4.1 Findings Per Method
4.1.3 Narrative Text Tools
Identity Perception
quotes from the narrative text tools:
T
he main verses selected by the participants to express their identity attitudes:“I am an Arab, my hair is brown and my eyes are black”;
“My identity is scattered like a white light”;
“Our East is chewing slowly on its history and its idle dreams”;
“No doubt I am an Arab and a father of eight”;
“Oh my homeland, my tiny home!”;
“I can carry my home in a suitcase”;
“All these identity ideas are delusive”;
“It’s my reality, though it’s unpleasant to some people”;
“I am a man with no identity; the document which bears my identity details might rather be a surrealistic picture”;
“I am a refugee here, and there I am a stranger”;
“I am from here; they call me “an Arab from the inside”, but no one invites me inside”.
The Arab component
“I am proud to be an Arab”; “My roots are Arab, in the Arab traditions and culture” (Maria); “Being an Arab means being part of a big nation” (Hanna).
The Israeli-Arab component
“We live in Israel and we are part of the Israeli society” (Mira), “I am realistic, I am an Israeli” (Sami), “It’s like an Arab who lives in the U.S.: he won’t say I’m not from the U.S., so I say that I’m from Israel” (Saher); “I am an Arab who lives within his traditions and heritage like in a suitcase, but I am an Israeli, in everything I do every day” (Nairouz).
Attitude:
“I am an Arab, a citizen of Israel, but I do not believe I belong to this country, I just reside in it” (Rola); “I live here, but I do not feel that this country is for me”
(Wasim), “They do not want me to be an equal citizen in this country” (Sharbel).
The religious component: “First of all, I am a Christian; this is my main identity”
(Sami), “I identify myself mainly as a Christian” (Jomana), “Being a Christian means being a Maronite” (Elias).
Confusion:
“I am uncertain about my identity, however, I am a Christian, a Maronite, but I do not think it makes me different from others” (Mira); “I do not know who I am;
I have no clear identity”; “It is difficult to determine my identity” (Narmeen).
B. Text Completion Identity Perception
quotes from the narrative text tools:
The Arab Ethnic Component Recognition:
“I am an Arab, a Christian, a Palestinian, a citizen of Israel, and a Maronite”
(Hanna); “I am an Arab, a Palestinian, from ‘the Palestinians of 1948’. I live in Israel” (Maria); “I am not a hundred per cent Arab, but an Israeli Arab” (Rania).
The Israeli National Component Recognition:
“I am an Israeli and a Christian” (Shaden); “My identity is an Israeli one”
(Natalie); “I am an Arab, a citizen of Israel. I live in Israel” (Wasim) ; “I am a citizen of Israel” (Suzan); “I am an Arab, and I live in Israel” (Samer).
The family factor: “I am an Arab, a Christian, I live in Israel, but I identify myself with the family, not with the country” (Samer); “I belong to my family, I am part of it” (Nairouz).
Religious Identity
The Maronite Component
Recognition: “I am a Maronite Christian” (Sami); “I am proud to be a Maronite Christian” (Sharbel).
Rejection: “I don’t feel like being a Maronite at all” (Lana); “it does not mean to me more than a congregation that I was born into”(Natalie).
The Christian Component
Recognition: “I am a Christian Arab. I am a religious person. I live in Israel”
(Samer); “I am an Arab Christian with Palestinian roots” (Maria); “I am an Arab, a Palestinian, and a Christian” (Nairouz); “I am a dedicated Christian, but I do not manifest it for I do not want to be called “racist” (Wasim).
Uncertainty: “I am uncertain about my identity, however, I am a Christian, a Maronite, but I do not think it makes me different from the others” (Jomana),
“I’m not sure of myself as a Christian and what it is like be a Maronite” (Suzan).
Future Orientation
quotes from the narrative text tools:
Priorities: “I will study medicine in the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) and only after that I will get married” (Wasim); “I plan to study pharmacology, live with parents and not get married soon” (Nagham); “I want to complete my studies and then find a respectable husband, so that my parents will be proud of me” (Rania); “I will study social sciences, and then get married” (Georgette).
Future residence: “There are few chances to build good careers in Israel. I plan to go to the USA, to get training there and raise a family” (Elias); “I would like to study, to be employed and maintain an independent life in the USA” (Lana); “I want to stay in my home town and help as many people as I can” (Deeb).
Professional career plans: Making for bringing social changes into society (3): “I want to become an important person, a university graduate” (Wasim); “I want to live only in my current home town, and want this country to be less radical and not racist, with Jews and Arabs having equal rights …” (Nairouz); “I want to study social sciences to help my community” (Georgette).
Uncertainty: “I have neither expectations nor inspirations so far” (Elias); “I have no clear expectations in our cruel reality” (Saher); “I want to be educated and married, but who knows what will actually happen in the future” (Rola).
4.1.4 Focus Group Identity Perception
quotes from the focus group:
Arab Ethnic Identity
Recognition: “I am an Israeli Arab”; “I am an Arab who lives in Israel”; I am an Arab, a Christian and an Israeli”.
National Identity
Confusion: “I feel that my identity is split between being a Palestinian Arab and an Israeli”; “When asked by someone from abroad about my nationality, I’m confused about what to say – Israeli or Palestinian”; “I have more than one identity: an Israeli, a Palestinian…. I can’t really say it depends who I deal with...”
The Israeli Component
Recognition: “As a matter of fact, I am an Israeli”; “I do not belong to any other place but the one where I was born, and this place is Israel”; “I do not feel like being an Israeli in a full sense, but, as a matter of fact, I live in this country and I will not leave it”.
Detachment: “I would like to belong to this country, but it does not let me”;
“…as an Israeli I am not wanted in this society, neither by the Jews nor by Muslims”.
The Palestinian Component
Recognition: “I am an Israeli Arab with Palestinian roots”; “I am Palestinian who lives in Israel”, “I am part of the Palestinian people, but I live in Israel”.
Indifference:”…as to being a Palestinian – I think it’s irrelevant and not clear to anybody”; “As to my identity, I have a problem. I believe it would be much easier to have no identity”; “I would rather not define my identity. Actually, I use
several identities, depending on the circumstances. I do not feel like being part of this ‘identity definition dispute”.
Religious Identity
The Maronite Component
Recognition: “I am proud of being a Maronite. I pray only in the Maronite church”; “There is something special in the Maronite church…It is different from other churches”.
Detachment: “We do not feel that we belong to this church”, “There is nothing for me and for the youth at all in this community”; “The church is too far from my needs”, “I do not know much about the Maronite church or Maronites”.
The Christian Component
Recognition: “I am happy to be part of the Christian community”; “I do not feel anything special in being a Maronite. For me, it is just sufficient to be a Christian”; “It is difficult to be part of some subgroup of Christianity. I prefer to be just a Christian, with no division between different groups and ethnicities”;
“We have to defend ourselves as Christians. It’s a shame to be divided into all kinds of subgroups”.
Involvement in the Community and heritage awareness
Church activities: “It is more appropriate to have activities organized by the church. It is safer to meet new people this way”; “It would be better to have activities through the church. It suits me both spiritually and socially”; Hanna:
“We should be more aware about our small community and work on developing activities in the church”.
Social activities: “For me, it would be better to be more involved and to help strengthen the community rather than the society in whole. Nobody will take care of our youth particularly”; “We need a kind of a club with activities for the whole family”; “The activities should be organized for the youth and for the whole family”.
Frustration: “Nobody has ever been interested in our lives. It is the first time that someone wants to research this matter”; “There is no one who will take care of us”.
Future Orientation
quotes from the focus group:
Place of Residence
Israel: “I will stay here; it is better than any other place. At least, I’ll be close to my parents”; “I do not think to leave for any other place …”; “I’ll stay in my homeland. We must not give up, we have to be here “I do not see any other place for myself. If they have a problem with my being here, they may leave”.
Other countries: “I think I’ll move to the USA”; “I would like to live somewhere in Europe. I always dreamed about that”; “I see my future in Germany or France”;
“I believe that in the USA I will achieve more as an American Arab than as an Israeli Arab in Israel”.
Proximity to family: “I’ll get married after my studies and live close to my parents”; “I want to study, get married and live next to my parents”.
Uncertainty: “I have no expectations regarding the future here”; “I do not see myself staying here because here I have no future”; “I have no plans to stay here. They won’t let us advance in our lives”; “This place is not for us. No one cares for jobs for us or for improving our conditions as a Christian minority”.
Academic Studies
Tertiary Education: “I will go to the university after having completed school”;
“For me, it is of utmost importance to study in the university”; “For me, the most important matter is academic studies”; “I do not believe I’ll be able to get accepted to university here”.
Priority: “First, I’ll get my degree, then I’ll get married”; “For me, it is most important to study at university. After that, I will take care of my family life”, “I have big plans for my study and career; raising a family will come later”.
Professional Career
Priorities: “I would like to be a lawyer”; “I’ll be probably a social worker or a teacher”; “I want to study pharmacology”.
Uncertainty: “I have no specific plans”; “We can’t be sure about our future so why think about it. I do not know what to plan so far”.
After having collected the data according to the main a priori concepts of the identity and future orientation, it was categorized according to each concept for all the relevant methods and the number of similar expressions for each category was put together. New concepts were given to each group of expressions according to their general trend, being positive or negative; clear or confused, etc.
Table 3: Findings presentation – concepts of identity perception and future orientation per method – general summary
(Numbers in brackets = number of the participants who expressed the same statements) In depth interview (25 participants)
Identity - Arab Ethnic Identity Attitude (10) Significance (8) Clarity (12) National Identity
Israeli Component
Recognition (12) Detachment (5) Rejection (22) Palestinian Component
Recognition (3) Uncertainty (20) Rejection (2) Lebanese component
Place of residence Israel (21) Other countries (4) Proximity to family (21) Academic studies Tertiary education (23) Academic institutions demands (10)
Parents’ Semi-structured Ethnographic Interview (45 participants)
Recognition (19) Recognition (18) Recognition (1)
Leadership (42) Social activities (45) Passive (8)
Future Orientation Family Education
Academic Education Significance
(44)
Significance: The importance of post-secondary education for children (40) Recognition (14) Recognition (4) Recognition (5) Recognition (9)
Uncertainty (9)
Arab Ethnic Identity Recognition (22) National Identity Confusion (7)
Religious Identity The Maronite component The Christian component Recognition (2) Recognition
(20) Detachment (12)
Involvement in the Community
Church activities (22) Social activities (20) Frustration (16) Future Orientation
Place of Residence Israel (20) Other countries (8)
Proximity to family (19)
Uncertain ty (4) Academic Studies Tertiary Education (21) Priority (19)
Professional Career Priorities (12) Uncertainty (3)