Symbols, discourses, and identity in Israeli - Palestinian conflict: A Constructivist analysis

Particularly since 1948, when the Middle East region is considered, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is the one of the first issue that comes to mind. One side of this conflict is the Jews, who deported from the Palestinian lands in 70 A.C. and have had hopes to return to Sion, in other words their homeland, and have been trying to support their status with historical demands, who claim that the lands were promised to them in Torah. On the other side, there are Palestinians who have been living on the region for many years and were deported from those lands by the declaration of State of Israel in 1948 and the following four Israel-Arab Wars. Today it is obvious that there are plenty of problems such as national, regional, historical, and ethnic in Middle East. Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is considered as one of the most intricate problems. Hostility between two sides has been constructed in time. While the Jews, who fuel themselves by the concepts of antisemitism, Holocaust, diaspora, and victim, have constructed their identity apart from those living on the Palestinian lands by the foundation of Israeli State in 1948, have started to define themselves by the concepts of refugees, exile, and oppressed. Particularly this identity construction process which is fulfilled by discourses and by creating ''other'', causes resolution of the conflict to be more complicated. Keywords: Israel, Palestine, Constructivism, Discourse, Identity