Dissertation Proposal Defense: Fakhira E. Halloun - The Collective Identity and Discourse of Struggle of Palestinian Citizens of Israel

Dissertation Proposal Defense: Fakhira E. Halloun

Monday, April 25
12:00-2:00pm
Metropolitan Building Room 5145

Committee Members:
Chairs: Prof. Kevin Avruch
Prof. Sara Cobb
Prof. Mohammed Abu-Nimer

The Collective Identity and Discourse of Struggle of Palestinian Citizens of Israel

This study will examine the meanings that Palestinian citizens of Israel attribute today to their collective identity, and the way in which these meanings are reflected in their discourse of struggle to achieve their collective rights. It will employ theories of identity, power, and narrative.

The identity of the Palestinian citizens of Israel is “trapped and complicated.” They are an indigenous minority and citizens of a state embroiled in an intractable conflict, which is occupying their people in the West Bank and Gaza. They share citizenship with the Jewish-Israeli collective, and other major identity components with Palestinians at large. While their predicament is complex, it affords them a unique position in relation to these two groups, and potential sources of power that are as-of-yet not fully recognized or mobilized.

Understanding the meanings that Palestinian citizens of Israel attribute to their collective identity requires deconstructing their narratives about themselves and their identity. At the same time, it requires examining the dialogue and communication they have with the State of Israel and its Jewish majority, as well as with the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, with whom they share the main components of their collective identity. This study asserts that meanings Palestinians in Israel attribute to their collective identity arise and exist in the context of their communication with – and power relations vis-à-vis - the above-mentioned two groups.

The proposal argues that since 2000 there has been a shift in Israeli government narratives about the Palestinian citizens of Israel. There are also more interactions and dialogue between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza about the political role that Palestinians in Israel should play in the broader Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This research seeks to explore how narratives of the state of Israel and of Palestinians in the West Bank/Gaza impact Palestinian in Israel’s narrative about themselves and their discourse of struggle.

The research will focus on leaders and opinion-shapers of Palestinian society in Israel, those who have influence in shaping the Palestinian minority’s political discourse and struggle; specifically, it will focus on Palestinian members of the Israeli Parliament and their discourse of struggle.

This research will offer a dense and complex analysis of the identity of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, and a reflection upon the sources of power embedded in this collective identity. It will also hopefully lead Palestinian leaders in Israel to reflect on their discourse of struggle and its impact on their collective status, on the design of their shared future with the Jewish majority, and on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a whole.