This chapter lays down the foundations for the argument that questions of (non-)performance raised by the practical phenomenon of sharing international obligations can be tackled by a further categorization and systematization of international obligations, since different types of shared obligations can have different legal implications. It starts by introducing the distinction between indivisible and divisible shared obligations, after which the analysis turns to the issue of how to ascertain the nature of shared obligations, as it will not always be apparent at first glance whether a particular shared obligation is to be qualified as indivisible or divisible. It will be discussed how the distinction between positive and negative obligations as well as the distinction between obligations of conduct and result can facilitate the categorization of a particular shared obligation as either divisible or indivisible. The chapter ends with some reflections on the performance of shared obligations, highlighting how both indivisible and divisible shared obligations can have relevant implications for what is expected of duty-bearers (though in different ways), necessitating a more collective approach to performance.

Section II of this volume centers on the collective mnemonic invocation of the two watersheds under review. The focus in this part lies on national memorial days – Yawm al-Nakbah (Arabic: Nakba day) and Yom ha-Shoah (Hebrew: Holocaust day) – and on places of commemoration. Through differentiating between non-physical and physical mnemonic acts, the two chapters that make up this part testify to the different mnemonics that have arisen as a result of the diverging political reality that exists in both societies under review. Within the 1948 borders, access to former Palestinian villages has meant that Nakba commemorations encompass physical mnemonics that center on former Palestinians localities, whereas restrictions on Palestinian movement into Israel have meant that non-site-specific commemorative acts dominate in the West Bank. The existing political circumstances have created a further disparity in the official nature of the Israeli and Palestinian institutes and organizations involved in commemoration. In the Israeli context, the three main Holocaust memorial institutes under examination in Israel, namely Yad Vashem, Lohamei Hagetaot, and Yad Mordechai, conform with the official state narrative. Conversely, the absence of Palestinian governance in Palestinian society inside the 1948 borders and post-Oslo hostility toward the PA has meant that an overt state-sanctioned narrative has largely remained absent in Nakba commemorations, leading civil society organizations on both sides of the Green Line to adopt a dominant role in mnemonics.