Strategies of Constructing Social Identities in Conflict-Ridden Areas:

  The study examines the salience of social identities among of Jews, Arabs and Palestinians. It shows that diverse hierarchies of identities exist simultaneously in each national group, and that the prevalence of specific identities varies so that some identities are more prevalent in one national category and other different identities are more prevalent in others. Among Jews, the family provides creates the most prevalent and salient identity, followed by either the civic (Israeli) identity or the national (Jewish) identity; Among Arabs, the family provides creates the most prevalent and salient identity, followed by being a student, both of which are individualistic identities; Among Palestinians the civic (Palestinian) identity is the most prevalent and salient identity. Thus We thus conclude that the collective is more salient among the Palestinians than among either Jews or Arabs in Israel. Jews include a collectivistic identity in most hierarchies of identities but it is moderated by the primary individualistic identity (the family). The Arab citizens of Israel have much weaker collective identities.