Nadim N. Rouhana

Perception of Power, Threat, and Conflict Intensity in Asymmetric Intergroup Conflict: Arab and Jewish Citizens of Israel

This article examines the perception of power, threat, and conflict intensity in an asymmetric intergroup conflict. About 900 Arab and 900 Jewish high school and university students in Israel were surveyed on their sense of threat and security, the intensity of the conflict between their communities, and power relations between Arabs and Jews who both are citizens of Israel. Scales were developed to measure all three concepts in that setting. Factor analysis of the power scale shows that the two groups distinguish between two dimensions of power. Both sides agree that the Jewish population asymmetrically controls more institutional power and to a lesser extent social-integrational power. The two groups distinguish between two dimensions of threat, but what threatens one group evokes either security or no threat in the other. Perceived power, threat, and intensity of conflict are best predicted by political affiliation, although other social and political predictors were also found. A profile of the right wing in the Israeli sample emerged, which resembled, but did not mirror, the profile of the left wing in the Arab sample.

The Political Transformation of the Palestinians in Israel: From Acquiescence to Challenge

The role played by the Palestinian citizens of Israel to date, on either side of the divide in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been limited. As Israeli citizens, they have failed to influence Israeli policy vis-a-vis the conflict and they have shied away from significantly shaping the nature of the State of Israel. As Palestinians, they are increasingly showing signs of support for the Palestinian cause, but have made only a limited political contribution to the Palestinian struggle for independence and selfdetermination. Over the last forty years, as this Arab population has undergone several important transformations, it has become possible for it to play an increasingly important role, both as citizens of Israel and as a segment of the Palestinian people. This article will review the major changes that Arab society in Israel has witnessed. It will show how these changes established new modes of interaction with Israel and with the Palestinian people, but it will emphasize the influence of these changes-actual and potential-on Israel. The interaction between developments in Arab society in Israel and the unfolding of Israels fatal contradiction-being the state of the Jewish people and being a democracy with equality for its citizens-will be

The Intifada and the Palestinians of Israel: Resurrecting the Green Line

The Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories and the ensuing PLO political program have direct bearing on the political future of the Palestinians in Israel. Thus far, neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians at large have attempted to define their relationships to Israels Arab community, which both have tended to view as a marginal segment of their respective societies. But for the Palestinians of Israel themselves, the nature of these relationships, both to Israel and to their fellow Palestinians, touches on the very essence of their political future and collective identity. The new circumstances produced by the uprising have brought these relationships into focus in an unprecedented manner. This paper examines the impact of the uprising on the beliefs and thinking of the Palestinians in Israel, and argues that the forms and extent of their support for the uprising and their political response to it are defined by the patterns of their involvement in the Israeli system. It also examines how this involvement will be influenced by the new political realities resulting from the uprising.

Zionist Theories of Peace in the Pre-state Era: Legacies of Dissimulation and Israel's Arab Minority

2011-2018: SAS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania (2017-2018) Berman Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, Association for Jewish Studies (2016-2017) Critical Writing Teaching Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania (2016-2017) Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania (2011-2016) Fellow, Leffell Seminar on the Impact of Israel on American Jewry (Summer 2017) Goldfein Research Award, Jewish Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania (2015) Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, Arabic (Summer 2012)