The Guardian features a lengthy read by author David Rieff who asks:
What if collective historical memory, as it is actually employed by communities and nations, has led far too often to war rather than peace, to rancour and resentment rather than reconciliation, and the determination to exact revenge for injuries both real and imagined, rather than to commit to the hard work of forgiveness?
What follows is an intellectual discussion on the merits or otherwise of the role of collective historical memory as used by various states and regimes throughout history. Eventually, the example of Israel appears:
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Israel offers a florid illustration of how disastrously collective memory can deform a society. The settler movement routinely appeals to a version of biblical history that is as great a distortion of that history as the Islamist fantasy about the supposed continuities between the medieval kingdom of Jerusalem and the modern state of Israel. At the entrance to the settler outpost of Givat Assaf on the West Bank, a placard reads: “We have come back home.” In an interview, Benny Gal, one of the settlement’s leaders, insisted: “On this exact spot, 3,800 years ago, the land of Israel was promised to the Hebrew people.” Shani Simkovitz, the head of the settlement movement’s Gush Etzion Foundation, echoed Gal’s claim: “More than 3,000 years ago, our fathers gave us a land, which is not Rome, it is not New York, but this: the Jewish land.”
Even when it is secular, mainstream Zionist collective memory is often as mystical and as much of a manipulation of history as these views. Consider the simultaneous mythologising and politicisation of archaeology in Israel that has now reached the point where scholarship and state-building have come to seem like two sides of the same coin. Writing in 1981, the Israeli intellectual Amos Elon observed that Israeli archaeologists were “not merely digging for knowledge and objects, but for the reassurance of roots, which they find in the ancient Israelite remains scattered throughout the country”. He added: “The student of nationalism and archaeology will be tempted to take note of the apparent cathartic effects of both disciplines.”
On the contrary, it is Judaism’s extensive collective historical memory that has enabled the Jewish people to survive over thousands of years. Collective memory has not deformed society but enabled the modern state of Israel to thrive and survive precisely due to the strong national identity of its people.
One does not have to believe in the Bible or the literal word of God, or even to be a supporter of Jewish settlements, to acknowledge the historical and religious connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. The physical evidence of a Jewish presence in the land can be found by digging through the layers of earth, where structures with ancient Hebrew letters or coins from bygone eras of Jewish rule can be found.
How exactly is Zionist collective memory a “manipulation of history?” All national identities are based on commonalities such as a shared religion, culture, language or territory. Archaeology in Israel continues to unearth physical evidence of the Jewish connection to the land on a regular basis. Ancient artifacts confirm the legitimacy of the Jewish collective memory in the region. If politicization in such archaeology exists, it is the result of Israel’s enemies questioning and delegitimizing the Jewish people’s legitimate rights to sovereignty in a state of their own.
In fact, it is not Jewish collective historical memory that has caused wars and conflicts, but the denial of that history by Israel’s enemies that has led to bloodshed in the region.
Prominent commentator Melanie Phillips also takes issue with the fundamentals of Rieff’s arguments:
Judaism founded on memory, Israel on history & truth. David Rieff in Guardian makes core attack on Judaism & Israel https://t.co/Ok4JynWORI
— Melanie Phillips (@MelanieLatest) March 2, 2016
Ultimately, collective historical memory is the bedrock upon which the Jewish people and Israel will continue into the distant future and hopefully beyond. Despite David Rieff’s views, the Jewish people will not forget.
You can send your considered comments to The Guardian’s letters page – [email protected]
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