Abstract
This field study aims to explore the effect of the forced separation between Palestinians who are Israeli citizens and Palestinians living in the West Bank on their perceptions of collective narratives (Sagy et al. in Am J Orthopsychiatry 72(1): 26–38, 2002) and their identity strategies (Berry in Nebraska symposium on motivation, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1990; Tajfel in Human groups and social categories, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981). Two questionnaires, based on the theoretical categories and contents revealed in focus groups, were administered to wide ranging samples, comprised of 1,104 Palestinians who are Israeli citizens (622 females), and 948 Palestinians (466 females) living in the West Bank, aged 18 and up. The results indicate differences between the two Palestinian groups: Palestinians living in the West Bank significantly tended to endorse integration and blamed Israel for the separation, but also endorsed separation and social competition with the other Palestinian group, in comparison to the Palestinians living in Israel. The latter exhibited stronger tendencies to preserve their in-group collective narratives compared to the West Bank Palestinians. The older members of both groups perceived the intergroup relations in a more positive way. The results are mainly interpreted according to the social identity theory and the complex situation of living “on both sides of the fence”.
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Notes
Due to the sensitive political situation, we did not succeed in obtaining the cooperation of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.
We deleted assimilation and marginalization strategies since these strategies are not relevant in the context of forced separation.
How to refer to the identification of the two populations is a highly politicized issue and there are a number of self-identification labels used by members of these communities. In the questionnaires we adopt the main self-identification used by the group members in everyday life: 1948 Arabs (Palestinians who are Israeli citizens) and 1967 Arabs (Palestinians living in the West Bank).
The item: "I’m not interested in the history of 1967/1948 Arabs". This item can also reflect the forced separation since the history of the "other" group is not studied at schools in Israel and in the West Bank.
The participants who defined themselves as Druze and "other" where deleted due to their small number.
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This study is part of a larger trilateral project: “Belonging to the Outsider and Established Groupings: Palestinians and Israelis in Various Figurations” funded by the German Research Foundation.
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Mana, A., Sagy, S., Srour, A. et al. On both sides of the fence: perceptions of collective narratives and identity strategies among Palestinians in Israel and in the West Bank. Mind Soc 14, 57–83 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-014-0159-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-014-0159-3