New Article: Plotkin-Amrami & Brunner, Making Up ‘National Trauma’ in Israel

Plotkin-Amrami, Galia, and José Brunner. “Making Up ‘National Trauma’ in Israel: From Collective Identity to Collective Vulnerability.” Media, Culture & Society (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306312715589846

 

Abstract

We sketch a variety of institutional, discursive, professional, and personal ‘vectors’, dating back to the 1980s, in order to explain how ‘national trauma’ was able to go from a cultural into a professional category in Israeli mental health during the Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000–2005). Our genealogy follows Ian Hacking’s approach to transient mental illnesses, both illustrating its fertility and expanding its horizon. Thus, we also explore the dynamics that developed in the Israeli mental health community with the advent of ‘national trauma’: while the vast majority of Israeli psychologists and psychiatrists did not adopt the category, they embraced much of its underlying logic, establishing a link between Israeli identity and the mental harm said to be caused by Palestinian terror. Remarkably, the nexus of national identity and collective psychic vulnerability also prompted the cooperation of Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli mental health scholars seeking to explore the psychological effect that the minority status of Israeli Palestinians had on them during the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

 

 

New Article: Gueta & Chen, Discourse Analysis of Israeli Women Offenders

Gueta, Keren, and Gila Chen. “‘I Wanted to Rebel, But There They Hit Me Even Harder’: Discourse Analysis of Israeli Women Offenders’ Accounts of Their Pathways to Substance Abuse and Crime.” International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (early view; online first).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306624X15595421

 

Abstract

This study examined women offenders’ accounts of their pathways to substance abuse and crime and the intersection between them, to reach a holistic understanding that captures the dynamics of victimization, agency, and gender. Discourse analyses of the accounts of 11 Israeli women offenders indicated differential use of two discourses. Five participants used the victimization discourse, which viewed substance abuse as an attempt to medicate the self that was injured following victimization experiences; two used the agency discourse, which viewed substance abuse as a way to experience pleasure, leisure, and control over their destiny. Four of the participants used these two contradictory discourses simultaneously. The findings indicate the absence of a cultural discourse that encompasses women’s complex experience of gender, victimization, and agency. Possible implications for intervention are discussed.

 

 

New Article: Kizel, The Presentation of Germany in Israeli History Textbooks between 1948 and 2014

Kizel, Arie. “The Presentation of Germany in Israeli History Textbooks between 1948 and 2014.” Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society 7.1 (2015): 94-115.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/jemms.2015.070105

 

Abstract

This article reviews an extensive study of Israeli secondary school general history curricula and textbooks since the establishment of the state in 1948 until the present day. By analyzing the way in which Germany is presented in various contexts, the findings of the study indicate that, while the textbooks reflect a shift from an early censorious attitude to a factual approach, the curriculum continues to present national Jewish Zionism as the metanarrative. In this context, Germany is framed as a victimizer.

 

New Article: Lewsen, Settlements and the Evacuation of an Israeli Fishing Village from Gaza

Lewsen, Emily. “Reeled In: The Settlement Project and the Evacuation of an Israeli Fishing Village from Gaza.” Settler Colonial Studies 5.1 (2015): 66-83.
 
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2014.911671

 
Abstract
Footage of emotional Israeli settlers leaving their homes as part of Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan evoked a mixed reaction from critics, underlying a lack of consensus on the relationship between individual settlers, the settlement project and the government. In this essay, I explore the political dynamics between the Israeli state, settlers in the occupied territories and the Palestinians on a micro-level by analyzing Dugit – a small and overlooked former settlement from the Gaza Strip. The study of this marginal settlement shifts focus away from settlements that have more political clout and a larger public profile and troubles the idea of the settlement project as a monolithic enterprise. Furthermore, by virtue of its marginal status and its location at the very northern tip of the Gaza Strip just near the Green Line, Dugit existed at the intersection of many interfacing groups, ideas, institutions and geo-political entities within Israeli society. These include Israelis and Palestinians; Israeli settler society and Israeli liberal society; religious and non-ideological settlements; settlers and the Israeli government; Mizrahi Jews and Palestinians; as well as the concept of Israel proper and the occupied Palestinian territories. Based on interviews conducted with former members of Dugit, this study analyzes informants’ understanding of the politics of living in the occupied territories, their relations with their former Palestinian neighbors as well as their interpretation of their position in Israeli society post-eviction. Israeli–Palestinian encounters in Dugit were represented as amicable but these relations were nevertheless over-determined by the larger political structures, which the Dugit settlers did not challenge. This essay argues that a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of the Dugit settlement needs to take into account the settlers’ position as partial agents of their own political actions but also as victims of government policies.

 
 
 

New Article: SimanTov-Nachlieli et al, Winning the Victim Status: Evidence from the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

SimanTov-Nachlieli, Ilanit, Nurit Shnabel and Samer Halabi. “Winning the Victim Status Can Open Conflicting Groups to Reconciliation: Evidence from the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” European Journal of Social Psychology 45.2 (2015): 139-45.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2091

 

Abstract

Members of conflicting groups often engage in ‘competitive victimhood’, that is, they are motivated to gain acknowledgment that their ingroup is the conflict’s ‘true’ victim. The present study found that compared with a control group, Israeli Jews and Palestinians reassured that their ingroup had won the victim status showed increased willingness to reconcile with the outgroup and held less pessimistic, fatalistic views of the conflict. Moreover, for members of the stronger party—Israeli Jews—winning the victim status also led to increased group efficacy and consequent readiness to take action toward resolution. These findings extend previous theorizing about the positive effects of addressing group members’ need for acknowledgement of their victimization.

New Article: Yi and Phillips, The BDS Campaign against Israel: Lessons from South Africa

Yi, Joseph E. and Joe Phillips. “The BDS Campaign against Israel: Lessons from South Africa.” PS: Political Science & Politics 48.2 (2015): 306-310.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1049096514002091

 

Abstract

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel is animated by a pragmatic strain that views external sanctions as effective pressure against a small democratic state and by a moralistic Manichean strain that portrays Israelis as oppressors. Both strains hearken back to the earlier campaign against apartheid in South Africa. We argue that doing so misreads the lessons of South Africa. Sanctions may have contributed to ending apartheid, but they operated in conjunction with improved security and interpersonal trust among negotiators. Key contenders moved from a discourse of oppression to one that humanized one another as partners with legitimate concerns. These conditions are missing from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Both sides consider their security to be precarious and they are locked in competing narratives of victimization, which further erode mutual trust and security. Measures to improve the parties’ security and trust would contribute to mutual concessions and greater justification for sanctions if the Israeli government is intransigent.

New Book: Hansen-Glucklich, Holocaust Memory Reframed

Hansen-Glucklich, Jennifer. Holocaust Memory Reframed. Museums and the Challenges of Representation. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2014.

URL: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/product/Holocaust-Memory-Reframed,5168.aspx

Holocaust memorials and museums face a difficult task as their staffs strive to commemorate and document horror. On the one hand, the events museums represent are beyond most people’s experiences.  At the same time they are often portrayed by theologians, artists, and philosophers in ways that are already known by the public. Museum administrators and curators have the challenging role of finding a creative way to present Holocaust exhibits to avoid clichéd or dehumanizing portrayals of victims and their suffering.

In Holocaust Memory Reframed, Jennifer Hansen-Glucklich examines representations in three museums: Israel’s Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Germany’s Jewish Museum in Berlin, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. She describes a variety of visually striking media, including architecture, photography exhibits, artifact displays, and video installations in order to explain the aesthetic techniques that the museums employ. As she interprets the exhibits, Hansen-Glucklich clarifies how museums communicate Holocaust narratives within the historical and cultural contexts specific to Germany, Israel, and the United States. In Yad Vashem, architect Moshe Safdie developed a narrative suited for Israel, rooted in a redemptive, Zionist story of homecoming to a place of mythic geography and renewal, in contrast to death and suffering in exile. In the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Daniel Libeskind’s architecture, broken lines, and voids emphasize absence. Here exhibits communicate a conflicted ideology, torn between the loss of a Jewish past and the country’s current multicultural ethos. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presents yet another lens, conveying through its exhibits a sense of sacrifice that is part of the civil values of American democracy, and trying to overcome geographic and temporal distance. One well-know example, the pile of thousands of shoes plundered from concentration camp victims encourages the visitor to bridge the gap between viewer and victim.

Hansen-Glucklich explores how each museum’s concept of the sacred shapes the design and choreography of visitors’ experiences within museum spaces. These spaces are sites of pilgrimage that can in turn lead to rites of passage.

ToC: Israel Affairs 19,3 (2013)

Israel     Affairs, Vol. 19, No. 3, 01 Jul 2013 is now available on Taylor & Francis Online. This new issue contains the following articles: Original Articles ‘We     need the messiah so that he may not come’: on David Ben-Gurion’s use of     messianic language Nir Kedar Pages: 393-409 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799864 Beyond     a one-man show: the prelude of Revisionist Zionism, 1922–25 Jan Zouplna Pages: 410-432 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799871 Another     Orient in early Zionist thought: East Asia in the press of the Ben-Yehuda     family Guy Podoler Pages: 433-450 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799866 Jerusalem     in Anglo-American policy in the immediate wake of the June 1967 war Arieh J. Kochavi Pages: 451-467 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799865 A     farewell to arms? NGO campaigns for embargoes on military exports: the case     of the UK and Israel Gerald M. Steinberg, Anne Herzberg & Asher Fredman Pages: 468-487 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799869 The     politics of ‘over-victimization’ – Palestinian proprietary claims in the     service of political goals Haim Sandberg Pages: 488-504 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799868 Equality,     orthodoxy and politics: the conflict over national service in Israel Etta Bick Pages: 505-525 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799862 The     establishment of a political-educational network in the State of Israel:     Maayan Hahinuch Hatorani Anat Feldman Pages: 526-541 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799863 Between     the dream and the reality: vocational education in Israel, 1948–92 Nirit Raichel Pages: 542-561 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799867 The     influence of mergers on the capital market Tchai Tavor Pages: 562-579 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799870 Book Reviews 1973:     the way to war Raphael Cohen-Almagor Pages: 580-582 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.778094 Land     and desire in early Zionism David Rodman Pages: 583-584 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799881 Israel     in Africa, 1956–1976 David Rodman Pages: 584-585 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799899 Zion’s     dilemmas: how Israel makes national security policy David Rodman Pages: 586-587 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799882 Should     Israel exist? A sovereign nation under attack by the international     community David Rodman Pages: 588-589 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799885 The     role of US diplomacy in the lead-up to the Six Day War: balancing moral     commitments and national interests David Rodman Pages: 589-590 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799886 The     wars of the Maccabees: the Jewish struggle for freedom, 167–37 BC David Rodman Pages: 590-592 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799887 In     the aftermath of Operation Pillar of Defence: the Gaza strip, November 2012 David Rodman Pages: 592-593 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799888 The     future of the Jews: how global forces are impacting the Jewish people,     Israel and its relationship with the United States David Rodman Pages: 593-595 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799889 The     lives of ordinary people in ancient Israel: where archaeology and the Bible     intersect David Rodman Pages: 595-597 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799890 Israel     vs. Iran: the shadow war David Rodman Pages: 597-599 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799883 The     triumph of Israel’s radical right Evan Renfro Pages: 599-601 DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2013.799884

New Publication: Matar and Harb, Narrating Conflict in the Middle East

Dina Matar (author), Zahera Harb (author), eds. Narrating Conflict in the Middle East: Discourse, Image and Communications Practices in Lebanon and Palestine. London: Tauris, 2013.

The term conflict has often been used broadly and uncritically to talk
about diverse situations ranging from street protests to war, though the
many factors that give rise to any conflict and its continuation over a
period of time vary greatly. The starting point of this innovative book
is that it is unsatisfactory either to consider conflict within a
singular concept or alternatively to consider each conflict as entirely
distinct and unique; Narrating Conflict in the Middle East explores
another path to addressing long-term conflict. The contributors set out
to examine the ways in which such conflicts in Palestine and Lebanon
have been and are narrated, imagined and remembered in diverse spaces,
including that of the media. They examine discourses and representations
of the conflicts as well as practices of memory and performance in
narratives of suffering and conflict, all of which suggest an embodied
investment in narrating or communicating conflict. In so doing, they
engage with local, global, and regional realities in Lebanon and in
Palestine and they respond dynamically to these realities.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Approaches to Narrating Conflict in Palestine and Lebanon: Practices, Discourses and Memories Dina Matar and Zahera Harb

      Practices

Just a Few Small Changes: The Limits of Televisual Palestinian Representation of Conflicts within the Transnational ‘Censorscape’ Matt Sienkiewicz

Mediating Internal Conflict in Lebanon and its Ethical Boundaries Zahera Harb

Negotiating Representation, Re-making War: Transnationalism, Counter-hegemony and Contemporary Art from Post-Taif Beirut Hanan Toukan

Narratives in Conflict: Emile Habibi’s al-Waqa’i al-Ghariba and Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention Refqa Abu-Remaileh

      Discourses

Islam in the Narrative of Fatah and Hamas Atef Alshaer

Al Manar: Cultural Discourse and Representation of Resistance Rounwah Adly Riyadh Bseiso

The Battle over Victimhood: Roles and Implications of Narratives of Suffering in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Kirkland Newman Smulders

The ‘I Love…’ Phenomenon in Lebanon: The Transmutations of Discourse, its Impact on Civil Society, the Media and Democratization Carole Helou

      Memories and Narration

Making Sense of War News among Adolescents in Lebanon: The Politics of Solidarity and Partisanship Helena Nassif

Narrating the Nakba: Palestinian Filmmakers Revisit 1948 Nadia Yaqub

Bearing Witness to Al Nakba in a Time of Denial Teodora Todorova

 

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