Wounded Bodies, Fractured Narratives: Disability Benefits and the Contested Nature of WWII Heroism in Israel

• In Event: Disability Rights Without Borders: Law, Citizenship, and the Redefinition of the Jewish Body Politic

Abstract

This paper analyzes how Jewish disabled veterans who immigrated to Israel after serving with the Allied forces during WWII struggled to rebuild their lives and win recognition for their service in the new country. Their achievements in Europe were overshadowed by Israel’s defeat of its neighbors in 1948. This national victory created a new cohort of Israeli veterans who were celebrated for their service within the nascent state and who displaced European veterans in the popular imagination. The Knesset’s attempt to establish a veterans’ disability program in the early 1950s led to vigorous debates over the allocation of resources to veterans who served abroad and veterans who served in Israel. Disabilities received during the War of Independence symbolized sacrifice for a homeland, while disabilities incurred while fighting Nazis held less weight in the context of nation-building. By centering the experiences of disabled veterans who served outside the dominant Israeli narrative of heroism, this paper uses archival sources, memoirs, and Knesset proceedings to analyze the complex ways the young nation grappled with wartime experiences that challenged its emerging national identity. In doing so, it complicates the notion of a singular disability experience within a nation built on a localized land-based vision of wartime service.

Author

• Marco Di Giulio, Franklin & Marshall College