Instrumentalising the Holocaust: Israel, Settler-Colonialism, Genocide (Creating a Conversation between Raphaël Lemkin and Ilan Pappé)

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Docker
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Prime Mover ◽  
Genocide Studies ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

With the appearance in 2010 of an essay by Martin Shaw, ‘Palestine in an International Historical Perspective on Genocide’, Holy Land Studies has taken the hermeneutic initiative in bringing together into the one field of analysis two areas that have usually been kept separate, genocide studies and studies of the history of Palestine-Israel. In an important challenge to contemporary scholarship, Shaw makes a cogent critique of the notion of ‘ethnic cleansing’ as euphemistic and perpetrator-inflected. I follow Shaw in translating ‘ethnic cleansing’ as ‘genocide’ of a group or society by deploying the terms and argument of Raphaël Lemkin, the creator of the concept of ‘genocide’ and prime mover in the 1948 UN Convention on genocide.

Palestine and Genocide: An International Historical Perspective Revisited

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
East European ◽  
History Of

This commentary reviews the responses to an earlier article, ‘Palestine in an International Historical Perspective on Genocide’ (Holy Land Studies, 9:1, 1–25), arguing that they illustrate both the possibilities and the limitations of serious debate about these issues. The responses mostly neglected the analytical core of the argument relating to 1948, which is therefore restated, emphasising Palestine's unique combination of elements that were parts of three general patterns implicated in genocide production (settler colonialism, East European nationalism, conflicts of decolonisation). The paper also gives further attention to the implications of the perspective for understanding the ‘genocide’ question in the subsequent history of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

scholarly journals Book Review: An Indigenous Peoples' History Of The United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-130
Author(s):  
Judith B. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Genocide Studies ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Indian Perspective

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's, An Indigenous Peoples' History Of The United States, confronts the reality of settler-colonialism and genocide as foundational to the United States. It reconstructs and reframes the consensual narrative from the Native Indian perspective while exposing indoctrinated myths and stereotypes. This masterful and riveting journey provides truth and paths towards the future progress for all peoples. It is a must read and belongs in every classroom, home, library, and canon of genocide studies.

Sermons as Practical and Linguistic Performances: Insights from Theory and History

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-144
Author(s):  
Abdulkader Tayob
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Historical View ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Marking Time

Abstract Sermons lend themselves to ambiguous identification in the study of religions. On the one hand, they are easily recognisable practices, delivered on particular days of the week, or when special occasions or needs arise. They are usually given in clearly defined places at clearly defined times. They are given by designated or recognized individuals that vary according to the respective religious traditions. On the other hand, sermons are speech performances that may and often do vary from one occasion to the next. While prone to a certain formalism, sermon speech acts are open to variation from time to time, and from preacher to preacher. To extend the possibilities offered by sermons for reflection and analysis, I explore some of the theoretical insights suggested for sermons in ritual studies and from the history of sermons within religious traditions. There is no consensus within ritual studies, but there are some useful ideas and suggestions that cover and extend the practices and speech acts that constitute sermons. More significantly, I found the longue durée of the sermon in the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to be more resourceful. The historical view of the sermon in comparable religious traditions brings forth enduring elements such as reading texts, employing rhetoric, producing effects (including affect), signifying and challenging authority, and marking time and space. More than the theoretical models for rituals from anthropology and religious studies, this historical perspective brings out the value of the practices and speech elements that constitute sermons.

scholarly journals Sexualization of Female Perpetration in Fictional Holocaust Films: A Case Study of The Reader (2008)

Genealogy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Sabine Elisabeth Aretz
Keyword(s):  
Female Victims ◽  
Female Perpetration ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Female Perpetrators ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Holocaust Film ◽  
Holocaust Films ◽  
The One

The publication of Bernhard Schlink’s novel The Reader (1995) sparked conversation and controversy about sexuality, female perpetrators and the complexity of guilt regarding the Holocaust. The screen adaptation of the book (Daldry 2008) amplified these discussions on an international scale. Fictional Holocaust films have a history of being met with skepticism or even reject on the one hand and great acclaim on the other hand. As this paper will outline, the focus has often been on male perpetrators and female victims. The portrayal of female perpetration reveals dichotomous stereotypes, often neglecting the complexity of the subject matter. This paper focuses on the ways in which sexualization is used specifically to portray female perpetrators in The Reader, as a fictional Holocaust film. An assessment of Hanna’s relationship to Michael and her autonomous sexuality and her later inferior, victimized portrayal as an ambiguous perpetrator is the focus of my paper. Hanna’s sexuality is structurally separated from her role as a perpetrator. Hanna’s perpetration is, through the dichotomous motif of sexuality throughout the film, characterized by a feminization. However, this feminization entails a relativization of Hanna’s culpability, revealing a pejorative of her depiction as a perpetrator. Consequently, I argue that Hanna’s sexualized female body is constructed as a central part of the revelation of her perpetration.

Genocide or Partition: Two Faces of the Same Coin?

Slavic Review ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Legal Standing ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Robert Hayden ◽  
Massive Scale ◽  
History Of ◽  
International War

Robert Hayden is not alone in wondering why the expulsion of Serbs from Croatia in 1991 and 1995 was labeled a population transfer and even justified by the logic of nation-states, while the expulsion of Muslims by Serbs in 1992-96 from an area of Bosnia and Herzegovina that the Serbs claim for their state was labeled genocide and justified establishing an international war crimes tribunal. Hayden wants to protect the term genocide, and its legal standing internationally, for truly exceptional instances—to wit, the Holocaust, and nothing else until, God forbid, there should be another such instance. By contrast, he argues, population transfers, even on a massive scale and forced, are not pathological. "Ethnic cleansing" of territory in the former Yugoslavia, whether of Croatia or of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is unexceptional, a normal part of the history of the twentieth century. Although final solutions are not inevitable—Hayden criticizes Croatian President Tudjman for writings that seem to have justified the Serb expulsion as such—"ethnic cleansing" is a part of the history even of states that now sit in moral condemnation of the Balkan horrors and the Bosnian Serbs.

scholarly journals The ebbs and flows of the Holocaust and the Gulag memory in EU-rope. Memory dynamics in national and transnational contexts

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-103
Author(s):  
Lidia Zessin-Jurek
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Mutual Relationship ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Diverse Cultures ◽  
The Eu

THE EBBS AND FLOWS OF THE HOLOCAUST AND THE GULAG MEMORY IN EU-ROPE. MEMORY DYNAMICS IN THE NATIONAL AND TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXTSIn spring 2017 the long-awaited House of European History in Brussels was opened. Its exhibition tries to tackle not only the tumultuous history of 20th-century Europe, but also the diverse cultures of memory that surround this topic. The article touches upon the problem of co-existence and mutual relationship of the two important, if not the most crucial, topics on the European mnemonic map: that of the Holocaust and that of the Gulag. The uneven and changeable development of these memory cultures has been presented in the historical perspective and analysed through the way they have functioned at the national with Poland and Germany as examples and transnational EU levels. The concluding statement encapsulates the thesis that the EU-ropean memory confl ict in its original phase, centred around Brussels, achieved its climax some years ago. Nowadays the problems of history and memory are administered mostly within the regional and, even more, national public spheres. As the focal point of European dispute, on the other hand, new — seemingly beyond historical — topics emerged. Among them is the cultural problem sparked by the mass infl ux of immigrants to Europe.

The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in the English Courtroom

1999 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tal Golan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Expert Testimony ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Scientific Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Law Courts ◽  
The One ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

The ArgumentThis paper provides a historical perspective to one of the liveliest debates in common law courts today — the one over scientific expert testimony. Arguing against the current tendency to present the problem of expert testimony as a late twentieth-century predicament which threatens to spin out of control, the paper shows that the phenomena of conflicting scientific testimonies have been perennial for at least two centuries, and intensely debated in both the legal and the scientific communities for at least 150 years.

Beyond Censorship: Polish Independent Press Debates on Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah

2020 ◽  
pp. 088832542095349
Author(s):  
Martyna Grądzka-Rejak ◽  
Jan Olaszek
Keyword(s):  
Documentary Film ◽  
Jewish History ◽  
The Other ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Underground Press ◽  
Opposite Conclusion ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

The article analyzes discussions around the documentary film Shoah, by Claude Lanzmann, conducted in the uncensored press in communist Poland. In the literature on the subject, a popular thesis claims that the democratic opposition in Poland, like the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic, subjected this film to explicit criticism. The authors’ research into discussions about the Holocaust in the Polish independent press leads to the opposite conclusion. Ours analysis shows that authors publishing in the underground press had varied reactions to Lanzmann’s film. Voices opposing the official campaign against the director and his film predominate (which did not mean a complete lack of criticism vis-à-vis some of the movie’s features). We found only two opinions that can be considered clearly negative. The debate about Lanzmann’s film is important because it shows the complexity of the democratic opposition’s attitude of toward Polish-Jewish history and memory. In the opposition elite’s view of history, two currents ran in parallel, often in statements authored by the same people. On the one hand, the trend was primarily affirmative, as a reaction to the communist propaganda that bypassed or completely distorted some aspects of Polish history. On the other hand, there was also a tendency to include more controversial or even clearly shameful aspects of the history of Poland.

The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies

2012 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Colonial America ◽  
Structural Instability ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
State Culture ◽  
Genocide Studies ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
Maoist China ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Ethnic Geography

The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies subjects both genocide and the discipline it has spawned to systematic, in-depth investigation. Genocide has scarred human societies since Antiquity. In the modern era, genocide has been a global phenomenon: from massacres in colonial America, Africa, and Australia to the Holocaust of European Jewry and mass death in Maoist China. In recent years, the discipline of genocide studies has developed to offer analysis and comprehension. Thirty-four articles chart genocide through the ages by taking regional, thematic, and disciplinary-specific approaches. Articles examine secessionist and political genocides in modern Asia. Others treat the violent dynamics of European colonialism in Africa, the complex ethnic geography of the Great Lakes region, and the structural instability of the continent's northern horn. South and North America receive detailed coverage, as do the Ottoman Empire, Nazi-occupied Europe, and post-communist Eastern Europe. Sustained attention is paid to themes like gender, memory, the state, culture, ethnic cleansing, military intervention, the United Nations, and prosecutions.

scholarly journals Hypermedia and discovery based learning: What value?

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Free Association ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Other ◽  
Teaching Resource ◽  
Linear Approach ◽  
Conventional Curriculum ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Educational Thinking

<blockquote>In 1992, I published a paper entitled 'Hypermedia and discovery based learning: A historical perspective'. It traced the swings in the history of educational thinking between, on the one hand, support for conventional curriculum based learning and, on the other, the non-linear approach expressed by many educational commentators over the centuries. As I saw things, hyperlink technology would finally allow learning truly to mesh with the free association characteristics of the human mind. Once the technology had matured, it would be a teaching resource that would transform passive learners into active thinkers. Thirteen years on, I take a critical look at those optimistic conclusions. Are students better equipped to learn than previously? Are they able to think reflectively to a greater degree than their counterparts of a decade or two ago? This present paper addresses such questions, the result being that the guarded optimism of 1992 has turned to a deep pessimism.</blockquote><p> </p>

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