Running head: ETHNIC GROUP CONFLICT

ETHNIC GROUP CONFLICT

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ETHNIC GROUP CONFLICT

For many decades now, the Palestinians and the Israelis have been under constant

conflict. Among the issues that have sustained this conflict are religious differences, ideological

differences as well as land occupation among others. Israelis and Palestinians both claim a

common decent. Israelis are descendants of the younger son of Abraham, Isaac while the

Palestinians who are considered Arabs are descendants of the elder son of Abraham, Ishmael.

They therefore both claim the territory known as Israeli/Palestine land in the Middle East

(Dershowitz, 2005). Muslims who are mostly Palestinians base their claim of the territory in the

holy Quran while the Jews base theirs in the holy bible.

Palestinians largely confess to the Islamic religious doctrines while the Israelis confess to

the doctrines of Judaism, a religion that is based on the Mosaic Law or the torah (Dershowitz,

2005). While the Jews pray facing Jerusalem the capital of this state for centuries, the

Palestinians pray with their backs turned to Jerusalem. Jews were displaced from the land they

presently occupy centuries ago. It is recorded that Israel emerged as an independent nation about

two thousand years before the emergence of Islam, the faith that most Palestinians confess to.

This shows that the Israeli community has been in the territory under contention longer than their

Palestinians or Arab counterparts. A point to note is that in the early centuries, these two racial

groups lived in harmony with each other. Essentially these two people are one and the same

people, only divided by historical and religious believes.

The fall of the Ottoman Empire in the 19 th century saw the immigration of a large number

of Jews to this territory. This fall was initiated by Sir Henry McMahon with the help of Husain in

an Arab revolt. In return, Britain had promised the Arabs that it would help them create an
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Arabic nation under Hashemite (Dershowitz, 2005). This never happened as the British allowed

Jews especially those in Europe to immigrate to what was before the Palestinian state. Feeling

betrayed and used, the Palestinians Arabs initiated streams of terror attacks and uprising against

the Jewish immigrants in an effort to reclaim the land they considered their own. Britain tried to

seek the aid of the United Nations to create a two state nation with no success. During the reign

of the Nazi in Germany and Europe, many Jews fled from Europe as they were being killed and

immigrating to Palestine. Their number grew significantly further increasing their power in the

region. Israel declared its independence in 1948 without indicating any geographical boundaries.

This is what has been the major cause of conflict as each party claims this territory.

Conformity is the situation in which people in a social setting match their behaviors,

cultural and religious beliefs and attitudes to what these people perceive as normal in that

society. This conformity can either be direct or indirect or through free will or coercion.

Conformity gives an individual a status of belonging in ones society (Beloff, 1958). In the case

of Palestine and Israel, the Palestinians have in a way been forced to conform to the ways of life

of the Jewish society. This is because the Jews have proven to be stronger both economically and

in terms of military. Though the Palestinians have been rebelling against the Jewish rule for

some time now, many of them conformed to the fact that they could not oust the Israelites and

have thus been integrated in the Israelites community.

Social cognition refers how concepts or information is processed, stored and retrieved from an

individual’s brain. It refers to the perceptions that individuals form in their brains of a given

phenomenon or concept (Fiske, & Taylor, 2008). It is kind of stereotyping. Social perception is

the manner in which individuals perceive social entities (Abrams, & Michael, 1999). These

include the perception of one’s self and others and the general society as a whole. The perception
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of self involves the analysis of one’s behavior, physical attributes and abilities and disabilities

among others.

These two phenomena in a way can be used to explain the prolonged conflict between the

Israelis and the Palestinians. Though in way they share a common ancestry, the two groups

adamantly reject one another’s cultural or religious believes. Each claims that they are right in

their own way. The Israelites believe that they are the chosen people. This is the social cognition

they have cultivated in their brains. They believe that of the two Abraham sons, Isaac the

younger son was the son of the promise. The Palestinians on the other hand believe that God’s

promise was to all the of Abraham’s descendants. They thus believe that they also have a strong

claim to the land under contention.

In terms of perception, which is more or less the same concept as social cognition, the

Israelites consider themselves as a superior race based on the biblical believes as the chosen

ones. Palestinians dispute this as they believe that god blessed every one without any favor. The

two groups therefore have negative perceptions of one another and thus the tension between

them.

The Palestine/Israeli conflict can be easily resolved if the two groups can be brought to a

situation where they just respect one another. The key element of respect is what lacks between

these two groups. Trying to split the region into two individual states will not work. This is

because each group claims a given tradition and cultural history in the whole of the region. None

of the two groups can exist without each and every part of that region. It would be easier

therefore if the two groups could make up a confederation in which two states exist under the

banner of one central government.

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References

Abrams, D, & Michael A. H. (Eds.). (1999). Social Identity and Social Cognition: An

Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Beloff, H. (1958). Two forms of social conformity: Acquiescence and conventionality.

The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 56, 99–106.

Dershowitz, A. (2005). The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can Be

Resolved. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Fiske, S.T. & Taylor, S. E. (2008). Social Cognition: From Brains to Culture. New York:

McGraw-Hill.