importance of particular traits for making someone a “true” American. We argue that such measures are problematic, chiefly because of the impact of nonrandom measurement error. We explore the influence of using ranking measures instead of ratings, using a survey experiment conducted on a nationally representative sample of Americans in 2008. The ranking method is superior for distinguishing between ethnic and civic conceptions of nationhood and, therefore, for predicting preferences on issues such as immigration policy. We develop a new statistical method that effectively “converts” ratings into scores that approximate rankings, resulting in the creation of more valid measures of both ethnic and civic national identities.     

The ironic effect of national identification on support for collective action

Previous research has suggested that dual and superordinate identities are not only prerequisites of collective action among minority group members but they can also be associated with greater acceptance of the ingroup's disadvantaged position. In this three‐wave study among Ingrian Finnish migrants from Russia to Finland (N=153_T1?85_T3), we tested the indirect association between superordinate national identification (T1) and support for collective action (T3), via perceived permeability of group boundaries (T2). Support for collective action was operationalized as one's personal willingness, and the perceived need of the Russian‐speaking community, to engage in it. When controlling for the direct association between Russian minority identification and support for collective action, perceived permeability was shown to mediate the negative association between Finnish national identification and support for community's collective action. Thus, being close to the majority may make immigrants perceive group boundaries as more permeable and be less inclined to improve their group's position.     

Identity Conflict or Compatibility: A Comparison of Muslim Minorities in Five European Cities

Drawing on large‐scale comparative surveys across nine sociopolitical contexts, we address the question when and why ethno‐religious and city or national identities of European‐born Muslims are in conflict. We argue that the sociopolitical context makes the difference between identity compatibility or conflict and that conflict arises from perceived discrimination and related negative feelings towards the national majority. Using multigroup structural equation modelling, we examine how Turkish and Moroccan Muslims in five European cities combine their civic membership of the city and country of residence—as common identities shared with the national majority—with distinct ethnic and religious identities. In all sociopolitical contexts, participants combined significant city and national identities with strong ethnic and religious identifications. Yet, identification patterns varied between contexts from conflict (negatively correlated minority and civic identities) over compartmentalization (zero correlations) to compatibility (positive correlations). Muslims who perceived more personal discrimination were more committed to their ethnic and religious identities while simultaneously dis‐identifying from their country and city. Across cities, discrimination experiences and negative majority‐group evaluations explained away identity conflict.     

Palestinian Liberation Theology: Creative Resistance to Occupation

The ongoing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories has widely affected the Christian population in the region. This study focuses narrowly on the diminishing minority of Palestinian Christians, and how their position under occupation has led to the development of Palestinian Liberation Theology and practices of creative resistance. It begins by acknowledging the unique position of Palestinian Christians as liminal yet indigenous members of society. It then explores their complex collective identity, demonstrating how specific facets of their historic identity (i.e. denominationalism, Arabism, and political station) have been preserved, and how these inform their theological and practical responses to the changing socio-political landscape. It goes on to probe the degree of consensus around Palestinian Liberation Theology, as well as prominent manifestations of the ideology in response to occupation. Ultimately, this study finds that Palestinian Liberation Theology represents a creative and valuable contribution to the national struggle for liberation, providing a shared ideology and culturally specific blueprint for revolutionary collective action guided by plurality, nonviolence, and collaboration.     

The Complexity of Ethnic Identity Among Jewish American Emerging Adults

Jewish Americans may grapple with issues of ethnic identity differently than the larger White American group. Drawn from a large multisite sample (N = 8,501), 280 Jewish American (207 female, 73 male) emerging adults were compared with White American and ethnic minority samples on ethnic and U.S. identity. Jewish Americans rated themselves as significantly higher on measures of ethnic and U.S. identity compared with White Americans but not as highly as ethnic minorities. Ethnic identity search, affirmation, and resolution also predicted higher self-esteem for Jewish Americans, similar to the pattern for other ethnic groups. In addition, ethnic identity search and affirmation moderated the link between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among Jewish Americans.     

Are your cross‐ethnic friends ethnic and/or national group identifiers? The role of own and perceived cross‐ethnic friend's identities on outgroup attitudes and multiculturalism

We investigated how own ethnic and national identities and perceived ethnic and national identities of close cross‐ethnic friends may predict outgroup attitudes and multiculturalism among Turkish (majority status, N = 197) and Kurdish (minority status, N = 80) ethnic group members in Turkey (M_age = 21.12, SD = 2.59, 69.7% females, 30.3% males). Compared with Turkish participants, Kurdish participants were more asymmetrical in rating their cross‐ethnic friend's identities relative to their own, reporting higher ethnic identity, but lower national identity for themselves. Own ethnic identity was negatively associated with attitudes and multiculturalism, whereas own national identity was positively associated with only attitudes. Perceived cross‐ethnic friend's national identity was positively related to both outgroup attitudes and multiculturalism. Shared national identification (high levels of own and friend's national identity) led to most positive outgroup attitudes and highest support for multiculturalism. Findings were discussed in the light of social identity and common ingroup identity models.     

Multi‐group acculturation orientations in a changing context: Palestinian Christian Arab adolescents in Israel after the lost decade

Grounded in a contextual approach to acculturation of minorities, this study examines changes in acculturation orientations among Palestinian Christian Arab adolescents in Israel following the “lost decade of Arab–Jewish coexistence.” Multi‐group acculturation orientations among 237 respondents were assessed vis‐à‐vis two majorities—Muslim Arabs and Israeli Jews—and compared to 1998 data. Separation was the strongest endorsed orientation towards both majority groups. Comparisons with the 1998 data also show a weakening of the Integration attitude towards Israeli Jews, and also distancing from Muslim Arabs. For the examination of the “Westernisation” hypothesis, multi‐dimensional scaling (MDS) analyses of perceptions of Self and group values clearly showed that, after 10 years, Palestinian Christian Arabs perceive Israeli Jewish culture as less close to Western culture, and that Self and the Christian Arab group have become much closer, suggesting an increasing identification of Palestinian Christian Arab adolescents with their ethnoreligious culture. We discuss the value of a multi‐group, multi‐method, and multi‐wave approach to the examination of the role of the political context in acculturation processes.     

Alignment with globalized Western culture: Between inclusionary values and an exclusionary social identity

Reactions to globalized Western culture (GWC) are influential in shaping intergroup relations and social issues worldwide. GWC is conceptualized here as an inclusionary cultural value system but a simultaneously exclusionary social identity. Whereas GWC's inclusive values may promote the civil liberties and fair treatment of gay people, for instance, as a social identity, groups may use their alignment with GWC to buttress ingroup superiority over less aligned outgroups. Three studies (one correlational and two experimental in design) probe these opposing vectors in samples of Jewish‐Israelis, who are generally highly aligned with GWC. Results demonstrate that GWC alignment is associated with decreased anti‐gay prejudice (Studies 2 and 3) but exclusionary responses towards Arab individuals and groups (Studies 1, 2, and 3), who are perceived to be less aligned with GWC. Conducted during the 2014 Israeli‐Palestinian war, Study 3 notably demonstrated that a GWC identification prime reduced Jewish‐Israelis' willingness to offer humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in need. This may suggest that in some contexts, GWC's divisive function as a social identity supersedes its more inclusionary humanistic values. These contrary effects of GWC alignment by social target are discussed, alongside their implications on national, regional, and international levels.     

Sailing Through Troubled Waters: Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land

For many people the names "Arab Christians" and "Palestinian Christians" seem to be oxymoronic. Christianity was, however, born in the Middle East, in a little town called Bethlehem. This article explores the ways in which Palestinian Christians, a minority group in both Palestine and Israel, relate to both Jews and Muslims in Palestine and Israel. Though there is no covert persecution of Palestinian Christians, they face the same trials as other Arabs and Muslims in Palestine, due to the current policies and actions of the Israeli government and to the current "war on terrorism." In fact, Christians in Palestine become easy targets for both those enraged by and supportive of the US declaration of war. At the same time, they offer the world an example of healthy Christian–Muslim relations. Perhaps too, Palestinian Christians can be the bridge between the Jewish and Muslim communities in the Holy Land.     

The international student sojourn,identity conflict and threats to well-being

ABSTRACT

This article reports findings from a qualitative (interview) study of the identity conflict experienced by five international students at a university in the south of England for whom real and perceived challenges to national self-image were shown to be unsettling. The article suggests that our cultures of origin are centrally important to our private and personal sense of self and it argues that counsellor educators and counsellors need to understand their students' and clients' emotional and behavioural problems in the context of their cultural identities. In this research, there was a strong emotional response to threats to collective identity, which appeared to be influenced by both the degree of students' cultural identification and their country's global standing. The following themes were generated from a thematic analysis and capture the essence of student responses to perceived derogation of their national identity: re-identifying with the culture of origin; allying with the West; resisting the discourse of western supremacy; and acquiescence with stigma. Of importance to all participants' perceptions of derogation was their location in the western world.     

Palestinian Autobiographical Memory Regarding the 1948 Palestinian Exodus

Background : Collective memory of intractable conflict is an important sociopsychological phenomenon which influences the psychological and behavioral reactions of each party to the conflict. This memory is composed of two kinds of memories: autobiographical memory—the memory of the people who experienced the given events directly—and indirect‐collective memory—the memory of the people who learned about the given events second hand, via books, etc. Purpose : This study explores the characteristics of Palestinian autobiographical memory with respect to the causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus and how it relates to other Palestinian memories of that exodus (official, historical/academic, and indirect‐collective). From these empirical findings, theoretical insights are concluded. Method : This is done by analyzing the content of four oral history projects of 1948 Palestinians refugees (in total, 131 interviewees from 38 localities). In addition, the content of these projects is compared to the accounts of documented Israeli history (using the research of Israeli historian Benny Morris). Studies of the other Palestinian memories are also used. Findings : The findings reveal that the Palestinian autobiographical memory is not a typical memory of conflict (e.g., with relatively low focus on the expulsion cause for the exodus). It is also compatible to a large degree with documented Israeli history. However, it is very different from other Palestinian memories of the exodus (official, historical/academic, and indirect‐collective), which focus almost exclusively on the expulsion cause. Other empirical findings and their explanations are discussed. The findings have mostly theoretical implications regarding various kinds of memories of conflicts (and memories in general), as well as some methodological implications with regard to the usage of oral history.     

“Victims” Versus “Righteous Victims”: The Rhetorical Construction of Social Categories in Historical Dialogue Among Israeli and Palestinian Youth

Informed by social identity theory and a rhetorical approach to the study of social category construction in social interaction, this study analyzed the nature and function of participant utterances in two conditions of intergroup dialogue about history between Israelis and Palestinians. Across conditions that sought to either emphasize recategorization into a common in‐group identity or subcategorization into mutually differentiated identities, Palestinian and Arab Israeli utterances primarily reflected the theme of victimization, while Jewish Israeli utterances primarily reflected themes of justification and victimization. The way in which these utterances produced social competition for victim and perpetrator roles and reproduced master historical narratives of Palestinian victimization versus Jewish Israeli “righteous” victimization is illustrated. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of narrative and rhetoric about social categories in settings of intractable political conflict, and implications for dialogue‐based intervention about history are addressed.     

Premigration ethnic and national identities: Jewish adolescents planning emigration from Russia and Ukraine to Israel

The ethnic and national identities of Jewish high‐school adolescents planning emigration from Russia and Ukraine to Israel were investigated about six months before their emigration. The national identities of adolescent emigrants (n = 243) were compared with those of non‐emigrant Russian and Ukrainian adolescents (n = 740). The emigrants’ attitude to their country of origin was less positive and their identification with Russians and Ukrainians was weaker as compared with the non‐emigrant adolescents. In addition, the attitude of the emigrants towards Israel was more positive than their attitude to Russia or Ukraine. Finally, the emigrants’ strongest identification was with the Jewish people, followed by identification with Israelis, while their weakest identification was with Russians and Ukrainians. Israeli and Jewish identities of the emigrant adolescents were positively correlated, and they were independent of the Russian and Ukrainian identities. Perceived discrimination was negatively correlated with the emigrants’ attitude to Russia or Ukraine, and it was positively correlated with the emigrants’ identification with Israelis and with the Jewish people. Jewish ethnicity was correlated with identification with Jewish people; however, it was not correlated with any component of the Israeli or Russian/Ukrainian identities. The study results indicate that in the premigration period emigrants form a multidimensional system of ethnic and national identities, which reflects their partial detachment from their homeland and affiliation with the country of provisional immigration. This premigration identity system may be termed “anticipatory” (cf. Merton, 1968), because it is not based on real contact with the country of provisional immigration, but rather on the emigrants’ expectations. On the other hand, the premigration identities are reactive, in the sense that they reflect the emigrants’ reaction to the perceived discrimination they experience in their country of origin. The results of the present study are discussed in light of social identity theory.     

From Working Through the Holocaust to Current Ethnic Conflicts: Evaluating the TRT Group Workshop in Hamburg

The TRT (To Reflect and Trust) approach of bringing together descendants of Holocaust survivors and descendants of Nazi perpetrators relies on group dialogues in which participants share their personal life stories, thereby enabling them to reflect on their personal and collective histories as victims and victimizers. This process was initiated and led by the second author—an Israeli psychologist and a specialist in group processes—in the context of the socially and historically contextualized approach to group interventions that he has developed. The present study describes a new phase of the TRT group that brought together, in the framework of a workshop, professionals from South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Israel and the Palestinian Authority—all of whom were working with victims and victimizers in current conflicts. Our question was whether the TRT process, using methods of storytelling to address a past catastrophe of human making, could help the professionals who try to help other people move out of current conflicts into peace-building. We found that the TRT storytelling approach facilitates the working through of current ethnic conflicts. Participants' responses to the workshop indicated the importance of the storytelling process and of the emotional support provided by the TRT group members. We focus here on the special significance of the group process between Germans, Jews, and Palestinians, which emerged as highly significant for the Jewish participants in their efforts to reconcile being both victims and victimizers (within two separate historical contexts: German/Jewish and Israeli/Palestinian).     

Portrayal of the Other in Palestinian and Israeli Schoolbooks: A Comparative Study

The present study examined how Israelis and Palestinians present their narratives related to their conflict in school textbooks used by the state educational system and the ultraorthodox community in Israel and by all Palestinian schools in Palestinian National Territories. The focus was on how each side portrays the Other and their own group. The content analysis was based on a developed conceptual framework and standardized and manualized rating criteria with quantitative and qualitative aspects. The results showed in general that (1) dehumanizing and demonizing characterizations of the Other are rare in both Israeli and Palestinian books; (2) both Israeli and Palestinian books present unilateral national narratives that portray the Other as enemy, chronicle negative actions by the Other directed at the self‐community, and portray the self‐community in positive terms with actions aimed at self‐protection and goals of peace; (3), there is lack of information about the religions, culture, economic and daily activities of the Other, or even of the existence of the Other on maps; (4) the negative bias in portrayal of the Other, the positive bias in portrayal of the self, and the absence of images and information about the Other are all statistically significantly more pronounced in Israeli Ultra‐Orthodox and Palestinian books than in Israeli state books.     

Religion,Statelessness, and Belonging

Before 1948, and stretching back more than 1800 years, the Jewish people suffered all the problems of statelessness. The Zionist movement, 1897–1948, strove to end the condition of Jewish exile and statelessness. The great historical irony and tragedy is that the establishment of the State of Israel brought about the Nakba, the catastrophe, of the Palestinian people. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians see themselves as the victims of the conflict. They seem to be competitors in what I call a “suffering sweepstakes.” One of the problems with victimhood is that it prevents victims from assuming responsibility for their actions, including the victimization of others. In the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, both sides are victims and both sides are victimizers. The least helpful thing people can do – and regrettably many well‐meaning people do this – is to portray the situation in terms of a zero‐sum game, in which, if you’re pro‐Palestinian, you must be anti‐Israeli, and vice versa. We must be both pro‐Palestinian and pro‐Israeli, because we are pro‐people and, therefore, pro‐peace. The achievement of peace necessitates a two‐state solution based on some recognition of the two narratives. The best fulfilment of Zionism will come when there is a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.