The Victimisation Motif as a Guiding Principle of Israeli Discourse
Author | Ada Yurman |
DOI | 10.1177/026975800801500104 |
Published date | 01 January 2008 |
Date | 01 January 2008 |
International
Review
ofVictimology.
2008,
Vol.
15,
pp.
59-83
C A B
Academic
Publishers
-
Printed
in
Great
Britain
THE
VICTIMISATION MOTIF
AS
A
GUIDING
PRINCIPLE
OF
ISRAELI
DISCOURSE
ADAYURMAN
Bar
1/an
University,
Israel"
ABSTRACT
The
present
study
describes
and
systematically
analyses
the
victimization
of
the
Holocaust,
in
Israeli
society's
cultural-political
discourse,
focusing
on
the
interaction
among
various
processes
that
Israeli
society
has
experienced,
including
ideological
changes
that
have
led
to
individualism
of
values
and
changes
in
cultural
political
discussions
related
to
the
victimization
of
the
Holocaust
It
deals
with
the
collective
memory
of
Israeli
society
and
with
the
impact
that
past
events
have
on
Israeli
discourse,
with
a
focus
on
the
question
of
whether
the
voice
of
victimization
has
turned
into
a
collective
voice
that
represents
Israeli
society.
The
analysis
of
Israeli
discouse
of
the
holocaust
over
a
period
of
about
fifty
years
shows
that
ever
since
the
establishment
of
the
State,
Israeli
society
has
not
ceased
to
discuss
the
Holocaust.
It
not
only
remembers
scenes
of
the
Holocaust,
but
it
also
reminds
its
citizens
and
the
world,
that
the
Holocaust
victimization
does
not
belong
to
the
past
alone.
Keywords:
Shoah-
discourse-
victimisation
The
victors
leave
their
imprint
on
the
memory
of
the
vanquished,
in
order
to
torment
them
for
many
years
after
they,
the
victors,
have
disappeared
from
the
scene.
In
order
to
escape
the
victors,
the
vanquished
need
not
only
memory
but
also
forgetfulness
(Ophir,
2000).
The
memory
of
the
Shoah
is
a principal element
in
the
collective
memory
of
Israeli
society
and
as
such
plays
a
key
role
in
the
formation
of culture
and
its
symbols.
A
nation
that
has
lost
six
million of
its
murdered
sons
and
daughters,
and
which
is
populated
by
the
victims
of
the
Holocaust
and
its
second
generation,
must,
of
necessity,
be
a
remembering
nation.
However,
the
patterns
of
remembering,
and
among
them
of
the
discourse of
the
Shoah,
at
times
raise
questions
and
doubts.
In
addressing
the
issue
of
the
Shoah's
presence
in
the
Israeli
discourse,
we
shall
not
concentrate
on
the
creation
of
memory
as
such
but,
rather,
on
other
questions
concerning
the
prevalent
'use'
ofthe
Shoah
in
day
to
day
parlance.
An
"'
Department
of
Criminology, Bar Ilan University,
Ramat
Gan,
52900
Israel
( ayurman@netvision.net.il).
60
example
of
this
is
a
comment
of
the
then
Minister
Shlomo
Ben-Izri
regarding
MK
Y
ossi
Sarid:
'
Minister
Sarid
has
succeeded
in
one
thing:
he
has
caused
us
to
be
despised
and
delegitimized
in
an
appalling
way
- a
savage
incitement,
the
likes
of
which
was
unknown
even
during
the
Shoah'
(Ma'ariv,
13
June,
2000:
p.
11
).
Or
take
another
example:
the
language
used
by
Yael
Dan
to
describe
her
traumatic
visit
to
a
Tel
Aviv
distribution center
for
gas
masks
in
her
daily
programme
on
Galey-Zahal
Army
Radio:
'We
have
not
seen
such
crowds
since
the
trains
to
Auschwitz'
(Ha'aretz
supplement,
21
February,
2003:
p.
1).
These
quotations
-
two
of
many
-
raise
a critical
question:
How
did
the
Shoah
come
to
be
used
as
a
label
which
is
applied indiscriminately
to
anyone
whose
actions
we
oppose
or
who
poses
a
threat
to
our
ideological
views
or
our
physical
existence?
Since
we
are
using
images
from
the
media,
one
might
ask
whether
'The
Voice
of Israel'
speaks
in
the
name
of
the
victims;
whether
this
Voice
is
a 'natural'
component
of
the
collective
memory
of
the
survivors,
or
whether
there
has
been,
as
Moshe
Zuckerman
(200
I)
has
claimed,
an
almost
systematic
exploitation
of
the
victims'
voice
for
functional,
political
and
ideological
purposes.
Zuckerman
argues
that,
from
the
outset,
the
memory
of
the
Shoah
was
developed
on
a
public
and
national
level,
as
a
means
of
manipulation.
This
essay
is
part of a
larger
body
of
research
which
deals
with
the
discourse
on
the
Shoah
in
Israeli
society
and
which
focuses
on
the
question
as
to
whether
the
experience
of
victimization
is
a
formative
element
of
Israeli
existence.
The
research
covers
a
period
of
fifty
years,
from
the
creation
of
the
State
of Israel
until
recent
times.
The
methodology
employed
is
the
analysis
of
sources
which
are
representative of
the
Israeli
discourse,
among
them
the
Proceedings
of
the
Knesset,
press
reports
and
speeches
by
public
figures.
It
could
be
claimed
that
the
written
press
constitutes a
reflection
of
the
public
mood
and
thus
it
has
been
given
a
central
role
in
this
study.
At
the
same
time,
I
have
also
relied
upon
secondary
sources
regarding
Shoah
discourse,
in
order
to
gain
insight
into
various
interpretations of
what
characterizes
Israeli
society's
collective
identity.
Although
this
essay
deals
with
a historically
important
subject,
it
does
not
focus
on
its
historical
aspects,
but
rather
on
sociological
ones.
It
should
be
emphasized
that
the
sociological
approach
does
not
necessarily
follow
a
chronological order
but
rather
studies
subjects,
structures
and
social
interpretation.
The
findings
are
therefore
presented
according
to
categories
which
deal
with a
variety
of
fields
relevant
to
Shoah
discourse.
In
addition,
the