Talk:Palestinian citizens of Israel

Page creation

As of page creation, this content is split out from the article Arab citizens of Israel in much the same way that Druze in Israel or Lebanese in Israel components are. The content is a starting point and the Arab citizens of Israel article will also need reworking to reflect a summary of what's here linked out to this as a main article.

The title could change, Palestinians in Israel or Israeli Palestinians is possible, for example. Selfstudier (talk) 11:43, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

A little note, the business re Negev Bedouin / Palestinian Bedouin is of indirect relevance here.Selfstudier (talk) 19:36, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

title

We have an article on the Negev Bedouin, we have an article on Druze in Israel, both sub-articles of Arab citizens of Israel, why would the article covering the Palestinian population be about their identity? nableezy - 20:04, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 26 November 2021

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

No consensus to move. After much-extended time for discussion, and with no new participation in over a week, there is a clear absence consensus for a move at this time. It appears to be undisputed that there are some number of inviduals who are citizens of Israel, and who identify as Palestinians. Neither title is therefore clearly impermissible, so consensus is required to effect the proposed change. If there are problems with the fit between the scope of the article and its current title, those can be addressed through clarifying edits. BD2412 T 03:55, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Palestinian citizens of Israel → Palestinian identity in Israel – This article is about Palestinian identity amongst Arabs in Israel rather than Palestinian citizens of Israel as a defined ethnic group (as noted by the text, not all Arab citizens of Israel identify as Palestinian). Number 57 21:25, 26 November 2021 (UTC) — Relisted. Usernamekiran (talk) 17:47, 5 December 2021 (UTC)

• Oppose - this article is about the subgroup of Arab citizens of Israel that are Palestinian. There is an article on the Druze subgroup of Arab citizens of Israel. There is an article on the Bedouin subgroup of Arab citizens of Israel. There is even an article on the tiny number of Lebanese subgroup of Arab citizens of Israel. This article has just started, right now it has a decent chunk on identity. It will include material on religion, on culture, on all the things we normally include on ethnic groups. This article does not cover the other Arabs in Israel. It is blatantly untrue that this is about all Arab citizens of Israel, it is about the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. Arab citizens of Israel is a parent article to this. Not to an article on "Palestinian identity". nableezy - 21:40, 26 November 2021 (UTC)
  • There is no subgroup that "are Palestinian". There are Arabs who are not Druze or Bedouin, but describing them as Palestinian is not NPOV, as they do not all self-identify as such. Number 57 21:54, 26 November 2021 (UTC)
    • Neither the first sentence of the lead nor indeed the article thus far, claims that all Arab citizens identify as Palestinian. The article gives opinion polling about how many there might be that so identify.Selfstudier (talk) 22:07, 26 November 2021 (UTC)
      • Hence why the proposed title is more appropriate. Number 57 22:23, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

We are not including any group or person that does not self-identify as Palestinian as Palestinian. Nothing in this article describes all Arabs who are not Druze of Bedouin as Palestinian, making the argument it is not NPOV to describe them as Palestinian moot. But yes, according to reliable sources, there is indeed a subgroup of the Arab citizens in Israel that do indeed identify as Palestinian. And that subgroup, larger than both the Druze and the Bedouin, and exponentially larger than the Lebanese, is a discrete sub-topic of Arab citizens of Israel. And just hiving that subgroup off in to the main article is very much not neutral. In fact, there has been a long-standing effort to deny an identity to both a group and individuals. See for example Haneen Zoabi, who is emphatic that she is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, refusing to allow that to be included as anything other than an "self-identity". This helps correct that blatantly non-neutral effort that has stretched for years. nableezy - 22:09, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

So, again, the primary basis of this article is about identity. I am not proposing the article be deleted, just that the title match the concept. Number 57 22:23, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

No, again, the basis of the article is that Arab citizens of Israel covers much more than the Palestinian population who have their own challenges and issues distinct from the other sub-groups, which each have their own child article. This completes that set. nableezy - 22:30, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

It doesn't, because there is no article for non-Bedouin/Druze who do not identify as Palestinian. This is also not a valid title for a sub-group separate to Bedouin, as some Bedouin identify as Palestinian. If you want an article on non-Bedouin/Druze Arabs in Israel, this isn't the right title for it. Number 57 22:34, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

I don't get the desire to alter the pattern of the other sub articles? We don't have Druze identity in Israel or Bedouin identity in Israel.Selfstudier (talk) 22:36, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

If you mean there is crossover/multiple identifications, sure but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have the article at all.Selfstudier (talk) 22:38, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

I would add that there is a lot of sourcing to come that backs up the current title.Selfstudier (talk) 22:40, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Because those articles are about ethnic groups and this one is not – it is about identity and so not part of the same set (even a small number of Druze identify as Palestinian). I fully support the creation of an article on non-Bedouin/Druze Arabs in Israel, but this is definitely not the correct title for it. It might even be better to split the subgroups into Christian Arabs in Israel and Muslim Arabs in Israel. Number 57 22:53, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

You just oppose allowing the Palestinian Arabs in Israel an article? nableezy - 22:56, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

And this comment marks the end of me wasting my time responding here. Have a good weekend. Number 57 23:04, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Im sorry if I offended you, but you have been fairly clear that we may not impose an identity on those who do not identify as Palestinian. And I agree. But you have apparently no problem with imposing an identity (Arab-Israeli or whatever) on those that reject it. I have no earthly idea how one can say you cant force this identity on people, but then turn around and force some other identity on to them. nableezy - 23:20, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

What's ethnicity got to do with anything? We can discuss ethnicity in the article, and religion too, but this is clearly per sources an identifiable minority group.Selfstudier (talk) 23:44, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

• Support Or else it would be POV fork. There is already article about Israeli Arabs. --Shrike (talk) 23:16, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Can't be a POV fork, Shrike, there was an RM to move that article and the conclusion was that it wasn't the same as the scope of this one, else it would have been moved, right?Selfstudier (talk) 23:20, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

I don't see it in move close. The scope is the same it just not WP:COMMONNAME yes some Arabs have Palestinian identity and describe themselves as such Shrike (talk) 23:29, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Still don't follow, the common name for Palestinian citizens of Israel is something else? That what you are saying?Selfstudier (talk) 00:02, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

• Comment: @Number 57: does this pass WP:CONSISTENT (one of the 5 key requirements for article titles)? If so, please show me other articles with this xxx identity in yyy structure. Onceinawhile (talk) 00:13, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

I have just done the research myself, and can confirm that fails WP:CONSISTENT. In all 195 countries and thousands of identities in the world, we don't use the proposed structure anywhere else in our encyclopaedia. The closest we come are the following:

• Native American identity in the United States. It is not the same type of article as the one we are discussing, as this sits alongside the article Native Americans in the United States. I don't believe the nominator is proposing we have two articles here.
• Controversy over ethnic and linguistic identity in Montenegro - a country-wide article. Despite the controversy, we have no problem having articles Montenegrins, Serbs of Montenegro, Croats of Montenegro, Bosniaks of Montenegro etc, without the "identity in" watering down.

I am sure this was not intended, but by singling out the Palestinians in this way, the nominator has proposed something which would be offensive to the subjects of this article.

Onceinawhile (talk) 00:33, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I don't really see what this needs to be consistent with given that it's a relatively standalone topic. There are others (like Native American identity in the United States or Nordic identity in Estonia), but most articles on identity (like Cuban identity or Māori identity) are not limited to people in a certain country so the country qualifier is unnecessary. The idea that the proposed move is somehow offensive is laughable and reinforces my suspicion that your question was not in good faith and was instead simply an attempt to find a reason to oppose. I have no desire to continue to interact with this sort of nonsense, so please do not ping me again. Number 57 00:51, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

From a moral standpoint, because we must not single out any group of people for unique treatment, particularly on topics so sensitive as how people define themselves. As to your decision to laugh at these people, I will test my statement by contacting a few friends of mine who are Palestinians in Israel - I will ask them whether they find your proposal offensive. I will let you know tomorrow. Feel free to ask your own Palestinian friends in Israel at the same time.

And from a technical standpoint, because WP:CONSISTENT is a policy, not a choice.

I have addressed the Native American articles above - are you really arguing for two parallel articles here?

Nordic identity in Estonia is unrelated to this. It is about whether the country is Nordic; it is not about a sub-division of its citizens.

Onceinawhile (talk) 00:58, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

Number 57, as promised I contacted six Palestinians citizens of Israel, all from different families. I have two responses so far. The question I asked I hope you will agree was neutral: "Someone on Wikipedia suggested that the article about Palestinians in Israel should be replaced with an article about Palestinian identity in Israel. I believe that would make them the only group of people in the world to be treated like that on Wikipedia. What do you think?" I have two responses so far. The first was just two words, one of which was a curse. The second response was a guess about the ethnic background of the person making the suggestion. So not very friendly responses, but nor a clear answer to my question.

Have you heard back from any of your Palestinian friends in Israel?

Onceinawhile (talk) 10:25, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

I think we might let this go tbh, per the talk section below and my recent edit to the article I think we have been in a way distracted from the main thrust of this article. The only reason for any emphasis on self identification was to avoid the idea of "are" Palestinians rather than "identifying as".Selfstudier (talk) 10:46, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

• Support. Many Israeli Arabs self-describe as Palestinian, while many others who belong to the same ethnical, cultural and historical background choose not to describe themselves using this term. It is fine to have an article dedicated to this identity, but it is wrong to have the title of the article imply that this is the only possible way to describe these people. Having the article deal with Palestinian identity, which some of the people subscribe to while others don't solves this problem. “WarKosign” 19:19, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

  many others who belong to the same ethinical, cultural and historical background choose not to describe themselves using this term.The article is not about them, though, is it?Selfstudier (talk) 19:28, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

So "48 Arabs" who do not wish to be called "Palestinian" do not deserve an article? Any reason beside a political agenda? “WarKosign” 22:49, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

Feel free to write one in the usual way, I'll even try to help. 67 Arabs as well if you like.Selfstudier (talk) 22:56, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

@WarKosign: assuming you are not intending to single out Palestinian people here, please make this same argument at the pages for all sub-national identities in other countries. Not all people covered by Italian Americans consider themselves as such - identity is a personal matter. The same is true in the opposite way for Taiwanese people - it is a very sensitive topic, but some consider themselves Chinese. Also Turkish Cypriots, where anti-Turkish elements in Cyprus consider that these people are mostly not Cypriots. The list goes on and on and on. It is simply not appropriate to single out Palestinian people for different treatment. Onceinawhile (talk) 20:08, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

Can you just vote instead of trying to convince others to do something? nableezy - 20:13, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

I am waiting to see if the support voters can convince me otherwise. So far it just sounds like a repetition of the Israeli government's long term policy, rather than a judgement on what would be consistent with the rest of the encyclopedia. Onceinawhile (talk) 20:33, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

This is making it an unreadable mess. Just vote and make your argument, nobody needs to respond to any other person here. nableezy - 20:36, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

No reason to single anyone out. I haven't participated in such discussious about naming articles about any other ethnicity, but the same principle should apply - wikipedia should not force ethnic identity on people who do not want it. “WarKosign” 21:51, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

• Oppose Per multiple scholarly and other reliable sources, existing and in process of being added (see Sources section for some of these), the article is and will be about a clearly identifiable minority group in Israel, not an identity per se. Members of this minority may have multiple affiliations, ethnic, religious or otherwise but this is not the primary concern of this article. Nor is this minority equivalent with Arab citizens of Israel, as shown by the recent RM at that article.Selfstudier (talk) 22:38, 27 November 2021 (UTC)
  • Either this article is about a minority group (non-Bedouin/Druze Arabs in Israel), or it's about an identity of some Arabs (including some Bedouin/Druze) in Israel. If it's the first, the title is a clear NPOV violation as not all members of that group identify as Palestinian. If it's about the latter, the title is misleading. Non-Bedouin/Druze Arabs in Israel that identify as Palestinian do not constitute a separate minority group to those that do not. The mental gymnastics going on here to try and justify this article title are astounding, even for this topic area. Number 57 15:15, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

It is about the minority group in Israel that are commonly referred to, by sources and themselves, as Palestinians in Israel. The mental gymnastics in editors claiming it a NPOV violation to impose an identity on people who reject it who have done exactly that over years is astounding, even for this topic area. nableezy - 15:21, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

In this case, the title is a clear violation of NPOV. Using the term Palestinias for Israeli Arabs who do not identify as such is not acceptable. The only way this article's title is ok is if it was only about those who subscribe to the Palestinian identity. “WarKosign” 15:28, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

Except nobody is doing that. Making moot that strawman. Imposing the term "Israeli Arabs" on them, as you and others have done in this very discussion, that they reject is unacceptable. Mental gymnastics indeed. nableezy - 15:34, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

So, just to clarify, the scope of this article is Arabs with Israeli citizenship who identify as Palestinian? Number 57 15:53, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

The first sentence of the lead says "Palestinian citizens of Israel (also known as 48-Palestinians [1]) are Arab citizens of Israel that self-identify as Palestinian.".Selfstudier (talk) 16:00, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

And you are of the opinion that an Arab citizen of Israel that identifies as Palestinian is a member of a separate minority group to a neighbour or family member that does not? Number 57 16:03, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

You are mixing ethnicity with minority, I think. Using the Israeli source I just added below, they equate the Muslim group with the group identifying as Palestinian nationals among Arabs in Israel.Selfstudier (talk) 16:05, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

Most ethnicities are matters of identity. See for example Ethnic group, a grouping of people who identify with each other. There is nothing immutable about being Druze for example. This article is about such a group of people. It is about a group of people who identify as something, but the article is not about their identity, that is just what sets the scope of who is covered, But it would cover the issues of discrimination, policing and crime, education, all the things that are covered in say Israeli Jews, Druze in Israel, or any other child article of Israelis. nableezy - 16:18, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

So decision whether they wish to be called Palestinian changes their ethnicity? Are you suggesting that we have two separate articles, one of each "ethinicty", with mostly the same content? Or perhaps we can have this article deal with the only difference between the two groups: how they relate to Palestinian identity. “WarKosign” 16:11, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

(e/c) I'm just trying to get clarity on what you are saying. You initially stated that this article is "about a clearly identifiable minority group" and then that the article is about "Arab citizens of Israel that self-identify as Palestinian", so the apparent conclusion is that you think Arabs with Israeli citizenship who self-identify as Palestinian are an identifiable minority group. Is this the case? Number 57 16:16, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

(ec) Identity is usually the determinant factor in ethnic groupings. nableezy - 16:17, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

What I think is that both of you are trying to unnecessarily complicate the issue. The sources using the term "Palestinian citizens of Israel" (or equivalents) decide the meaning of that, not I. As for decision whether they wish to be called Palestinian changes their ethnicity? that is not in the article. If you are asking whether it is possible for an Arab father to not identify as Palestinian while his son does, I think that is possible and the reverse as well. However this kind of slicing and dicing is not necessary to the article.Selfstudier (talk) 16:22, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

Oppose: Number57 and WarKosign would benefit from comparing this with other situations. Do all people described by our article Palestinian Americans primarily identify as such? No, of course not all. Many will consider themselves simply American, no more, no less. Others will consider themselves primarily Arab Americans. The same is true of Palestinian Canadians vs Arab Canadians (note there is also a parallel article Arab Canadian identity).

So please can we stop trying to push for something unprecedented here. Onceinawhile (talk) 23:26, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

Have you opened the articles you are refering to? Palestinian Canadians: "According to the 2016 Census there were 70,500 Canadians who claimed Palestinian ancestry". Arab Canadians: "According to the 2016 Census there were 523,235 Canadians who claimed Arab ancestry". No doubt, some of Arab Canadians have ancestors that came from Palestine (region), yet since they do not self-identify as Palestinian the articles do not make this decision for them. “WarKosign” 05:52, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Thank you. I am glad we are finally agreed. Please don’t forget to strike your support comment. Onceinawhile (talk) 09:17, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

I'm glad you agree that this article does not deal with all "48 Arabs", that it only deals with those who chose to embrace their Palestinian identity, therefore it is proper to reflect it in the article's title. Don't forget to strike your oppose comment. “WarKosign” 09:31, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Your “therefore” clause does not follow. Onceinawhile (talk) 09:35, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

As an aside, note there is an important difference between claiming ancestry and claiming identity. The Canadian census questions referred to do not ask about identity (their policy is to encourage a simply “Canadian” identity). The same is true of the American census (albeit they don’t yet ask about individual countries in the Middle East). So should Palestinian citizens of Israel be defined by their ancestry too? I don’t see anyone arguing for that, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable. Particularly in the face of the nominator here arguing that Israeli citizens choosing to identify as Palestinian should have a question mark placed over their choice with the proposed title here. Onceinawhile (talk) 09:33, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

• Support per nom. This article covers a specific label which some Arab citizens of Israel apply to themselves. It is not a separate group of citizenry in its own right.  — Amakuru (talk) 14:06, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

  So Arabs are a separate group in their own right but Palestinians are not? According to who? Selfstudier (talk) 16:40, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

"48 Arabs" are a sub-group of Israeli Arabs, and "Palestinian Arabs" is a sub-group of "48 Arabs" that choose this label. It's ok to have an article about any of these groups, but it is not ok to have an article about a sub-sub-group ("Palestinian Arabs") that misleads the reader into thinking that this is an article about all of "48 Arabs" and that they all identify as Palestinian. “WarKosign” 18:36, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

This article does not do anything of the sort. nableezy - 18:43, 15 December 2021 (UTC)

It does, in the very beginning of the lead. "Ever since the Nakba, the Palestinians that have remained within Israel's 1948 borders have been colloquially known as '48 Arabs'". Palestinians as defined in this article are supposed a sub-group of '48 Arabs', yet the lead implies that they are one and the same. “WarKosign” 06:19, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

In the same way that Palestinians are a subgroup of Arabs so are 48 Palestinians of 48 Arabs. It says in the first sentence of the lead , "also known as 48-Palestinians". If it's just a question of wording a sentence differently I am sure that can be managed.Selfstudier (talk) 10:15, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

It *can* be managed, but it would take active work to avoid mistakes and abuse. "Palestinians" is a term often used to refer to all of '48 Arabs', so a good-faith editor is quite likely to miss this distinction. Renaming this article to clarify the difference would eliminate possibility of mistake. “WarKosign” 11:37, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

Oppose.People with better memories or research talents than mine will perhaps recall that I was opposed to the Palestinization of Arabs of Israel as Palestinian Israelis on a couple of occasions when the matter came up, the then current polling data esp that of Smooha, indicated it was a descriptor not underwritten by the majority of Israeli Arabs. I will add that privately I didn’t think these earlier polls factored in several key considerations as to why respondents shied away from ‘Palestinian’.

(a) it is a term of opprobrium in Israeli discourse, just as Arab is (b) is suggestive to many Israelis of disloyalty and (c) implies a terrorist leaning or identitarian sympathy with Israel’s enemy across the Green Line (d) factors which do not look good on one’s CV and (e) there is a natural wariness in minority respondents about revealing their real thoughts for a public record, esp. where authorities are extremely concerned about ‘Palestinianism’ = security threat. Whatever, one has to go with the polls.

However after downloading Smooha‘s most recent 2019 survey results, and reading through the volume, I’ve changed my mind.

The identity of 83.0% of the Arabs in 2019 (up from 75.5% in 2017) has an Israeli component and 61.9% (unchanged from 60.3%) has a Palestinian component. However, when these two components were presented as competitors, 69.0% of the Arabs in 2019 chose exclusive or primary Palestinian identity, compared with 29.8% who chose exclusive or primary Israeli Arab identity (Table 5.14).pp87-88, p.88

69 percent self-identify as Palestinians therefore now. The same text also notes what we all know. That the title is an imposed state definition that contradicts the majoritarian self-descriptor. As Onceinawhile and Nableezy note, the standard practice is for the majority state to accept the terms used by its minorities. In Italy we don’t speak of Gypsies, but Sinti and Rom. Idem in Australia, the US, Canada and elsewhere. That the Israeli term is biased and prejudicial is noted by numerous sources.

Most Jews see Arab citizens as having a strong affinity for the Palestinians. They believe that Palestinian identity is appropriate for Arabs in Israel (64.3% in 2003), which for Jews is a subversive and hostile identity. the Jews reject important elements in Arab identity. 69.4% of the Jews in 2019 believed that Arabs who identify as Palestinians cannot be loyal to the state and to its laws.' Sammy Smooha, "Still Playing by the Rules: Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel 2019". Still Playing by the Rules: Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel 2019,' University of Haifa Press 978-9-655-99346-2 p.95

'The term ‘Arab Israeli’ is deeply problematic, primarily because it disaggregates the Palestinian population that holds Israeli citizenship from the wider Palestinian community in the Holy Land, in the region, and worldwide. It makes them unrooted, and subtly implies they are somehow nomadic and unconnected. These people are, in fact, Palestinians – they are the descendants of Palestinians who managed to stay in their homes during the ‘Nakba’, precisely 73 years ago this past weekend, when the State of Israel was established in Mandatory Palestine, with most Palestinians being forced to flee. Removing ‘Palestinian’ from their nomenclature subtly erases their connection to their identity.' H. A. Hellyer, In the Firing Line: The Arabs – or the Palestinians – of Israel In the Firing Line: The Arabs – or the Palestinians – of Israel,' RUSI 17 May 2021 Nishidani (talk) 21:00, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

If most Jews think Palestinian identity is the proper descriptor for Israeli Arabs, and the majority of Israeli Palestinians accept it, then all that requires doing here is to accept this article and develop it, in good part perhaps by treating the Arab Israeli article as the mother text and this the main article on this specific ccmponent. Lots of work, but at least regularity is observed, and indeed NPOV honoured.Nishidani (talk) 21:07, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

• Oppose, per Nableezy, Huldra (talk) 21:30, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

• Support: Went through the entire article and so it seems, the article deals with the identity of a people and not with the people. The article "Arab Citizens of Israel" deals with the Arabic-speaking population of Israel including those who found themselves inside the territory of Israel in 1948 and after the annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, as well as other events such as the Lebanon war. "Palestinians" however is a much more loosely defined subject. In geo-historical terms, all Arabs in Israel and the Palestinian Territories are Palestinian, including also old Yishuv Jews. The Palestinian Covenant, or the "PLO charter", defines "Palestinians" as "...Arab nationals who, until 1947, normally resided in Palestine regardless of whether they were evicted from it or have stayed there. Anyone born, after that date, of a Palestinian father - whether inside Palestine or outside it - is also a Palestinian". By that sense, also Druze as well as some Bedouins who often refuse the Palestinian identity are also Palestinians. But this can't be followed in this article because this is a strict POV of the Palestinian national movement. The term "Palestinian citizens of Israel" is made of two components: "Palestinians" and "citizens of Israel". The latter is a fixed term, a citizen of Israel is someone with a legal status, which is like all "Arab citizens of Israel". The former is a more flexible term. Someone who identifies as Israel-Arab can tomorrow choose to identify as Palestinian-Israeli and vice-versa. Therefore we are talking about identity rather than certain citizens. Nableezy's initial comment does not hold water in my opinion. He compares to other minority groups in Israel such as Bedouin, Druze, and Lebanese. But these people have more defined ethnic components. Druze are an ethnoreligious group, Bedouins are members of tribes with present or historic semi-nomadic lifestyle and Lebanese are a rare case of Lebanese citizens who live in Israel as a consequence of the war in Lebanon. With that said, I agree that it doesn't simply refer to "Arab citizens of Israel", because it really doesn't. The article as I read it now, discusses the Palestinian identity among citizens of Israel. Onceinawhile states a need to compare with other situations, so let me provide my insights: There is an article about Syrians, and there are articles about Albanians in Syria, Armenians in Syria, Assyrians in Syria, Bosniaks in Syria etc. There is no article about "Syrian Syrians", or "Syrian Arabs", who make up the majority. They are rather the main subject of the Syrians article. I believe the same case exists for Egyptian Arabs and Iraqi Arabs though I didn't care to check. I hope my point is understood not as a POV case. This discussion may be seen as a clear clash of biases between traditionally more Israeli-sided users and more Palestinian-sided users. I, obviously though not admittedly more in the latter group, happen to be on the support side, even if I tend not to accept WarKosign and Shrike's initial claims, which are a bit shallow IMO. "Palestinian citizens of Israel" causes several confusions such as between Arab citizens who identify as Palestinians within the Green Line and East Jerusalemites. These distinctions indeed serve the "Zionist entity" and I deeply understand the Palestinian concern with the use of these terms which is reflected in various media. But these terms have important value for historical and political discussion and are effective for describing what's going on. Precision in this topic is paramount and we should be very careful making claims about WP:NPOV and WP:SOURCE because all of these can be bent to create confusion and an NPOV text with a POV subtext.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 16:02, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

A. B. Yehoshua, Israel's foremost contemporary writer, notwithstanding the strong pressure on his writing to distinguish Arabs from the Jewish community over decades, came out in conversation (Haaretz) the other day, as casually referring to his fellow Arab citizens as 'Palestinian Israelis', which of course they are. Both the mother article and this have of course problems, and require some transfers and merging, but Smooha statistics I think anticipate what will be the natural outcome of history, a greater Israel with a Jewish majority and a significant Palestinian minority. We don't anticipate history here, of course, but we all know that overwhelmingly, the Arabs of Israel are Palestinian - and that the term is unnerving, though the reality obvious to all. Nishidani (talk) 16:18, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Bolter21: I am interested in your view on being consistent with our articles on the thousands of other self-defined national subgroups around the world? I gave Palestinian Americans or Italian Americans as examples. If I read your post correctly, your argument would equally advocate for all those articles to be renamed “…identity in…”. Onceinawhile (talk) 16:19, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Absolutely not. Palestinian Americans are Americans of Palestinian origin. Palestinian Israelis are not of Palestinian origin, they are in Palestine at the moment. The Palestinian Americans article states that these are people who immigrated as early as the 1900s. You can't treat Palestinian citizens of Israel as foreign nationals such as Arab Canadians or Palestinian Canadians. I believe the Syrian example, though also not completely similar, is better for this specific case.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 16:28, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

The Syrian analogy doesn’t work unless you are also objecting to the article Israeli Jews (I don’t believe you would advocate for a change to “Jewish identity in Israel”, albeit the identity topic makes up a significant component of that article).

No ethnic sub-group anywhere across our beautiful little planet has been relegated to just an “…identity in…” article. I would like to see this question of singling-out Palestinians addressed by support voters. Onceinawhile (talk) 16:57, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Not wishing to turn this into a WP:NOTFORUM but the case of Jews is slightly different since "Jews" is much more defined than "Palestinians". Jews are an ethnoreligious group roughly(!) similar to Druze. Palestinians in the technical sense, are people who were randomly created by arbitrary borders established by British imperialists. I hope this isn't triggering as I am not trying to present a "There is no such thing as Palestine" argument, but I am saying that the definition of "Palestinians" in the modern(!) sense is much more difficult, cause it is only really(!) relevant 1923 when the borders were fixed. The same problem exists with the definition of "Syrians", "Lebanese", "Jordanian" etc. and simply ignoring these issues and looking at any human identity similarly is confusing and also causing devastating civil wars all across the Middle East (not blaming you or other Wikipedians for the latter). For Jews in Israel, this is slightly more simple. But this is not a discussion about Israeli Jews or Jewish identity, I have not stated that the articles concerning these topics are precise and I have never really engaged in any contribution to these topics. We can have a discussion about Palestinian identity that is independent of the discussion about Jews.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 17:21, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Give me a break with this ethnic nonsense, nothing to do with anything. "Palestinians in the technical sense". I sense a lost cause here.Selfstudier (talk) 17:26, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Humans are Humans (: The rest is technical. But the entire IP topic is a lost cause either way.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 17:35, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

The point here is that we have a plethora of sourcing for "Palestine citizens of Israel" as well as Palestinians in general, it is of no interest to me that Israel or Israelis want to erase or disappear Palestine or whether there ever was a Palestine etc, that is all so much irrelevant bs.Selfstudier (talk) 18:18, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

You make no argument and simply put words in my mouth. And it is not the first time you did it. If the topic is too sensitive for you don't engage it.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 18:23, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Any sensitivities are not here but elsewhere. Since you are not quite as busy you thought, maybe find some sources of your own? Selfstudier (talk) 18:36, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

This case my friend, is not a case of sources. It is a case of scope. You provided countless sources for this article and still, it deals with the Palestinian identity of Arabs in Israel, rather than with the Palestinian humans themselves. Otherwise, you would have needed to provide where Palestinians live, their demographics, etc. But you can't say that, because there is no better definition to who exactly is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, other than "someone who answered I am a Palestinian to a survey". You can only talk about how the Palestinian identity developed and its expressions in current events and various media, but you can't talk about a defined population. Palestinians are humans and you are now not describing humans but you are describing their sense of identity. In order to change that, you would have to refer to all Palestinians and Palestinians, regardless of whether they identify as such or not. This is closer to what Nishidani talks about. It makes total sense and is a valid argument but is confusing and therefore unacceptable. The New York Times can make this argument, and so do you and me, but not Wikipedia. After I've spent an entire day that was supposed to be dedicated to important things, now I really have to go. My initial statement, as well as my distrust of the ID-color claim stands, do what you know with it. I suppose it won't make a change. Maybe I could help later.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 18:51, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

the case of Jews is slightly different since "Jews" is much more defined than "Palestinians". Jews are an ethnoreligious group roughly(!) similar to Druze. Palestinians in the technical sense, are people who were randomly created by arbitrary borders established by British imperialists.

I'm surprised by this, my dear friend. I won't rebut it. I don't expect you to be absorbed by numerous masterly books on the formation of nationalities, how slippery their definitions always turn out to be, how recent most senses of being an 'ethno/religious' group are historically, all of which would tell you statement is nonsensical in its simplification. You utterly underestimate the vast complexities of Jewish identity for one. No harm done. But it is not the kind of remark that will float anywhere in regard to both ethnicities. Regards Nishidani (talk)

Nishidani the moment I used the phrase "ethnoreligious group" I knew such a comment would come. This is the terminology accepted in the Jews article. I am well aware of the complexities of Jewish identity, and my user page contains several infoboxes that portray these complexities. I don't have the best of words to describe what I am trying to say here, which is why I suggested staying on the matter of Palestinians rather than comparing them to Jews. Though this suggestion is probably going to be met with resistance.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 17:29, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, I caught the citation instantly. That article dishonours the history of Jews in its patchy half-uninformed ignorant trashiness. Once or twice I tried to fix the hopeless definition you allude to, and of course was immediately reverted. Does anyone round here read Jewish history, in all of its complexity, depth, tragedy and greatness. I've waited for years for one such editor to show up and remake it to shine with all of the erudite integrity for difficulties characteristic of Jewish scholarship. But Simon Schama doesn't waste his time here, though the test will emerge when he deals with the forthcoming third volume. Of course, I'm frustrated by the fact that too much of post-48 history inflects retroactively the long past, most of it in diaspora. Israel will remain for me a sad coda: extraordinary in many regards but a failure because of its intrinsic reformation of a complex tradition, replete with trenchant testimonies to the spirit of tenacious survival in mixed situations of adversity and success, into a simple narrative, with its elision of the 'other' (e.g. you definition of 'Palestinians' above) so crucial to Jewish history and its euphemisation of the intrinsic violence of conquest, as territorial redemption from the past, stuck in one little patch of the universe on the strength of some rabbinical fantasy in Babylon. I live in diaspora in good part because I learnt from that tradition and, no matter how profound my sense of my native landscape remains, I know I could only become myself beyond its parochial and complacent confines. Sorry for the foruming, writing as I listen, deeply moved, but with pagan ears to a solo and choir performance of Cantique de Noël as orchestrated by Adolphe Adams. My best wishes for the new year, lad.Nishidani (talk) 17:49, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Comment Anyone completely new to this should also take a look at Talk:Arab_citizens_of_Israel#Requested_move_27_October_2021 & Talk:Arab_citizens_of_Israel#What_should_we_call_the_new_page_for_Israelis_that_identify_as_Palestinian?, which contain relevant commentary.Selfstudier (talk) 18:43, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

RFC Commentary

Fwiw, under international law:-

It is often stressed that the existence of a minority is a question of fact and that any definition must include both objective factors (such as the existence of a shared ethnicity, language or religion) and subjective factors (including that individuals must identify themselves as members of a minority).

Selfstudier (talk) 13:35, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

This is helpful, thanks. Not every American who states Italian ancestry on the census would consider themselves part of the Italian American minority. Identity is a personal matter. And just because not all of those with such ancestry choose to identify that way, there is an absolutely real Italian American minority community.

The same is true in Israel. Whether the Israeli government likes it or not, the clear fact is that there is a minority group of Palestinians among the citizens of Israel. Full stop.

Onceinawhile (talk) 14:25, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Absolutely, the same source says "It is now commonly accepted that recognition of minority status is not solely for the State to decide, but should be based on both objective and subjective criteria."Selfstudier (talk) 15:03, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Nobody claimed otherwise. Many of Israeli citizens who can be called "48 Arabs" describe themselves as Palestinians. Many others of the same ethnic/cultural/historal group, however, do not wish to be called Palestinian. Therefore, we must not apply this term to all of them. In order to respect both groups, this article can't apply the term Palestinian to all of them indiscriminantly. Either this article deals only with the part of those people who identify as Palestinian, or as it was proposed by the move proposal, the article should be dealing with the Palestinian identity and how all of these people relate to it - embrace it, tolerate it, reject it, etc. “WarKosign” 21:28, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

Therefore, we must not apply this term to all of them. Where does the article do that?Selfstudier (talk) 21:54, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

It does not.

This article is about a group of people. If WarKosign wants an article discussing identity, he can start one. It would sit alongside this one, just as Arab Canadians has a parallel article Arab Canadian identity and Native Americans in the United States has a parallel article Native American identity in the United States. There is no precedent for such “identity” articles without a corresponding article for the group itself, and Palestinian people should not be treated any differently from anyone else.

Onceinawhile (talk) 00:47, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

At the moment the article does not say explicitly that all "48 Arabs" (for the lack of a better term) are Palestinians, but it implies it in several places. See the last sentence of "History and Terminology", for example: "As the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics defines the area covered in its statistics survey as including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the number of Arabs in Israel is calculated as 20.95% of the Israeli population (2019)." It's not unreasonable for a reader to assume that this is the number of the subject of the article, i.e. "Palestinian citizens of Israel". “WarKosign” 07:59, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

I was intending to replace/supplement this data with data from the Israeli source below that I asked for comments about, that source (for the purposes of their calculation) uses 2020 data and equates PcoI with the Muslim population. I think it has been agreed (per RM) that the data applicable to AcoI is different to PcoI.Selfstudier (talk) 10:08, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Agreed. Onceinawhile (talk) 10:20, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Palestine has been notified of this discussion. — Shibbolethink ^{(♔ ♕)} 16:36, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Israel has been notified of this discussion. — Shibbolethink ^{(♔ ♕)} 16:37, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Israel Palestine Collaboration has been notified of this discussion. — Shibbolethink ^{(♔ ♕)} 16:42, 18 December 2021 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Sources

Expert opinion "In the Firing Line: The Arabs – or the Palestinians – of Israel"Selfstudier (talk) 22:47, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Plonski, S. (2017). Palestinian Citizens of Israel: Power, Resistance and the Struggle for Space. United Kingdom: I.B.Tauris,

Israel and Its Palestinian Citizens: Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State. (2017). India: Cambridge University Press Selfstudier (talk) 22:51, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Another expert Carnegie Jun 2021Selfstudier (talk) 23:57, 26 November 2021 (UTC)

Comments about this one? "As of the end of 2020, the number of Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip was estimated at 6.5 million. This figure is obtained by adding the number of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (according to the PCBS) to the number of Israeli Palestinians listed in the figures published by the Israeli CBS (the assumption is that the group identifying as Palestinian nationals among Arabs in Israel is identical to the size of the Muslim group). The estimated number of Arabs living in East Jerusalem according to the CBS, who are also counted by the PCBS, is deducted from the figure." Selfstudier (talk) 15:47, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

2020 figures from this source gives Israeli pop as 6.87 million Jews, 1.96 million Arabs (Muslims (1.67 million) Druze and Christian Arabs) and 0.46 million others for a total of 9.29 million. The Muslim 1.67 million includes the Muslim Arabs living in East Jerusalem, who are not Israeli citizens. "It can therefore be concluded that there are 1.3 million Muslim citizens of Israel (author’s calculation based on the Central Bureau of Statistics, 2020c)." Selfstudier (talk) 12:07, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs PEOPLE: Minority Communities Selfstudier (talk) 19:19, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT.MAGAZINE-this-is-the-most-radical-experiment-israeli-arab-society-has-undergone-1.10475857 "the UAL leader [Mansour Abbas] is proposing an alternative: the self-definition of the Arab population as a minority that clings to its Palestinian national identity but is ready to integrate into Israel while demanding full civil rights." Selfstudier (talk) 12:19, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

https://pij.org/articles/174/the-palestinian-in-israel 2001, still good. "...the issue of defining the identity of the Palestinian citizen in Israel, so as to strike a balance between national belonging and citizenship. The facts, in this case, show only too well that, in the past, all talk about an identity definition was merely an exercise in semantics, aimed solely at finding an equation that would enable the Palestinian to merge into the life of the Jewish state. This attempt to assimilate on the part of the Palestinian is in reality not a search for nationality, but rather the acquisition of civil legitimacy. However, our national belonging is a deeply rooted and immutable fact, and the denial of our civil rights springs from one sole source - our belonging to the Palestinian people."Selfstudier (talk) 12:24, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

The “Unity Intifada” and ’48 Palestinians: Between the Liberal and the Decolonial 2021 Selfstudier (talk) 18:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Structure

The original idea of taking the material as a starting point and working collaboratively to develop a completed article has been somewhat overtaken by a rush to rename. The comments made in the rename discussion are overly focused on self identification as if there were nothing else of import.

With hindsight, I should have made a better fist of developing the content so as to reflect the given title and I have made a start on rectifying this, including history and terminology (which includes "self identification" as an aspect of that).

Still needs work though.Selfstudier (talk) 10:41, 27 November 2021 (UTC)

Notes for the creators of the article

• Lead Section: According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, the Arab population in 2019 was estimated at 1,890,000, representing 20.95% of the country's population. Can you find out what does the CBS defines as "Arab"? Cause it includes all sorts of identities including Palestinians, Bedouins, Druze, Bahai, Circassian, Maronite, Syrian, etc.

  Those couple sentences were lifted straight from the "parent" article, Arab citizens of Israel, I'm sure we can/should dig into that a bit more.Selfstudier (talk) 15:55, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

  I have commented on the composition above in the sources section using the inss source.Selfstudier (talk) 12:10, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

• History and Terminology section: The term Israeli Arabs, in particular, is viewed as a construct of the Israeli authorities. - By who? Please state that in the text.

  The ref 22 has a pop up text quoting that so it doesn't need attribution.Selfstudier (talk) 15:49, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

• Relations with Palestinians outside of Israel: I would suggest a chronological order of things. It starts with 2021, then moves to 2003. I suppose this section will expand soon.

  As far as my own contributions are concerned, I put them on hold until the RM gets sorted out. Of course, anyone is free to edit.Selfstudier (talk) 15:51, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

  • Also, the claim that There are five colors of card in the Israeli ID card system is extremely dubious to my knowledge. I personally spent many months checking IDs in the West Bank, seeing IDs of Israeli Jews, Arabs, East Jerusalemites, and PA citizens. We were never instructed to check the color of the IDs and I've never noticed any difference between the colors. When checking IDs the first thing we would do was to look at the name and place of residence and as far as I remember, Jews, Arabs and East Jerusalemites have exactly the same color of ID. The source is an opinion article in Haaretz written by a Palestinian activist living abroad and a student of Transportation Engineering in Haifa's Technion. It has no equivalent in the Hebrew version of Haaretz to my knowledge. Couldn't find anything about different shades of blue for IDs in Hebrew nor in English and never heard that claim.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 15:18, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

    I have no personal experience of this, the card may be one thing, what about the plastic cover? "The cards themselves, issued by Israeli authorities, are all off-white but referred to in Arabic as colored, denoting the plastic sleeve they are obliged to be carried in." (https://www.academia.edu/661856/Colored_Identity_The_Politics_and_Materiality_of_ID_Cards_in_Palestine_Israel). Selfstudier (talk) 15:42, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

ID cards in the museum at the Walled Off Hotel

See this image. Onceinawhile (talk) 15:53, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

I have no time at the moment but I took a peak at that article. It states the same thing the Haaretz article states but I couldn't find a source within this article (didn't check enough). What did caught my attention was the claim that Green IDs belong to West Bank Palestinians while Orange IDs belong to Gazans until 1993. This contradicts what the Haaretz opinion article states, that there is a light-green shade for the West Bank and dark-green shade for Gaza and also contradicts what I know (with no source to provide at the moment) that orange cards are simply given to Palestinians who were once conisdered residents of the Israeli Military and later Civil Administration and they were gradually replaced with Palestinian Green cards during the Oslo Accords. Helga Tawil-Souri, the writer of the article you sent is a media professor from New York. That picture you sent is not so clear. It does show a different shade of blue for East Jerusalemites but no different shade of blue for Jews and Arabs. I can't spot a different shade for Gazans and West Bankers and the are both green, in spite of what Tawil-Souri states. This is still odd to me. I can't tell you how many times I insulted Mizrahi Jews for mistaking them for Arabs and how many times I was surprised the driver of a car was actually an Arab from East Jerusalem. The only distinction I've ever seen is that Arabs in Jerusalem are issued biometric IDs while most Israeli Jews haven't yet got them. I have no explanation for that phenomenon. Either way, still a very dubious claim with no, conflicting sources stated different things.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 16:21, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

The one in the top right of the image "Palestinian citizens of Israel", you should let them know that they did it wrong.Selfstudier (talk) 16:26, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

This is a propaganda exhibition in a hotel. Would they care?--Bolter21 (talk to me) 16:34, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

About as much as the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a guess.Selfstudier (talk) 16:45, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Neither should be used as neutral sources, but I would argue the latter is at least slightly more reliable. Please find a source that IDs have different shades for Arabs. I'll try and ask some Arab people I know to take a picture of their ID and compare it with mine to check that claim.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 16:51, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

"Nowadays, the following categorization of ID cards is in place: true-blue for Jewish-Israeli citizens, Arab-blue for Arab-Israeli citizens, green blue for Arab residents of East Jerusalem, green for Palestinians residing in the West Bank and dark green for Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip (sourced to Visualizing Palestine 2014). in Making a home in Palestine Revealing the true colours of the Israeli ID card system 2020. Selfstudier (talk) 17:03, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

True blue and Arab blue...:) Well. Hmm. Selfstudier (talk) 17:14, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Visualizing Palestine is not a reliable source to my knowledge (Just like many other Hasbara websites). Either way, the source is this diagram which cites, again, Helga Tawil-Souri. I am not sure if the VP version talks about the color of IDs, and this time, it shows East Jeruaslem as light-blue. By the way, what the hell is "Arab-Blue"?. Also the article you stated, says that Gazans get a green ID while Tawil-Souri says it is orange. If there is no reliable source for this claim it should be removed from the article. And if I find out Arabs I know have the same color as my ID, this is also a serious problem for this claim.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 17:32, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

I would like to get to the bottom of this too but we do have rs (bias does not autoexclude them) and you don't, up to now. Your personal experiences as an ID checker are interesting but not citeable. I have no idea what true blue/Arab blue means, why I gave it a line and a smile.Selfstudier (talk) 17:37, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

OK, I think, I want to check it still, the true/Arab is maybe not an actual color difference but a reference instead to the distinction made in the "nationality" line of the ID ie "Jewish" or "Arab" (need a list of the possibilities here).Selfstudier (talk) 17:57, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Well, so far I counted three sources: Opinion article of Haaretz by an Engineer PhD student, an independent article by a media professor in New York, and a Palestinian propaganda infographic. It seems all of them draw their sources from the media professor. I don't view these as reliable sources. Never stated my experience as a reliable source by the way. And if I find an Arab with an ID of the same shade as mine, can we accept this claim based on little to no proof? And even if we do accept this claim, the three sources contradict each other. And another possibility I can think of for the Jerusalem case is that many of the East Jerusalemites have a status of resident and not a citizen, hence the different shade. Still don't have an ID of an Arab but I did compare my ID to my father's, and while the case is the same shade of blue, the color of the card itself is different. To my knowledge both me and my father are Jewish. Also, there is no "nationality" line in Israeli IDs for two decades. The Israeli High Court of Justice ended this practice in 2002. This also reminds me an issue, that people can use the same ID card for 30 years and I've seen Arabs with IDs issued in the 80s presented to my by Arabs. So even if Israel has a strategy of categorizing different people by shades, it doesn't really matter if people are not obligated to renew their ID cards. Interestingly, this article from Aljazeera talks about colors, but simply states Arabs from East Jerusalem have a Blue ID.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 18:16, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Whatever the colors might be, and whatever data might be on the cards, it is clear to me that there is an ID card "system" and that this system extends into occupied areas in a discriminatory fashion that impacts on Palestinians in all sorts of ways. So we need something in the article about it even if its not what we have now. Although I suspended my editing when the RM was put up and I am not really disposed to do too much until I know for certain what the "scope" is.Selfstudier (talk) 18:29, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Helga Tawil-Souri – I have updated her page on the basis of her current NYU bio. She has two associate professor titles, and is more than qualified to publish on the topic of the ID regime in Israel/Palestine. I see three separate articles, likely to have been developed and refined over the three year period of publication, and each showing dozens of citations on google scholar:

• Tawil-Souri, H. (2010). Orange, green and blue: Color-coded paperwork for Palestinian population control. In Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory and Power (pp. 219-238). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203845967
• Tawil-Souri, Helga (2011). "Colored Identity". Social Text. 29 (2). Duke University Press: 67–97. doi:10.1215/01642472-1259488. ISSN 0164-2472.
• Tawil-Souri, Helga (2012). "Uneven Borders, Coloured (Im)mobilities: ID Cards in Palestine/Israel". Geopolitics. 17 (1). Informa UK Limited: 153–176. doi:10.1080/14650045.2011.562944. ISSN 1465-0045.

I suggest these are used to update the currently poorly-sourced Israeli identity card article. Onceinawhile (talk) 22:09, 19 December 2021 (UTC)

Note 20 of the 2012 has "Blue cards issued since 2005 have nationality marked with eight asterisks, decipherable only by computer.[this contradicts what Bolter said above about this having been done away with in 2002]. Other details continue to mark differentiations to the naked eye, such as the date of birth, which follows the Hebrew calendar for Jews, and a numbering system denoting whether the cardholder is Jewish or other. The numerical code further denotes the district in which one resides."

I deeply reject this Onceinawhile. Helga Tawil-Souri is the only source available for this claim. She is a professor of communication and a film director from New York, she alone cannot be considered an authority on the identity card system in Israel. I have read her claims and they are formulated in a clear biased way. I have no access to the first source from (Tawil-Souri 2010) but it seems in the latter two, she repeats the exact claim. In the second source, Tawil-Souri states: "Since Judaism continues to be the basis of Israeli political and national identity, it might help to metaphorically think of blue ID cards in different “hues”" (Tawil-Souri, 2011, p. 73). Note how she says metaphorically. She then lists it that way: "true-blue" for Jews, "Arab-blue" for Arabs, "green-blue" for residents of East Jerusalem only (.ibid, p. 74). What's dumbfounding is that in p. 73 Tawil-Souri claims that Israeli ID cards state the nationality (לאום) of the cardholders. This was indeed the case for decades, but in 2002 the Israel Constitution, Law and Justice Committee decided to remove the "nationality" section from the Israeli IDs.YnetHaaretz (in Hebrew). In the next article (Tawil-Sorui 2012) she repeats the exact same claim but this time begins with "Until 2005..." and then goes on to say "Since Judaism continues to be the basis of Israeli political and national identity, it might help to think of blue ID cards in different ‘hues’: true-blue for Jewish-Israelis, Arab-blue for Palestinian citizens of Israel, others-blue for Israeli citizens who are neither Arab nor Jewish, and blue-green for Palestinian Jerusalemites.". Again she implies, the distinction is metaphorical, and now adds "other-blue" for Israeli citizens who are neither Arab nor Jewish. She then goes on to say: "Israel is the only government in the world that denotes ‘nationality’ on ID cards", but this is quite problematic, and should say "Israel was", since Tawil-Souri, few sentences above, states this is no longer practiced since 2005. All and all, it seems my eyes are fine, and Tawil-Souri never even claimed that blue IDs in Israel look different (at least not since 2005). This is quite embarrasing to think we needed to have this discussion in the first place. Her information is extremely biased and opinionated and doesn't cite many sources for her factual claims. I don't find this a reliable source. I will trust B'tselem, Adalah, OCHAoPt or Amnesty much more than this professor. With that said, I did ask a Druze and Jewish students from my institution to show their IDs. This is how Arabs and Jews are shown in modern Israeli biometric ID cards (issued since 2013 according to Israeli identity card). I am not going to tell you which one is the Arab and which one is the Jew. You are going to have to tell me if you can spot the difference. You of course need to take my word for it, becuase I won't reveal their names and personal information. You can also see that at least in the new biometric IDs, both Jews and Arabs get a Jewish date. This comes to prove that at the best case, Tawil-Souri's account is not up-to-date with the reality of the new biometric IDs. This is how Israeli identification cards look in 2021 (or since 2013). My ID card is the older, non-biometric one, issued in 2014. I have no problem uploading a picture of it, and it contains no asterisks. With that said, it is a well known fact in Israel that the Israel Administration of Border Crossings, Population and Immigration does keep account of people's nationality, it is simply not written on their cards. There's an official document about the subject updated in January of this year. It is in Hebrew.

Conclusion: Israeli IDs, as far as we know, are all blue. Tawil-Souri's accountability to describe political realities in somewhere very far from her residence and her profession is not as hard as stone, and you guys really have to be more serious when writing claims and chose your sources much more carefully. My own expirience is not a reliable source, but at the moment, the claims presented by Tawil-Souri are easily challenged and a more serious source is needed.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 14:28, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

It's an RS, you know where RSN is.Selfstudier (talk) 15:21, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

I can also wave policies such as WP:CONTEXTMATTERS. Please address what I wrote unless you are in agreement.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 15:35, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Realized it was you and not Onceinawhile who responded.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 15:37, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

All that stuff about metaphorically and blue ids and what not I already addressed before you did, you obviously didn't read it. So there's nothing to address until this person is actually cited in the article.Selfstudier (talk) 15:39, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Hi. All Israeli citizens have blue IDs, including Arabs or Palestinians. The non-blue ID jackets are, or were, for non-citizens. There are, or were, separate colors for Gaza IDs, West Bank IDs, East Jerusalem resident ID, temporary resident IDs, and otheres. But for citizens, it is all blue, it is not a question of religion or nationality. 141.226.59.237 (talk) 15:55, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Here's another thing with pix.http://w3.osaarchivum.org/galeria/the_divide/cpt09files/jm_part4.pdf Not sure how old it is.Selfstudier (talk) 16:03, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

@Bolter21: thank you for your post, which raises a series of very valid concerns. We need to be careful here, because (a) the laws have changed, (b) it appears Tawil-Souri has been misinterpreted by some non-RS sources (perhaps due to some fault of her own writing). I would like to find RS sources for what you have written, so we can fix and properly source the article Israeli identity card. Can be in Hebrew if necessary. What do you think of this quote from Merza, Eleonore (2012-12-31). "The Israeli Circassians: non-Arab Arabs". Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem (23). ISSN 2075-5287.

Up until 2005, these leomim were mentioned on the Israeli national identity cards (teudat zehut). The teudat zehut is made of two separate documents that have to be shown together. The first document is the identity card itself; it bears a registration number, the holder’s last name, the first name, the father’s and mother’s first names, the holder’s date and place of birth, the leom (until 2005), the gender, the place and date of issuance (according to the civil and the Hebrew calendars), as well as a color picture of the ID holder. Before 2005, the identity card mentioned the holder’s leom but the Supreme Court ruled that it had to be removed because it could lead one to make a distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish citizens and discriminate against the citizens classified as “Arabs,” in particular. It should be noted that the Circassians did not welcome the removal of the leom category on the identity card: indeed, that information allowed them to be officially identified as non-Palestinians. It is true that the leom reference on the card could possibly lead to discriminatory reactions during security checks, but even without it, other elements on that card have remained that easily reveal whether the card holder is a Jew or a non-Jew. The ID holders’ culture can often be identified by their last names, their first names, and those of their parents; besides, the cards of the Israeli citizens who are Jewish mention their date of birth according to the Jewish calendar, in addition to their date of birth in the civil calendar as it appears on everyone’s card. In 2007, the Knesset voted an amendment stating that a Jewish citizen may ask to have their Hebrew date of birth removed from the identity card but in practice, except for a few militants, almost no Israeli wishes to distinguish him/herself or even thinks that this information may be problematic. The Israeli Circassians’ identity card doesn’t differentiate them from the larger “non-Jewish” group. The second document in the identity card includes the registration number, the holder’s current address, former addresses, maiden names (in the case of women), citizenship (which therefore appears in fine), as well as the names and ID numbers of the holder’s spouse and children.

Onceinawhile (talk) 16:20, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

For some light relief around all this talk around colors of the various IDs, here is the google translate of the Palestinian identity card section of our Hebrew article תעודת_זהות_(ישראל)#תעודת_זהות_פלסטינית: The Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip were given an identity card by the Civil Administration. The certificate structure was similar to that of Israeli identity card, but the vagina of this certificate was orange (most of the territories) or green (East Jerusalem), and without a ring emblem of the State of Israel but a symbol IDF was embedded in the certificate. After the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, its ministry of Civil Affairs issuer Palestinian identity cards with the approval of Israel, which sets the ID numbers. these cards are similar to certificates orange Civil Administration, but their vagina is green and stamped with the symbol of the Palestinian Authority, and prior to that Arabic writing into Hebrew.

Onceinawhile (talk) 16:40, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Um .'Vagina' of this certificate? I know that bureaucracy often shafts folks, but really! In that context, the following 'ring' becomes obscene as well.Nishidani (talk) 16:44, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Vagina Rules Selfstudier (talk) 16:46, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

I was thinking more along the lines of the limerick that begins:'There once was a man from China, . . ' because in Palestinian myth, the Angel Gabriel tripped at the border and strew all the rocks destined for the entire globe just on the tiny land of Palestine. Nishidani (talk) 16:52, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Yeah, the same word in Hebrew for "case" and "holster" is the one for vagina. Similarly, the Roman legionary kept their daggers otherwise known as pugio in their vaginae.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 17:09, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

As for the source Onceinawhile brought, this looks fine, and includes one issue I've noticed while searching this matter. Indeed there seem to be (or have been) a problem with the use of Jewish calendar dates to describe only Jewish citizens. In some places, I've seen that it is an official policy to include the Jewish calendar dates to all citizens, while there were statements by politicians who said things in the line of "only Jews care about the Jewish calendar" and therefore non-Jews don't have their Jewish calendar dates in their ID cards. There are responses by other politicians, Jewish or Arab, who say that it is discriminatory even with a pure intention. While there is a protest, there is no explanation for this phenomenon that only Jews get a Jewish date. One explaination, given for the case of Driver's liscense, is that this is all done by a computer and that there was some error maybe because the Ministry of Interior doesn't maintain all of the Arab citizen's Jewish dates. My own personal opinion, which doesn't matter really, is that this is probably a case of poor performance of some government workers, rather than a discriminatory policy (based on my experience with the Israeli authorities. Government clerks are among the least talented people I've ever encountered, and this includes people in top positions. Again, irrelevent.). All of these sources (mostly Haaretz and Knesset discussions) are in Hebrew. Either way, the two IDs I've checked today (which are not substantial enough or at all to be qualified as RS) show a Jewish calendar date for Jews and Arabs alike, meaning this case is not a strict/current policy, and that we can't simply claim that Israel doesn't issue ID cards to Arabs with a Jewish calendar. This is also another matter I don't recall from my time checking IDs (irrelevant). This source you brought here, by the way, seems much more serious than Tawil-Souri (at least that it is less of an agenda post). Problem is, it shows no sources or citations for these particular claims. I don't know how much to trust for example the claim that "Circessians did not welcome the removal of the leom category..." Who exactly are "the Circassians" who did not welcome this? Did he ask all of them? This is a broad claim with serious implications which I dislike just like those polls brought up to justify the topic "Palestinian citizens of Israel" which have a very vague subtext. I would add this information to an article after "According to Mezra..." and seek more sources for that particular claim. If we can't put our hand on enough sources, it would be best not to deal with the matter at all.--Bolter21 (talk to me) 17:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

In general, I think we have rather made a mountain out of a molehill, the ID question will only be a minimal part of this article at the end, a summary of whatever ends up in the Israeli ID article. Afaics the East Jerusalem setup seems the most complicated part.Selfstudier (talk) 17:38, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

The Circassian bit is very interesting. That within “Arab Israelis” there appears to be a racial hierarchy. Druze at the top, then Circassians and others, and Palestinians at the bottom. The Palestinians are so low that some editors here (present company excluded) prefer to imagine that they don’t exist. Onceinawhile (talk) 20:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

But of course the Circassians are not Arab, and should not be included as Arab Israelis, neither here nor on the mother page. Nishidani (talk) 20:50, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

The inss source says they are a "special case", Sunni Muslims who are not of Arab nationality and that there are 5,000 of them.Selfstudier (talk) 22:02, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Yes of course they are, but unless the mother article had born the title 'Israel's minorities', they should not have been mentioned there. 'Special cases' are just conceptual confusion in this instance.Nishidani (talk) 22:43, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Arab is a flexible concept. The Circassians in Jordan are a large community, similar to the Armenians in Lebanon. Recently a little girl called Emanne Beasha who is half Circassian-Jordanian and half American won the show “Arabs got talent”. And 20 years ago the Armenian Lebanese singer Yuri Mraqqadi had a mega-hit with his song “I am an Arab”. In Israel they work hard to separate these communities that were historically integrated into the Arab milieu. Onceinawhile (talk) 22:43, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Arab is a flexible concept indeed, and in this regard holds parity with 'Jew'. But the conceptual confusion -between cultural background, religious and ethnic affiliations etc., - which is evinced in popular prejudice, remains in many articles, and will persist until the cheap jargon of ethno-fashion yields way to the obvious, that identities are not 'sameness' but mixed bags. Nishidani (talk) 22:54, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

My interest in this is because trying to pin down the numbers a bit using the latest data. If they only number 5000 and I am using millions to 2 dp then I could just ignore their number as a practical matter in this article. If we make the same assumption as the inss source, ie Palestinian CoI = Muslims we have 1.67mm incl EJ Muslims not citizens or 1.3 excl these as a max figure for PCoI. Am I right? Selfstudier (talk) 11:43, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

It would be wrong to exclude Christians. e.g. this article from Saree Makdisi (from a Palestinian Christian family): Opinion: They’re Palestinians, not ‘Israeli Arabs’. Would be good to find statistics for it, but there is no reason to see meaningful differentiation between the core Christian and Muslim populations. Onceinawhile (talk) 12:59, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

The inss source says there 139,000 Christian Arabs.Selfstudier (talk) 13:13, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

Amnesty

Page 76 of the Amnesty report released yesterday[1] states as follows:

As mentioned above, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that “Arab citizens of Israel” is an inclusive term that describes a number of different and primarily Arabic-speaking groups, including Muslim Arabs (this classification includes Bedouins), Christian Arabs, Druze and Circassians. According to the ICBS, at the end of 2019, the Druze population stood at approximately 145,000, while according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Circassian population totalled 4,000 people. Considering the number of those defined as Muslim Arabs and Christian Arabs together, the population of Palestinian citizens of Israel amounted to around 1.8 million, that is some 20% of the total population in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.
Today, about 90% of Palestinian citizens of Israel live in 139 densely populated towns and villages in the Galilee and Triangle regions in northern Israel and the Negev/Naqab region in the south. The remaining 10% live in “mixed cities”, including Haifa, Ramla, Lod, Jaffa and Acre. As will be seen below, this has been the result of deliberate policies by the government of Israel to segregate Palestinian citizens of Israel into enclaves as part of the wider goal of ensuring the Jewish settlement and control of as much of Israel’s territory as possible.

Onceinawhile (talk) 11:14, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Uh huh, if we take the 1.67mm from previous section and add the 0.14mm Christians, that's 1.81mm so it agrees, that's good.Selfstudier (talk) 11:24, 3 February 2022 (UTC)

Polling Data

There seems to be a self-propelled assertion bias by journalistic circles pertaining to the amount of Arab Citizens of Israel who self-identify that - despite abundant mention in journals and articles - isn't actually backed up by polling data.

Of the following polls made in the past twenty years, none have mentioned that self-identification of Arab Citizens of Israel as "Arab" has exceeded citizens self-identifying as "Palestinian"

2023 Konrad Adenauer Center/Tel Aviv Univ: "Arab" 32%, "Palestinian" 8% (finding actual poll link shortly)

2020 JPPI Pluralism Index: "Arab" 51%, "Palestinian" 7% (finding actual poll link shortly)

IDI 2019: "Arab" 38%, "Palestinian" 13%

Konrad Adenauer/Dayan Center 2017: "Arab" 40.8%, "Palestinian" 8.9%

2017 Shaharit Poll: "Muslim" 35%, "Arab" 28.4%, "Palestinian" 14.6%

Passive research indicates there is one outlying poll (that was provided to the WSJ but never published), but apparently most polls line up with the above data.

Will continue pulling, but if the data continues on this trend, this will have to be addressed on this page and others, because there is a significant skew being reported that is not in line with actual data. Mistamystery (talk) 19:45, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

Sammy Smooha's polls have been the standard and most comprehensive analysis of the Arab population in Israel for over two decades now, and that has data quite at odds with what you are saying. pages 87-88:

Arab, Palestinian, Israeli and Nakba memory are four permanent components of Arab identity in Israel. When faced with the choice between affiliations, 45.7% of the Arabs in 2017 and 43.0% in 2019 chose the Palestinian people, 38.0% and 39.0% religion and only 13.9% and 14.3% Israeli citizenship, all of which are unchanged from 2012 (Table 5.12). Israeli citizenship is weak in competition with nationality and religion, but it is an important component of Arabs’ identity sets as reflected in their choice of specific identities offered to them. The three of the nine most attractive identities to the Arabs are: Palestinian Arabs in Israel – 27.1%, Israeli Arabs – 14.9% and Palestinian Arabs – 12.8% (Table 5.13). These three identities represent three categories: 35.9% of the Arabs in 2019 (unchanged from 31.6% in 2017) chose Israeli Arab identities without a Palestinian component (Israeli, Arab, Arab in Israel, Israeli Arab), 47.1% (increase from 38.4%) chose Palestinian identities with an Israeli component (Israeli Palestinian, Palestinian in Israel, Palestinian Arab in Israel), and 14.8% (down from 21.9%) chose Palestinian identities without an Israeli component (Palestinian, Palestinian-Arab). The identity of 83.0% of the Arabs in 2019 (up from 75.5% in 2017) has an Israeli component and 61.9% (unchanged from 60.3%) has a Palestinian component. However, when these two components were presented as competitors, 69.0% of the Arabs in 2019 chose exclusive or primary Palestinian identity, compared with 29.8% who chose exclusive or primary Israeli Arab identity (Table 5.14). Also, a majority of 65.9% of the Arabs in 2019 (down from 71.8% in 2017) said that “the identity of ‘Palestinian Arab in Israel’ is appropriate to most Arabs in Israel” (Table 5.15). We learn that the Arabs integrate Israeliness with Palestinianness as permanent components of their identity and that the Palestinian component is the dominant of the two.

nableezy - 19:59, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

Yes, was just about to update with this poll. That said, this was not cited in the lede, but far weaker sources not mentioning any data source, and it's just one poll amongst many. (and explores many angles of nuance that must be mentioned here insofar as the factors of formation of identity.

Overall, given the citation trends this page, I really think if a source is not mentioning polling data, I think it should be de-prioritized for ones offering actual polling/survey data. Mistamystery (talk) 20:19, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

If we are to revise the lede (to start), I think a revised sentence like the below (in line with Smooha's rather complex and nuanced results) may be an appropriate way to start:

While initially known officially only as "Israeli Arabs" or "48 Arabs", the development of Palestinian nationalism and identity in the 20th and 21st centuries has been equally met by a marked evolution in self-identification amongst Arab citizens of Israel, reflecting a rising identification with Palestinian identity alongside Arab and Israeli signifiers

Obviously would find appropriate citations to back up, but think that reasonably captures the essence of what Smooha is finding in his nuanced results. Mistamystery (talk) 20:28, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

Unsupported point: "Palestinian citizens of Israel" as a group distinct from "Arab Israelis"

Hi all, I know this is a contentious topic and theree has been a discussion about changing the name of the article, but I noticed that the basic argument that there is a group called "Palestinian citizens of Israel" which is a distinct subgroup from "Israeli Arabs" (as the Israeli State calls them) - was not supported in either source cited, and I found no sources making that point.

On the contrary, I found basically every source I read mentioning "Palestinian citizens of Israel" using it as an equivalent to "Israeli Arabs". I am providing sources showing that this is simply one of many terms that "Israeli Arabs" prefer to use to identify themselves, and clearly there has been an increasing tendency for them to prefer terms that include the word "Palestinian" in order to express their links with the remainder of the people from or descended from "Arab" Muslims/Christians/Druze who lived in Mandatory Palestine. I am also providing some information about that.

If someone does have Reliable Sources that say that "Palestinian citizens of Israel" are a distinct subgroup from "Israeli Arabs" then please discuss here and cite the sources. I really do want to get to the truth here and not push an agenda from one standpoint in particular – I can't see any reason why inventing "Palestinian citizens of Israel" as a distinct subgroup has any political motive anyway - it's just odd to me.Keizers (talk) 14:59, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

There is a section after the lead called Identification as Palestinian, seems well sourced so the lead statement does not require any sourcing if it is in that section already. There are several recent books with "Palestinian citizens of Israel" in the title so could use those maybe if not already used. Selfstudier (talk) 15:12, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

@Selfstudier: No less than four reliable sources cite this as simple an alternative name for Israeli Arab with other sources noting that the term excludes Arabs in the Golan Heights. As such I’ve merged all the unique material into the article covering this population group, Arab citizens of Israel. While there was valuable unique material here about identity, that applies to all Israeli Arabs, who have a wide variety of layered identities. Civic identity: Israeli or just “in Israel”. National may be Arab, Palestinian or Israeli. That’s in the 2017 survey results. I could find no source stating anything even close to a separate identity I for those preferring the term Palestinian, on the contrary. But if there are sources I can do the footwork to expand this article.Keizers (talk) 19:20, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

I already added Amnesty which clarifies that the terms are not the same. There are lots of sources, I'll get around to it in due course. Selfstudier (talk) 19:27, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

I know the 143,000 Druze - so about 7% of the Israeli Arabs are Druze many of whom do not identify as Palestinian even though their origins are 85% in mandatory Palestine, and 15% in Syria (Golan Heights) which was never Palestine. I have not seen any RS specify if those 85% would count when the term used is Palestinian instead of Arab. Certainly the RS show that overall, Israeli Arabs who do not identify Palestinians, DO count as Palestinian citizens of Israel when that term is used instead of Israeli Arab.

In any case all these issues are something to mention in the Israeli Arabs article. But to essentially duplicate the article about Israeli Arabs to provide a complete overview of a people that are for 90+% the same as Israeli Arabs and which 4 RS do not distinguish from Israeli Arabs doesn’t make sense. And please note I’m not suggesting that the Israeli Arabs article should be changed to “Palestinian citizens of Israel” despite the trend toward the term Palestinian in their demonym. Keizers (talk) 19:19, 3 March 2024 (UTC)

Removing 30kb from a 43kb article requires clear consensus. Onceinawhile (talk) 08:19, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

@Selfstudier:, hello, as noted twice the idea that "Palestinian citizens of Israel" (PCI) consists of people who self-identify as Palestinian, is not supported in the two sources given and I can find no reliable source supporting anything like that. I have included 4 RS which indicate that this is simply an alternative way of naming Arab citizens of Israel (ACI), with 1 RS (Amnesty) not including Druze and Circassians.

I have even tried to make the issue as clear and transparent as possible by showing that the WaPo and NYT and CFR use PCI as an exact equivalent to ACI, and even spell out literally how Amnesty calls out the Druze and Circassians as ACI but not necessarily PCI:

Palestinian citizens of Israel is a term that most Arab citizens of Israel prefer to refer to themselves, and which some media (BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News) and other organizations use to refer to Israeli Arabs, either consistently or alternating the use of other terms for Israeli Arabs. Groups included In the Amnesty International 2022 report "Israel's Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity", the organization excludes the Israeli Arab Druze and Circassians from the term Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially classifies the roughly 2.1 million Palestinian citizens of Israel as "Arab citizens of Israel", reflecting their attributing a racialized non-Jewish, Arab status to all of them The term "Arab citizens of Israel" includes Muslim Arabs including Bedouins, Christian Arabs, the 20-25,000 Druze, and even the 4-5,000 Circassians, whose origins are in the Caucasus but are mostly Muslim. According to Amnesty, the Israeli state views and treats Palestinian citizens of Israel differently from the Druze and Circassians, who must for example serve in the army while Palestinian citizens need not serve. Nonetheless, Israeli authorities and media refer to those who self-identify as Palestinians – as "Israeli Arabs". However, some media cited above that have used the term "Palestinian citizens of Israel" or "Palestinians in Israel" have treated the term as interchangeable with Israeli Arabs, and not stated that Druze and Circassians are not Palestinians. such as the New York Times. The Washington Post included the Druze among the Palestinians. The Council of Foreign Relations stated: "The majority of Arab citizens are Sunni Muslims, though there are many Christians and also Druze, who more often embrace Israeli identity."

Additional sources using ACI and PCI interchangeably:

• Interagency Task Force on Israeli-Arab issues: "Arab citizens’ identities are more nuanced than either “Israeli” or “Palestinian.” Members of this population group describe themselves (and are described by others) with many terms. Some common terms include: Arab Israelis, Israeli Arabs, Palestinian citizens of Israel, Arab citizens of Israel, 48ers, Palestinian Israelis"
• iCenter for Israel education "What are some names for Arab citizens of Israel?" (answer:) Palestinian citizens of Israel, Israeli Arabs, Israeli Palestinians, Arab Israelis, and Palestinian Israelis. Each of these names, while referring to the same group of people, connotes something different.1"
• Institute for Middle East Understanding - in 2017/8 "there are approximately 1.6 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, comprising about 20% of the total Israeli population" (rough match for total # of Arab citizens at that time)
• Columbia Journalism Review ("Palestinian citizens of Israel—also called Israeli-Arabs, Palestinians in Israel, ’48 Arabs, or Palestinian Arabs")

Can you provide a single source which identifies PCI as people who self-identify as Palestinian? If not why are we spending time on this?Keizers (talk) 20:23, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

The close of a substantive RM (Palestinian citizens of Israel → Palestinian identity in Israel) says:

"It appears to be undisputed that there are some number of individuals who are citizens of Israel, and who identify as Palestinians. Neither title is therefore clearly impermissible, so consensus is required to effect the proposed change. If there are problems with the fit between the scope of the article and its current title, those can be addressed through clarifying edits."

Clarifying edits does not mean gut the entire article to suit a POV, notably the idea that an Israeli driven narrative around "Arab citizens of Israel" is the only game in town. The article needs work but it does not need trashing. The article is/was intended to be about a group referred to as Palestinian citizens of Israel. That does not mean that all PCI self identify as Palestinian so a single source which identifies PCI as people who self-identify as Palestinian? is a straw man.

If we can agree on this principle, then there is a conversation to be had and edits to be made. Selfstudier (talk) 12:43, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

@Selfstudier: Certainly, I look forward to a respectful healthy back and forth. Side note, for what it's worth, I prefer the term PCI, and do feel that the term "Arab" is POV of the Israeli State and of some PCI/ACI who feel more Israeli. I think there is a larger effort required, but at this point quite possible, to RfC to change the ACI article title to PCI, as variations on "Palestinian" seems to be more preferred than "Arab", and we have 2 international orgs, and 1 Arab-Israeli org that prefer the term and 3 western media who use the term PCI and say it's the preference of PCIs/ACIs.

About PCI, It is the furthest thing from my mind to quash the idea that ACI/PCI mostly identify as either exclusively or dually Palestinian on the various axes (civic, national). I simply find that the "meaning" of the term PCI is, any ACI/PCI with one RS noting an exception of Druze/Circassian. In other words, anything here about identity, terminology, history, and culture, applies to ACI & PCI as in my conclusion they are one and the same group.

That's the only reason I "challenged" with my "strawman". I still do want to know if you have any sources that would lead us down that road.

Otherwise if we can agree that PCI/ACI is the same people, then we can focus on making the discussion on P identity of the PCI/ACI people as robust as possible, using all these wonderful sources (and for that matter explain who and why a minority of ACIs/ PCIs feel more Israeli or Arab), and build the case to change the name of the ACI article to PCI.

What are your thoughts?Keizers (talk) 15:59, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

Palestinian citizens of Israel : Power, Resistance and the Struggle for Space Sharri Plonski IB Tauris 2018 is a useful source:

"Other choices were made regarding terms and language that should also be mentioned from the outset. Key among them is the terminology surrounding the main interlocutors of this research: the term ‘Palestinian Citizens of Israel’ is immediately contentious. It sits within a spectrum of labels for the community at the centre of this inquiry. On one hand, it potentially challenges the mainstream Israeli-Zionist conceptualisation of this group as ‘Israeli Arabs’; on the other, it misses the political complexity of the term ‘48 Palestinians’ (a term often used by Palestinian activists inside and outside Israel), which more clearly acknowledges the relevance of the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe) to the identity and material experiences of this group of Palestinians. The use of the term ‘Palestinian citizens’ or ‘Palestinian citizens of Israel’ in this work is due in part to a desire for clarity. It is an attempt to differentiate this group from ‘67 Palestinians’ – another politicisation of labels that not only attempts to highlight 1967, but attempts to challenge the idea that ‘occupied territories’ refer exclusively to the West Bank and GazaStrip; or Palestinian refugees, who are also sometimes referred to as ‘48 Palestinians’. However, it is also a way to highlight and hold in tension the contradictions of Palestinian experiences as subjects and citizens of the Israeli state.

@Selfstudier:, thanks, in the Plonsky text I see her talking about the terms ‘Palestinian Citizens of Israel’, ‘Israeli Arabs’ and ‘48 Palestinians’ as varying preferences of the 'same group of people (ACIs/PCIs)to refer to themselves. There are of course, many more. Then she mentions ‘67 Palestinians’ which are those in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, only a handful of whom are ACIs/PCIs.

I'm not in any way disputing that these terms are loaded with meaning and I think we should inlcude that discussion on the ACI page. In fact I have added quite a bit to that page along those lines: see Arab citizens of Israel#Terminology_and_identity, and I believe I have given multiple and strong sources for the statements there. But I still see no indication whatsoever that would say that PCIs are a different people than ACIs. They are all ACI/PCI and within that group, they prefer different demonyms. Nothing says that they are a "people" due to their preference of demonym. And the Druze/Circassian/Golani thing is really a completely separate issue, not related to their demonym preference. Keizers (talk) 22:23, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

@Selfstudier:, what I can also do is create an article that goes into full depth about ACI/PCI preferences of the various demonyms and explore the reasons for each - i.e. what does each component (Palestinian, Israeli, Arab, '48, etc.) imply. I think that may be what you originally hoped to achieve - showing that the term Arab Citizens of Israel is political and can be seen as anti-Palestinian. Also I think that if the article concludes, based on RS, that most ACI/PCI prefer the term PCI today, that is will also serve as an argument to change the page title of ACI to PCI, which I believe would be a "victory" for the people themselves, by having "their" page reflect their preferred demonym and not the language of the Israeli State, which can be interpreted as attempting to decouple ACI/PCIs from both the land of Palestine and from their cousins in the West Bank and Gaza. Keizers (talk) 22:29, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

I prefer that we keep both articles. Selfstudier (talk) 22:38, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

@Selfstudier:, Understood, but if it were up to you, what would be the premise of the PCI article then? If PCI is to remain a separate article, will you provide sources that state that either:

• PCIs are those who identify as Palestinians, or
• Some other distinguishing factor from ACIs? or
• Do you accept that ACIs and PCIs are the same people, and PCI is one of many terms that ACIs/PCIs use, in which case the PCI article does become about the term itself, and not about a population group distinct from ACIs?

Keizers (talk) 23:24, 5 March 2024 (UTC)

@Selfstudier:, this is a new article I created which will a) allow room for explaining what the various terms for ACI/PCI mean or imply, and b) establishes PCI as the preferred term for the ACI/PCI group: Terms for Palestinian citizens of Israel Keizers (talk) 00:52, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

I don't agree that PCI is the same as ACI, the difference is the reason for this article being created in the first place. If they were the same the article would have been deleted as a POV fork. I also think that your new article is unnecessary, we will end up with the same info in three articles. Selfstudier (talk) 11:45, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

@Selfstudier:, Alright, you indicated you were open to resolving the issue, and I see you created this article. You don't agree that PCI is the same as ACI, yet you are unable to offer up an RS that indicates that (apart from Amnesty & Druze) versus at last 5 RS that use the terms interchangeably, 2 of which explicitly say that the ACI/PCI is one groups that uses multiple ethnonyms/demonyms. I do see this as problematic because Wikipedia is stating something rather fundamental about ACI/PCIs which is not supported by any RS and IMO is in fact untrue and misleading (even though I believe the motives are morally honorable). In order to ensure that we do not confuse the public about ACI/PCI, I would next seek RfC to merge the article into Arab citizens of Israel once again, but this time the argument that ACI=PCI will be much stronger. This is not about me or my opinions. This is about clear, supported information on a topic which is of such importance right now, given the attention that the persecution of all Palestinians is finally receiving. If there's any other solution you would prefer other than maintaining "PCI=a different people" then please let me know now. Thanks. Keizers (talk) 15:18, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

If you think this is a POV fork, then AfD it. Selfstudier (talk) 15:29, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

@Selfstudier:, OK, I thought this discussion path was to avoid doing that, but OK I have listed it.Keizers (talk) 22:09, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

References