Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The Holocaust and the Nakba are foundational traumas in Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian society, and form key parts of each respective collective identity. This book offers a parallel analysis of the collective transmission of these foundational pasts in Israeli-Jewish and Palestinian society, exploring how the Holocaust and the Nakba have been narrated by the two peoples since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. Exposing the existence and perpetuation of ethnocentric victimhood narratives that provide the theoretical foundations for an ensuing minimization - if not denial - of the other's past, Grace Wermenbol analyzes these narratives across three established realms of societal memory transmission: official state education, commemorative acts, and mass mediation. Drawing on state and institutional documents, in addition to interviews with government officials, she emphasizes the interrelated nature of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the contextualization of the primary historical events while highlighting the universal malleability of mnemonic practices.