Israel's Holocaust and the politics of nationhood / Idith Zertal ; translated by Chaya Galai.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zertal, Idith.

Series:

Cambridge Middle East studies ; 21.

Cambridge Middle East studies ; 21

Standardized Title:

Umah ṿeha-maṿet. English

Language:

English

Hebrew

Subjects (All):

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Historiography.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Historiography.

Jews--Israel--Attitudes.

Jews.

Holocaust survivors.

Israel.

Holocaust survivors--Israel.

Jews--Israel--Identity.

Identity (Philosophical concept).

Memory--Political aspects.

Memory.

Physical Description:

x, 236 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Summary:

The ghost of the Holocaust is ever present in Israel, in the lives and nightmares of the survivors, and in the absence of the victims. In this compelling and distrubing analysis, Idith Zertal, a leading member of the new generation of revisionist historians in Israel, deals with the ways Israel has appropriated and used the memory of the Holocaust in order to define and legitimize its existence and politics. Drawing on a wide range of sources, many of them new, the author exposes the pivotal role of the Holocaust in Israel's public sphere, in its project of nation-building, in its politics of power, and in its perception of the conflict with the Palestinians and military occupation of their territories. Zertal argues that the centrality of the Holocaust in Israeli life has led to a culture of death and victimhood which permeates Israeli society, its rituals, and its self-image. This is an important and penetrating book which offers an entirely new perspective on Israel, its history, and the construction of national identity.

Contents:

The sacrificed and the sanctified

Memory without rememberers

From the People's Hall to the Wailing Wall

Between love of the world and love of Israel

Yellow territories.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-230) and index.

ISBN:

0521850967

0521616468

OCLC:

59353205