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

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.