Abstract
As part of the narrative in the last few decades that seeks to reevaluate how the collective memory of the Holocaust is conveyed to the Israeli public, left-wing scholars and intellectuals have claimed that Holocaust memory was and is politically manipulated by the right-wing to intensify a siege mentality, present Israel as an eternal victim, and elicit constant fear and paranoia to justify violent policies against the Palestinians in the occupied territories, and block opportunities for a peace treaty. Based on the literature in the fields of Holocaust commemoration, political agendas in Israel, and studies on humor, satire, and parody, this chapter traces how since the 1990s, Israeli Holocaust humor, satire, and parody have been a part of the left-wing struggle against the right-wing that has governed Israel (with a few exceptions) since 1977. The analysis shows how speeches and declarations by right-wingers who use the Holocaust to characterize threats to the State of Israel prompt the left-wing to produce Holocaust humor, satire, and parodies that castigate these attitudes and beliefs as false and manipulative.
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Notes
- 1.
Megilat Esther—one of the five scrolls in the Writings [Ketuvim] section of the Jewish Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible). The Megillah forms the core of the Jewish festival of Purim.
- 2.
Shushan was the capital city of ancient Persia.
- 3.
The King’s advisor Haman plotted to kill the Jews but, in the end, after Queen Esther interceded with Ahasuerus, he and his sons were executed instead.
- 4.
A rattle or noisemaker is used during readings of the Book of Esther on Purim, every time the name of Haman appears in the text.
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Steir-Livny, L. (2024). Holocaust Humor in Israel as a Political Tool of the Left-Wing. In: Feldman, O. (eds) Political Humor Worldwide. The Language of Politics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8490-9_6
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