Practising the Nation and National Identity: A Longitudinal Study of Independence Day in Israel

This article focuses on the extent to which participating in Independence Day practices influences people’s national identity while taking into consideration the differences between public top-down practices and private bottom-up habits. It is a longitudinal study that uses a four-wave panel survey to inspect levels of national identity across time as well as participation in various Independence Day practices over two successive years. There was an increase in the levels of some dimensions of national identity among those who participated in Independence Day practices – both top-down and bottom-up – while there were no changes in these levels among those who did not participate.