The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide

Product Description

The Banality of Denial examines the attitudes of the State of Israel and its leading institutions toward the Armenian Genocide. Israel’s view of this issue has special significance and deserves an attentive study, as it is a country composed of a people who were victims of the Holocaust. The Banality of Denial seeks both to examine the passive, indifferent Israeli attitude towards the Armenian Genocide, and to explore active Israeli measures to undermine attempts at safeguarding the memory of the Armenian victims of the Turkish persecution.
Such an inquiry into attempts at denial by Israeli institutions and leading figures of Israel’s political, security, academic, and Holocaust “memory-preservation” elite has not merely an academic significance. It has considerable political relevance, both symbolic and tangible.
In The Banality of Denial–as in Auron’s previous work–moral, philosophical, and theoretical questions are of paramount importance. Because no previous studies have dealt with these issues or similar ones, an original methodology is employed to analyze the subject with regard to four domains: political, educational, media, and academic.

Review

“This new book describes Israeli attitudes toward the phenomenon of genocide in general, including Biafra, Tibet, the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Taken together with [Auron’s] earlier book, The Banality of Indifference, both works offer an opportunity to explore a subject of great contemporary relevance.”
—The Armenian Weekly
“Auron has written a well-informed, very enlightening, and courageous bookà. Chapters on how Israeli media, high school and university education, and research treat–or decline to discuss–the Armenian genocide are exemplary. Because the study of genocides and related violationsàis an increasingly important part of high school and university curricula, this is a timely and indispensable book.”
—Choice
“The Banality of Indifference and The Banality of Denial are groundbreaking works of scholarship and will soon become essential reading for students in a wide range of fields, including global politics, genocide studies, Zionism, and international ethics.”
—Middle East Journal

About the Author

Yair Auron is professor at the Open University of Israel. He is the author of numerous articles that have appeared in Jewish Political Studies Review, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and Contemporary Jewry. In addition he is the author of many books on genocide and contemporary Judaism, including A Perfect Injustice: Genocide and Theft of Armenian Wealth, The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide, and The Banality of Indifference: Zionism and the Armenian Genocide.