Palatable Arabs: Palestinian Professionals in Work Organizations in Israel

This article examines the experiences of Palestinian professionals in work organizations in Israel with regard to everyday racism and their strategies for coping with it. The study findings reveal how Palestinian professionals face a new cultural script of Arabness that includes two social categories: “exaggerated” Arabness and “palatable” Arabness. Furthermore, Palestinian professionals describe how their relationships with their Jewish colleagues are structured as “intercommunity interactions” and how they are personally constructed as hyperpolitical subjects. The principal coping strategy implemented by Palestinian professionals faced with everyday racism is utter silence. This reaction is linked to the development of a specific desire—for invisibility—which is pursued through two main practices.