Book contents
- A Tale of Two Narratives
- Cambridge Middle East Studies
- A Tale of Two Narratives
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Post-Oslo Period
- Part I The Textbook of Memory
- 2 The Holocaust in Israeli Textbooks
- 3 Teaching the Nakba
- Part II The Landscape of Memory
- Part III Scoop on the Past
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
2 - The Holocaust in Israeli Textbooks
Death and Deliverance
from Part I - The Textbook of Memory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2021
- A Tale of Two Narratives
- Cambridge Middle East Studies
- A Tale of Two Narratives
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Post-Oslo Period
- Part I The Textbook of Memory
- 2 The Holocaust in Israeli Textbooks
- 3 Teaching the Nakba
- Part II The Landscape of Memory
- Part III Scoop on the Past
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series page
Summary
Chapter 2’s analysis of fifteen textbooks published since 1993 for Israeli middle and high-school students demonstrates that an exclusive presentation of the Holocaust in the curriculum has relied on the explicit portrayal of the Holocaust as a uniquely Jewish tragedy with universal relevance to the entire Jewish nation and, therefore, pertinent to every Israeli-Jewish youth. Simultaneously, the overt minimization of other groups’ suffering as a result of Nazi genocidal policies is deemphasized through the conveyance of anachronistic historical information and the usage of numerical aggregation practices. The chapter’s identified Zionist metanarrative lays the foundations for further exclusionary manifestations, namely the minimization of Palestinians’ fate in the 1948 War. Textbooks that illustrate a teleological movement from the center(s) of Jewish destruction, “there” in the galut (Hebrew: exile), to revival “here” in Israel, advocate a post-Holocaust justification for the Zionist enterprise and, consequently, necessitate an untainted recovery from the preceding crisis. By differentiating between Zionist, Zionist-critical, and revisionist narratives of the war, the chapter’s secondary analysis illustrates that while new historiographical writings on the 1948 War have emerged, the beneficial and practical effects of the mass Palestinian exodus are stressed in textbooks. In line with this narrative, a systematic policy of expulsion is firmly cast aside and, instead, overt reminders of traditional Zionist historiography formulating a miraculous rebirth remain.
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- A Tale of Two NarrativesThe Holocaust, the Nakba, and the Israeli-Palestinian Battle of Memories, pp. 77 - 117Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021