Defining identity, the dilemma facing Arabs in Israel

[Anonymous]

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp ... e_id=94992

Defining identity, the dilemma facing Arabs in Israel

"Who are we?" asks Manal Badarna in an editorial in Panorama, an Arabic weekly published in Taibeh. Her simple question, which carries a painful and deep scar, is asked by many "Palestinians" in Israel, who don't know how to define their own identity.

Badarna is a young newspaper editorialist from the Galilee. The Israelis refer to her as an "Arab-Israeli," as she is part of the Palestinian community that remained in the new state of Israel in 1948. But nowadays what does being an Arab actually mean? It doesn't define a nationality. Maybe it defines an ethnicity, but it is not enough to provide an identity or a deep sense of belonging to a people. Pan-Arabism has failed and the Arab world is fragmented. Hence, the term "Arab" by itself defines only something vague.