Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination and the Dilemmas of Commemoration

6 Forced to Remember

117 Forced to Remember 6 Forced to Remember Introduction Shortly before the second anniversary of the assassination, in July 1997, the Israeli parliament enacted the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day Law (see chapter 3). The most important part of this legislation is the requirement that all state schools mark the event annually. While many can ignore the parliament’s mnemonic session and the ceremony at the gravesite which are only attended by a tiny minority of the population (although they are both aired live on all major public and commercial television and radio channels), the mnemonic events held in elementary public school have the potential to reach approximately 75 percent of Israeli-Jewish children and almost 100 percent of Israeli-Arab children.1 Thus, those who attend elementary public schools constitute the largest crowd exposed to the content of the memorial day and the work of agents of memory. This chapter is about how elementary schools—as primary agents of the entire process of mnemonic socialization—coped with a commemoration they were legislatively forced to enact; a commemoration that was problematic, emotional, difficult and traumatic at best and unbearable at worst. In this chapter, I analyze the narrative that was told to most pupils and unpack the components of the ceremonies that took place in various schools. In so doing, I show how, by shifting the emphasis between and playing with the three ingredients of the narrative (victim, act, context), the educational system was able to meet the challenge. Examining the founding moments of the ceremonies as well as the rituals that took place ten years after the assassination, I also discusses attempts to resist and escape a forced commemoration . In the process, I note the effects of time on mnemonic practice and contemplate issues of continuity and change in commemoration. In addition, this chapter implicitly addresses Schwartz and Schuman’s recent call to “bring people back” into the study of collective memory (2005: 183). This chapter focuses on the ways in which the institutional legislation of memory comes to be mediated by principals, teachers and pupils 117 118 Yitzak Rabin’s Assassination and Dilemmas of Commemoration as it is translated into practice and negotiated. While an analysis of school ceremonies certainly differs from survey-style research that aims at understanding individuals’ views, perceptions and knowledge about a specific past (what Olick calls [1999] “collected memories” and Schwartz and Schuman [2005] call “collective memory”), it is nonetheless a step away from official and professional mnemonic practices that are enacted in public sites. It is difficult to know the content of the memories that are left in the minds of individuals after the laws are enacted and the public ceremonies performed. Nonetheless, this chapter is an attempt to bridge a section of this gap. Education, Legislation and Commemoration National rituals and memorial ceremonies are not unfamiliar to the educational system in Israel. As in other nations, and perhaps in a more explicit, frequent, institutionalized and routine manner than in other places,2 the State of Israel has always incorporated national, religious and mnemonic rituals as an integral and critical part of the school curriculum. In fact, these rituals have become the most important vehicles for the construction and maintenance of the ideological foundations of the state. Thus mnemonic practices have been perceived as serving to reinforce commitment to the state, to construct collective solidarity and a shared perception of the past and to solidify national identity.3 Overall, these ceremonies ground the process of maturation of children into citizens and are part of what Althusser calls the “ideological state apparatus” (1971: 127–86).4 The importance of commemorative practices by the Israeli state is demonstrated by the fact that three of the five national holidays added to the Jewish calendar since the establishment of the state5 are days of remembrance , each with its respective mnemonic ritual.6 All of these holidays fall during the school year and thus provide the educational system with a golden (and mandated) opportunity to celebrate, control, affect and shape the way in which children come to know about and perceive their past.7 Rabin’s assassination nonetheless posed a challenge even for a system so invested in and experienced with commemorative work. As such, the contested narrative of political violence challenged the ideological foundations of the Israeli educational system and the traditional format and narrative structure of other memorial ceremonies, the most important of which are the ceremony commemorating the fallen soldiers and...