Poll: Most Palestinians Don't Think Of Themselves Primarily As...Palestinians

The Palestine News Agency is reporting about a poll out about the peace negotiations:

A recent opinion poll conducted by Near East Consulting (NEC) shows that 27% of Palestinians support direct negotiations with Israel under any circumstance, compared to 43% who support direct negotiations only on the condition that settlement activities are halted, while 30% oppose the direct negotiations under all circumstances.

But tucked away in the article is this little nugget:

In a question about how the Palestinians identify themselves, the results reveal that 61% identify themselves as 'Muslims first”, 20% as 'Palestinians first', and 15% as 'human being first', and 3% as 'Arabs first.'

That is relevant to the extent that the Palestinian national identity--like the Jordanian or Saudi Arabian--is a new invention, just as the idea of a Palestinian homeland is.

In an article reviewing books on the idea of a Palestinian people, Elliot A. Green writes that a People That Never Existed In History Needs A Useful Past:

Kimmerling and Migdal do show that, although there was some Arab anti-Zionism before the First World War, there was little sense of "Palestine" as a separate country or of a "Palestinian people." And that little was mainly Christian, and thus was hardly representative. Further, the authors show that after the war, with the Ottoman Empire defeated, politically aware and active Palestinian Arabs took part in the general Arab nationalist movement. In particular, many supported Faisal, the British-sponsored king of Syria, and expected the Land of Israel to be part of a Syrian kingdom.

...Now, if any institution or body were to conceive of a separate, distinct "Palestinian people," one would think that it would be the PLO. However, the PLO Charter is a clearly pan-Arabist document and makes clear that the "Palestinian people" is a mere geographically defined section of the "Arab nation" and that only Arabs can be "Palestinians." Article I of the Charter states: "Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland and the people of Palestine is a part of the Arab nation."

...there was no "Palestinian people" in history and the "Palestinian identity" or consciousness among the Eretz-Israel Arabs now is an extension of their Arab identity. But the notion of a distinct "Palestinian people" provides certain advantages in international politics, while supplying an alibi to the Christian West for continued Judeophobia after the Holocaust.

The fact that according to the NEC poll 61% Palestinians do not identify themselves as such adds a sociological proof to the historical ones.

Technorati Tag: Palestinians.