Jewish-Israeli peacebuilders and the Holocaust: Perceptions, national myths, meaning and actions

This study considers the Holocaust's continuing psychological impact on Jewish-Israelis and on their treatment of others. It concludes that a significant factor behind Israel's aggression toward Palestinians, and toward perceived enemy-others in the region, manifests a residual, collective trauma, reinforced by the horrors of the Nazi holocaust. However, some Jewish-Israeli Holocaust survivors and their descendants do not participate in this sense of trauma and related aggression, but work for peace and justice for Palestinians. Through interviews with these social deviants, and qualitative analysis, this study examines their perceptions and motivations, considering how they relate to the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how these views were developed. The findings reveal these salient characteristics that influence how they relate to Palestinians: for Holocaust survivors, experiences of empowerment as compared to helplessness during the Holocaust. For children and grandchildren of survivors, parental role modeling and empathic ways of relating to others.