Acculturation orientations towards Israeli Arabs and Jewish immigrants in Israel

The State of Israel can be characterized as having two integration policies: an assimilationist one towards “valued” Jewish immigrants and a somewhat ethnist one towards its “devalued” national minority, namely Israeli Arabs. Using the Host Community Acculturation Scale (HCAS), this study explored Jewish undergraduate (N = 153) acculturation orientations towards “valued” Jewish immigrants of Russian and Ethiopian background and towards “devalued” Israeli Arabs. Results showed that Jewish undergraduates mainly endorsed the integrationism and individualism acculturation orientations towards Jewish immigrants. However, they were more segregationist and exclusionist towards Israeli Arabs than towards Jewish immigrants of Russian and Ethiopian background. Assimilation was weakly endorsed towards both Jewish immigrants and Israeli Arabs. Based on an extensive questionnaire, multiple regression analyses showed that each acculturation orientation had a distinct psychological profile. The integrationism and individualism orientations were endorsed by undergraduates who were tolerant towards ethnic diversity, felt secure personally, culturally, and militarily, and did not endorse the social dominance orientation (SDO). In addition to not feeling threatened by the presence of Israeli Arabs, integrationists and individualists were identified as secular Israelis and Labour Party sympathizers rather than as religious Jews. In contrast, the assimilationism, segregationism, and exclusionism orientations were endorsed by undergraduates who felt insecure personally, religiously, culturally, and militarily, who tended to be less tolerant towards ethnic diversity, and who were more prone to endorse the SDO. In addition to feeling threatened by Israeli Arabs, they avoided close relations with Russian and Ethiopian immigrants. Segregationists and exclusionists were identified mainly as Jewish nationals. Orthodox Jews, and as Likud Party sympathizers. Exclusionists were distinctive in also feeling threatened by the presence Jewish immigrants of Russian and Ethiopian background. While taking into consideration the context of intergroup relations in Israel, results are discussed using the Interactive Acculturation Model (Bourhis, Moïse, Perreault, & Senecal, 1997).     

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.     

Jewish-Arab relations in Israel: a psychology of adolescence perspective

Jewish and Arab high school seniors (61 Jewish boys and 51 Jewish girls, 57 Arab boys and 49 Arab girls) participated in a study of future orientation and described their hopes and fears for the future. The present analysis focuses on part of the data pertaining to the respondents' cross-ethnic references. More Arab than Jewish adolescents referred to the other ethnic group. The cross-ethnic references contained hope for peace and fear of war; the Arab statements, however, also showed discontent with Israeli authorities. More Arab than Jewish adolescents referred to collective issues (the people, the state, the world). The percentage of Jewish and Arab adolescents concerned with Jewish-Arab relations relative to the number addressing other aspects of collective concerns were similar (12% for Jews and 16% for Arabs). For Jews, this small number was related to adolescents' egocentrism and for Arabs, to adolescents' ethnocentrism.     

Determinants of Readiness for Out-group Social Contact: Dominance Relations and Minority Group Motivations

Findings that members of minorities are more ready for social contact with members of dominant groups than vice versa have been attributed to a motivation of minorities to integrate into the larger society. We theorize that minorities hold opposing motivations—to integrate vs. to maintain unique group identity—the balance of which determines readiness for out-group contact. Study 1 examined readiness for out-group contact among three groups of Israeli teachers—Jews (dominant group), Muslim Arabs, and Christian Arabs (minorities). According to sociohistorical analyses, Muslim Arabs are more activated to maintain uniqueness and less motivated to integrate than are Christian Arabs. Study 2 examined recent Russian immigrants to Israel (minority) and veteran Israelis (dominant). Individual differences in motivation to integrate vs. maintain minority group identity were measured among immigrants. In both studies, the balance of motivations predicted minority group readiness for contact with the dominant group.     

Dilemmas and strategies in the counselling of Jewish and Palestinian Arab children in Israeli schools

Jewish and Palestinian Arab school counsellors in Israel face increasing demands to respond to the challenges posed by the current armed conflict in the region. In semi-structured interviews, 37 Jewish and Palestinian Arab counsellors were asked about their views regarding the role of the educational system and of counsellors vis-à-vis the ongoing conflict. While all respondents argue that schools and counsellors need to address the conflict and its consequences, Palestinian Arabs and Jews differed in their views as to the appropriate strategies and foci. Major dilemmas emerging from the counsellors’ reports are discussed.     

Christian versus Muslim employment in Mandatory Palestine

During the British Mandate in Palestine, there existed among the majority Muslim Arab population a perception that the British favoured Christian Arabs for administrative positions. While such a preference was arguably justifiable during the early years of the Mandate, inasmuch as Christian Arabs were initially more qualified from an educational standpoint, over the ensuing years, the number of Muslim youths with a suitable, secular-based education very quickly increased. There nonetheless persisted a perception of Christian favouritism – that is, that Christians still enjoyed preferential treatment with respect to government employment – and this soon came to define a significant Muslim grievance, one that would periodically prove divisive between Muslim and Christian Arabs, not least within the context of the Palestinian nationalist movement. This article seeks to ascertain whether, on the basis of a statistical analysis of the actual numbers of Muslim and Christian Arabs employed by the British Mandatory government and their respective educational qualifications, Christian Arabs did in fact constitute a privileged group. Also considered (in light of certain sociological concepts regarding group and national identity) are the ramifications of such a perception – regardless of whether reflective of the actual reality – with respect to Muslim–Christian unity, the shaping of Palestinian Arab national identity and the relationship between Arab national identity and Islam.     

Rejecting Sectarianism: Palestinian Christians' Role in Muslim–Christian Relations

The study of Muslim–Christian relations often focuses on Islamic theology and Muslim behavior while overlooking the role that Christians play in shaping interreligious encounters. This article examines a series of historical examples from various periods of Palestinian history that highlight Arab Christians' insistence that they were Palestinian Arabs first and were fully engaged in the nationalist movement. Palestinian Christians' approach to local politics, even in the face of interreligious conflict, allowed them to maintain far better relations with Muslims than Arab Christians in some neighboring Arab countries. By way of comparison, the article highlights the Druze's acceptance of a unique communal relationship to the Zionist leadership and later, to the state of Israel. The article concludes that, while modern Islamism presents a challenge to minority Christian groups, historical examples suggest that Christians' actions have a profound impact on the nature of Christian–Muslim relations.     

The New Anti-Semitism in Europe: The Islamic Dimension of,and Jewish Belonging in,the EU

This article examines the sense of Jewish vulnerability and exclusion in Europe that has resulted from manifestations, and Jewish perceptions, of the “new anti-Semitism,” and the role of Islamic communities in Europe in propagating this form of hatred of Jews. First emerging in 2000 with the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada, and tied in with the Middle East conflict, anger at Israel is directed at Diaspora Jewish communities. This “new anti-Semitism” targets the Jewish collective with the characteristics of anti-Semitism previously aimed at individual Jews. The article focuses on the wave of anti-Semitism that erupted as a result of the 2014 Israeli–Hamas War. Based on an analysis of European Jewish communities, it considers the active part played by European Muslim communities in perpetrating the new anti-Semitism. Using an analysis of survey data, emigration statistics and newspaper opinion articles by leading European Jewish intellectuals, the article considers how the new anti-Semitism is adversely affecting Jewish–Muslim relations and the concomitant sense of “belonging” of European Jewry. The article considers what is required to overcome the new anti-Semitism propagated by Muslim communities to restore a greater sense of Jewish belonging to, and identification with, Europe.     

Perception of the Minority's Collective Identity and Voting Behavior: The Case of the Palestinians in Israel

Abstract

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).     

The effect of constant threat of terror on Israeli Jewish and Arab adolescents

The effect on Israeli Jewish and Arab adolescents of living under constant threat of terrorist attacks was assessed in a sample of 346 adolescents. The study probed their direct and indirect exposure to terrorist attacks, avoidance of public centers, sharing feelings with significant others, and stress reaction symptoms. The adolescents showed mild to low levels of stress symptoms in reaction to terrorist attacks in Israel, with no significant differences between Jews and Arabs. The Jewish adolescents reported knowing more people involved in terror attacks and being more informed by their parents about them. Demographic and exposure variables explained 39% of the variance of stress reaction symptoms. Being female, knowing someone injured, having parents who discuss terrorist attacks or forbid going out, and more sharing of feelings were significantly related to higher stress symptoms. For Jewish adolescents, greater levels of sharing of feelings were related to higher distress. Jewish and Arab adolescents proved to be similarly affected by the threat of terror but were also resilient even in highly unusual circumstances.     

Investigating Stereotypes Towards the Outgroup: The Role of Religious Concepts and Group Membership

We examined the effects of exposure to religious concepts on stereotypes of two unique groups in Israel—Arab Muslims and Arab Christians. In Study 1, Muslim persons exposed to Jewish concepts and Christian persons exposed to Christian concepts showed increased negative stereotypes toward Jews. The findings were replicated in Study 2, additionally showing that identification with the religious ingroup has a moderating effect, which either increases or reduces stereotypes following exposure to outgroup concepts. In Study 3, a control condition was run, confirming that the religious priming effects were due to an increase in negative stereotypes. Thus, the paradox of religion may be partially accounted for by group distinctiveness, exposure to specific religious content, group membership, and identification with the ingroup.     

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).     

Differences between Jewish–Israeli and Arab–Israeli college students in attitudes toward date selection and sex relations: A research note

Jewish and Arab–Moslem students attending an Israeli college were compared for their date selection criteria and their attitudes toward sexual relations. Questionnaires were completed by 214 Jews and 162 Arabs. Seventy percent of the respondents in both groups were women. Jews (more than Arabs) and males (more than females) showed a greater tendency to mention physical appearance as a selection criterion. In both ethnic groups, women thought that a longer dating period is needed before having sex. However, Jewish females did not differ from Jewish males in their vision of the appropriate age to start having sex, whereas Arab men and women did differ. The findings indicate that Israeli–Arab college students are considerably more traditional than Jewish students in their attitudes toward sex and dating and that the gender differences among Arabs are larger. The results are controlled for religiosity, family status, and financial status.     

ADOLESCENTS'ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN'S ROLES

To examine Israeli Jewish and Arab adolescents'attitudes toward women's roles, 319 Jewish and 276 Arab adolescent males and females from private, highly prestigious high schools responded to an attitudes toward women's roles questionnaire. The hypotheses that Jews (modern), females, and older (12th grade) adolescents express more liberal attitudes toward women's roles than do Arabs (transition to modernity), males, and younger (9th grade) adolescents were generally supported by the findings. The greater liberalism expressed by older Arab females indicates that their transition to adulthood is marked by a widening gap between the attitudes toward roles held by Arab males and females. Thus, Arab females striving for personal advancement may experience less support from their male peers than do their Jewish female counterparts.     

EDITOR'S NOTE

The article deals with the ways in which Mizrahim—Jewish immigrants who came to the State of Israel after 1948—influenced the local Jewish sacred geography. Besides taking part in rituals in the older and more established holy places such as King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, Mizrahim tended to adopt and develop holy places where only hints of ancient Jewish sanctity were to be found. These places were used before 1948 mainly by the local Muslim population and were adopted now by Jews. This reality prevailed mainly in the social and geographical periphery of Israel, in regions and places where immigrants were usually settled by the Israeli establishment during the 1950s and 1960s. Mizrahim, in need of accessible and informal holy sites near their new settlements, brought now to the development of such places as the Tomb of Raban Gamliel in Yavne, the Tomb of Judah in Yahud, and the Tomb of Benjamin near Kfar‐Saba. The emergence of this sacred space, in a state that had just come into being and into which there had been mass immigration of Mizrahim, displacing or replacing the indigenous population of Arabs, is at the heart of the paper.     

Gender Discrimination as a Function of Stereotypic and Counterstereotypic Behavior: A Cross-Cultural Study

This study investigated gender discriminatory behavior of early adolescents from a cross-cultural perspective. One hundred sixty 7th-graders (80 Israeli Arabs and 80 Israeli Jews) were presented with two male candidates for class representative, one outstanding candidate with traditional feminine interests and characteristics, and the other an average candidate with masculine interests and characteristics. Participants were asked to rate the candidates on various measures such as their own election choice, others' election choice, their prediction of the candidate's likelihood of being elected, and their affinity and willingness to engage in activities with the candidate. The results showed that while both Arab and Jewish participants discriminated against the feminine candidate, the Arab participants discriminated to a much greater degree. The results emphasize the important role that culture plays in gender discriminatory behavior.     

Acculturation attitudes, perceived attitudes of the majority, and adjustment of Israeli-Arab and Jewish-Ethiopian students to an Israeli University

The authors investigated adjustment to an Israeli university by students from two minority groups, Israeli Arabs and Jewish Ethiopians, as a function of their different acculturation attitudes (J. W. Berry, 1990). Social adjustment of both Arabs and Ethiopians was contingent on acculturation attitudes supporting participation with the majority. Psychological adjustment of both groups was negatively associated with personal acculturation preferences that deviated from the shared acculturation attitudes of the respective in-group (i.e., assimilation in the Arab group, and separation in the Ethiopian group). The perceived attitude of the majority also contributed to the psychological adjustment of both groups. Major theoretical implications are that both attitudes of the majority and adjustment to the in-group play an important role in psychological adjustment of immigrants.     

Cognitive complexity of social images revealed by Jewish Israeli adolescents relating to drawings of Jews and Arabs

The present study examined age‐related differences among Israeli youth regarding the complexity of their mental images of Jews and Arabs, two groups that are adversaries in the Middle East conflict. The participants, 494 Jewish children and adolescents ranging from 8–16 years old each, drew two human figures, one Jewish and one Arab, and then attributed a forename and a profession to each drawn image. Four complexity variables were scored as follows: image complexity (number of items included in the figure), embellishments (number of items added to the drawing and in the space around the figure), image name, and image profession. Overall, participants depicted members of their in‐group as more complex. However, early adolescence was found to be a critical age at which differences emerged. The findings suggest that introducing complexity to social representations in early adolescence may facilitate prevention of negative associations related to outgroups and enhance intervention to reduce stereotypes, prejudice, and racism.     

ARABIC JOURNALISM AS A VEHICLE FOR ENLIGHTENMENT

Jews were nowhere as open to participation in the wider Arab culture and at home in standard literary Arabic as in Iraq in the twentieth century. There was a strong connection between the Iraqi Jews’ involvement in the canonical Arab culture and their participation in Iraqi press and journalism. Trying to integrate into the local society, Iraqi Jews founded their own Arabic newspapers and served as editors and journalists in many other Iraqi periodicals. However, due to the gradual demise of Arab‐Jewish culture because of the conflict in the Middle East, the involvement of Jews in Arabic press and journalism is coming to an end. The distinguishing feature of the Muslim‐Jewish symbiosis was that the great majority of Jews under Islamic rule adopted Arabic as their language. This symbiosis does not exist in our time because Arabic is gradually disappearing as a mother tongue mastered by Jews.     

Jewish-Arab violence: perspectives of a dominant majority and a subordinate minority

In 2 studies, the authors investigated intergroup violence as perceived by Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. University and junior high school students judged Jewish-Arab clashes, which ended in shots fired at a crowd of either Jewish or Arab demonstrators. The authors hypothesized that judgments of these shootings would be contingent on 3 variables: the origin of the respondent, the origin of the shooter, and the level of danger to the shooter. The results tended to support those hypotheses: (a) Both Jewish and Arab respondents justified shootings by members of their own group more readily than those by members of the other group. (b) Jewish judgments of violence were associated more closely than Arab judgments with the danger that the demonstrators posed to the shooter. (c) The Jewish respondents referred to self-defense more often than did the Arab respondents to justify their judgments, whereas the Arab respondents referred more often to intergroup considerations. Those differences may reflect the disagreement between the majority and the minority on the issue that each group should take into consideration in cases of international violence.