PLACE IDENTITY AMONG NATIVE MINORITIES: LESSONS FROM ARABS IN ISRAEL

abstract

This study addresses place identity among native minorities by focusing on the Arabs in Israel. It follows a recent trend in geography—the environmental-psychology approach to place identity—which focuses on the identity of individuals rather than the identity of places commonly emphasized in human geography. The study draws on mixed methods: 25 in-depth interviews with residents of Arab localities, in addition to questionnaires administered to both Arabs (210) and Jews (100) serving as a comparison group. Native minority members in this study have emphasized place identity as rooted in multilayered memories in situ, the clan-based social structure, and tensions with the government. These issues are discussed in the contexts of majority-minority relations and settler colonialism and nativism.

Keywords:

• Arabs
• Israel
• place identity
• environmental psychology

Notes

¹ Nomenclature for the population studied is politically controversial, and scholars (including Arabs) chose a variety of different words. Some use the term “Israeli-Arabs” (Schnell 1994); others “Arab citizens of Israel” (Amara and Schnell 2004); and some scholars refer to “Palestinian citizens of Israel” (Yiftachel 2006). We choose ‘Arabs’ because in a series of studies conducted over years and based on various independent samples (including the current one), (Amara and Schnell 2004; Herman and others 2019), participants considered their Arab identity as the most important.