摘要
Write down： I am an Arab! This powerful proclamation is an extract from a poem composed by the eminent and late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. His instructive and proud words were the initial spark that challenged to respond to the question of the suppressed identity of Palestinian Arabs in Israel. This study will attempt to explore the cultural representation of identity for generations of Palestinian young men and women who were born and lived in Israel but remain culturally repressed and silenced by the hegemonic forces. Identity has been a controversial issue in the mind of every Palestinian ever since the 1948 ＂Al-Nakbah＂.2 This study will attempt to comprehend and analyze the multiple ways in which different generations of 1948 Palestinians identified themselves within their societies. While studying the Arabs of Israel3 one notices that their cultural and intellectual productions （poetry and literature） reflect aspects of the conflicts they endured. Confusion and contradictory feelings permeate their psyches as they attended Israeli schools and spoke Hebrew as their official language. This paper will explore the literary heritage of two generations of 1948 Palestinians： the writings of Palestinians of 1948 who were born before Al-Nakbah （living within the borders of Israel today）. Those include poems, plays and novels. It will also explore the writings of the younger generation of 1948 Palestinians （born and raised after the Al-Nakbah and considered to be the new generation of Israeli Arabs）. A critical analysis will identify how these two generations of Palestinian writers dealt with the contradictions of living inside Israeli society that did not acknowledge them as the indigenous inhabitants of the land. Their translation of their sense of belonging within their literary works will be evident and how they dealt with the conflict of being simultaneously Israeli Arab as well as Palestinian. How can cultural production reconcile the homeland carried in the memory nostalgically and the real society they lived in within the Israeli borders？
