Palestinian Identities and Preferences: Israel’s and Jerusalem’s Arabs

Do ethnic Arabs or Palestinians have a future within the borders of the state of Israel? This book sets out to examine social fragmentation in Palestinian society and its effect on this future. Its focus is on those Palestinians who live within the boundaries of Israel but not under direct military occupation. The problems posed for these Palestinians by the so-called integrative option, and their responses to these problems, form the core of the study. Central to the book is presentation of the views of Palestinians based on in-depth polling, comparing the views of different social and regional segments of the Arab community under Israeli civil control. It deals broadly with relations between Jew and Arab, and between Arab and Arab, finding that Palestinian society is highly fragmented along familial, regional, religious, economic, gender, and generational lines.