Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination and the Dilemmas of Commemoration

Index

207 Index Index 207 agency and commemoration, 7–8, 147, 167 agents of memory, 21–24, 50, 51, 113–14, 153 composition of, 28–30 Leah Rabin and, 44–47 Morpheus agents, 150, 95–96 power, resources, and limitations, 30–31 fighting the state, 31–34 fighting those who wish to remember, 34–41 as priests vs. manipulators, 51–52 related terms, 183 ultra-orthodox media on, 106 women as, 49 Al-Sinara (Arab newspaper), 175–76 narrative presented, 111–13 All-but-Memorial Days, 150 Almagor, Gila, 65 Amir, Yigal, 96, 139 characterizations of, 88, 128–29 individualization, 127 omission of his name, 85–86, 128 “wearing a skullcap,” 88–89 Arabs, Israeli, 111–13, 140, 171, 175–76. See also Al Sinara; Sawt Al-Haqq Wall Hurriya Arafat, Yasser, 43 Rabin’s handshake with, 18, 96, 104, 125 Arlosoroff, Chaim, 82 Artzi, Yael, 185n30 Ashkenazi ultra-orthodox Jews. See Yated Ne’eman assassination of Rabin context and decontextualization of, 127–31 day of, 59–60. See also Heshvan 12; memorial day(s); November 4 as memorial day as national memorial day, 53, 155. See also Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day Law remembering, 59–60, 71–73, 155 descriptions and characterizations of, 81, 88–89, 109 presented in schools, 126–31 Israelis’ reactions to, 13–14 narrative of, 38–39 as opportunity, 102–8 overview, 1, 88, 89 reasons for, 68, 96, 99, 101, 107, 110, 111, 127. See also conspiracy theory; Zion Square, demonstrations in assassination site, monument at, 80–83 Amir and, 85–86, 88–89 biography of Rabin on walls, 87–88 contrasted with gravesite, 89–92 copper coins behind, 85, 86, 92 graffiti on walls, 87 photographs of, 20f, 80f as political shrine (and its limits), 83–93 renovation, 83–93 changes in surroundings/context, 85–89 autobiographical memory, 6, 8, 135 Azayza, Feisal, 65 208 Index banal commemorations, 12, 151–52 banal nationalism, 151 Barak, Ehud, 40, 43, 44, 58, 100 elected prime minister, 90 on Rabin’s assassination, 64 speeches, 64, 65 visits to gravesite and assassination site, 90 Begin, Menachem, 50 Ben-Gurion, David, 156 Ben-Yehuda, 182n30, 182n35, 186n5, 188n17 Billig, Michael, 151 candle youth, 188n8 Clinton, Bill, 43, 65, 98, 99 “collective” level of social memory, 162–64. See also social memory collective memory, 5–7, 21, 142– 43, 146, 147, 162. See also commemoration conflict- vs. consensus-oriented perspectives on, 7–8 directions for future research on, 150–54 as lamp vs. mirror, 5 commemoration, 20–22. See also specific topics collective memory and, 5–7. See also collective memory content of, 38–41, 89 as cultural system, 8, 51 of death, as organizing principle of Israeli society, 154, 155 education, legislation, and, 118–22 factors that hinder the ability to set limits on, 12 forms of, 3–4, 89 limits of and resistance to a consensual, 140–44 location for. See space as mandatory, 117–18, 140–44. See also Rabin Memorial Day politics of, 7–8, 51 power, struggle, institutionalization, and, 50–52 social context of, 4 sociology and components of, 7–13, 19, 147–48 sociology through, 5, 154–59 style of, 35–38 “elitist” vs. “popular” events, 35 survival of, 145–50 temporal dimensions, 8–10. See also time theories of, 51 “commemoration of the commemoration,” 87 commemorations, 1–2 difficult pasts and fragmented, 3–5. See also fragmented commemoration commemorative narratives. See narrative and commemoration commemorative practices, importance in Israel, 118 conspiracy theory, 96, 100, 107 counternarratives, 97 Jewish settlers in occupied territories and, 108–10 ultra-orthodox community and, 102–8 crying and mourning, 131–32, 134 “Crying for You” (song), 132 cultural authorities, 34 cultural memory. See collective memory cultural trauma, 14 death of leaders, ritualization of, 2 as organizing principle of Israeli society, 154, 155 “difficult past,” 3 forms of commemoration of a, 3–4 Dor Shalom (“Peace Generation”), 25, 34, 40, 45 education, legislation, and commemoration, 118–22. See also Ministry of Education Eisenstadt, Shmuel N., 15 “festival,” 106 209 Index Fine, Gary Alan, 21 first ladies, 184–85n23 fragmented commemoration, 3–4, 11, 148–49 funeral of Rabin, 42 funerals and ownership of the body, 33 gender. See also women collective memory and, 185n29 gender roles, 47, 49 Gorbachev, Mikhail S., 151 gravesite ceremony, invitation to, 33 gravesite in Mount Herzl, 31, 59, 76–79, 89, 90 contrasted with monument at assassination site...