SYMBOLE PAMIĘCI I PRAWA PAMIĘCI W IZRAELU
SYMBOLS OF REMEMBRANCE AND THE MEMORY LAWS IN ISRAEL

Summary/Abstract: The governance over collective memory and narratives about the past is an element of the mem-ory policy of the majority of states in the world. This policy is carried out by means of variousinstruments, including those belonging to the catalogue of legal measures and often manifestingthemselves in the form of mnemonic constitutionalism. In the case of Israel, the memory policyhas a special character, however. It is focused on the crime of the Holocaust, established not onlyas a universal symbol of ultimate evil and genocide, but also as a cornerstone of the emergence ofthe Israeli statehood. The reference to the Holocaust in Israel is also a determinant of the attitudeof the state – and the law – to Palestinian collective historical memory and attempts to regulateit. In the view of the lasting conflict, it also seems necessary to consider this aspect of mnemonicpolicy. The aim of the scholarly reflection in the present article is to analyse the measures, andin particular the legal measures, by which Israel has built and continues to shape its identity, aswell as the most controversial methods of creating this identity, including legal ones. This articleattempts to present the role of the Holocaust in the Israeli mnemonic policy and constitutional-ism, with particular focus placed on the context of the permanent crisis in the Palestinian-Israelirelations, or more broadly, Arab-Israeli relations. The analysis carried out leads to the conclusionthat, although Israel’s motives in pursuing a particular policy of remembrance remain largelyunderstandable and legitimate, their implementation sometimes causes not only violations ofcertain standards of human rights protection, but are also used to the detriment of an alreadyfragile, if not currently broken, peace process.

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