HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: Political Science

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Maya Rosenfeld

Coordinator Email: maya.rosenfeld@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Tuesday 13:30-14:15

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Maya Rosenfeld

Course/Module description:
The course traces the development of the Palestinian National Movement from the 1948 war until the present. It accords centrality to the social factors that fed Palestinian national political action and motivated it as well as to the system(s) of power relations which confined and restricted it. The course material leans on a large corpus of research literature from varied academic disciplines including history, political science, sociology and anthropology.

The course is divided into three parts, which overlap three major sub-periods in the history of the movement.

The first part is entitled "A multiplicity of streams: trends in Palestinian nationalism between the two wars - from the nakba (disaster) of 1948 to the naksa (defeat) of 1967". It reviews the impact of the consequences of the 1948 war on national-political mobilization among the Palestinians. Uprooting, refugeeness, dispersal in several Arab states, the spread of higher education among widening social strata, subjection to various modes of political oppression on the one hand, and exposure to radical political ideologies, on the other hand, are all background elements that enable us to explain the Palestinians' heightened tendency to politicization. As will be shown in detail, many joined the ranks of the diverse opposition movements and parties that were active at the time in the Arab host countries, e.g. the Jordanian Communist Party, which rebelled against the Jordanian monarchic regime. Special attention will be given to Palestinian activism in the ranks of the Movement of Arab Nationalists, a pan-Arab movement that was highly influenced by the political and social outlook of Egypt's Gamal Abd al-Nasser. Subsequently we will examine the emergence in the late 1950s and early 1960s of particular Palestinian Nationalism, as represented by al-Fatah movement, which would eventually point the way for the entire National Movement.

The second part of the course is entitled "The struggle for self-determination under the hegemony of the PLO: from the rise of the independent Palestinian guerilla organizations (in the aftermath of the 1967 War), to the popular uprising against the Israeli military occupation (the first Intifada 1987-92)". This part focuses on the transformation of the Palestinian national movement into a mass movement (the expansion of the social and institutional bases of the movement), on the rise and consolidation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian cause, and on the changing components in the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. These processes are examined against the backdrop of various factors: the Arab defeat in the 1967 war and the demise of pan-Arab nationalism, the prolonged Israeli military occupation over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and its impacts on social transformation in these territories, Israel's absolute military superiority and its refusal to recognize the PLO, the inter-relationship between the PLO (and each of the major organizations that comprise it) and the Arab regimes, and the role of the super-powers (USA and USSR) in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The third part of the course is entitled: "The establishment of a Palestinian National Authority (PNA) with highly restricted authorities, the resumption of violent conflict with Israel, and the deepening intra-Palestinian political rift: from the Oslo Accords (Sept. 1993) to the aftermath of the Hamas takeover in Gaza (2007)" . This part seeks to provide a window to current problems that engage the Palestinian national movement in the past two decades, first and foremost the lack of progress towards Palestinian independence and sovereignty, and the divide within the Palestinian political system. The problems are closely intertwined: the signing of the Oslo accords between the PLO leadership and the government of Israel (the Declaration of Principles signed in September 1993) stirred strong opposition in the ranks of the Hamas-led Islamic movement and highlighted the absence of national consensus with respect to this move. The meager achievements that the Palestinians gained through the "Oslo track" during the years 1994-2000 became ground for ongoing attempts by the Islamic opposition to undermine the rule of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). In the wake of the disruption of the Oslo track (since October 2000) and the Israeli measures to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state rivalry further escalated into full scale confrontation (culminating with the Hamas takeover in Gaza) and subsequent crisis. Most of the issues that are dealt with in this part relate to processes that are yet to be concluded or determined and will therefore be treated as open research questions.

Course/Module aims:
The aim of the course is to provide the student with comprehensive knowledge and challenging analysis of the development of the Palestinian national movement since 1948.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
To point at the major differences between the characteristics of the Palestinian national movement before and after the 1948 war

To discern the major stages of development in the history of the Palestinian national movement since 1948 and to note the major turning points in this history

To assess the major impacts of dispersal exile and refugeehood on political and national mobilization among the Palestinians (from a perspective of six and a half decades)

To assess the cumulative impact of the decades-long Israeli military occupation on political and national mobilization among the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

To provide an historical evaluation of the strength and weaknesses of the PLO as the political representative of the Palestinian people and cause

To assess the impact of the intervention of international players (UN, United States, the EU, the (late) Soviet Union) on prospects of the Palestinian struggle for independence.

Attendance requirements(%):
attendance is required

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: lectures

Course/Module Content:
Introduction: a brief overview on the Palestinian national movement under the British Mandate

Palestinians in the opposition to the Jordanian monarchy during the 1950s: the case of the Jordanian Communist Party

Arab Nationalism under the leadership of Nasser and its impact on the development of Palestinian nationalism: the case of the Movement of Arab Nationalists

Swimming against the stream: The emergence of Fatah in the era of Arab nationalism
The Arab defeat in the 1967 War and the emergence of the independent Palestinian organizations.

The adoption of guerrilla warfare as means of armed struggle: examining similarities and differences between anti-colonial liberation struggles of the 1950s and 1960s and the Palestinian national movement


The reorganization of the PLO in the aftermath of the 1967 War and its rise to hegemonic power

The strategic shift in the PLO's political program

The unique course of development of the Palestinian national movement in the occupied Palestinian Territories: a socio-economic and political analysis

The first Intifada: the unarmed, popular Palestinian uprising against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

The PLO and the Oslo Accords: an assessment of the considerations and constraints that led the PLO's leadership to accept the Oslo framework

Hamas and its opposition to the Oslo plan: assessing the impacts

The establishment of the PNA: analyzing the consequences for Palestinian society in the WB and GS and for the Palestinian political system

The second Intifada, the Israeli reaction and the aftermath

The reemergence of Hamas in light of the political and socio-economic crisis that followed the (military defeat of the )second Intifada.

The Hamas takeover in Gaza and the further polarization of the Palestinian political system

Required Reading:
Bibliography
This list includes required and additional reading


Aruri, Naseer ed. (2001) Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return (London: Pluto Press).

Baker, Abir and Anat Matar eds. (2011) Threat: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel (London: Pluto Press)

Baumgarten, Helga (2005) "The Three Faces/Phases of Palestinian Nationalism, 1948-2005," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 25-48

Benvenisti, Meron (1987) West Bank Data Project 1987 Report: demographic, economic, legal, social and political developments in the West Bank (Jerusalem: the Jerusalem Post).

Brynen, Rex (1991) Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon (Boulder & San Francisco: Westview Press).

Cobban, Helena (1984) The PLO: People, Power and Politics (London: Cambridge University Press).

Dakak, I. (1983) "Back to Square One," In Scholch Alexander, ed. Palestinians over the Green Line (London: Ithaca Press)

Freedman, Robert O. ed. (1991) The Intifada (Miami: Florida International University Press).

Frisch, Hillel (1990) "From Armed Struggle Over State Boarders to Political Mobilization and Intifada within It." Plural Societies, Vol. 19, No. 2 and 3.

Al-Hout Shafiq (2011) My Life in the PLO: the Inside Story of the Palestinian Struggle (London and New York: Pluto Press).

Giacaman George and Dag Jorund Lonning, eds. (1998) After Oslo: New Realities, Old Problems. (London: Pluto Press).

Gordon, Neve (2008) Israel's Occupation (Berkeley CA: University of California Press).

Gresh, Alain (1985) The PLO: The Struggle Within (London: Zed Books).

Groth, Allon (1995) The PLO’s Road to Peace: Processes of Decision-Making (London: Royal United Institute for Defense Studies).

Hammami, Rema and Salim Tamari (2000) “Anatomy of Another Rebellion,” Middle East Report 217.

Hammami, Rema and Jamil Hilal (2001) “An Uprising at a Crossroads,” Middle East Report 219.

Hasso, Frances (2005) Resistance, Repression, and Gender Politics in Occupied Palestine and Jordan (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press).

Hilal, Jamil (1993) “PLO Institutions: the Challenge Ahead,” Journal of Palestine Studies 23, 1.

Hilal, Jamil (2006) Hamas's Rise as Charted in the Polls 1994-2005," Journal of Palestine Studies 35, 3: 6-19.

Hilal, Jamil (2010) "The Polarization of the Palestinian Political Field," Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 39, No. 3 (Spring 2010), pp. 24–39.

Hiltermann, Joost (1991) Behind the Intifada (New Jersey: Princeton University Press).

Hunter, Robert F (1991) The Palestinian Uprising (Berkeley: University of California Press).

Kazziha, Walid (1975) Revolutionary Transformation in the Arab World (London: Croom Helm).

Khalidi, Rashid (2006) The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (New York: Beacon Press).

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

Khalidi, Rashid (1986) Under Siege: PLO Decision-making in the 1982 War (New York: Columbia University Press).
Khatib, Ghassan (2010) Palestinian Politics and the Middle East Peace Process (London and New York: Routledge).
Kimmerling, Baruch, and Joel Migdal (2003) The Palestinian People: A History (Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press).

Klein, Menachem (2007) "Hamas in Power," Middle East Journal 61, 3: 442-59.

Lockman, Z.and J. Beinin eds. (1989) Intifada (A MERIP Book) Toronto: Between the Lines).

Muslih, Muhammad (1990) "Towards Coexistence: An Analysis of the Resolutions of the Palestine National Council" Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 19, No. 4.

Muslih, Muhammad (1988) The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism (New York: Columbia University Press).

Owen, Roger (1985) “Migrant Workers in the Gulf,” The Minority Right Group, Report no. 18 (London: MRG).

Pearlman, Wendy (2011) Violence, Nonviolence and the Palestinian National Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Peteet, Julie (2005) Landscape of Hope and Despair (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).

Peteet, Julie (1991) Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance (New York: Columbia University Press).

Quandt, William (1971) Palestinian Nationalism: Its Political and Military Dimensions (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation).

Quandt, William (ed.) (1988) The Middle East Ten Years after Camp David (Washington D. C.: The Brookings Institution).

Robinson, Glenn (1997) Building a Palestinian State (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).

Rosenfeld, Maya (2004) Confronting the Occupation: Work, Education and Political Activism of Palestinian Families in a Refugee Camp. (Stanford: Stanford University Press).

Roy, Sara (2011) Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector (Princeton: Princeton University Press).

Rubenberg, Cheryl (2001) Palestinian Women: Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank (Boulder, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers).


Rubenberg, Cheryl (1983) The Palestine Liberation Organization (Belmont, Massachusetts: Institute of Arab Studies).

Sayigh, Rosemary (1979) Palestinians: from Peasants to Revolutionaries (London: Zed Press).

Sayigh, Yezid (1997) Armed Struggle and the Search for State (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, and Oxford: Clarendon Press).

Tamari, Salim (1988) "What the Uprising Means," Middle East Report, May-June 1988.

Tamari, Salim (1991) “The Palestinian Movement in Transition: Historical Reversals and the Uprising,” Journal of Palestine Studies 20, 2.

Tamari, Salim (1990) "The Uprising's Dilemma," Middle East Report, May-August 1990.

Tamari, Salim (1996) Palestinian Refugee Negotiations: From Madrid to Oslo II. (Washington DC: The Institute of Palestine Studies).

Tamari, Salim (1995) “Fading Flags: The Crises of Palestinian Legitimacy,” Middle East Report 194/195.

Taraki, Lisa (1990) "The Development of Political Consciousness Among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 1967-87,” in Nassar and Heacock editors, Intifada: Palestine at the Crossroads (New York: Birzeit University & Praeger Publishers).

Usher, Graham (1995) Palestine in Crisis, (London: Pluto Press).



פריטים בעברית:
אבו איאד (1979) ללא מולדת – שיחות עם אריק רולו (תל-אביב: מפרש).

אזולאי, אריאלה ועדי אופיר (2008) משטר זה שאינו אחד: כיבוש ודמוקרטיה בין הים לנהר
(1967- )(תל אביב: רסלינג)

אלדר, שלומי (2005) עזה כמוות (תל אביב: ידיעות אחרונות, ספרי חמד)

אלדר, שלומי (2012) להכיר את חמאס (ירושלים: כתר).

אלדר, עקיבא ועדית זרטל (2005) אדוני הארץ: המתנחלים ומדינת ישראל 1967-2004 (תל אביב: דביר).

אפרת, אלישע (2002) גיאוגרפיה של כיבוש (תל אביב: כרמל).

בצלם: מרכז המידע הישראלי לזכויות האדם בשטחים – פרסומים נבחרים מהשנים 1989-2013

ברדה, יעל (2012) הביורוקרטיה של הכיבוש: משטר היתרי התנועה בגדה המערבית 2000-2006 (מכון ון ליר והקיבוץ המאוחד).


גזית, שלמה (1999) פתאים במלכודת: 30 שנות מדיניות ישראל בשטחים (תל אביב: זמורה ביתן
מוציאים לאור).

גלבר, גד ואשר ששר, עורכים (1992) בעין הסכסוך: האינתיפאדה (תל אביב: הקיבוץ המאוחד)

הרכבי, יהושפט, עורך (1975) החלטות המועצות הלאומיות הפלסטיניות ( בתוך ערב וישראל, קובץ תרגומים מערבית מס' 3-4) (תל אביב: עם עובד ומכון טרומן באוניברסיטה העברית).

ח'לידי, רשיד (2010) כלוב הברזל (ירושלים: מכון ון ליר והקיבוץ המאוחד).

טוויל, רימונדה (1979) מעצר בית: סיפורה של אישה פלשתינאית (ירושלים: אדם)

כהן, אמנון (1980) מפלגות בגדה המערבית בתקופת השלטון הירדני (ירושלים: מגנס).

כנפאני, ע'סאן גברים בשמש (תל אביב: מפרש)

משעל, שאול וראובן אהרוני (1989) אבנים זה לא הכל (תל אביב : הקיבוץ המאוחד)

משעל, שאול ואברהם סלע (2006) זמן חמאס אלימות ופשרה מהדורה מורחבת (תל אביב: ידיעות אחרונות)

סבירסקי, שלמה (עורך) (1992) האינתיפאדה: מבט מבפנים (תל-אביב: מפרש)


קימרלינג ברוך ויואל מגדל (1999) פלסטינים: עם בהיווצרותו (ירושלים: כתר).

קליין, מנחם (2006) יוזמת ז'נבה מבט מבפנים (ירושלים: כרמל).


שחאדה, רג'א (2004) זרים בבית: התבגרות בפלסטין הכבושה (תל אביב: ידיעות אחרונות , ספרי חמד).

שחאדה, רג'א (2008) טיולים בפלסטין: רשימות על נוף הולך ונעלם (תל אביב: עם עובד).

שחאדה, רג'א (2005) כשהדרור הפסיק לשיר (תל אביב: ידיעות אחרונות וספרי עליית הגג).

שחאדה, רג'א (1982) הדרך השלישית (תל אביב: אדם).

שטיינברג, מתי (2008) עומדים לגורלם: התודעה הלאומית הפלסטינית 1967- 2007 (תל אביב: משכל, ידיעות אחרונות).

שלו, אריה (1990) האינתיפאדה: הסיבות, המאפיינים וההשלכות (תל אביב: פפירוס).

שמש, משה (2012) התחייה הלאומית הפלסטינית: בצל משבר מנהיגות, מהמופתי עד שקירי, 1937-1967 (אוניברסיטת בן גוריון בנגב)

כתב עת מרכזי: Journal of Palestine Studies

Additional Reading Material:
Required reading for each session will be specified in the course site on a weekly basis

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 75 %
Assignments 25 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
Students are expected to follow the weekly updates (posted on the course site)