On both sides of the fence: perceptions of collective narratives and identity strategies among Palestinians in Israel and in the West Bank

Adi Mana (), Shifra Sagy (), Anan Srour () and Serene Mjally-Knani ()

Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, 2015, vol. 14, issue 1, 57-83

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”. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Keywords: Collective narratives; Identity strategies; Inter-group relations; Palestinians; Israel; West Bank (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11299-014-0159-3 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:minsoc:v:14:y:2015:i:1:p:57-83

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11299

DOI: 10.1007/s11299-014-0159-3

Access Statistics for this article

Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences is currently edited by Riccardo Viale

More articles in Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences from Springer, Fondazione Rosselli Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().