Ethnography of Conflict

I am known in my community as an anthropologist who has worked with the Palestinian citizens of Israel for many years. Following Terrence Hadley's article in The Post Standard, I would like to respond to his accusations. First of all, he accused the Palestinian citizens of Israel of being terrorists and fundamentalists. He also argued that they have forfeited their right to Israeli citizenship because of their support for the Palestinian cause. In addition, Mr. Hadley believes that they should be ejected from Israel and forced to live in the West Bank. Furthermore, he argues that this would finally create Jewish and Muslim states and aid the peace process.

The Palestinian citizens of Israel are also called the Arab citizens of Israel. A majority of them have their cultural and ethnic identity as Palestinian with their traditional vernacular being the Palestinian dialect of Arabic. Their religious affiliation is Muslim, Sunni branch of Islam, and most of them are bilingual . Their second language is Modern Hebrew. There are also Arab Christians from various denominations who are a minority as well as Druze. Many of them have family ties to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and also to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. They identify themselves as Israeli by citizenship and Palestinian or Arab by nationality (Rabinowitz & Abu Baker, 6).

The 1948 Arab-Israeli war is referred to as Nakba, meaning catastrophe by most Arab citizens (Rabinowitz & Abu Baker, 35). This is due to a reflection of differences in the perception of the purpose of the war and its outcomes. There were an estimated 950,000 Arabs living in the territory that became Israel before the war. During the war, 80% of them fled or were expelled. 700,000 Palestinian refugees fled their homes with the hope of returning after a victory. These people and their descendants form a composition of Arab citizens of Israel. They also include some from the Gaza Strip