Constructing trauma and ethical constraints: The ambiguity of the Holocaust for Israel

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Published: Aug 7, 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/sas.819
Jeffrey C. Alexander
University of Yale
Shai Dromi
University of Yale, Sociology Department
Abstract
This paper reviews the interpretation of tire Holocaust within Israeli society ever since tire establishment of the state of Israel. It is argued that initially the Holocaust was used in a particularistic way in order to justify the ‘strong’ attitude towards Palestinians and Arabs. Gradually, however, and more particularly after the 1982 invasion of the Lebanon, a more sensitive attitude toward the Palestinian Question had emerged within Israeli public opinion. A new awareness gave rise to a ‘post- Zionist’ diccourse crystallized in the 1993 Oslo s^reements Vet öfter 1995 the Isroeli Right managed to contain this narrative by constructing a traumatic experience that bounds die Holocaust suffering within a single social group, thus excluding empathy and compassion for the out-groups.
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