Preprint: Halabi, Slieman and Klar, Yechiel and Abu Elheja, Murad, “Friend or Foe?” When Speaking the Minority’s Language Backfires: Palestinian Reactions to Jewish-Israelis Using Arabic. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5610813 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5610813

This project examines how gestures that are generally seen as fostering inclusion, such as speaking another group’s native language, can produce opposite effects in settings of protracted conflict and power asymmetry. Focusing on Palestinian citizens of Israel, it investigates how members of this disadvantaged minority respond when Jewish-Israelis address them in Arabic, their mother tongue. The project explores whether such encounters result in positive or negative rating of the speaker. Rooted in Israel’s sociopolitical history, the studies examined whether they evoke concerns about surveillance and cultural appropriation.

Completed studies
• Study 1 & 2 – Experimental evidence (N = 524; N = 781):
Palestinian citizens of Israel evaluated an Israeli-Jewish, Palestinian, or Scottish speaker addressing them in Arabic or in their respective mother tongues. Across both studies, the Israeli-Jewish speaker received more negative evaluations and elicited stronger negative emotions when speaking Arabic than when speaking Hebrew. No differences were found between the Palestinian target speaking Arabic or Hebrew, or the Scottish target speaking Arabic or English.
Mediation analyses showed that these negative evaluations were explained by heightened concerns about surveillance and cultural appropriation only for the Israeli-Jewish speaker. Distinctiveness threat played no significant role.

Key findings

• Language as power: Majority use of the minority’s language can evoke histories of control and surveillance rather than symbolize respect.
• Cultural appropriation sensitivity: Arabic spoken by Jewish-Israelis evokes associations with appropriation of Palestinian culture and identity, diminishing trust.
• Limits of contact theory: In asymmetric conflicts, communicative gestures framed as inclusionary can backfire when they are embedded in legacies of domination.

Outlook
This research identifies a crucial boundary condition for intergroup contact and language-based interventions. Future work should test whether contextual cues of solidarity, such as explicit allyship or shared political action, can transform the meaning of majority use of minority language from appropriation to recognition.