A survey with representative samples of Jewish and Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel (N=502 and 530 respectively) is used to investigate the relations between collective memory, the sphere in which it is produced, and national identification. In the survey, held in July-August 2008, interviewees were asked in an open-ended way what events and persons they consider most important in the history of the country in the past 100 years. In addition, they were asked to mention the main source of their historical knowledge, and to openly define their identity. The findings indicate significant differences in the sources of historical knowledge of each society. Among Jewish respondents "school," was the most common source, while among the Arab respondents school was ranked only in the fifth place, lagging after television, books, internet, and the family. Most likely, this gap represents lack of trust in the state-sponsored education system among the Arab respondents. These findings do not mean that formal education has been insignificant in shaping historical consciousness. Those Arab respondents who did see school as the most important source of historical knowledge were significantly more likely to mention names of Zionist figures as the most important figures in the country's history, as compared with other respondents. On the other hand, Arab respondents who considered their family as the most important source of historical knowledge were much more likely to mention Arab national figures in answering the same question. The association between references to certain historical events and figures on the one hand, and national identification on the other hand, was especially salient among the Arab-Palestinian respondents. In a multivariate analysis it was found that mentioning myths of victimhood and heroism, as well as mentioning Arab national figures, are significant predictors of identification as Palestinian, even if religion, ethnicity, religiosity, gender, education, and cohort are controlled for. References to the 1948 war and to Yasser Arafat were especially salient in predicting Palestinian identification. These findings suggest that memories might have an autonomous effect on national identification, especially among national minorities. Furthermore, Ernest Renan’s argument that defeats are more important than triumphs for shaping national identification has been validated, as the memory of the Nakba was found to be significantly correlated with Palestinian identification, much more than any myth of activism and heroism.