Israel & Burial Practices
The issue of the repatriation of bodies in this conflict has very much to do with the religious tradition of the parties involved as well as its impact on national policy. The need for burial is important with regards to the body’s to return to unity after death as well as notions of martyrdom featured in modern forms of Israeli nationalism. This section will show reasoning behind these notions as well as their relation to the conflict regarding the repatriation of bodies which occurred between Israel and Lebanon
The act of burial is a very important part of mourning and bereavement in Judaism. In Judaism, there is a distinction between the soul and the body. With the death of the individual, the soul is returned to god and leaves the body. Although the breath of god is gone from the body, the body must still be treated with respect as it was once occupied by a spirit. The body, according to Jewish law, must be buried as this was a way of returning the body to god . Cremation is linked to destruction in Jewish thought and is therefore not suitable the proper internment of a persons remains if they are to be resurrected at the end of days.
Burial is not only seen as giving the body back to god, but also a way of uniting a group of people in death. The practice of reburial in Ancient Israel can be used to illustrate this
Reburial in ancient Israel can bee analysed in many ways. The uniting of a family together in death is one of them. In accordance with “to be gathered to ones fathers” people who were buried away from family plots were often reburied in the same area as family members. It was not restricted to family members but also to those which shared close affinity to the deceased . “To be gathered to one’s father” can also relate to the Sheol, which is the repository for those who have died including those who were righteous and those who were not. Therefore the burial can be linked to the sheol in that it allows the body of the person to join the Jewish community in the underworld . The communal nature of death and burial will be discussed later
The issue of atonement is also important with regards to burial. The concept of expiation suffering, in which the decay of flesh is seen as part of atonement for sin, is seen as necessary for a proper burial. This can bee seen in the case of the reburial of the bones of criminals. When criminals are first buried, they are simply placed into a ditch where they are buried. The family members are not allowed to follow traditional bereavement methods. When the flesh has decayed, the bones can then be taken and reburied as the person is deemed to have atoned for their sins. The same concept is also applied to non criminals as they have sinned in their lives as well.
The importance of burial therefore plays an important part in the repatriation of bodies in the swaps which occurred during the Lebanese-Israeli conflict. The exchange of live prisoners for the bodies of the deceased Israeli soldiers can be seen as subjugating nation interests for the proper bereavement of their citizens. As a nation, these Hezbollah prisoners can be seen as intelligence assets, ones which nations do not give up for conditions which are not favourable to the national interest. While this religious explanation is interesting, its does not explain why these religious ideas are given such credence at the national level.
According to Meira Weiss, Israeli identity is very much based on bereavement and collective identity. Nowhere is this more relevant that in the military . As this is the context of the repatriation of bodies, national identity also plays a major part in the motivation for the prisoner-body swaps and its importance for Israel nationalism
According to Weiss, Israeli nationalism is necessarily militaristic. With the creation of the state of Israel, there became a change of identity for Jews from all over the world. The context of this change is well documented.
The creation of Israel followed the end of the Second World War and Holocaust, which drastically affected both the demographic and ideological basis for Judaism. The previous Diaspora meant that Jews often lived in small population in areas dominated by gentiles. While views of the importance of the body and burial remained important, it was important in a local and familial sense. Israel reasserted the idea of a wider community then those formed in the Diaspora. This, coupled with the wars fought to preserve its existence in the earliest days of its existence, created a sense that Israel formed the basis for a wider Jewish community, one which was ensured by the armed forces and “proved“ their status as “chosen people“ .
The wider Jewish community tied to Israel was therefore bound to the armed forces for the preservation of their land. Zionism therefore created what some call “Judaism with muscle” as opposed to the “coffee shop Jew” which is representative of the Diaspora ideology . The Zionist ideology lead to the of a rudimentary hero system, based on the concept of sacrifice. Those who died fighting for the protection of Israel were therefore considered heroes, which elevates the status of the soldier . It is often said that dying on the battlefield was the only way of reaching immortality, as you become a hero of the cause .
Commemoration also plays into this ideology. Some of these events, such as Remembrance Day, are celebrated is a very theatrical fashion. One author describes it as being in the manner of an agitprop play from Russia after 1917 . They are overly theatrical and emphasize in only a positive light, the struggles the people have gone through and attempt to commemorate the lives of those which died to bring about the current state of affairs. This indoctrination through collective bereavement serves as a unifying force, even for those who did not personally have a relative which died in the events commemorated .
This idea of collective bereavement is reinforced by the suppression of individual sorrow by commemorations and the emphasis on friendship as a form of association . By having a society of brothers and sisters, the death of one soldier is the death to all people. The idea of fraternity is the basis of interpersonal relations in IDF . This sort of communal atmosphere allows for a great sense of national identity. Even in the event of terrorist attacks, the language used to describe the carnage is one of the body. In this sense, even that land and territory is personified as human .
Israeli identity is based on collective bereavement which makes the repatriation of soldiers, dead or alive a national objective of great proportions. If these fallen heroes or martyrs are not returned home to be properly buried, then the state will break the illusion of a collective commemoration of sacrifice. If a sacrifice is made for the nation and is not properly honoured, the system falls apart.
Eric Meyers. “The Theological Implication of an Ancient Jewish Burial Custom,” The Jewish Quarterly Review 62 no.2 (1971) http://www.jstor.org/stable/1453302 p 97.
Danny Kaplan. “Commemorating a Suspended Death: Missing Soldiers and national solidarity in Israel” American Ethnologist 35 no.3(2008) p 416.
Eric Meyers. “The Theological Implication of an Ancient Jewish Burial Custom” The Jewish Quarterly Review 62 no.2 (1971) http://www.jstor.org/stable/1453302 p 109-110.
Meira Weiss. “The Body of the Nation: Terrorism and the Embodiment of Nationalism in Contemporary Israel” Anthropological Quarterly 75 no 1 (2001)http://www.jstor.org/stable/3318334 p 39-40.
Jason Greenberg. “Representing the State: Class, Race and Nationhood in an Israeli Museum” Visual Anthropology Review 12 no. 1(1997) p 18.
Meira Weiss. “Bereavement, Commemoration, and Collective Identity in Contemporary Israeli Society” Anthropological Quarterly 70 no. 2(1997) http://www.jstor.org/stable/3317509 p 92.
Meira Weiss. “The Body of the Nation: Terrorism and the Embodiment of Nationalism in Contemporary Israel” Anthropological Quarterly 75 no. 1 (2001)http://www.jstor.org/stable/3318334 p 53-54.