The emergence of holocaust memories in the moral dilemmas of objecting Israeli soldiers during the Intifada

In the search for their moral identity, Israeli soldiers seem to have turned to their collective memories for guidance (Shapira, 1971, Young, 1989). This paper focused on this search among objecting reserve soldiers during the Intifada. It showed that Holocaust symbols and metaphors were being used as a frame of reference against which one's moral confusion was judged (Linn, 1991). As noted by Young (1989) "What is remembered of the Holocaust depends on how it is remembered, and how events are remembered depends in turn on the text now giving them form" (p.l). The Intifada seems to create this text. The memories of the Holocaust, seem to provide the Israeli reserve soldier who is also the reader and the actor of and in this text, new psychological tools to assert his moral self.