A Blatant Oversight? The Right-Wing in Israeli Holocaust Historiography

Abstract

Those acquainted with the of the Yishuv know that a deep gap can be found in both the quality and the quantity of research on the role of labor and left wing circles in Israel's nation building process and the part attributed to the right wing. This gap extends to the representation of Revisionist activity in the areas of pre-WW II illegal immigration, wartime aid, and rescue of Europe's Jews, participation in the fighting and in resistance in Europe, clandestine cooperation with the Allies, as well as in Bricha , illegal immigration, arms procurement, and the building of the Yishuv's armed forces in the wake of the World War until the establishment of the State. Can this gap be readily dismissed by the cliche that is written by the victors, and that the movement that led the nation-building process in those decades also perpetuated its role and uncompromisingly and systematically excluded others from the story? Or was there a history of revisionist activity that hasn't so far given rise to a historiography representing its role in fitting scope and quality? Or perhaps there was indeed such a history, but the movement's leaders chose not to explore it for their own reasons, and it was they who directly or indirectly, openly or covertly, ousted themselves from the story or consciously and intentionally contributed to their own exclusion? This article provides several observations on the makeup of this gap, its boundaries, and possible roots.