The Holocaust, Rebirth, and the Nakba: Memory and Contemporary IsraeliArab Relations

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Yair Auron's important, innovative and instructive book relates critically to the narratives created by Israeli society regarding the events of 1948: the establishment of the State of Israel and the Palestinian Nakba. Auron proposes a humanistic approach of dialogue to foster the brotherhood of the victims and an identification with each others suffering, replacing the current relations of force driving the two peoples to a disaster of terrifying international implications.

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In a series of related essays, Auron (Open Univ. of Israel), an Israeli professor specializing in genocide, warfare, and the moral dilemmas and justifications involved, stresses the mutual sense of victimhood in interpretation and consequent memory of the Holocaust and the Nakba. Both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs have developed and internalized these events as pivotal and fundamental causes in their own national identities and personal perceptions. Citing extensive evidence largely from Israeli documentary and secondary sources and including his own analyses of these, the author suggests that the Nakba was not genocide (deliberate killing of a specific people), as some have argued, but was more like ethnic cleansing (forced migration), as some have rejected. He urges the necessity to escape the blind spot of victimhood to recognize the suffering of the other. There is no possibility for compromise and for peace without the understanding of the Holocaust as a Jewish tragedy and of the Nakba as a Palestinian one. For libraries concerned with Israeli studies, and more generally with issues of rationalizations and justifications in ethnic and religious conflicts. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above * CHOICE *
Two major historical events represent two rival societies engaged in intractable conflict. The Holocaust, with the systematic extermination of six million Jews, is the most dominant part of Jewish history that directly influences the course of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. On the other side, the Nakbathe disastrous event of destruction of Arab life in Palestinehas been part of the formative foundation of every Palestinian. The Holocaust, Rebirth, and the Nakba by Yair Auron is a courageous attempt to bring these two events into one framework. The comprehensive analysis of both of them with the focus on their consequences within the collective memories of Jews and Palestinians about their own and the other's tragedy is useful for Palestinians and Jews who aspire to terminate the bloody conflict between them. Knowledge and acknowledgment of these events are the necessary condition for peacemaking. -- Daniel Bar-Tal, Tel Aviv University
Yair Auron is a brave person with great integrity. He is a proud and committed Israeli who at the same time is a true friend who is deeply devoted to the welfare of Palestinians. In this dramatic book he tackles the forbidden topics of genocidal massacres and crimes against humanity committed by Israelis in the course of Israels War of Independence, which took place in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust amid grave fears of further extermination. -- Israel W. Charny, Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide

Author Bio

Yair Auron is professor at the Open University of Israel. He has published nearly forty books on Genocide, Holocaust, Jewish and Israeli Identities, and Israeli-Palestinian relations.