L’usage inflationniste du mot « traître » comme outil d’analyse de la crise du « Nous » israélien

Abstract

Treason always implies the violation of an “Us” and its principles. In Israel, the use of the word traitor in public debate has gradually changed since the founding of the state in 1948. The terminological change has been accompanied by the modification and diminishing of the betrayed “Us”, the Israeli “Us”, and more people are excluded. In 2019, with the outbreak of a substantial crisis within Israeli politics, the Israeli “Us” was also in crisis as it was no longer possible to establish who was part of the whole and especially what the whole consisted of. This article seeks to examine the crisis of the Israeli “Us”, the Israeli imagined community, by closely exploring the way in which the word traitor has been used in public debate, from the foundation of the State of Israel to the present day, and consequently the definition of the “Us”.

Keywords

• crisis
• Israel
• traitor
• imagined community