Intolerance of "Others" among Palestinian and Jewish Students in Israel

This study analyzes intolerance against diverse sociopolitical groups and compares the social and political attitudes of two distinct and highly differentiated groups: Jewish and Palestinian high-school students in Israel. It examines their perceptions of the political context that structurates their "reality," and aims to find the factors that influence the extremity of their intolerance. The proposed model is more applicable to Jewish students than it is to Palestinians and shows that intolerance toward out-groups is influenced by religiosity, the salience of national and civic identity, national security issues, and political ideology.     

Minority Adolescents' Future Orientation: The Case of Arabs Living in Israel

This study examines Arab adolescents' future orientation toward their education, family plans, economic status, and social adjustment. Arab adolescents' future orientation is of interest since, presently, Israel is experiencing major internal and external political changes. The Arabs in Israel are a non-assimilating minority. They differ from the Jewish majority in language, religion, and nationality. Previous research has shown that Arab adolescents express hope for peace and fear of war between the two peoples living in Israel. With the new peace initiatives in Israel, the future is being painted in different colors, and it is interesting to explore how Arab adolescents perceive their future, both as adolescents and as Arabs. The sample consists of 662 twelfth-grade students from seven high schools throughout Israel. The questionnaire used is a version of the Offer Self-image Questionnaire (Offer, Ostrov, & Howard, 1981), but only the findings on future orientation are analyzed in the present study. These findings show significant differences in Arab adolescents' future orientation across gender, family size, level of religiosity, and father's education. The significance of the findings is discussed in relation to the literature pertaining to adolescents' future orientation, particularly among minority groups, as well as the social, cultural, and educational transformation which the Arab population living in Israel is currently undergoing.     

Collective identity and readiness for social relations with Jews among Palestinian Arab students at the David Yellin Teacher Training College in Israel

This paper argues that the two national components of identity among Palestinian Arab students in Israel—the Arab component and the Palestinian component—are strong, while the civil Israeli component is very weak. This paper also argues that although social relations between Arab students and Jewish students are very limited, the readiness of Arab students for professional and social relations with Jewish students is greater than the perceived readiness of Jewish students for social relations with Arab students. Correlation coefficients between collective identity and readiness for social relations with Jews reveal that there is no connection between the components of collective identity of Arab students and their familiarity with Jewish students and readiness to have professional and social relations with them.     

Perceptions of the narrative of the ‘other’ among Arab and Jewish adolescents in Israel: between peace talks and violent events

One of the major challenges for the process of peace building is to overcome the rigid structure of the socio‐psychological repertoire that accompanies it. Our longitudinal study examined one element of this repertoire among Jewish and Arab adolescents in Israel: the cognitive legitimacy and the emotional reactions toward the historical narrative of the opponent. We focused our question on the impact of the socio‐political context and the role of the violent reality in the development of these perceptions among youth. Data were collected in four stages (1999–2000, 2002, 2004, and 2007) among various samples of Arab and Jewish high school students (10th and 12th graders). The results showed that among the Jewish adolescents, the readiness to legitimate Palestinian narratives significantly decreased during violent periods. Among the Arab students, the impact of their difficult status as a Palestinian minority in the State of Israel is reflected in their relatively high level of readiness to accept both narratives. The results are discussed from social, cultural, and developmental perspectives with a focus on the role of the conflictual reality itself in the development of the socio‐psychological repertoire among youth.     

Intergroup Encounters Between Jewish and Arab Students in Israel: Towards an interactionist approach1

The paper examines the relationship between self and society from an interactionist approach, within the context of intergroup encounters. One of the main dilemmas found in intergroup encounters is the tension that exists between the salience of the group identity versus personal and interpersonal dimensions. We suggest applying an interactionist approach to dealing with this debate, which emphasizes the situation in which the contact takes place. From this approach, the use of different types of intergroup encounters is discussed by comparing two types of workshops in which Jewish and Arab Israeli students met to work on the Israeli-Arab political conflict. The research questions are analyzed in regard to topics that are central to the Jewish-Arab conflict, such as the Holocaust and Al-Nakba (the Arab epithet for the 1948 war). This paper was written before the present crisis (2000/2002) in Jewish-Palestinian relations .     

Britain and the Jewish community of Iraq, 1948–51: An aspect of British policy in the Middle East

British policy after the Second World War was designed to maintain her influence in the Middle East. As a result, she worked to prevent any destabilization of the region's nations and especially to preserve the existent pro‐British regimes.

The Iraqi royal government was weak, depending mainly on its army. The riots of January 1948 proved how tenuous the government's position was. Here Britain invested great efforts in preventing conditions from damaging the regime or destroying it. This explains why the British were not active on behalf of the Jewish community, which at the time suffered from a policy of discrimination and persecution.

The British assumed that the problem of the Jewish minority in Iraq could not be divorced from overall Jewish‐Arab relations or those between Israel and the Arab states, and that the Iraqi Jewish community's fate was inevitable given the events in Palestine. Moreover, despite the pressure from extremist quarters in Iraq to banish all the Jews and expropriate their property, the Iraqi government's policy was not that extreme, and it sought at least to defend their lives and prevent a recurrence of the June 1941 pogrom. Despite this, Israel exploited the Iraqi Jewish community's situation to attain her own political and economic ends.     

Monologic Results of Dialogue: Jewish-Palestinian Encounter Groups as Sites of Essentialization

Since the 1980s, many scholars have focused on the promise that dialogue holds to get beyond essentializing discourses. Based on the observation of a yearlong dialogue intergroup encounter between two groups of Israeli citizens, Jewish and Palestinian, this article shows that dialogic encounters between groups in a situation of structural inequality and domination may solidify essentialist discourses of culture and identity. The interpretative analysis of specific moments of the intergroup dialogue shows that throughout the dialogue process, self and other essentializing strategies recurred. The attempt of the Palestinian students to clear a space that would enable them to talk about their status as second class citizens while simultaneously presenting claims for equal access to citizenship was met with declarations about "Arab" culture by the Jewish students. In this process, both groups, albeit for different reasons, reinforced their monological conceptions of culture and identity.     

Internal Migration of Ethno‐national Minorities: The Case of Arabs in Israel

Recent scholarship emphasizes differences among ethnic groups' internal migration patterns. Yet, with few exceptions, research has focused on the Anglo‐American world, neglecting experiences from other regions. This paper is part of a larger research project that studies mobility among the Arab minority in Israel and its driving forces. In this paper we examine patterns of internal migration by analysing the propensity to migrate as well as migrants' individual and social characteristics. First, we survey the theoretical backdrop that is suggested by recent geographic literature on internal migration among ethnic and racial minorities, including native groups. Second, we contextualize the group studied, providing necessary background information on the political, socio‐economic and demographic conditions of Arabs in Israel. We briefly discuss attributes that are – or have been – potential hindering factors to Arab mobility in the Jewish state. Finally, we analyse 1995 national census data at the micro scale and provide a basis for future explanations of the phenomenon. We conclude by outlying some future directions in the study of internal migration of minorities in Israel.     

Ethnic Coexistence in Deeply Divided Societies: The Case of Arab Athletes in the Hebrew Media

This article examines the various elements affecting reconciliation and coexistence in deeply divided societies through the case of Arab soccer players in the Israeli media. We analyze the discourse surrounding the concept du‐kium (coexistence) in the Israeli media between the years 2002 and 2008. Our findings reveal that Jewish journalists and public figures interpret coexistence as Arab citizens' complete acceptance of the Jewish perspective and narrative. Arab soccer players are expected to underplay their Palestinian identity, master Hebrew, and identify with the Jewish narrative and views. We contrast the Israeli case with two other cases of prolonged conflict—Rwanda and Bosnia‐Herzegovina. The study highlights that cognitive perceptions and schemes may hinder genuine reconciliation even when various groups reject overt racism and profess candid desire for coexistence.     

Foreigners and Outsiders: Exclusionist Attitudes towards Labour Migrants in Israel

This paper examines theoretical propositions regarding the social mechanisms that produce hostility and discriminatory attitudes towards out‐group populations. Specifically, we compare the effect of perceptions of socio‐economic and national threats, social contact and prejudice on social distance expressed towards labour migrants. To do so, we examine exclusionary views held by majority and minority groups (Jews and Arabs) towards non‐Jewish labour migrants in Israel. Data analysis is based on a survey of the adult Israeli population based on a stratified sample of 1,342 respondents, conducted in Israel in 2007. Altogether, our results show that Israelis (both Jews and Arabs) are resistant to accepting and integrating foreigners into Israeli society. Among Jews, this is because the incorporation of non‐Jews challenges the definition of Israel as a Jewish state and poses a threat to the homogeneity of the nation. Among Arabs, this is probably due to threat and competition over resources. The meanings of the findings are discussed within the unique ethno‐national context of Israeli society and in light of sociological theories on ethnic exclusionism.     

The Jewish community in Iraq, 1920–50: A failed attempt at integration

At the end of the First World War, the Iraqi Jewish community numbered about 85,000. With the establishment of the Arab Iraqi state in 1920, the leaders of the community advocated the integration of Iraqi Jewry into the national Arab society. Jews held important positions in all fields ‐ economic, social and cultural. Compared to Israel, Iraq was for them a paradise. There they hoped to build their future, which then promised to be bright. Arab Iraqi society, too, expected the Jewish minority to become a part of it and to contribute its talents to the consolidation and strengthening of the state.

The pogrom of 1941 was a turning point in the history of Iraqi Jewry, leading to the establishment of a Jewish underground. The worsening situation in Palestine prompted the Iraqi government to adopt a policy of repression and discrimination against the Jews, putting an end to the attempt by the Jewish minority to integrate into Arab Iraqi society. Jews began to seek ways to leave the country. The underground proved instrumental in helping some 121,000 Jews to flee Iraq and make their way to Israel.     

Fo(u)nts of etymology: abstraction and the absolute in Derrida’s 'Faith and Knowledge…'

The political philosopher Hannah Arendt actively engaged in the problem of a Jewish homeland and the politics of Zionism in the years 1941–1948. She advocated a Binational solution to Palestine – a single political commonwealth with two national identities, Jewish and Arab, integrated in a federation with other countries in the region. In the crucial period leading up to the establishment of the State of Israel, Arendt became increasingly disillusioned with the Jewish Agency and the Zionist movement for failing to organize a Jewish response to Nazism (a Jewish Army) and rejecting the Palestinian right to a homeland.     

Refugees as perceived threat: College students' attitudes towards refugees in South Korea

In 2018, the influx of Yemeni asylum seekers generated the unprecedented politicization of the refugee issue in South Korea. This paper explored South Korean attitudes towards refugees by collecting data from Korean college students. In doing so, we looked into what led to negative attitudes towards refugees and the role perceived threats play as a mediator. Following previous studies on intergroup threat theory, we noted that threat perception was a useful tool in understanding intergroup prejudice and anxiety as perceived threats and their antecedents were found to explain a significant amount of the attitudes towards refugees. We also found strong interconnections between prejudices towards different minority groups, including Islamophobia, homophobia and anti-refugee attitudes. This finding supported the idea that such prejudices are part of a larger intolerant belief system towards minority groups in general.     

Battling Against Interfaith Relations in Israel: Religion,Therapy, and Social Services

One of the less studied aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is its demography. On the Jewish side, active steps are taken by the state to encourage Jewish immigration and Jewish births and discourage Jewish assimilation. As part of these efforts, the “problematic relationships” between Arab men and Jewish women from low socioeconomic background have become a high agenda item in public discussions in Israel during the last decade. I will examine here how the diagnostic category “girls at risk” and a therapeutic intervention employed by social services dealing with these couples helps maintaining the delicate balance between Jewish and democratic values. I will analyze these practices as a solution to a structural problem of the Jewish enclave in Israel. Video Abstract     

Digital use as a mechanism to accrue economic capital: a Bourdieusian perspective

Using data from a large-scale Annual Social Survey of the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel, this study examines the “second-level” digital divide between the Jewish majority and Arab minority in Israeli society. The goals of this paper were to present the digital inequality between these two groups; to examine the connection between digital uses and economic capital and to characterize the link between the digital and social inequalities. Jews were found to have an advantage over Arabs in terms of Internet access and digital uses. Digital uses are an important resource that contributes to individuals’ economic rewards, beyond the impact of classic socio-demographic factors such as education and language proficiency. Therefore, digital technology can serve as a mobility channel for the Arab minority group to attain social and economic equality with the Jewish majority.     

Oriental Othering and National Identity: A review of Early Israeli Anthropological Studies of Palestinians

Israeli culturalism, like Israeli identity at large, is premised on a two-pronged negation-that of the Jewish diaspora and that of the Arab East. Its emergence was assisted, directly or indirectly, by academic anthropology. The formative cohort of Israeli anthropology, mainly male researchers who came of academic age in the 1960s and 1970s, displayed stronger preoccupation with the Palestinian citizens of Israel than is normally recognized. This preoccupation, and the marginal status of Palestinians as a minority trapped within the ethno-territorial Jewish project, render the relationship between anthropological knowledge, Israeli statehood and constructions of Israeli identity particularly suggestive. The combination of these elements, so deeply integrated into Israeli public discourse, resurfaces in a grotesque, exaggerated form, as Israelis grapple to make sense of the Palestinian Intifada of 2000-2001 and of Wahabist inspired terrorism and America's 'War Against Terror' further a field.     

Collective action of ethno-national minority groups and the cost of inaction: Arab Palestinians in Israel

ABSTRACT

Collective action requires resources, organization, leaders and political opportunities. In the case of disadvantaged minority groups, long-standing conflict with the majority, a closed political opportunity structure and the difficulty of acquiring resources, increases the costs and risks of the action. We argue that the development of such an action is a function of leaders’ perceptions about the cost of inaction (COI) and symbolic resources of the group, such as solidarity. Combining these evaluations creates three trajectories: growth, restriction and decline. We examine this argument by four collective actions carried out by Arab Palestinians citizens in Israel to improve education. The findings show that leaders increased efforts even if they assessed opportunities are limited when they thought that COI is high, since inaction means not only the loss of instrumental costs but also the loss of potential symbolic gains such as recognition of the group collective identity.     

The impact of the political context on discourse characteristics in Jewish–Arab encounters in Israel: between peace talks and violent events

Research in the field of intergroup relations has developed considerably over the last two decades, influenced by events and by the historical zeitgeist. We suggest applying an interactional way of dealing with intergroup encounters, which emphasizes the situational macro‐context (political, historical and social) in which the contact takes place. Employing this approach, the impact of the social‐political context on the characteristics of two encounters in which Jewish and Arab Israeli students met to deal with the Israeli–Arab political conflict was examined. The workshops took place within two completely different political contexts. The first workshop was at the time of peace talks, following the Oslo Accords (1996–1997), the second during the al‐Aksa Intifada (2001–2002). The discussions were recorded and fully transcribed. The two workshops were compared using a typology for classification of the developmental process of discourse between groups. The analysis revealed that during the peace talks ‘ethnocentric discourse’ was the dominant speech category, characterized by two monologues that do not meet. In the second workshop dialogic categories characterized by sharing of feelings, listening to the ‘other’ and making an effort to understand how reality looks from his/her perspective were salient. The research findings are discussed with regard to the paradoxical impact of the political–social context on discourse in small groups. The findings give a new understanding of the role of small intergroup meetings against the background of violent reality in an intractable conflict.     

Perceiving the other: hostile and danger attributions among Jewish and Arab social work students in Israel

The aim of the present paper is to examine the possible relations of hostile and danger attributions and cultural competence socialization. We conducted an empirical study based on a factorial survey, focusing on the significance of formal cultural competence classes and the ongoing interpersonal contact among members of majority and minority groups: Jewish and Arab social work students in an Israeli University. The experimental design manipulated variables of ethnicity, potential dangerousness, and potential intended harm, using vignettes. The results indicated that Arab students attribute more hostility to both Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking figures than their Jewish counterparts. Jews attributed more danger to Arabs, and Arabs attributed more dangerousness to Jews. The most striking finding is the significant and positive association between multicultural competence socialization and attribution of danger and hostility. The findings are discussed within the framework of ethnic and political conflicts in turbulent areas, anti-oppressive social work, and their implications to social work education.     

Division of Labor and Decision-Making in Arab Families in Israel: Processes of Change and Preservation

The study examines the changes that Arab families in Israel have undergone over three generations. It focuses on change and preservation in the division of labor between spouses, in the attitudes toward it, and оn how decisions are made in the family. It also examines the factors contributing to the preservation of traditional characteristics and those contributing to change. The study included 378 Moslem and Christian Arab women from three generations (grandmothers, mothers, and daughters). The findings indicate significant changes: the younger the generation is, the less traditional are the attitudes it holds and the more egalitarian the life of the couple is. The factors found to promote change were the woman’s education, work outside the home, intensive contacts with the Jewish population, and living near Jewish communities. The factor that was found to contribute most to the preservation of traditional patterns is consensual solidarity with the mother.