The Implications of Arab Milieu on Arab-Palestinian Society in Israel

Abstract

Until recent years, the Arab Palestinian minority in Israel was completely absent from the concerns of their surroundings in the Arab world, despite the fact that the Arab surroundings have maintained a strong presence in forming the political consciousness and intellectual and ideological tendencies in Israeli Arab society for the past 70 years. It can be accurately said that Arab society in Israel considered itself a part of the Arab surroundings in every sense of the word, and it still sees its existence as a social, existential, and cultural extension of these Arab surroundings. This communicative situation, at the level of consciousness and sentiments, has cast a shadow on the relationships and positions of Arab citizens in the state, and there have always been views towards the Arab surroundings as a source of moral strength and intellectual inspiration. All of the intellectual and ideological transformations that the Arab world has experienced have reflected on the conditions of Arabs in Israel, starting with pan-Arabism, following through to the reframing of national identities, and ending with the extension of Islamism and resorting to pre-state frameworks against the backdrop of the logic of fragmentation that was brought about by the Arab Spring.