standard of living.”382 Inward-looking tendencies and the focus on current realities affect the extent to which political remedies are addressed. In other words, another “characteristic that distinguishes oppressed people [is] a sense of drowning in the present, an inability to envision the future, and a capacity to only connect with the past and its amplified pain.”383 This failure to recognize the political and historical paths that have led to the current situation, a satisfaction with only concentrating on the existing reality, and resorting to self-blame, characterize how the Fahmawi society specifically, and the Palestinian society generally, deal with their current social issues — through depoliticization. Such patterns have consistently characterized people living under colonialism and religious persecution. This type of prolonged repression, juxtaposed with a failure to deter or counteract foreign control, eventually evolve into feelings of helplessness and a deep sense of guilt. Colonial regimes also attempt to perpetuate a mentality in the minds of those colonized that they are to blame for their current situation and that they need colonial rule to reform and be ‘civilized’. Asrar Kayyal, Psychologist Umm al-Fahm, 7 November 2019 Altering the Political Identity of Umm al-Fahm When the politics of geographical dislocation are considered, alongside the attempted alteration of the Palestinian identity of those who hold Israeli citizenship, (particularly Palestinians in Umm al-Fahm), the intent of the policy becomes clear. A commonly held belief is that the “geographical location is not a factor that determines who Palestinians are, [it is their] history and collective identity [that] determine [their] Palestinian-hood.”384 However, the absence of an organically and suitably connected road and transportation system undermines the potential for the formation and sustainment of the collective identity of the Palestinian people. Instead this causes the evolution of a separate inward-looking approach, alongside concurrent spatial restructuring, which gradually erases traces of past connections and interrelations. As such, the very purpose of Israeli policies on Umm al-Fahm 382 Fahmawi Youth Movement, supra 301. 383 Under the phenomenon of ‘permanence disorder’ characterized by Mustafa Hegazy in Social Retardation: An Introduction to the Psychology of the Defeated Man, Arab Cultural Center (Beirut, 1891), Asrar Kayyal adds that “National groups that suffer from permanence disorder can only be liberated from it when they become aware of the causes of their oppression and find ways to confront them instead of opposing one another and engaging in persecution violence. Asrar Kayyal, supra 380. 384 Loai al-Khatib, Member of the Political Office of Abnaa al-Balad, interview conducted by BADIL, 6 November 2019. 94