Abstract
As Jewish Israelis, members of the Zochrot community, and people who have lost loved ones in the Hamas attack, our work insists that history did not begin on October 7, 2023. Despite Israeli authorities’ attempts to frame October 7 as an isolated incident, we recognize the decades of direct, administrative, and legal violence that culminated in this moment and refuse to examine it in a vacuum. To build a future where all who dwell between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea share a land of freedom and mutual liberation, and a legal structure which respects the equality of everyone, we as Israeli Jews must not silence the memory of the past and must recognize the Nakba as part of our own history as well. Lawyers and scholars, in engaging with the challenging legal context of Palestine/Israel, similarly ought to reckon with this often-erased history. Despite Israel’s narrative that often omits the massacres and displacement of Palestinians which underpin the modern state, this foundation is necessary to fully grasp the present.
The Essay highlights Zochrot’s pre-transitional justice work, which seeks to use mnemonic interventions to spark legal and extralegal processes of social and political transition. These efforts illuminate the persistent impact of the Nakba, the foundational displacement of Palestinians in 1947–1948, on all who dwell in the land of Palestine/Israel. We deploy legal and social interventions in Israeli Jewish society that challenge Israeli Jews to embrace reparative frameworks, not only for self-preservation but because it is the morally right course of action. The Essay also highlights the role of lawyers in engaging with memory as a critical resource to grasp the legal reality in Palestine/ Israel and work towards reparation and accountability.
