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Schedule of Lectures and Readings

 

 

 

Week 1
(Aug 23)		 Introduction to the course
Primer: Palestine, Israel and the Arab Israeli Conflict
Week 2
(Aug. 28,30) 		Jews and Arabs in historical perspective

Readings:
Who are the Jews? What is Judaism?
Who are the Arabs? What is Islam?
 
Week 3
(Sept. 4, 6)

The Jews of the Pale of Settlement;
Zionist pioneers.

Readings:
Amos Elon, Founders and Sons, chapters. 4 and 7 (handouts).
Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State.
 
Week 4
(Sept. 11,13)		 Palestine in the 19th c.;
Early Arab nationalism, WWI and the peace settlements.

Readings:
Husayn-McMahon Correspondence; The Sykes-Picot Agreement; The Balfour Declaration; British White paper (1922); The Palestine Mandate. (Be sure to supplement with one of the narrative histories).
 
Week 5
(Sept. 18,20) 		Growth of the Yishuv; Mandate Palestine;
Is Zionism a form of colonialism? (class discussion).

Readings:
Khalidi, The Iron Cage, pp.1-64.
Edward Said, The Question of Palestine, pp. 68-82 (handout);
Michael Shurkin, "Is Zionism Colonialism?"

Strangers in the House book review due, Sept. 20.
 
Week 6
(Sept. 25,27) 		The Holocaust;Zionist Revolt and the UN partition scheme.

Readings:
Khalidi, The Iron Cage, pp. 65-139.
 1939 White Paper; US attitude toward Palestine (1945); Truman on Jewish immigration.
 
Week 7
(Oct. 2, 4)		 Inter-communal warfare, refugees and Arab invasion.

Readings:
Benny Morris, “Conclusion” from The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949 (handout); "Expulsion of Palestinians Reexamined"; Declaration of Israeli Independence.

MIDTERM (Oct. 4)
 
Week 8
(Oct. 9, 11)

Discussion of Tom Segev, 1949: “Dividing the Spoils”, “The First Million"; "Working and Fighting Hands";  "Nameless People"; "Each in the Name of His God".

Readings:
"Uprooting the Past"; interview with Benny Morris
Week 9
(Oct. 16, 18)		 FALL RECESS
Week 10
(Oct. 23, 25)		 Israel and Nasser; Suez; the June 1967 War and its consequences.

Readings:
 Revisionist Histories of the Six-Day War; map of Six Day War; UN Resolution 242; Nizar Qabbani, "Marginal Notes on the Book of the Setback" (hand out).

In the Land of Israel book review due, Oct. 25
 
Week 11
(Oct. 30, Nov. 1)		 Arafat and the PLO; Sadat and the October War.

Readings:
Khalidi, The Iron Cage, pp. 140-181;
Palestinian National Charter; Ariel Sharon's account of '73 war; Al Ahram supplement on the war
 
Week 12
(Nov. 6, 8)		 Carnage in Lebanon; Israeli invasion; the first Intifadha.

Readings:
Map of Lebanon war; war '75-76; Hizballah
 
Week 13
(Nov. 13, 15)		 Divisions within Israeli society; Challenges to peace; Oslo and Camp David.

Readings:
Khalidi, The Iron Cage, pp. 182-217; statement of principles; the Failure at Camp David; Quest for mid East peace: Why it failed; more on Camp David.

Position paper due, Nov. 15
 
Week 14
(Nov. 20)
 		 Class cancelled: Middle East Studies Association Conference
 
Week 15(Nov. 27, 29) HAMAS; The Controversy about the "Israel Lobby."

Readings:
HAMAS Covenant; "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy"; rebuttal; The American Israel Public Affairs Committee
Week 16
(Dec. 4, 6)		 Wrap up and review

 

 

 

 

Israel soldiers after taking possession of the Western Wall during the June 1967   War.

 The Intifadha, lit. "Shaking off,"
of 1987 - 1990