Human rights orientation and the assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Based on a concept of human rights commitment that includes both a cognitive (rejection of human rights restrictions) and an affective component (concern for the victims of human rights violations), the present paper uses LatentClass Analysis in order to differentiate different forms of consistent and inconsistent human rights orientations, and relates them to participants’ assessments of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The results of the study indicate that a consistent human rights commitment promotes pacifism, reduces moral disengagement and counteracts anti-Palestinian as well as anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic attitudes. At the same time, however, it exerts pressure to take a position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it supports partisanship for the Palestinians, and it strengthens the tendency to dramatize foreign affairs and to call for action against Israeli policy. Nonetheless, it reduces the tendency to a one-sided attribution of guilt to Israel and decreases anti-Israeli attitudes that are directed against Jews in general and/or that tend to restrict the rights of the Jews.