Thorny identity? Non-state actors, service provision, identities, and Hamas in Gaza

When rebels and non-state actors provide services, do they have an effect on identities? The literature suggests that service provision by rebel’s influence identities, which affect post-conflict reconstruction and have some policy-implications on service provision. I argue that service provision has a potential effect on sub-identities and shape the preference of how people self-identify themselves. Based on a conjoint experiment in Gaza, I explore how Hamas’ governance has affected self-reported identities in the Gaza Strip after more than a decade of taking control of the Gaza Strip. The findings suggest that Hamas’s governance has influenced the self-reported identities in Gaza. It suggests that individuals with higher education, higher income and believes that Hamas provides less services tends to identify themselves in nationalistic sense as ‘Only Palestinian’, while individuals who identify themselves more as Muslims are less educated, have less income and more believes that Hamas provides more services than others.