Perception of the minority's collective identity and voting behavior: The case of the Palestinians in Israel.

Journal of Social Psychology, The, December, 2002 by Suleiman, Ramzi

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...