1/ Something about narratives:
For Jewish Israelis, the images of riots from "mixed towns" resonate with the Israeli narrative of 1948, which is about inter-communal strife, siege, and a sense of existential threat. Bear with me.
2/ This narrative will shock those who are familiar with the history of the 1948 Nakba, in which 750k Palestinians were made refugees and denied return, and their land and property taken away from them.
3/ But the Israeli narrative is not a fabrication. Rather, it highlights specific moments - January to March 1948 - the early months in which there was no clear Zionist advantage, and indeed the experience was of siege, strife, and lack of clarity on the eventual outcome.
4/ Only once the Zionist forces took the offensive - April 48 - their unambiguous advantage in terms of numbers, arms and training became clear - leading to Israeli statehood and the destruction of pre-48 Palestinian society.
5/ But the cultural memory of 1948 among Jewish Israelis highlights the early moments of siege and threat, which are then used justify the outcome of the 1948 war. And that memory is fertile ground to awaken existential anxieties.
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