Imposed silences and self-censorship: <i>Palmach</i> soldiers remember 1948

Ben-Ze’ev, Efrat

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511676178.011

Cited by 8 publications

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“…This phenomenon was not rare. Self-censorship regarding many of the conflict’s events was very prevalent in Israel until the 1980 to 1990s, and is still prevalent, though to a lesser extent, as has been found in studies that addressed Israeli societal institutions such as war veterans and the media (e.g., Bar-On, 2004; Ben-Ze’ev, 2010; Shapira, 2000). In other words, the interviewed gatekeepers were largely within the norm at the time that they self-censored.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Self-censorship in conflicts: Israel and the 1948 Palestinian exodus.

Nets‐Zehngut¹,

Pliskin²,

Bar‐Tal³

2015

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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The typical collective memories of societies involved in intractable conflicts play a major role in the eruption and continuation of the conflicts, whereas the positive transformation of these memories to being less self-serving promotes peacemaking. A major factor that inhibits such transformation is self-censorship. Self-censorship, practiced by members of a society's formal institutions, inhibits the dissemination of alternative, more accurate narratives of the conflict that may change dominating biased conflict-supporting memories. Despite the importance of formal self-censorship in maintaining collective memories of conflicts, little empirical and theoretical research has examined this phenomenon. The present study addresses this omission. It examines the self-censorship practiced from 1949 to 2004 in 3 formal Israeli institutions (the National Information Center, the IDF/army, and the Ministry of Education) regarding the main historical event of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus. This is done by analyzing all of these institutions' publications produced throughout the 56-year research period and interviewing their key position holders. The results show that the institution gatekeepers practiced self-censorship for 5 reasons: garnering international support, mobilizing citizens, the impact of Zionist ideology, institutional norms, and fear of sanctions. The empirical findings are used to elicit theoretical insights, such as a definition for formal self-censorship, the difference between self-censorship practiced by gatekeepers (from formal and informal institutions) and that practiced by ordinary individuals, the 5 reasons for such self-censorship RAFI NETS-ZEHNGUT was awarded his PhD at the Political Science Department at Tel Aviv University, and was a predoctoral fellow at Yale and Columbia Universities. Currently he is the Managing Director of the International Summer Program in Conflict Resolution at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His research studies the socio-psychological aspects of conflicts (e.g., via transitional justice and reconciliation), with the main focus being on their collective memory. Regionally, he focuses on the Israeli-Arab/ Palestinian conflict. For more details see http://www .collective-memory.info/. RUTHIE PLISKIN is currently working towards a doctoral degree in Social Psychology at the School of Psychological Sciences at Tel Aviv University and at the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, under the guidance of Eran Halperin, Daniel Bar-Tal, and Gal Sheppes. Her research focuses on the interrelations of emotional processes and ideology in intergroup conflict, and she is also interested more generally in the mechanisms underlying psychological barriers to intergroup conflict resolution. DANIEL BAR-TAL is Branco Weiss Emeritus Professor of Research in Child Development and Education at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University. His research interest is in political and social psychology studying so-cio...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Self-censorship in conflicts: Israel and the 1948 Palestinian exodus.

Nets‐Zehngut¹,

Pliskin²,

Bar‐Tal³

2015

Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology

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“…These memoirs and studies relate to various wars such as the American Revolution War, the American Civil War, Native American-pioneer clashes in nineteenth century Northern America, World War I (WWI), the Spanish Civil War, World War II (WWII), the Korea War, the Vietnam War, the 1980s Russian-Afghanistan War and the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict. See, for instance: American Revolution (Resch, 1999), Civil War (Brinsfield, 2005), Native American-Pioneer clashes (Greene, 2006), Spanish War (MacMaster, 1990, WWI (Stewart, 2005), WWII (Smith, 2008), Korea War (Baldovi, 2002), Vietnam War (Hagopian, 2009), the Russian-Afghanistan War (Heinaimaa et al, 1994) and the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict (Bar-on, 2001;Ben Ze'ev, 2010;Lumskey-Feder, 1999;Nets-Zehngut, 2011b).…”

Section: Autobiographical Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The scholarly literature addresses various factors that influence the autobiographical memory of war veterans. Some of the main factors described as inhibiting veterans from talking about their war experiences -whether at all or truthfully -is the concern that their wrongdoings during wars will be exposed, thus inflicting personal harm on them, such as legal prosecution (Bar-On, 2001;Branche and House, 2010;Campos, 2008), their psychological difficulties dealing with traumatic past experiences (Annan et al, 2009;Bar-On, 2001;Ben Ze'ev, 2010;Campos, 2008;Geraerts et al, 2007;Hynes, 1998;Lorenz, 1999) and concern about sanctions that could be implemented against them in case the historical narratives that they present in public deviate from the official narratives (Becker, 2008;Roper, 2000). Such inhibiting tendencies have also been explained as an outcome of the wish of veterans to present themselves in a glorified manner to ameliorate their self-esteem and to increase their feeling of connection to their society (Metsola, 2009), because of shame for their wrongdoings (Campos, 2008), and to get financial and employment benefits from their government (Metsola, 2010).…”

Section: Autobiographical Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, the literature describes veterans as being inclined to talk about their war experiences -either at all and/or truthfully -when they "grow old", thus being more open to reveal their past activities (Ben Ze'ev, 2010), and when legal recognition has been granted to them by the state as suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (Branche and House, 2010). Other reasons involving greater inclination are the need of veterans to share their suffering during the wars with their people (Lorenz, 1999); feelings of obligation to tell the members of their society the truth about the horrors of war that led to the unnecessary death of so many people, some of them their friends (Winter, 2006); and writing their memoirs as a way of dealing with their grief over the death of their friends (Winter and Sivan, 1999).…”

Section: Autobiographical Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Israeli war veterans’ memory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Nets‐Zehngut

2017

IJCMA

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Purpose This paper aims to explore, for the first time over a long period of time, the autobiographical memory of Israeli veterans of the 1948 War, pertaining to the 1948 Palestinian exodus that led to the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. Does this memory include the Zionist narrative (i.e. willing flight of the Palestinian refugees) or a critical narrative (i.e. willing flight and expulsion)? One of the primary sources to influence the collective memory of conflicts is the autobiographical memory. This memory is also one of the primary sources for research of the past. Thus, autobiographical memory is of importance. Design/methodology/approach Methodologically, this is done through an analysis of all 1948 veterans’ memoirs published between 1949 and 2004. Interviews were also conducted with various veterans, to understand the dynamics of their memoir publication. Findings Empirical findings suggest that during the first period (1949-1968), this memory was exclusively Zionist; during the second (1969-1978), it became slightly critical; and during the third (1979-2004), the critical tendency became more prevalent. Onward, the nine empirical causes for the presentation of exodus the way it was presented are discussed. Theoretical findings relate, inter alia, to the importance of micro factors in shaping the autobiographical memory, assembles seven such theoretical factors, suggests that these factors can influence in two ways (promoting collective memory change or inhibiting it), and that their impact can change over time. Originality/value Taken together, the paper contributes empirical and theoretical findings that are based on a solid and wide scope research.

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“…Despite the fact that even Israeli historians provided unequivocal evidence that some of these Palestinians were forcefully expelled, the gatekeepers, confessing to self-censorship, continued to publish only information refl ecting the Israeli-Jewish-Zionist narrative that takes no responsibility for the exodus, attributing it solely to the Arabs and Palestinians, for encouraging fl ight or fl eeing, respectively. With regard to the same case, Ben Ze'ev ( 2010Ze'ev ( , 2011 interviewed Jewish soldiers who participated in the 1948 War. She found that many of them imposed silence on themselves, practicing self-censorship in order to block information about immoral acts committed during this war that may have shed a negative light on the Jewish fi ghters and leadership.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Representative Decision-Making: Challenges to Democratic Peace Theory

Çuhadar

Druckman

2014

Handbook of International Negotiation

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It has become only too evident that traditional methods of confl ict prevention and resolution are no longer adequate or effective. This is why editor and contributor Mauro Galluccio's present volume appears to fi ll in an existing and ever more visible void in shaping an entirely new approach in modern-day diplomacy. The signifi cance of this book can hardly be over-rated. It offers an entirely new political and psychological angle to transforming confl ict by managing interpersonal dynamics and tailoring preventive behaviors. It alerts us to the crucial role of the mental heritage of confl icts and powerful emotions. In brief, it enhances an entirely new type of negotiation as a fundamental tool of managing, preventing, and resolving confl ict by acknowledging the diversity of mental viewpoints about any given reality.This volume can indeed serve as a handbook to practitioners-diplomats and decision-makers-in educating themselves, in reshaping their own outlook, and in even bettering themselves as individuals in positions of authority and responsibility for bringing positive change to the lives of millions of people. Elena Poptodorova Ambassador of Bulgaria to the United StatesGalluccio has brought together a distinguished and diverse group of scholars and practitioners to address an enduring, if evolving, challenge to human wellbeing: violent confl ict between nations and subnational groups. His aim is to organize the interdisciplinary character of the research, on which the authors draw, into coherent perspectives on the causes of confl icts and potentially effective interventions designed to prevent and resolve them.There is much that is new here. Perhaps most important, there is a focus on the personal and emotional character of confl ict-for those who engage in it and those who intervene to mitigate it. The passion, competence, and intensity that Galluccio brings to this edited volume is striking and appropriate, in light of the importance of the topic to those who have been or will be victims of violent confl ict, but at no point does it detract from the intellectual rigor that characterizes the entire volume. Robert L. Gallucci US Ambassador-at-Large Past President of the MacArthur Foundation Former US Assistant Secretary of StateThis timely volume and the work of Dr. Mauro Galluccio on international negotiation and mediation is extremely relevant in the current climate of confl ict throughout the world and the potential perils that presently exist among nations. This collection of essays by renowned scholars, foreign policy experts, offi cials, psychologists, and other practitioners, ably assembled and edited by Dr. Mauro Galluccio, is so very welcome. This handbook highlights the complexity, and diffi culty, of international negotiations. Fortunately, it also provides important and useful tools for those responsible for conducting diplomacy with terrorists and insurgents. It is sure to be widely read, cited, and used as a valuable reference work for years to come. Mitchell Reiss President of the Colon...

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Imposed silences and self-censorship: Palmach soldiers remember 1948

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Self-censorship in conflicts: Israel and the 1948 Palestinian exodus.

Self-censorship in conflicts: Israel and the 1948 Palestinian exodus.

Israeli war veterans’ memory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Representative Decision-Making: Challenges to Democratic Peace Theory

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