Balancing Atrocities and Forced Forgetting: Two discursive mechanisms for and against social justice

• In Event: 2229 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable #7

Abstract

Two memory laws recently passed in Israel serve as an example of increasingly popular discursive mechanisms that give voice to one group of citizens in order to forget another. We term these mechanisms “forced forgetting” and “balancing atrocities.” The first establishes a dual process of remembrance and forgetting for the purpose of excluding certain groups from public debate on the national past. The second equalizes victim groups, pitting the suffering of one group against another’s for the purpose of dismissing the former group’s claims for recognition and/or redress. In the Israeli case, these mechanisms have been used in concert to control public debate on the conflict’s origin by silencing Palestinian experience and counter memory and enforcing a boundary distinction between Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians. Incorporating the legal sphere into the study of social movements and cultural memory with a focus on forgetting, our findings show that forgetting is not merely the flip side of official remembrance, but an intentional act of silencing what - and whom - may undermine current structures and efforts.

Authors

• Yifat Gutman, Ben-Gurion University

• Noam Tirosh, Ben Gurion University