Am J Gerontol Geriatr | Volume 2, Issue 1 | Research Article | Open Access

Personal Narratives of Resilience in the Galilee during the British Mandate Period 1918-1948: Family and Ethnosystems Protective Factors

Roberta Greene1*, Shira Hantman2, Yair Seltenreich3, Mustaffa Abbasi4 and Nancy Greene5

1Department of Gerontology, University of Texas-Austin, USA
2Tel Hai College, Israel
3Department of Education, Tel Hai College, Israel
4Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Tel Hai College, Israel
5Johnson C Smith University, USA

*Correspondance to: Roberta Greene 

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Abstract

the Galilee, prior to the establishment of the state of Israel and thereafter. A narrative approach to gerontology was used to collect the data. The narratives explored the lives of older study participants from a risk and resilience, ecological perspective, encompassing cultural, historical, and political reminiscence. The focus was on the manner in which families and ethnosystems impact individual, interpersonal, sociocultural, and societal resilience. This article presents the results of a research study entitled personal narratives of resilience in the Galilee. The study participants were 40 diverse older adults who lived or were born in the galilee, prior to the establishment of the state of Israel and thereafter. The purpose of the article was to explicate the factors that influence their individual, interpersonal, socio cultural, and societal resilience, and to better understand the interlocking adaptive social systems that foster resiliency, particularly families and ethnosystems. For example, a study participant said, my extended family was a prominent, leading family in the village. It is a Maronite family who has been leading Jish for hundreds of years, starting in the Ottoman period, through the British Mandate of Palestine and the establishment of the state of Israel. The study narratives focused on the time period following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. After the completion of the negotiations between the British and the French and the border demarcation between the years 1918 and 1923, the Galilee came under British administration, in what was known as Mandatory Palestine, established by the League of Nations to bring stability to the region. Following the declaration of the state of Israel and the resulting 1948 war, the Galilee came under Israeli sovereignty in 1948.

Citation:

Greene R, Hantman S, Seltenreich Y, Abbasi M, Greene N. Personal Narratives of Resilience in the Galilee during the British Mandate Period 1918-1948: Family and Ethnosystems Protective Factors. Am J Gerentol Geriatr. 2019; 2(1): 1014.

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