Memory Activism Reimagining the Past for the Future in Israel-Palestine

Set in Israel in the first decade of the twenty-first century and based on long-term fieldwork, this rich ethnographic study offers an innovative analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It explores practices of "memory activism" by three groups of Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Palestinian citizens-Zochrot, Autobiography of a City, and Baladna-showing how they appropriated the global model of truth and reconciliation while utilizing local cultural practices such as tours and testimonies.
These activist efforts gave visibility to a silenced Palestinian history in order to come to terms with the conflict's origins and envision a new resolution for the future. This unique focus on memory as a weapon of the weak reveals a surprising shift in awareness of Palestinian suffering among the Jewish majority of Israeli society in a decade of escalating violence and polarization-albeit not without a backlash.
Contested memories saturate this society. The 1948 war is remembered as both Independence Day by Israelis and
Read more