Collective Trauma and National Behavior in Times of Threat—The Israeli Public and the 2014 War in Gaza
Journal: Journal of Cultural and Religious Studies
Year: 2016

This paper analyzes the impact of past trauma on national behavior in times of threat, applying Volkan's (2001, 2004) theory of multigenerational impact of trauma on large groups, and La Capra's (2014) theory of the use of the concept of individuals' trauma for understanding the behavior of traumatized collectives. The study of the Israeli response to the abduction and murder of three teenagers in summer 2014 is consistent with these theories, and shows how a collective with trauma in its past b