Identity and Belonging in the Middle East

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Historical Introspective
Palestinian Identity
Israeli/Jewish Identity
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

One of the major geopolitical issues of modernity is the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which contributes rather substantially towards undermining the political stability in the whole world. There have been many attempts to end this conflict or to at least reduce its severity, undertaken by the UN through the last few decades, with all of them having proved a failure.

For the present day, there appear to be no objective reasons to expect that a peaceful solution to the conflict in question can ever be found – the most recent outbreaks of violence in the area substantiate the validity of this suggestion. Another rationale behind this suggestion has to do with the fact that Israeli Jews and Palestinians differ rather substantially with respect to what accounts for their sense of collective self-identity. The present paper aims to provide readers with a number of in-depth insights in this regard.

Historical Introspective

Prior to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the UN enacted Resolution 181, according to which both Palestinian Arabs and Jews are equally entitled to reside in Palestine and exercise political authority in the territories under their control.

Therefore, along with the Jewish state, there should be the Arabic one in Palestine as well. There are many different views on what this Resolution’s implications should be, with respect to the drawing of a borderline between the State of Israel, on the one hand, and the State of Palestine (or simply Palestine), on the other. Nevertheless, a two-state solution is usually mentioned in conjunction with the so-called “1967 borders,” which, after having been drawn in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, lasted until the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967.

In that year, the Israeli ended up occupying a few areas in the West Bank, as well as the Eastern part of Jerusalem with the predominantly Palestinian population. As of today, Israel continues to control these areas while establishing more and more Jewish settlements on the locale – something that the Muslim world perceives to be the main obstacle in the way of putting an end to the Middle East conflict (Shavit 54).

Palestinian Identity

When it comes to discussing the specifics of one’s Palestinian identity, political scientists often mention the fact that there is a strongly defined tragic quality about it. Its origins can be traced to the forced eviction of 750.000 Palestinians by Zionist militants in 1948 – the event that is being referred to by today’s Palestinians as Nakba (catastrophe). After all, this specific development is now seen as such that has triggered the process of Palestinians adopting the mentality of “displaced persons” – the motif that defines the discursive sounding of the works of literature by many Palestinian authors.

In this regard, the book I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti appears to be particularly illustrative because its author succeeded in revealing the process’s intrinsic effects on the very functioning of one’s “Palestinian psyche” as a whole. According to Barghouti, to be a Palestinian means to experience much emotional anxiety as a result of being forbidden (either explicitly or implicitly) to live in the land of his or her ancestors.

Hence, the sensation of uprootedness that the author never ceased experiencing throughout his life: “Mount (Barghouti’s brother) is calling me in America from Qatar about Fahim’s (Barghouti’s sister) martyrdom in Beirut and burial in Kuwait, and about the necessity of informing (about this)… my mother in Jordan” (14). In this regard, Barghouti’s existential experience appears closely reflective of the experiences of many of his compatriots. The demographic data of relevance proves the legitimacy of this suggestion better than anything. By the year 2014, the population of displaced Palestinians accounted for 8 million out of the overall Palestinian population of 12.5 million (Karsh 11).

This helps to explain the most striking aspect of how Palestinians perceive the surrounding social reality and their place in it – specifically, the fact that, as time goes on, these people grow psychologically accustomed to being displaced, which in turn causes them to think of such a state of affairs as thoroughly normal. In this regard, Barghouti came up with yet another enlightening observation: “Strange cities are never completely strange.

Life dictates that the stranger acclimatize every day… If you become accustomed to the exception, you see it in some way as natural” (104). Because of it, a certain psychological parallel can be drawn between Palestinians and their “sworn enemies” Israeli Jews – the people who, prior to having attained the statehood of their own in 1948, used to exist in a state of perpetual displacement for millennia.

Another notable aspect of one’s self-positioning as a Palestinian has to do with the person’s deep-seated complex of inferiority, even if he or she does not realize it consciously. Partially, such a situation is reflective of the fact that ever since 1949, the Israelis have been trying to deny Palestinians their basic humanity while going as far as striving to represent the latter as nothing short of uncivilized savages, who do not deserve to have a country of their own.

The full legitimacy of this statement can be illustrated, regarding the themes and motifs in the story Returning to Haifa by Ghassan Kanafani, out of which the most prominent appears to be that of Palestinians’ dehumanization by Israelis. One of the story’s most memorable scenes is the one in which the narrator explains to his wife why did the Israeli authorities allow them to come to Haifa for a short visit in the first place: “Why do you think the Israelis let us now visit Haifa?… Because they are humane? No. This is part of the war.

They want to tell us: Please come in and see for yourselves how we are more civilized than you are. You must accept to become our servants, to admire us” (Kanafani 79). Evidently enough, this could not result in anything else but undermining the sense of self-worth in Palestinians – something that proved strongly detrimental to these people’s prospect of attaining social prominence.

At the same time, however, it would be inappropriate to hold the Israelis solely accountable in this respect. After all, there is indeed a good reason to believe that the sense of national belonging in Palestinians continues to remain somewhat rudimentary – the idea that is being briefly explored in the BBC documentary In Search of Palestine – Edward’s Said Return Home. As one can infer from watching this documentary, there is a strong sectarian quality to the sense of personal identity in many Palestinians, which in turn prevents them from adopting a secularized outlook on what the notion of Palestinian nationhood stands for.

In fact, most Palestinians tend to refer to this notion as yet another neo-colonial construct meant to undermine the unity of the Arab world from within. As Karsh argued, “The PLO’s hallowed founding document, the Palestinian Charter, defines the Palestinians as ‘an integral part of the Arab nation’ rather than a distinct nationality and vows allegiance to the idea of pan-Arab unity – that is to Palestine’s eventual assimilation into ‘the greater Arab homeland’” (4).

While strongly opposed to the continuation of the Israeli presence in their lands, Palestinians nevertheless experience a certain doubt about their own nation-building ability. Such their attitude does make much sense. After all, ever since the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994, the functioning of this quasi-governmental institution never ceased being affected by the allegations of corruption, extortion, and money-laundering.

Therefore, there is nothing surprising about the fact that the sense of collective identity in Palestinians appears to be largely ideational. That is, while referring to the land of Palestine and their Palestinian nationality, these people have in mind their own mental constructs regarding both notions. As Barghouti observed: “The Occupation has created generations of us that have to adore an unknown beloved… The long Occupation has succeeded in changing us from children of Palestine to children of the idea of Palestine” (112). This contributes even further towards strengthening the traumatic quality of the Palestinian people’s view of themselves and consequently disfranchises them in both social and political senses of this word.

Israeli/Jewish Identity

To understand better the forces behind the formation of the sense of national identity in Palestinians, one will need to familiarize itself with the main aspects of Israelis’ collective self-identity as well. After all, there is a good reason to assume that both of these identities are strongly interconnected – despite the sheer strength of mutual animosity between Israeli Jews and Palestinians. The book My Promised Land by Ari Shavit contains many compelling insights in this regard. Two of the most important of them can be summarized as follows:

As the representatives of a religiously and culturally distinctive nation, Jews have suffered numerous atrocities at the hands of both Christians and Muslims – hence, the actual rationale from which the idea of the Israeli statehood derives. Israeli Jews view the state of Israel as the actual guarantor that such tragic events as the Holocaust will never take place again. This also explains Israel’s firm stance in protecting its national interests: “Israel is the only nation in the West that is existentially threatened. Both occupation and intimidation make the Israeli condition unique” (Shavit 194).

Having been taught the lessons of history a hard way, Israelis do not hold any illusions as to what would be the actual consequence of treating Palestinians in a, particularly tolerant manner. In the Middle East, respect is won by naked force, with such Eurocentric notion as “tolerance” being inapplicable – this is the main principle the defines the formation of one’s identity as an Israeli citizen. Israeli Jews could not care less about the opinions of the “international community” concerning the enactment of different policies by their government. As the Israeli people see it, the international criticism of Israel, on account of the country’s discriminative treatment of Palestinians, is highly hypocritical.

Israel is surrounded by Muslim countries, most of which refuse to recognize the Israeli state’s right to exist in the first place. What adds to this problem even more, is the abnormally high rate of fertility among Palestinians. If the current demographic trend, in this regard, continues to gain momentum, it will be only a matter of time before Israeli Jews realize themselves a minority in their own country: “Ironically, the people who do not need Israel are gradually taking over Israel, and they’re actually pushing out people who so need it” (Shavit 261).

However, as it appears from Shavit’s book, Israeli Jews are far from trying to deny Palestinians their right to self-determination. Rather, Israelis are waiting until the time when Palestinians prove themselves capable of maintaining the statehood of their own. The main indication that the latter indeed have what it takes to be granted complete sovereignty over their part of Palestine would be these people’s readiness to begin acting responsibly.

As the author noted: “They (Palestinians) must move from a psychological state of victimization to a psychological state of accepting responsibility. The Palestinians must leave behind their revolutionary adolescence and demonstrate that they have reached political maturity” (Shavit 289). According to Shavit, however, such a hypothetical prospect is rather unrealistic. After all, as perceived by the high-ranking Palestinian officials, it is so much easier lamenting about the horrors of the Israeli occupation while receiving billions of dollars in donations from all over the Arab world, as opposed to ensuring the proper functioning of the PNA’s institutions in the West Bank area.

Conclusion

In light of what has been mentioned earlier, it will be logical to conclude this paper by suggesting that for as long the intrinsic subtleties of their sense of national identity are concerned, Israeli Jews and Palestinians are best seen as being simultaneously similar and dissimilar. The foremost similarity between these peoples is reflective of the fact that both Palestinians and Jews share the ancestral memory of having existed in the stateless mode for a long time.

In theory, this should come as an asset within the context of how both opposing parties go about trying to put an end to the Middle East conflict. However, the conflict’s realities render such a would-be development rather unlikely. The main reason for this is that most Palestinians have grown emotionally accustomed to positioning themselves as the victims of the Israeli aggression – something that represents the actual cornerstone of these people’s sense of self-identity. What contributes even more towards reinforcing such a state of affairs is the fact that most Palestinians profess the values of pan-Arab solidarity.

In turn, this does not only cause Palestinians to think of Israeli Jews as their sworn enemies but also prompts the former to wonder about why do they need to aspire for Palestine’s de facto independence in the first place. Alternatively, more and more Israelis feel increasingly threatened by the prospect of Israel ceasing to be a Jewish state in the near future, at least in the demographic sense of this word.

Because the current dynamics in the domain of international politics continue to become ever more chaotic and because the very notion of international law has now deteriorated to the point of factual non-existence, it may be the case that the country’s authorities will choose in favor of the “final solution” approach for addressing the “Palestinian question” in the occupied territories.

Works Cited

Barghouti, Mourid. I Saw Ramallah. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008.

“In Search of Palestine – Edward Said’s Return Home (BBC).” YouTube, uploaded by pink0f. 2011. Web.

Kanafani, Ghassan. “Returning to Haifa.” Returning to Haifa and Other Stories, edited by Barbara Harlow and Karen Riley, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000, pp. 63-91.

Karsh, Efraim. “Palestinian Leaders Don’t Want an Independent State.” Middle East Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 3, 2014, pp. 1-11.

Shavit, Ari. My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. Spiegel & Grau, 2013.

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