Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Collective memory is a general category that includes various kinds of memories such as popular, official, autobiographical, cultural, and histori- cal (that produced by scholars). The impact of the passing of time on the collective memory of conflicts, despite its importance, is narrowly addressed in the literature. This article addresses that lack. Empirically, the article is based primarily on a study that examined Israeli collective memory from 1949 to 2004 regarding the causes for the 1948 Palestinian exodus. Methodologically, it is based mostly on content analysis of publi- cations of seven main Israeli–Jewish institutions: the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), the …

This article proposes the existence of a collective self-healing process, in which parties to intractable conflicts treat their conflicts’ wounds inde- pendent of their opponents. This process is different from the reconcilia- tion process, in which parties heal past offenses collaboratively. Various theoretical aspects of the proposed process are discussed, including the different domains of parties that take part in this process (i.e., the social, economic, political and psychological), the conflict situations in which this process is relevant, and the factors that influence it. The process is exemplified as it has been conducted by the Israeli Palestinians.