DOCSLIB.ORG

Collective Trauma and the Israel/Palestine Conflict

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Collective Trauma and the Israel/Palestine Conflict History’s Wound: Collective Trauma and the Israel/Palestine conflict Item Type Thesis Authors Ottman, Esta T. Publisher University of Bradford Rights <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by- nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. Download date 09/10/2021 06:02:33 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10454/17398 HISTORY’S WOUND: COLLECTIVE TRAUMA AND THE ISRAEL/PALESTINE CONFLICT E.T.OTTMAN PHD 2018 History’s Wound: Collective Trauma and the Israel/Palestine conflict Esta Tina OTTMAN Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Division of Peace Studies and International Development Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities University of Bradford 2018 Abstract Esta Tina Ottman History's Wound: Collective Trauma and the Israel/Palestine conflict Keywords: Israel, Palestine, collective memory, collective trauma, cultural trauma, political trauma In considering the Israel-Palestine conflict, focus has remained on conventional major issues: borders, settlements, Jerusalem, Palestinian refugee rights and water. Should there be one binational state, or two states for two peoples? Yet this is a conflict that is sustained by factors more profound than the dispute over limited resources or competing nationalisms. The parties’ narratives, continually rehearsed, speak of a cataclysmic event or chain of events, a collective trauma, which has created such deep suffering and disruption that the rehearsers remain ‘frozen’ amid the overarching context of political violence. This study offers a critical analysis of the concept of collective trauma together with the role of commemorative practices, including core contemporary canonical days of memory, and asks to what extent they may hinder progress in the resolution of an intractable conflict, such as the Israel/Palestine conflict. Without addressing the powerful traumatic current that underpins a chronic conflict, no amount of top-down formal peace-making is likely to be sustainable. i Acknowledgements This project would never have come to fruition without the vision, experience and untiring support of Professor Jim Whitman; it is to him that I owe my most profound thanks for all his years of guidance, patience and encouragement. Thanks also to Professor Caroline Hughes, for taking me on at a critical juncture, and for her stimulating input; and to Dr. Afshin Shahi, for doing so much from afar to see me to the finish line. Gratitudes are also due to Professor Marie Thorsten, for her careful reading and constructive advice, and to my mentor, Professor Betty Reardon, for setting me on the road to peace so long ago. I would also like to express my thanks to Michele Mozley, who was of tremendous assistance over the years. To colleagues Felicity Greenland, Julia Harper, Sally McLaren, Susan Pavloska, Lisa Rogers, peers Lubna Kidwai and Tony Sabella, you too have been pillars of strength and founts of advice in this long journey. Finally, thanks to my family for their love and forbearance throughout it all, especially my partner Koby and my brother Simon and sister-in-law Michal Hillman. This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of our late father, Harvey (Harold) Ottman. ii Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………….………….………….i Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………...…………ii Table of Contents ……………………………………………….…………….……iii List of Figures……………………………………………..……….………………...v List of Tables ………………………………………………………..………………vi Chapter One: Introduction ……………………………………….………………1 1.1 Historical emergence of trauma …………………………………………..…..9 1.2 War Trauma …………………………………………………….………..……18 1.3 Growth of medical models: Empirical evidence for trauma ……………....25 1.4.Trauma and war: Further psychological manifestations …………....…….31 1.5 Further psychological battlegrounds ………………………………………..38 1.6 Quantitative measures ……………………………………….……………….41 1.7 The APA and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals of Mental Disorders………………………………………………………………………..42 1.8 The DSM, ICD and traumatic stress diagnosis …………………………....50 1.9 Conclusion …………………………………………………….……………….60 Chapter Two: The concept of experiential collectivities ………….………62 2.1 Introduction ………………………………………………….…………………62 2.2 Forms of Identity and allegiance as collective experience: Social frameworks of memory ……………………………………..………………..64 2.3 Conceptual challenges to tropes of collective memory: Individual versus collective memory ………………….... ……………………..…………….… 73 2.4 Collective memory versus history …………………………………………...77 2.5.Ethical challenges for history and memory: counter-memories ………….86 2.6 Methodological challenges for collective memory………………………….90 2.7 Contemporary challenges for collective memory: Temporal, spatial and cultural dimensions of memorialization ………………………….……….…94 2.8 Conclusion ………………………………………………………….………….99 Chapter Three: Clarifying the concept of collective trauma…………….100 3.1 Introduction ………………………………………….……….………………100 3.2 Acknowledging controversies ………………………………………………102 3.3 The Armenian Genocide (1895-1923) ………………………………….…115 3.4 Refusing recognition ………………………………………………..…….…119 3.5 Enduring impact …………………………………………...….……………..127 3.6 New entrants to trauma ……………………………………….…….………128 3.7 The Holocaust ………………………………………………….……….……131 3.8 Avoiding recognition …………………………………….….…………….…133 3.9 Turning points ……………………………………………….…………….…138 3.10 The banality of evil …………………………….…………….…….….……140 3.11 Challenges to collective trauma interpretation: The universal, the unexceptional and the particular ……………………………….…………145 iii 3.12 Conclusion …………………………………………………….……………152 Chapter Four: The politics of collective trauma: Israel ….….………..…156 4.1 Methodological approaches to collective memory and trauma: The Israel- Palestine conflict …………………..………………………..………….……156 4.2 Israel – a history of collective traumas ……………………..….………….162 4.3 Immigration as trauma ……………………………………….….……….…163 4.4 Holocaust survivors’ trauma ………………………………….………….…164 4.5 Trauma as historical narrative and constant condition – days of remembrance in Israel ………………………………………………………172 4.6 Educating towards remembrance ………………………………….………179 4.7 The IDF and the Shoah …………………………………..…………………183 4.8 Yom HaShoah and some further political uses of collective trauma .….189 4.9 Conclusion …………………………………………………….……..………200 Chapter Five: Palestine and the politics of collective trauma ………….204 5.1 Palestine: Empirical evidence of historical trauma …….………..….……204 5.2 A human geography of trauma ……………….……………………………207 5.3 The naming of suffering ………………………………….…………………213 5.4 The correspondence with cultural trauma …………..……………….……215 5.5 Palestine – trauma as historical narrative and lived condition: The construction of memorial days …………….…………………………….…228 5.6 Encroaching upon memory: Collective trauma and the politics of return ……………………………………………………….…………………241 5.7 The Great March of Return: Acute trauma politics ………………………245 5.8 Concluding remarks …………………………………………………………259 Chapter Six: Reconsidering collective trauma: Israel and the Palestinians ……………………………………..………………263 6.1 Introduction: Factoring in collective trauma ………………...….…………263 6.2 Pressing for peace …………………………………………….….…………265 6.3 The implications of the Arab Peace Initiative ……………..….……….….266 6.4 Conclusion: Toward peacebuilding mechanisms and the politics of recognition ………………………………………………..….………….……278 6.4.1 The therapeutic framework………………………………………….…….279 6.4.2 Transforming remembrance ……………………………………….……..288 Chapter Seven: Conclusion ………………………..…………………………295 References ………………………………………………………….……………303 Notes …………………………………………………..…….……………………431 iv List of Figures Fig. 1 A clinical taxonomy of psychological traumas, Type 1, after Kira (2001)…………………………………….……………….……..103 Fig. 2 A clinical taxonomy of psychological traumas, Type 2, after Kira (2001).…………………………………………..…………….…104 Fig. 3 Developmental pathways of collective trauma…………………………106 Fig. 4 Map of the Armenian Genocide …………………………………………115 Fig. 5 Red district where [earlier Hamidian] massacres occurred, after Bliss, Turkey and the Armenian Genocides (Bliss, 1896, p. vi) ……………………116 Fig. 6 Armenian population by country (in thousands). (Kentronhayastan). ………………………………………………………………………...........118 Fig. 7 Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin (Beate Müller, 2012, reproduced with her permission) …………………………………143 Fig. 8 Yad Vashem interior, Jerusalem (Esta Tina Ottman, 2011)….………144 Fig. 9 Children’s memorial at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem (Esta Tina Ottman, 2011) ……………………………………….………………………………144 Fig. 10. Soldiers, hold your fire! Israeli media campaign by B’Tselem. [Source: B’Tselem, 2018b] ………………………………..……………257 Fig. 11 ‘Gaza sends messages of peace to Israelis.’ [Source, Gershon Baskin, Facebook, 2018a] ……………………..…………………..……………258 Fig. 12 Gaza peace doves initiative. [Source, Gershon Baskin, Facebook, 2018b] …………………………………………………..….……….……258 Fig. 13 AlGhad TV: Gaza Peace Doves. [Source, Gershon Baskin, Facebook, 2018c] ……………………………….………………………259 v List of Tables Table 1: The three levels of memory (after Assman, 1995) ……………….….75 Table 2: Collective history and memory (after Wertsch, 2002, p. 45) …….....79 vi History’s Wound: To what extent does the concept of collective trauma hinder progress in the resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict? Chapter 1: Introduction The traumatic impact of war and violence on
Load more

Recommended publications
  • In the Shadows: Women, Power and Politics in Cambodia
    In the Shadows: Women, Power and Politics in Cambodia Kate Frieson CAPI Associate and United N ations Regional Spokesperson, UNMIBH (UN mission in Bosnia Hercegovina) Occasional Paper No. 26 June 2001 Copyright © 2001 Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives Box 1700, STN CSC Victoria, BC Canada V8W 2Y2 Tel. : (250) 721-7020 Fax : (250) 721-3107 E-mail: [email protected] National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data Frieson, Kate G. (Kate Grace), 1958- In the Shadows: Women, Power and Politics in Cambodia (CAPI occasional paper series ; 26) ISBN 1-55058-230-5 1. Cambodia–Social conditions. 2. Cambodia–Politics and government. 3. Women in politics–Cambodia. I. UVic Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives. II. Title. III. Series: Occasional papers (UVic Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives) ; #26. DS554.8.F74 2001 305.42'09596 C2001-910945-8 Printed in Canada Table of Contents Theoretical Approaches to Gender and Politics ......................................1 Women and the Politics of Socialization ............................................2 Women and the State: Regeneration and the Reproduction of the Nation ..................4 Women and the Defense of the State during War-Time ................................8 Women as Defenders of the Nation ...............................................12 Women in Post-UNTAC Cambodia ..............................................14 Conclusion ..................................................................16 Notes ......................................................................16 In the Shadows: Women, Power and Politics in Cambodia Kate Frieson, University of Victoria "Behind almost all politicians there are women in the shadows" Anonymous writer, Modern Khmer News, 1954 Although largely unscribed in historical writings, women have played important roles in the Cambodian body politic as lance-carrying warriors and defenders of the Angkorean kingdom, influential consorts of kings, deviant divas, revolutionary heroines, spiritual protectors of Buddhist temples, and agents of peace.
    [Show full text]
  • Revolution, Reform and Regionalism in Southeast Asia
    Revolution, Reform and Regionalism in Southeast Asia Geographically, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are situated in the fastest growing region in the world, positioned alongside the dynamic economies of neighboring China and Thailand. Revolution, Reform and Regionalism in Southeast Asia compares the postwar political economies of these three countries in the context of their individual and collective impact on recent efforts at regional integration. Based on research carried out over three decades, Ronald Bruce St John highlights the different paths to reform taken by these countries and the effect this has had on regional plans for economic development. Through its comparative analysis of the reforms implemented by Cam- bodia, Laos and Vietnam over the last 30 years, the book draws attention to parallel themes of continuity and change. St John discusses how these countries have demonstrated related characteristics whilst at the same time making different modifications in order to exploit the strengths of their individual cultures. The book contributes to the contemporary debate over the role of democratic reform in promoting economic devel- opment and provides academics with a unique insight into the political economies of three countries at the heart of Southeast Asia. Ronald Bruce St John earned a Ph.D. in International Relations at the University of Denver before serving as a military intelligence officer in Vietnam. He is now an independent scholar and has published more than 300 books, articles and reviews with a focus on Southeast Asia,
    [Show full text]
  • Memory Trace Fazal Sheikh
    MEMORY TRACE FAZAL SHEIKH 2 3 Front and back cover image: ‚ ‚ 31°50 41”N / 35°13 47”E Israeli side of the Separation Wall on the outskirts of Neve Yaakov and Beit Ḥanīna. Just beyond the wall lies the neighborhood of al-Ram, now severed from East Jerusalem. Inside front and inside back cover image: ‚ ‚ 31°49 10”N / 35°15 59”E Palestinian side of the Separation Wall on the outskirts of the Palestinian town of ʿAnata. The Israeli settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev lies beyond in East Jerusalem. This publication takes its point of departure from Fazal Sheikh’s Memory Trace, the first of his three-volume photographic proj- ect on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Published in the spring of 2015, The Erasure Trilogy is divided into three separate vol- umes—Memory Trace, Desert Bloom, and Independence/Nakba. The project seeks to explore the legacies of the Arab–Israeli War of 1948, which resulted in the dispossession and displacement of three quarters of the Palestinian population, in the establishment of the State of Israel, and in the reconfiguration of territorial borders across the region. Elements of these volumes have been exhibited at the Slought Foundation in Philadelphia, Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York, and will now be presented at the Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in East Jerusalem, and the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah. In addition, historical documents and materials related to the history of Al-’Araqīb, a Bedouin village that has been destroyed and rebuilt more than one hundred times in the ongoing “battle over the Negev,” first presented at the Slought Foundation, will be shown at Al-Ma’mal.
    [Show full text]
  • The Israel National Trail
    Table of Contents The Israel National Trail ................................................................... 3 Preface ............................................................................................. 5 Dictionary & abbreviations ......................................................................................... 5 Get in shape first ...................................................................................................... 5 Water ...................................................................................................................... 6 Water used for irrigation ............................................................................................ 6 When to hike? .......................................................................................................... 6 When not to hike? ..................................................................................................... 6 How many kilometers (miles) to hike each day? ........................................................... 7 What is the direction of the hike? ................................................................................ 7 Hike and rest ........................................................................................................... 7 Insurance ................................................................................................................ 7 Weather .................................................................................................................. 8 National
    [Show full text]
  • Greater Jerusalem” Has Jerusalem (Including the 1967 Rehavia Occupied and Annexed East Jerusalem) As Its Centre
    4 B?63 B?466 ! np ! 4 B?43 m D"D" np Migron Beituniya B?457 Modi'in Bei!r Im'in Beit Sira IsraelRei'ut-proclaimed “GKharbrathae al Miasbah ter JerusaBeitl 'Uer al Famuqa ” D" Kochav Ya'akov West 'Ein as Sultan Mitzpe Danny Maccabim D" Kochav Ya'akov np Ma'ale Mikhmas A System of Settler-Colonialism and Apartheid Deir Quruntul Kochav Ya'akov East ! Kafr 'Aqab Kh. Bwerah Mikhmas ! Beit Horon Duyuk at Tahta B?443 'Ein ad D" Rafat Jericho 'Ajanjul ya At Tira np ya ! Beit Liq Qalandi Kochav Ya'akov South ! Lebanon Neve Erez ¥ ! Qalandiya Giv'at Ze'ev D" a i r Jaba' y 60 Beit Duqqu Al Judeira 60 B? a S Beit Nuba D" B? e Atarot Ind. Zone S Ar Ram Ma'ale Hagit Bir Nabala Geva Binyamin n Al Jib a Beit Nuba Beit 'Anan e ! Giv'on Hahadasha n a r Mevo Horon r Beit Ijza e t B?4 i 3 Dahiyat al Bareed np 6 Jaber d Aqbat e Neve Ya'akov 4 M Yalu B?2 Nitaf 4 !< ! ! Kharayib Umm al Lahim Qatanna Hizma Al Qubeiba ! An Nabi Samwil Ein Prat Biddu el Almon Har Shmu !< Beit Hanina al Balad Kfar Adummim ! Beit Hanina D" 436 Vered Jericho Nataf B? 20 B? gat Ze'ev D" Dayr! Ayyub Pis A 4 1 Tra Beit Surik B?37 !< in Beit Tuul dar ! Har A JLR Beit Iksa Mizpe Jericho !< kfar Adummim !< 21 Ma'ale HaHamisha B? 'Anata !< !< Jordan Shu'fat !< !< A1 Train Ramat Shlomo np Ramot Allon D" Shu'fat !< !< Neve Ilan E1 !< Egypt Abu Ghosh !< B?1 French Hill Mishor Adumim ! B?1 Beit Naqquba !< !< !< ! Beit Nekofa Mevaseret Zion Ramat Eshkol 1 Israeli Police HQ Mesilat Zion B? Al 'Isawiya Lifta a Qulunyia ! Ma'alot Dafna Sho'eva ! !< Motza Sheikh Jarrah !< Motza Illit Mishor Adummim Ind.
    [Show full text]
  • A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights
    A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights © Copyright 2010, The Veritas Handbook. 1st Edition: July 2010. Online PDF, Cost: $0.00 Cover Photo: Ahmad Mesleh This document may be reproduced and redistributed, in part, or in full, for educational and non- profit purposes only and cannot be used for fundraising or any monetary purposes. We encourage you to distribute the material and print it, while keeping the environment in mind. Photos by Ahmad Mesleh, Jon Elmer, and Zoriah are copyrighted by the authors and used with permission. Please see www.jonelmer.ca, www.ahmadmesleh.wordpress.com and www.zoriah.com for detailed copyright information and more information on these photographers. Excerpts from Rashid Khalidi’s Palestinian Identity, Ben White’s Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner’s Guide and Norman Finkelstein’s This Time We Went Too Far are also taken with permission of the author and/or publishers and can only be used for the purposes of this handbook. Articles from The Electronic Intifada and PULSE Media have been used with written permission. We claim no rights to the images included or content that has been cited from other online resources. Contact: [email protected] Web: www.veritashandbook.blogspot.com T h e V E R I T A S H a n d b o o k 2 A Guide to Understanding the Struggle for Palestinian Human Rights To make this handbook possible, we would like to thank 1. The Hasbara Handbook and the Hasbara Fellowships 2. The Israel Project’s Global Language Dictionary Both of which served as great inspirations, convincing us of the necessity of this handbook in our plight to establish truth and justice.
    [Show full text]
  • Amti -, La Tante Paternelle Qui, Elle, a Droit Comme Première Consonne, À Un « Ayn » Qui Est Émis Avec Rudesse, De L’Arrière-Fond Du Palais
    اﶺﻬﻮرﯾﺔ اﳉﺰاﺮﯾﺔ اﳝﻘﺮاﻃﯿﺔ اﻟﺸﻌﺒﯿﺔ République Algérienne Démocratique et Populaire وزارة اﻟﺘﻌﻠﲓ اﻟﻌﺎﱄ واﻟﺒﺤﺚ اﻟﻌﻠﻤﻲ Ministère de l‘Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique Revue de l’Université d’Oran 2 N° 01/2016 ISSN 2507-7546 Enseignement des langues étrangères en Algérie et mondialisation L’homme est destiné à vivre en société, à entretenir des relations avec les autres sinon, il est considéré comme un homme malade. Le contact avec l’Autre nous métamorphose et nous modifie. En somme, il nous altère ; ce phénomène d’altération dans le sens de mutation et transformation, représente une évolution permanente dans nos représentations, notre vision du monde…, et nous permet, tout au long de notre vie « d’apprendre ». L’apprentissage des langues étrangères peut être considéré comme un processus permettant de déceler les différences dans les formes de réflexion, et la diversité dans la vision des aspects socioculturels. C’est un ensemble d’opérations multifonctionnel dans le sens où il permet non seulement de découvrir une langue et sa culture, mais également d’intégrer les différences dans les formes. L’émancipation de l’individu et son épanouissement ne pourraient se faire que s’il y a acceptation effective de cette différence, tandis que, à l’opposé, le racisme embryonnaire ou totalitaire prendra forme dans le rejet de la culture de l’Autre. La rapidité de l’évolution du monde nous impose des contraintes qui nous obligent à développer des capacités à comprendre, à apprendre et à nous adapter. Si nous admettons que la langue est un outil d’enseignement et un médium culturel, alors nous percevrons clairement le rôle que peut jouer l’enseignement de toute langue, et son apprentissage dans l’apport culturel qu’elle peut véhiculer, et par conséquent de sa dimension culturelle.
    [Show full text]
  • War on Twitter: Israel Defense Forces and the Use of Social Media
    War on Twitter: Israel Defense Forces and the use of social media By Laust Kruse Supervisor: Martin Beck Master’s Thesis in Middle East Studies Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies University of Southern Denmark Submitted November 15 2013 Characters: Front page: Twitter dialogue between IDF and Hamas. The day Operation Pillar of Defense, an eight day bombing raid of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army in November 2012 was initiated, the IDF declared war via Twitter with a threat to Hamas. The armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, responded in an equally hostile tone. The two enemies continued to employ social media throughout the conflict at a level the world had not yet seen. War on Twitter – Laust Kruse 2013 Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 1.1 What is social media? ............................................................................................................................. 4 1.2 Relevant social media platforms ............................................................................................................ 5 1.3 Game changer ........................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae: Ben Kiernan Full Name: Benedict Francis Kiernan
    Curriculum Vitae: Ben Kiernan Full Name: Benedict Francis Kiernan Place and East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Date of Birth: 29 January 1953. Address: Department of History, Yale University, P.O. Box 208324, New Haven, CT 06520-8324, USA. Employment 1975-1977 Tutor in History, University of New South Wales History: 1978-1982 Postgraduate student, History, Monash University 1983 Research Fellow, Ethnic Studies, Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs. 1984-1985 Post-doctoral Fellow, History, Monash University. 1986-1987 Lecturer in History, University of Wollongong. 1988-1990 Senior Lecturer, Department of History and Politics, University of Wollongong (with tenure, 1989). 1990-97 Associate Professor of History, Yale University. 1994-99 Founding Director, Cambodian Genocide Program, (http://gsp.yale.edu/case-studies/cambodian-genocide-program) 1997-99 Professor of History, Yale University. 1998-2015 Founding Director, Genocide Studies Program, Yale University (http://gsp.yale.edu) 1999- A.Whitney Griswold Professor of History, Yale University. 2000-02 Convenor, Yale East Timor Project. 2003-08 Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne. 2005- Professor of International and Area Studies, Yale University. 2010-15 Chair, Council on Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University. Formal Academic B.A. (Hons), 1st Class, History, Monash University, 1975. Qualifications: Thesis: ‘The Samlaut Rebellion and Its Aftermath, 1967-70: The Beginnings of the Modern Cambodian Resistance’ (131 pp.) Ph.D. in History, Monash University, 1983. Dissertation: ‘How Pol Pot Came to Power: A History of Communism in Kampuchea, 1930-1975’ (579 pp.) Positions Held: Member of the Editorial Boards of Critical Asian Studies (formerly Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars), 1983- ; Human Rights Review, 1999- ; TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 2012- ; Zeitschrift für Genozidforschung, 2004- ; Journal of Genocide Research, 1999-2008; Genocide Studies and Prevention, 2006-9; Journal of Human Rights, 2001-7.
    [Show full text]
  • The Crime of Political Genocide: Repairing the Genocide Convention's Blind Spot
    Note The Crime of Political Genocide: Repairing the Genocide Convention's Blind Spot Beth Van Schaack At long last, the international community is moving toward the fulfillment of certain promises made at the close of the Nuremberg trials.' Since that time, human rights abusers have escaped accountability for their international crimes, in large part due to the lack of enforcement mechanisms at the international level.2 Three contemporary initiatives, however, suggest that the Nuremberg legacy of holding individuals accountable for human rights violations is not mere history. First, the establishment of the International Tribunals for Yugoslavia3 and Rwanda,' both under the auspices of the 1. In the aftermath of World War II, the Allied nations established the United Nations and convened the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals in an effort to create an international regime that would restrain aggression and the use of force, protect individuals from governmental atrocities, and ensure world peace The tribunals, which were empowered to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against the peace. and crimes against humanity, held out the promise that individuals would henceforth be held accountable before the international community for their acts of aggression and their crimes against humanity -Cnmes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced.'* InternationalMdtary Tribunal (Nuremberg), Judgment and Sentences. Oct. 1. 1946. repnnted in 41 Am J INT'L L 172. 221 (1947). 2. After the dissolution of the two ad hoc tribunals, the international community faded to "create structures in international society that would ensure that Ithe Nuremberg PIrinciples were not mere rhetoric but were operative upon behavior in times of peace as well as in the aftermath of military defeat - RicuARD FALK, REVITALIZING INTERNATIONAL LAW 224 (1989).
    [Show full text]
  • Israel's Religious Right and the Question Of
    ISRAEL’S RELIGIOUS RIGHT AND THE QUESTION OF SETTLEMENTS Middle East Report N°89 – 20 July 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................... i I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 II. NATIONAL-RELIGIOUS FRAGMENTATION AND RADICALISATION............ 3 III. THE TIME OF THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX............................................................... 12 IV. JEWISH ACTIVIST TOOLS ........................................................................................ 17 A. RHETORIC OR REALITY? ............................................................................................................17 B. INSTITUTIONAL LEVERAGE ........................................................................................................17 1. Political representation...............................................................................................................17 2. The military................................................................................................................................20 3. Education ...................................................................................................................................24 C. A PARALLEL SYSTEM ................................................................................................................25 V. FROM CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE TO VIOLENCE ....................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Anxieties of Naming Conceptual Controversies Around the Armenian Genocide
    S: I. M. O. N. Vol. 7|2020|No.2 SHOAH: INTERVENTION. METHODS. DOCUMENTATION. Devrim Sezer Anxieties of Naming Conceptual Controversies around the Armenian Genocide Abstract Synthesising insights from political theory and Holocaust and genocide studies for a trans- disciplinary analysis, this article aims to explore a topic that has not been systematically investigated in the study of the Armenian genocide, despite its obvious importance and contemporary relevance: anxieties of naming and conceptual controversies around the Armenian genocide. More specifically, it assesses the scholarly and political implications of historiographical, ethical, and pragmatic anxieties regarding the concept of genocide. The fundamental argument of the article is that, although these anxieties expressed by scholars across the board need to be taken seriously, the alternative concepts proposed as substitutes not only seem much vaguer but also fail to capture the harm caused by the destruction of a people. Introduction The denial of the Armenian genocide has been scrutinised from a variety of angles since the 1990s. Thus, there today exists a rich and ever-expanding scholarly litera- ture devoted to the investigation of this particular phenomenon. This is not entirely surprising, given the fact that “one striking feature of the Armenian genocide is its denial by the heirs of the perpetrators”.1 What has remained unexplored, however, is the radically sceptical attitude displayed in theoretical debates towards the very con- cept of genocide and, more significantly
    [Show full text]