Looking backward to the future: Counter-memory as oppositional knowledge-production in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Abstract

This article examines a strategy of peace activism that gained visibility in the last decades: memory activism. Memory activists manifest a temporal shift in transnational politics: first the past, then the future. Affiliated with the globally-circulating paradigm of historical justice, memory activist groups assume that a new understanding of the past could lead to a new perception of present problems and project alternative solutions for the future. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and discourse analysis among memory activists of the 1948 war in Israel since 2001, the article examines the activist production of counter-memory during active conflict. Using Coy et al.'s typology of oppositional knowledge-production, the article shows how the largest group of memory activism in Israel produced 'new' information on the war, critically assessed the dominant historical narrative, offered an alternative shared narrative, and began to envision practical solutions for Palestinian refugees. However, the analysis raises additional concerns that reach beyond the scope of the typology, primarily regarding the unequal power relations that exist not only between the dominant and activist production of oppositional knowledge, but also among activists.

“The Road to the Village”: Israeli Social Unconscious and the Palestinian Nakba

“…Alongside these, it also engages the question of the right of return for Palestinian refugees – a topic which is extremely sensitive for Israelis. “Zochrot” insists on exploring ways to renounce colonial practices and promote sustainable and just solutions for the conflict (Biletzki, ; Gutman, ; Weaver, ).…”

“On Cloud Nine”: Positive memories in American Presidential Speeches (1945–2017)

“…While collective memory as a social project and as a scientific endeavor initially was about constructing consensus and consolidating a glorious and heroic past (Durkheim, 1965; Shils, 1981), recent research has focused heavily on commemoration without consensus, on counter-memory, on nations’ difficult past and the like (e.g. Foucault, 1975; Gellman, 2015; Gutman, 2015; Sennet, 1998). Indeed, in his critique of the current shape of memory studies, Schwartz (2016) laments the excess emphasis on past wrongdoings of various sorts.…”

“Too Young to Remember Determined Not to Forget”

“…15-16). Such activism constitutes a knowledge-based effort for consciousness-raising and political change which is carried outside state channels (Gutman, 2015). Memory activism "thus brings new empirical research and conceptualization that expands the boundaries of existing categories both of peace activism and of collective-memory politics and so is valuable in the study of conflict resolution and reconciliation processes" (Gutman, 2017, p. 16).…”