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# Memory, Crisis and Boundary Hardening: Historical Persecution Narratives and Attitudes Towards Arab Citizens of Israel

## Details

**Authors** Yuval Feinstein, Gal Ariely, Daphna Canetti

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** Nations and Nationalism

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Political Science

**Secondary disciplines** Sociology

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.70117) 
10.1111/nana.70117

## In authors' words

### Abstract

How is endorsement of a historical-persecution narrative related to minority exclusion during crises? This article argues that historical persecution narratives are durable cultural resources whose political implications are neither uniform nor constant. Using longitudinal surveys of Jewish Israelis, it compares the May 2021 Gaza war and intercommunal violence with the war following the 7 October 2023 attack, when Arab citizens were not involved in internal violence. Within-person increases in agreement with the historical-persecution statement were associated with stronger exclusionary attitudes towards Arab citizens, including after 7 October. Heterogeneity analyses show that this within-person co-movement was not uniform across the Jewish public: It was detectable in different national-belief clusters across the two crisis intervals. The article contributes to research on nationalism and collective memory by showing that crisis periods can coincide with upward shifts in endorsement of a persecution-centred historical narrative and boundary hardening towards internal minorities, patterned by national-belief configurations.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To examine how endorsement of a historical-persecution narrative relates to exclusionary attitudes toward a minority group during national security crises.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

Longitudinal surveys of Jewish Israelis across two crisis periods: the May 2021 Gaza war/intercommunal violence and the war following the 7 October 2023 attack.

### How they did it (methods)

Longitudinal within-person survey analysis comparing agreement with a historical-persecution narrative to exclusionary attitudes towards Arab citizens of Israel across two crisis intervals, with heterogeneity analysis by national-belief cluster.

### What they found (results)

Within-person increases in agreement with the historical-persecution narrative were associated with stronger exclusionary attitudes toward Arab citizens of Israel across two separate crisis periods, with the strength of this co-movement varying across different national-belief clusters within the Jewish public.

## Commentary

### In short

The finding shows that strengthening endorsement of a persecution-centered historical narrative is associated with a hardening of the symbolic boundary distinguishing an in-group from a minority out-group, and that this relationship is patterned by underlying group-identity configurations.

**Patterns it shows** D, R

Shows it makes a difference

**Added** 2026-09-12

**How to cite this** Yuval Feinstein, Gal Ariely, Daphna Canetti (2026). Memory, Crisis and Boundary Hardening: Historical Persecution Narratives and Attitudes Towards Arab Citizens of Israel. Nations and Nationalism.