HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: "Amirim" Honors Program

Semester: 2nd Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Prof. Abigail Jacobson

Coordinator Email: abigail.jacobson@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours:

Teaching Staff:
Prof. Abigail Jacobson

Course/Module description:
This course will take the students through the history and the various realities and challenges of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The course aims to introduce the fundamental historical trajectories of the conflict, and to present and analyze the conflicting narratives and perceptions of both Palestinians and Israelis over key moments and issues in its history. By so doing, we will pay special attention to the respective histories of the conflict, as well as to the challenges that each side is encountering over the future of the conflict and possible solutions to it.

Course/Module aims:

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
By the end of this course, students should have a deep knowledge and understanding of the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and be able to identify and discuss the major events and themes that have led to its current impasse, the different competing narratives on certain events, as well as the current challenges both societies are facing.

Attendance requirements(%):
100

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: lecture and discussion, movies, excursion

Course/Module Content:
1. Introduction: Early Encounters between the Zionist Movement and the Arabs
2. Jews and Arabs during World War I and the British Mandate
3. The War of 1948: History and Historical Debate
4. Israel and the Palestinians between 1948-1967: Refugees, Military Rule, PLO
5. From 1967 to the First Intifada
6. The Oslo Accords, the PA, and the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations
7. Challenges to the Palestinian Authority: Islamic Opposition
8. Challenges within Israel
9. Jerusalem: the capital of the conflict

Required Reading:
WEEK 1
Introduction: Early Encounters between the Zionist Movement and the Arabs

Neville Mandel, The Arabs and Zionism before World War Ι (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), 32-57; 223-231.

Anita Shapira, Israel: A History (Waltham: Brandeis UP, 2012), ch. 1-2 (pp. 3-64)

Watch: 1913: Seeds of Conflict (Ben Loeterman, 2014), 60 min:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v&eq;DNmzoFNgCXg


WEEK 2

Jews and Arabs during World War I and the British Mandate

Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict 1881-1999 (London: J. Murray, 1999), pp. 67-121 (ch. 1, 3).

Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), pp. 145-175.

*Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, pp. 121-160 (ch. 4).


WEEK 3
The War of 1948: History and Historical Debate

Said Aly et al. Arabs and Israelis, Ch. 2 (pp. 46-84)

Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947-1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 4-28, conclusion.

Rashid Khalidi, "The Palestinians and 1948: the underlying causes of failure," in: Eugene Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds.), The War on Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, pp. 12-36.

Avraham Sela and Alon Kadish, “Israeli and Palestinian Memories and Historical Narratives of 1948,” Israel Studies 21, 1 (2016), pp. 1-26.

Ari Shavit, “Lydda, 1948,” The New Yorker, Oct. 21 2013

*Mordechai Bar-on, "Conflicting Narratives or Narratives of Conflict: Can the Zionist and Palestinian Narratives of the 1948 War be Bridged?", in: Robert Rotberg (ed.), Israeli and Palestinian Narratives of Conflict: History's Double Helix (Bloomington: Indiana UP), pp. 142-168 (scanned)

* Ahmad H. Sa'adi, "Catastrophe, Memory and Identity: Al-Nakbah as a Component of Palestinian Identity," Israel Studies, 7:2 (Summer 2002), 175-98. (scanned)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/v007/7.2saadi.pdf

* Efraim Karsh, "The Palestinians and the "Right of Return," Commentary, May 2001, pp. 25-31 (scanned)


WEEK 4

Israel and the Palestinians between 1948-1967: Refugees, Military Rule, PLO

Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal, The Palestinian People: a History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), pp. 214-239 (ch. 7).

Matti Steinberg, "Arafat's PLO: The Concept of Self-Determination in Transition", The Jerusalem Journal of International Relations 9, No. 3 (Septermber 1987), pp. 85-98.

*Tom Segev, 1949: The First Israelis (NY: The Free Press, 1986), pp. 68-91


Primary Source:
“Palestinian National Charter, Resolutions of the Palestine National Council July 1-17, 1968” (scanned)

Watch: PLO: History of a Revolution (Youtube)

Watch: The Time that Remains (Director: Elia Suleiman, 2009, 109 minutes)


WEEK 5

From 1967 to the First Intifada

Said Aly et. al, Arabs and Israelis Ch. 4 (pp. 118-155)

Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, pp. 302-346 (ch. 7, 12).

Primary Source:
"UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (November 22, 1967)

Watch: The PLO: History of a Revolution: Intifada (Youtube), The Six Days War of 1967 (Youtube)


WEEK 6
The Oslo Accords, the PA, and the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations

Said Aly et al., Arabs and Israelis, Ch. 9 (pp. 306-330)

Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal, The Palestinian People, pp. 315-397 (ch. 10-11).

Menachem Klein, “Quo Vadis? Palestinian Authority Building Dilemmas since 1993,” in: Middle Eastern Studies 33, no. 2 (April 1997), pp. 385-405.

* Israeli and Palestinian debate the agreements: “Documents and Source Material”, Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 23, No. 2 (Winter, 1994). See pp. 130-135
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2538248.pdf

*Rex Brynen and Roula El-Rifai, (eds.) Compensation to Palestinian Refugees and the Search for Palestinian-Israeli Peace (London: Pluto Press, 2013), TBA



WEEK 7
Challenges to the Palestinian Authority: Islamic Opposition

Meir Litvak, “The Islamization of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: The Case of Hamas,” in: Middle Eastern Studies 34, no. 1 (Jan. 1998), pp. 148-163.

Menachem Klein, "Hamas in Power", Middle East Journal, 61, no. 3 (Summer 2007), pp. 442-459.

Khalil Shikaki, With Hamas in Power: Impact of Palestinian Domestic Developments on Options for the Peace Process, (Brandeis University: Crown Center for Middle East Studies Working Paper 1, February 2007).
http://www.brandeis.edu/centers/crown/publications/WP/WP1.pdf

*Bjorn Brenner, Gaza Under Hamas: From Islamic Democracy to Islamic Governance (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017), ch. 1, 8 (pp. 1-28, 171-200)

Primary Source:
“The Charter of the Islamic Resistance” (scanned)

Watch: Paradise Now (Director: Hany Abu-Asad, 2006, 91 minutes)


WEEK 8
Challenges within Israel

Ehud Sprinzak, The Emergence of the Israeli Radical Right Comparative Politics Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jan., 1989), pp. 171-192.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/422043.pdf

David Newman, From Hitnachalut to Hitnatkut: The Impact of Gush Emunim and the Settlement Movement on Israeli Politics and Society, Israel Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Fall 2005), pp. 192-224.

* Amos Oz, "Meaning of Homeland," in: Who is Left? Zionism Answers Back (Jerusalem: the Zionist Library, 1971), pp. 155-173


Watch: Withdrawal from Gaza (1:31):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v&eq;SB42YjUNCZU&t&eq;1s

WEEK 9

The Palestinian citizens of Israel their challenges with the state
Amal Jamal, "The Ambiguities of Minority Patriotism: Love for Homeland versus State among Palestinian Citizens of Israel," Nationalism & Ethnic Politics, 10, 3 (2004), pp. 433-471.

Summary of the Orr Committee Report

The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel 2006

Shimon Shamir, The Arabs in Israel –Two Years after the Or Commission Report, a lecture in Tel Aviv University, September 2005

*Elie Rekhess, “The Arabs of Israel After Oslo”, Israel Studies 7.3 (2002) 1-44. (scanned)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/v007/7.3rekhess.html



WEEK 10

Conclusion: The Future of the Conflict: Students' Reflections

Alan Dowty, Israel/Palestine (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005), pp. 204-216 (ch. 8)

Watch: Precious Life (Director: Shlomi Eldar, 2010, 90 min.)

Additional Reading Material:

Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Referat 60 %
Submission assignments during the semester: Exercises / Essays / Audits / Reports / Forum / Simulation / others 30 %
Attendance / Participation in Field Excursion 10 %

Additional information:
The syllabus is subject to changes and is not final yet.