Theme of Belonging

Theme of Discourse with Respect to the Other

The theme of belonging refers to the adolescents’ consideration of questions regarding their affinity groups.

The responses included two types of belonging: national and civic.

This theme refers to how the adolescents view those different from themselves. That is, how they relate to groups to which they do not belong and in contrast to which they enhance and sharpen their own identity.

National belonging refers to responses in which the interviewees expressed belonging to a particular national group.

Representative citations:

・ “It is important for me to stress that I am not Israeli” (16 years old).

・ “I live in Israel, but I am not Israeli” (16 years old).

・ “I live in Israel, but I define myself as belonging to the ‘48 Arabs” (16 years old).

・ “I am an Arab living in the State of Israel, not an Israeli; I see myself as one of the ‘48 Arabs” (16 years old).

Civic belonging refers to the adolescents’ responses that express their sense of civic affinity. These feelings of belonging were not expressed through explicit statements but can be inferred from the adolescents’ statements on other topics.

Representative citations:

・ “This interests me because I live here. When something happens to Israel, I am part of it, so I need to know, but I want to stress that I am not Israeli” (16 years old).

・ “I am not interested in what goes on, but if something affects me and my family, I am interested, but anything else, because the state does not represent me, why should it interest me?” (18 years old).

・ “I am not interested in what goes on in the State of Israel. I do not feel it is my country or that I am a part of it. Only when something happens in Nazareth am I interested in knowing about it, but Israel doesn’t interest me at all … I’m only interested in news close to where I live” (17 years old).

・ “What goes on in Israel does interest me because it is the place where I live. I am not Israeli. I live in the State of Israel, and there’s a difference. I need to integrate into the society and to remain in this country. Therefore, I must know what is going on and keep up to date” (15 years old).

In the adolescents’ responses in the interviews, the identity of the Other is clear. The Other is the Israelis, the Jews, those who produce the news in Israel and who are perceived as racists and anti-Arabs.

Representative citations:

・ “Racism, no references to Arabs whatsoever, they only talk about the Jews as if we aren’t here! Because most of the news is about the Jews as if there were no Arabs in the country. And most of the achievements on the news are only Jews. Aren’t there any Arabs in this country who accomplished anything? Of course there are. So why don’t they talk about them? Because they are racists” (17 years old).

・ “For the most part, they don’t talk about Arabs in a good way. Either they are criminals or they are racists. They don’t say that the Arab is good and won some award or is an important doctor but rather that he’s a criminal and a terrorist” (17 years old).

・ “I feel they are addressing the Zionists in Israel. I feel they are against Arabs because when they talk about Arabs on the news, it’s usually about murderers, criminals, terrorist attacks. They don’t talk about us in a nice or good way. We are seen as criminals on the news” (17 years old).