The Holocaust and Peacebuilding in Israel

von Anne Marie Marsa

Prominent academicians suggest that the collective sense of trauma imparted by the Nazi Holocaust contributes to the intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pilot study considers the anomalous group of individuals directly tied to the trauma of the Holocaust who are working for a sustainable and just peace. Through extensive interviews, this inquiry provides an understanding and appreciation for the complexities of what motivates a number of Israeli Holocaust survivors and their descendants to work towards achieving peace, understanding, and social justice for Palestinians within their society. It joins other human-centered approaches in recognizing the critical importance of going to the roots of a conflict to address the issues that sustain it. This thought provoking work will be of particular interest to those in the fields of conflict resolution, the emerging field of peace psychology, as well as those interested in the experiences of European Jewry during the Holocaust and the social-psychological dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.