Hierarchies of Elitism among Urban and Rural Palestinian Students in Israel

This research investigates Palestinian students residing in both urban and rural areas who are enrolled in an elite high school located in a mixed Arab-Jewish city in northern Israel. We investigate how these divergent backgrounds influence their experiences and perceptions of their elite identities and how elite identities within national minority sub-groups (urban and rural) impact the formation and perpetuation of intra-group hierarchies. We find that elite identities are influenced by geographic positionality, that hierarchies exist within the same minority elite and that these factors shape both personal and collective identities.