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Lisa Strömbom, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Political Science, black/white photo. Photo: Johan Persson.

Lisa Strömbom

Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer

Lisa Strömbom, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in Political Science, black/white photo. Photo: Johan Persson.

Israeli pre-transitional justice and the Nakba-Law

Author

  • Yoav Kapshuk
  • Lisa Strömbom

Summary, in English

Pre-transitional justice activities that expose past injustices during entrenched conflicts can incite strong reactions among actors who feel threatened by or dislike such activities, and who thus attempt to silence controversial truths. This article illuminates how attempts to silence controversial truths, in parallel with shutting down debate, can also have the unintended outcome of enlarging public discourse on previously marginalised issues. Thus, paradoxically, efforts to curb freedom of expression sometimes result instead in an expanded public capacity to debate previously silenced truths about the conflict. We conduct a case study of reactions to pre-transitional justice in Israeli society focusing on the so-called Nakba Law, enacted in 2011. Through interviews with members of the non-governmental organisation Zochrot, politicians, teachers and media persons, we first show the relationship between pre-transitional justice and enacting the Nakba Law. We then demonstrate that while the Nakba Law indeed aimed to hamper freedom of expression, it also enabled increased public knowledge about the meaning of Nakba. Our theoretical proposition regarding this paradox, in this case activated by instigating new memory laws, is highly relevant to other conflicts-in-resolution that experience pre-transitional justice processes.

Department/s

  • Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)
  • Department of Political Science
  • MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Pages

305-323

Publication/Series

Israel Law Review

Volume

54

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Topic

  • Political Science

Keywords

  • transitional justice (TJ)
  • pre-transitional justice
  • truth
  • ontological security
  • Israeli-Palestinian conflict
  • Nakba
  • Nakba Law

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0021-2237