Description
This study examines how West Bank Palestinians’ short-term holiday visits to Israel within the Green line (al-dakhil) generate complex emotional, political, and identity-related outcomes. Based on ten focus groups with nearly 50 participants conducted in July 2021, this study investigated how exposure to Israeli Jews in leisure and public spaces, beaches, markets, and mixed cities shapes Palestinian perceptions of self, other, and sovereignty. The analysis identified six interrelated themes: (1) reproduction of hostility versus deconstruction of stereotypes; (2) heightened awareness of structural deprivation; (3) visits as controlled release or deepened recognition of occupation; (4) ambivalence toward everyday normalization in shared spaces; (5) shifting perceptions of sovereignty and rightful belonging; and (6) attempts to rationalize Israeli Jews as individuals, while rejecting the broader system of domination. The findings suggest that exposure does not operate as a neutral encounter; rather, it interacts with identity politics and symbolic sovereignty to intensify friction, national consciousness, and resistance. By linking micro-level affective experiences to the macro-level structures of settler colonialism, this study contributes to conflicting studies and theories of identity formation in protracted occupations. Theoretically, the findings advance debates on intergroup relations by demonstrating the limitations of Contact Theory in asymmetrical settler-colonial contexts.
