"provoke resentment" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you are trying to emphasize the feeling of resentment that might have been caused by someone or something. For example, "His condescending remarks provoked resentment among the other people in the room."
Venting, criticizing, blaming and complaining — all in the name of "honest expression" — too many women provoke resentment, not sympathy, in their mates, he explains.
Flying the flag Reprints Related topics Culture and lifestyle Social issues Ageing and the elderly Political parties Gordon BrownSticking to the principle of linking basic pensions to prices at a time of very low inflation was bound to provoke resentment.
Separatist Catalan nationalism is nothing new; what is new is the spur given it by sharp financial pressures that provoke resentment — especially when the right, with its centralizing instincts, is in power.
Free meals can provoke resentment among the majority of parents who pay for their child's meal or give them a packed lunch, some of whom feel they are subsidising an unfair perk.
The big risk is that civilian casualties could provoke resentment against the invaders, as they clearly have in Nasiriya, another southern city where American marines have engaged in street-by-street fighting.
Mr. Khalilzad is also trying to shore up support for Mr. Karzai's government by providing visible signs of reconstruction, an effort that could provoke resentment from other factions as the elections approach.
The government will re-examine the sealing of the archives, said Nilmário Miranda, the human-rights minister, "taking care not to provoke resentments or crises, either political or military".
But the shipping business also provokes resentment.
Nonetheless his partiality inevitably provoked resentment from some of those he neglected.
The agreement provoked resentment among the Serbs, even in the opposition.
Their haste provoked resentment, which strengthened Smith 's hand in his big confrontation with the unions the following year.
