If this is a genocide: A critical discourse analysis of opening addresses at the Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day 2014-2021

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the discussion on the relation between memory and security in how Holocaust remembrance discourse affect the construction of security in Israel. By utilizing Norman Fairclough’s method of textual and discursive practice it analyzes speeches held by Israeli heads of state at the opening ceremony of Holocaust Remembrance Day between the years 2014-2021. Securitization theory is applied from a mnemonical perspective in order to explain how security, discursive production and identities are constructed. The speeches are analyzed with focus on how their lexico-grammatical composition and interdiscursivity promote a certain view of how to understand the present through imaginaries of the past. The results indicate that the linguistics and discursive practice of remembrance discourses reproduce a view of social reality in which the Holocaust creates meaning to security through depictions of existential survival and historical duty. A securitized meaning conditioned by the depoliticization of Holocaust-prevention and the creation of antagonistic social identities. Lastly, the thesis argues that Holocaust in contemporary Israeli remembrance discourse functions as a securitizing template for Jewish life.