1st Edition

The Banality of Denial Israel and the Armenian Genocide

By Yair Auron Copyright 2003
    360 Pages
    by Routledge

    338 Pages
    by Routledge

    The Banality of Denial examines the attitudes of the State of Israel and its leading institutions toward the Armenian Genocide. Israel's view of this issue has special significance and deserves an attentive study, as it is a country composed of a people who were victims of the Holocaust. The Banality of Denial seeks both to examine the passive, indifferent Israeli attitude towards the Armenian Genocide, and to explore active Israeli measures to undermine attempts at safeguarding the memory of the Armenian victims of the Turkish persecution.

    Such an inquiry into attempts at denial by Israeli institutions and leading figures of Israel's political, security, academic, and Holocaust "memory-preservation" elite has not merely an academic significance. It has considerable political relevance, both symbolic and tangible.

    In The Banality of Denial--as in Auron's previous work--moral, philosophical, and theoretical questions are of paramount importance. Because no previous studies have dealt with these issues or similar ones, an original methodology is employed to analyze the subject with regard to four domains: political, educational, media, and academic.

    Introduction; 1: The Holocaust in Jewish Identity and Memory; 2: Denials of the Armenian Genocide; 3: Israel-Turkey Relations; 4: Genocide and Israeli Politics; 5: The Armenian Genocide’s Recognition by States: The Israeli Aspect; 6: Genocide Education in Israel; 7: A Moralistic-Humanistic Attitude: Sarid’s Statement, 2000; 8: The Sphere of the Media; 9: The Israeli Academy and the Armenian Genocide; 10: Conclusions

    Biography

    Julian Simon