Palestinian Citizens in an Ethnic Jewish State: Identities in Conflict.

• Author: Hagopian, Elaine C.
• Position: Review

Nadim N. Rouhana. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. 231 pp., Appendices pp. 233-243, Notes, pp. 245-273. Bibliography, pp. 275-288, Index, pp. 289-300. Hardcover $30.

Reviewed by Elaine C. Hagopian

Finally a book which elucidates accurately the dilemmas of that little known remnant of the Palestinian people in what became the State of Israel in 1948 has been written. Growing from a population in 1948 of approximately 156,000 to 850,000 by the end of 1994, the Palestinians now form a critical mass in Israel, i.e., sixteen plus percent of the Israeli population. Nonetheless, the Palestinian citizens are not accorded equal rights in Israel. Rouhana's book captures the essence of this anomaly. The Jewish and Palestinian Arab "identities" are in conflict, not simply because Jews and Palestinian Arabs are culturally "different," but more important because Israel is a democracy that extends the full rights of citizenship to Jews only.

As the Palestinian population has grown, Israeli Jewish social scientists have focused on its anomalous status in Israel which is designed in its legal documents as a state for the Jewish people. Unfortunately, such studies have tended to obfuscate the reality of Palestinian status and rights in the State by offering "data" to show their evolution toward an Israeli identity and the subsequent trend to increased rights. Rouhana systematically de-constructs the arguments and adequacy of data of those such as Sammy Smooha who hold to such a position. Smooha and others have tried to transform the contraction of democracy and exclusion into a non-contradiction by presenting it in muted form in order to blur its full reality. That is, for Smooha and others, Palestinians are gaining a form of equality, but he knows in somewhat obscure form that Palestinians still need to understand that Israel is a State for the Jewish people. The main flaw in Smooha's work, states Rouhana, is that he and others assume that a degree of internalization of Israeli identity has taken place among Palestinians, and hence it will serve to promote the greater attachment to the State and thus, to more rights, but not full rights. Rouhana quickly demolishes the flawed assumptions and consequent "scientific" edifice on which Smooha has built his analysis.

Beyond exposing the inadequacies of studies by Smooha and others as he presents his own analytical framework and data, Rouhana makes three major contributions: 1) he develops a conceptual model that relates to collective identity, offering clarity to understanding the enigmatic status of the...