Nation-Building and the Politics of Memory: Comparing the Kurdish and the Israeli Case

As part of its nation-building efforts, the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Northern Iraq has systematically engaged in the construction of museums and memorial sites that deal with the traumatic events of Iraq’s Anfal Campaign. These sites seek to construct a shared sense of community, while putting Kurdish victimization into a larger historical context. The paper argues that these Kurdish politics of memory are (implicitly or explicitly) creating linkages with Jewish-Israeli: While the Anfal Campaign cannot be equated with the Shoa, Kurdish museums will frequently evoke historical parallels with other genocides in modern history. Based on case studies from Northern Iraq, the paper discusses how Kurdish nation-building engages with Jewish-Israeli patterns of dealing with historical trauma.