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History of Israel

FALL-Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30–10:45, CBA 4.340

Course Description

Israel is a country of contrasts. Merely 263 miles long, one can drive from its northernmost point to the southernmost one in six hours, passing by a wide variety of landscapes and climates; from the snowy capes of Mount Hermon to the arid badlands of the Negev Desert. Along the way, she might come across a plethora of ethnic and religious groups – Jews originating in dozens of diasporas all over the world, Palestinians, Druze, Bedouins, Bahá'ís, Samaritans, Circassians, Armenians, Gypsies, Filipinos, Sudanese, Eritreans, and more – and hear innumerable languages and dialects. From the haredi stronghold of Bene-Beraq to the hedonistic nightclubs and sunny beaches of Eilat; from a relative Jewish-Arab coexistence in Haifa to the powder keg that is East Jerusalem; from the “Start-up Nation” in Ra’anana and Herzliya to the poverty-stricken “development towns” and unrecognized Bedouin settlements of the Negev; from the messianic fervor of Jewish settlers in the West Bank to the plight of African refugees and disadvantaged Jews in South Tel Aviv – all within an area slightly smaller than the State of Vermont.

This is an introductory survey of Israel’s political, diplomatic, social, economic, ethnic, and cultural history, as well as an overview of Israeli society nowadays. We will start with a brief examination of the birth of the Zionist movement in nineteenth-century Europe, the growth of the Jewish settlement in Palestine, and the establishment of a modern Jewish State. Next, we will review a number of key moments and processes in Israeli history and discuss such crucial and often controversial topics as the Israeli-Arab and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts; ethnic and social stratification in Israel; civil-military relations and the role that the armed forces and other security agencies have played in everyday life in the country; Israel’s relations with the world and the Jewish diaspora; and more. In addition, we will address and discuss some of the major debates over Israeli history and society, such as whether Israel can be both a Jewish and a democratic state; Israel’s independence as the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe); discrimination against minority groups in the country; and even the role of politics and ethnicity in Israeli sports and popular culture.

Our discussion of historical events and secondary sources will be accompanied by the reading or viewing of historical documents, literary and journalistic pieces, documentary and entertainment films and television programs, and online sources that both you and I will bring to class.

Contact Information

Jonathan Grossman

Email address: [email protected] [Hopefully will be substituted with a UT address]

Office location: 2109 San Jacinto Boulevard Bellmont Hall, Suite 243 Phone number (office): 000000000 Office hours: Tuesday, 11:00–2:00 (by appointment or drop-in)

Course Requirements

I reserve the right to make changes to the syllabus and the course assignments during the semester. Any such changes will be duly notified.

Punctuality. Please be at the class on time. Latecomers are allowed to enter, but their attendance will not be recorded. If you know you are going to be late for a specific class, you have to notify me in advance. Similarly, if you need an extension for submitting an assignment, please ask me about it as soon as possible, and definitely not a few hours before submission is due.

Attendance (10% of final grade). All students are expected to attend every class. If, for some reason, you are not able to make it to class, let me know in advance (that is, not at midnight on the night before class), and I may or may not authorize this absence. Throughout the semester, each student is allowed two unexcused absences. Further ones will result in the subtraction from the final grade of two points per absence. If you have missed a class, it is your responsibility to complete the required reading for that class and to check with me or with your fellows the assignments that are due for the next class.

Participation (10% of final grade). All students are expected to come to class prepared and to participate in the discussion that will take place based on the reading assignments and on current events in Israel. During the discussion, do not hesitate to ask me any question, as obvious as the answer to it may appear. As most classes will begin with a brief discussion of contemporary Israel, you are expected to stay informed on the latest developments in Israeli politics and society (you are welcome to ask me for recommended English websites. At least once in the semester I will ask every one of you to find and bring to the classroom a current, brief, non-academic source that relates to the topic of the class or to the reading material. Such a source may be a newspaper article, a Facebook post, a blog entry, or even a short videoclip. In addition, every once in a while I may ask for a volunteer to read one of the optional items in the syllabus and present it to the class. Needless to say, volunteering for such a task is an easy way to get bonus points to your final grade.

Comments on the reading assignments (10% of final grade). For every class, you are expected to send me, by Email, a one-paragraph double spaced comment on one or more of the obligatory or optional reading items for the upcoming class. Please send it no later than 5PM on the day before the class. I may show some or all of your comments at the classroom. I will not grade each comment individually, but extremely good comments throughout the semester, which will show a profound understanding and analysis of the reading material, may result in up to five bonus points to your final grade. In the same manner, failure to send your comments on time, or comments that fail to convince me that you had actually read the assigned material, may negatively affect your final grade.

Short Exams (20% of final grade). During the semester, there will be three short exams, in which you will have to answer multiple choice questions, true/false questions, short answer questions, write a short essay, or a combination of some or all of the above. In order to answer these questions correctly, you need to be familiar with all the required reading material up to the date of the exam. The questions will be neither petty nor pedantic (in other words, no such questions as “in what year was Theodor Herzl born?” or “name five ministers from Levi Eshkol’s government in 1967?”). Rather, their purpose is to make sure that you understand the “big picture” and are familiar with the most significant events, personalities, and developments in the story of Israel (therefore, expect such questions as "what was Theodor Herzl’s solution to the problem of anti-Semitism in Europe?” or “why did Prime Minister Levi Eshkol ask Moshe Dayan to join his cabinet in the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War?”). When calculating your final grade, I will only consider the score of the two best exams, so if you have done terribly in one of them, don’t despair – you’ll have another chance. Three perfect exams, however, may result in some bonus points. Every exam will be announced at least one week beforehand, and there will be no makeup exams – not showing up to an exam means zero points.

Midterm Assignment: Article Review (20% of final grade). By the class of October 17, you have to submit a critical review (up to three double spaced pages, 12-size font) of one of the optional reading items from this course’s syllabus. Your review should present the main arguments of the article or the chapter; explain whether you agree with them or not (and why); address its historical, theoretical, and methodological strengths and weaknesses; and provide your own critical and learned evaluation of it. When citing or discussing parts of the text, clear reference to the page number (either between parentheses or as a footnote) must be included. Any reference to works other than the one being reviewed is not mandatory (you can get a perfect score without any comparative examination), but is very welcome. As always, exceptionally good work may result in bonus points.

Final Paper (30% of final grade). By the end of the year, you will have to submit an original research paper on a topic of your own choice. The topic should be related to one or more of the issues discussed in this course. Your research question must be clear, specific, and appear in bold type in the first section of the paper. You are welcome to consult with me about your topic and research question.

The final paper will be of eight to ten pages, in addition to a title page and a bibliography of at least eight sources. The paper should be written in a 12-size font, double spaced. It may be written in English, Hebrew, Spanish, or Portuguese. Every primary or secondary source used in the paper must be properly cited in concordance with the Chicago Manual of Style citation rules, preferably by using a citation manager software (Zotero.org is free, cloud-based, and highly recommended!). You are welcome to consult with me for any further instructions, advice, and recommendations. For a quick guide to the Chicago Manual of Style rules check:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/tools_citationguide.html.

Your final paper does not have to contain an analysis of a primary source, but you are highly encouraged to search for primary sources that fit your topic, which will make your work more intriguing. Such a source may be an historical document, a newspaper article, a blog entry, a film, a series of tweets, a Facebook post, a YouTube video, and even recollections from your own experience.

In order for your paper to get a perfect grade, you should:
1. Be genuinely interested in and enthusiastic about your chosen topic 2. Show a deep understanding of the issue in question, of Israeli history and society in general, and of the reading materials
3. Rely on a wide array of sources and cite them correctly 4. Demonstrate high analytical and methodological skills 5. Be innovative, original, and critical. Merely summing up the arguments of other writers regarding your chosen topic may gain you a good score, if done well, but in order to get a perfect one you will need to come up with a clear and original argument of your own, which may be either a synthesis of these arguments or a new, evidence-supported approach to the question
6. Write an interesting piece that is also fun to read

Your research topic should be approved by me before ***. By the *** week, you should submit for approval a one-paragraph abstract of your paper and a preliminary list of at least five sources. Feel free to send me drafts to comment on, but no later than the *** week.

FINAL GRADE CALCULATION: Attendance: 10%; Participation: 10%; Short Comments: 10%; Short Exams: 20%; Midterm Assignment: 20%; Research Paper: 30%.

  • Grading
  • Scale:

99–100 = A+ 93–98 = A 90–92 = A- 87–89 = B+ 83–86 = B 80–82 - B- 77–79 = C+ 73–76 = C 70–72 = C- 60–69 = D Below 60 = F

LIST OF TOPICS AND READING ITEMS (Some topics will be discussed over more than

one class. The order of topics may change)

1. Introduction
Core Reading:

1. S. Ilan Troen, Maoz Azaryahu, and Arnon Golan, “Israel: Geography, Demography,

and Economy,” in Essential Israel: Essays for the 21st Century, ed. S. Ilan Troen and

Rachel Fish (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2017), pp. 12–39.

2. The birth of Zionism and the first immigrants to Israel; is Zionism a colonial movement?

Core Reading:

1. Anita Shapira, Israel: A History, The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies (Waltham,
MA: Brandeis University Press, 2012), Chapters 1 and 2.
2. Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000),
Introduction.

Primary Source:

Theodor Herzl, Old New Land, excerpts.

Optional Reading:

1. Beshara B. Doumani, “Rediscovering Ottoman Palestine: Writing Palestinians into

History,” Journal of Palestine Studies 21, no. 2 (1992): 5–28.

2. Colin Shindler, A History of Modern Israel, 2nd ed (Cambridgeꢀ; New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2013), Chapter 1.

3. Derek Penslar, Israel in History: The Jewish State in Comparative Perspective (New

York: Routledge, 2007), Chapters 3 and 5.
4. Gershon Shafir, “Zionism and Colonialism: A Comparative Approach,” in The
Israel/Palestine Question, ed. Ilan Pappé, Rewriting Histories (Londonꢀ; New York: Routledge, 1999), pp. 72–85.

3. Jewish-Arab relations during the British Mandate on Palestine
Core Reading:

1. Anita Shapira, Israel: A History, The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies (Waltham,
MA: Brandeis University Press, 2012), Chapters 3 and 5.

2. Rashid Khalidi, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National

Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), Chapter 7.

Optional Reading:

1. Hillel Cohen, Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: 1929, The Schusterman Series in

Israel Studies (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2015).

2. Efraim Karsh, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948 (Oxford: Osprey

Publishing, 2014), pp. 13–28.

4. Israel’s War of Independence/the Palestinian Nakba – Contrasting Narratives

  • Core
  • Reading:

1. Paul Scham, “Competing Israeli and Palestinian Narratives,” in The Routledge

Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, ed. Joel Peters and David Newman

(Londonꢀ; New York: Routledge, 2013), pp. 33–43.
2. Colin Shindler, A History of Modern Israel, 2nd ed (Cambridgeꢀ; New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2013), Chapter 2.
3. Ahmad H. Sa’di, “Catastrophe, Memory and Identity: Al-Nakbah as a Component of
Palestinian Identity,” Israel Studies 7, no. 2 (November 21, 2002): pp. 175–98.
4. Efraim Karsh, Rethinking the Middle East, Cass Series--Israeli History, Politics, and
Society (Londonꢀ; Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2003), Chapter 8 (“Were the Palestinians Expelled?”).
5. Ilan Pappé, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Oxford: Oneworld, 2006), pp. 58–61,
92–96.

Primary Source:

Yoram Kaniuk, 1948, chapters 1 and 12.

Optional Reading:

1. Rashid Khalidi, “The Palestinians and 1948: The Underlying Causes of Failure,” in

The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, ed. Eugene L. Rogan and Avi

Shlaim, 2nd ed, Cambridge Middle East Studies 15 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 12–36.
2. Benny Morris, “Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948,” in The War for Palestine:
Rewriting the History of 1948, ed. Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim, 2nd ed, Cambridge Middle East Studies 15 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 37–59.

3. Efraim Karsh, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Palestine War 1948 (Oxford: Osprey

Publishing, 2014), pp. 29–68.

5. The Rise and Fall (and Ressurection?) of the Kibbutz
Reading:

1. Daniel Gavron, The Kibbutz: Awakening from Utopia (Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2000), Chapter 1 (Degania).
2. Ran Abramitzky, “Lessons from the Kibbutz on the Equality—Incentives Trade-Off,”

The Journal of Economic Perspectives 25, no. 1 (2011): pp. 185–207.

Primary Sources:

1. Amos Oz, “Little Boy” (in Between Friends).

2. Batya Gur, Murder on a Kibbutz: A Communal Case, Chapter 18.

Optional Reading:

1. Daniel Gavron, The Kibbutz: Awakening from Utopia (Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2000), Chapters 2 (Givat Brenner) and 6 (The Collapse of 1985).
2. Meir Chazan, “The Struggle of Kibbutz Women to Participate in Guard Duties during the Arab Revolt, 1936–1939,” Journal of Israeli History 31, no. 1 (2012): pp. 83–108.
3. Eliezer Don-Yehiya and Charles S. Liebman, “The Symbol System of Zionist-
Socialism: An Aspect of Israeli Civil Religion,” Modern Judaism 1, no. 2 (1981): pp. 121–48.

6. The Israeli Arabs/Palestinian Citizens of Israel. Is Israel a Democratic State for
All its Citizens?

Reading:

1. Majid Al-Haj, “The Status of the Palestinians in Israel: A Double Periphery in an
Ethno-National State,” in Critical Issues in Israeli Society, ed. Alan Dowty, Praeger Series on Jewish and Israeli Studies (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), pp. 109–26.
2. Nadim Rouhana and Asad Ghanem, “The Crisis of Minorities in Ethnic States: The

Case of Palestinian Citizens in Israel,” International Journal of Middle East Studies

30, no. 3 (1998): pp. 321–46.
3. Hillel Cohen, “Land, Memory, and Identity: The Palestinian Internal Refugees in

Israel,” Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees 21, no. 2 (2003): pp. 6–13.

Optional Reading:

1. Alexander (Sandy) Kedar and Oren Yiftachel, “Land Regime and Social Relations in
Israel,” in Swiss Human Rights Book, ed. Hernando De Soto and Francis Cheneval, vol. 1 (Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, 2006), 127–44.
2. Sammy Smooha, “Ethnic Democracy: Israel as an Archetype,” Israel Studies 2, no. 2
(1997): pp. 198–241.
3. Oren Yiftachel, “‘Ethnocracy’: The Politics of Judaizing Israel/Palestine,” in Across

the Wall: Narratives of Israeli-Palestinian History, ed. Ilan Pappé and Jamīl Hilāl

(Londonꢀ; New York: I. B. Tauris, 2010), pp. 269–306.

7. The Six-Day War
Core Reading:

1. Anita Shapira, Israel: A History, The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies (Waltham,
MA: Brandeis University Press, 2012), Chapter 13.
2. Ian J Bickerton, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History (London: Reaktion Books, 2009), pp. 118–30.

3. Tom Segev, 1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East,

trans. Jessica Cohen (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007), Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11.

Optional Reading:

1. Michael B. Oren, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle

East (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
2. Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000),
Chapter 6.

3. Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, Israel, the Superpowers, and the War in the Middle East

(New York: Praeger, 1987), Chapter 3.

8. The Occupation and the Settlers
Core Reading:

1. Colin Shindler, A History of Modern Israel, 2nd ed (Cambridgeꢀ; New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2013), Chapter 6.
2. Michael Feige, “Jewish Settlement of Hebron: The Place and the Other,” GeoJournal
53, no. 3 (2001): pp. 323–33.
3. Sara Yael Hirschhorn, “The Origins of the Redemption in Occupied Suburbia? The
Jewish-American Makings of the West Bank Settlement of Efrat, 1973–87,” Middle Eastern Studies 51, no. 2 (2015): pp. 269–84.

Primary Source:

Amos Oz, “The Finger of God” and “An Argument on Life and Death (A)” (in In the Land of

Israel)

Optional Reading:

1. Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar, Lords of the Land: The War over Israel’s Settlements in

the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007, trans. Vivian Eden (New York: Nation Books, 2009), Chapters 1 (Blindness) and 7 (Everything is Legal in the Land of Israel).

2. Michael Feige, Settling in the Hearts: Jewish Fundamentalism in the Occupied

Territories (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2009).

9. The Yom Kippur War
Core Reading:

1. Anita Shapira, Israel: A History, The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies (Waltham,
MA: Brandeis University Press, 2012), Chapter 15.
2. Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000),
Chapter 7.
3. Edna Lomsky-Feder, “Life Stories, War, and Veterans: On the Social Distribution of
Memories,” Ethos 32, no. 1 (2004): pp. 82–109.

Primary Source:

Golda Meir, My Life, Chapter 14.

Optional Reading:

1. Charles S Liebman, “The Myth of Defeat: The Memory of the Yom Kippur War in
Israeli Society,” Middle Eastern Studies 29, no. 3 (1993): pp. 399–418.

2. Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, Israel, the Superpowers, and the War in the Middle East

(New York: Praeger, 1987), Chapter 53
3. Ahron Bregman, “Ashraf Marwan and Israel’s Intelligence Failure,” in The Yom

Kippur War: Politics, Legacy, Diplomacy, ed. Asaf Siniver (Oxfordꢀ; New York: Oxford

University Press, 2013), pp. 195–208.

10. Peace and War under the Likud Government
Core Reading:

1. Anita Shapira, Israel: A History, The Schusterman Series in Israel Studies (Waltham,
MA: Brandeis University Press, 2012), Chapter 17.
2. Colin Shindler, A History of Modern Israel, 2nd ed (Cambridgeꢀ; New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2013), Chapters 7 and 8.

Optional Reading:

1. Avi Shilon, Menachem Begin: A Life, trans. Danielle Zilberberg and Yoram Sharett
(New Haven, CTꢀ; London: Yale University Press, 2012), Chapters 17 and 18.
2. Ian J Bickerton, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History (London: Reaktion Books, 2009),
Chapter 6.

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  • The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

    The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

    ORE Open Research Exeter TITLE The 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine AUTHORS Pappé, I JOURNAL Journal of Palestine Studies DEPOSITED IN ORE 17 July 2014 This version available at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/15208 COPYRIGHT AND REUSE Open Research Exeter makes this work available in accordance with publisher policies. A NOTE ON VERSIONS The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Author(s): Ilan Pappé Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Autumn 2006), pp. 6-20 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jps.2006.36.1.6 . Accessed: 28/03/2014 09:50 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press and Institute for Palestine Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Palestine Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 144.173.152.98 on Fri, 28 Mar 2014 09:50:03 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE 1948 ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE ILAN PAPP´E This article, excerpted and adapted from the early chapters of a new book, emphasizes the systematic preparations that laid the ground for the expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from what became Israel in 1948.
  • Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002 - 2003

    Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002 - 2003

    Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002 - 2003 Based on information by the National Focal Points of the RAXEN Information Network Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002 – 2003 Based on information by the National Focal Points of the EUMC - RAXEN Information Network EUMC - Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002 - 2003 2 EUMC – Manifestations of Antisemitism in the EU 2002 – 2003 Foreword Following concerns from many quarters over what seemed to be a serious increase in acts of antisemitism in some parts of Europe, especially in March/April 2002, the EUMC asked the 15 National Focal Points of its Racism and Xenophobia Network (RAXEN) to direct a special focus on antisemitism in its data collection activities. This comprehensive report is one of the outcomes of that initiative. It represents the first time in the EU that data on antisemitism has been collected systematically, using common guidelines for each Member State. The national reports delivered by the RAXEN network provide an overview of incidents of antisemitism, the political, academic and media reactions to it, information from public opinion polls and attitude surveys, and examples of good practice to combat antisemitism, from information available in the years 2002 – 2003. On receipt of these national reports, the EUMC then asked an independent scholar, Dr Alexander Pollak, to make an evaluation of the quality and availability of this data on antisemitism in each country, and identify problem areas and gaps. The country-by-country information provided by the 15 National Focal Points, and the analysis by Dr Pollak, form Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of this report respectively.
  • POSTZIONISM: a READER Table of Contents

    POSTZIONISM: a READER Table of Contents

    POSTZIONISM: A READER Table of Contents Reading Postzionism: An Introduction Laurence J. Silberstein I. NEW HISTORIANS AND CRITICAL SOCIOLOGISTS: CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON ISRAELI/ZIONIST NARRATIVES The New Historiography: Israel Confronts Its Past Benny Morris Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: 1882-1914 * Gershon Shafir Palestinians: The Making of A People * Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal Post-Zionism: The First Decade * Uri Ram II. EXPANDING THE RANGE OF CRITIQUE: ENGAGING THE DISCOURSE The Identity of the Victims and the Victims of Identity: A Critique of Zionist Ideology for a Post-Zionist Age Adi Ophir Academic History Caught in the Cross-Fire: The Case of Israeli-Jewish Historiography Baruch Kimmerling 'Ethnocracy': The Politics of Judaizing Israel/Palestine Oren Yiftachel A First Step in a Difficult and Sensitive Road: Preliminary Observations on Qaadan v. Katzir Alexandre (Sandy) Kedar Save as Jerusalems * Ariella Azoulay III. MINORITY DISCOURSE: VOICES FROM THE “MARGINS” A. Minority Discourse in Israeli Culture Hebrew in an Israeli Arab Hand: Six Miniatures on Anton Shammas’s Arabesques Hannan Hever B. Palestinian Citizens At Half Mast–Myths, Symbols, and Rituals of An Emerging State: A Personal Testimony of an “Israeli Arab” Anton Shammas Arab Citizens of Palestine: Little to Celebrate Azmi Bishara C. Arab Jews/Mizrahim Rupture and Return: Zionist Discourse and the Study of Arab Jews Ella Shohat The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion and Ethnicity * Yehouda Shenhav A Mizrahi Call for a More Democratic Israel Pnina Motzafi-Haller C. Gender and Sexuality: Women, Gays, and Lesbians Body and Territory: Women in Israeli Cinema Orly Lubin Beyond Flesh.
  • Introduction

    Introduction

    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-87598-1 - The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948, Second Edition Edited by Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim Excerpt More information Introduction The Palestine War lasted less than twenty months, from the United Nations resolution recommending the partition of Palestine in November 1947 to the final armistice agreement signed between Israel and Syria in July 1949. Those twenty months transformed the political landscape of the Middle East forever. Indeed, 1948 may be taken as a defining moment for the region as a whole. Arab Palestine was destroyed and the new state of Israel established. Egypt, Syria and Lebanon suffered outright defeat, Iraq held its lines, and Transjordan won at best a pyrrhic victory. Arab public opinion, unprepared for defeat, let alone a defeat of this magnitude, lost faith in its politicians. Within three years of the end of the Palestine War, the prime ministers of Egypt and Lebanon and the king of Jordan had been assassinated, and the president of Syria and the king of Egypt over- thrown by military coups. No event has marked Arab politics in the second half of the twentieth century more profoundly. The Arab–Israeli wars, the Cold War in the Middle East, the rise of the Palestinian armed struggle, and the politics of peace-making in all of their complexity are a direct con- sequence of the Palestine War. The significance of the Palestine War also lies in the fact that it was the first challenge to face the newly independent states of the Middle East.
  • The Palestinian People

    The Palestinian People

    The Palestinian People The Palestinian People ❖ A HISTORY Baruch Kimmerling Joel S. Migdal HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England 2003 Copyright © 1994, 2003 by Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America An earlier version of this book was published in 1994 as Palestinians: The Making of a People Cataloging-in-Publication data available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0-674-01131-7 (cloth) ISBN 0-674-01129-5 (paper) To the Palestinians and Israelis working and hoping for a mutually acceptable, negotiated settlement to their century-long conflict CONTENTS Maps ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xxi Note on Transliteration xxiii Introduction xxv Part One FROM REVOLT TO REVOLT: THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE EUROPEAN WORLD AND ZIONISM 1. The Revolt of 1834 and the Making of Modern Palestine 3 2. The City: Between Nablus and Jaffa 38 3. Jerusalem: Notables and Nationalism 67 4. The Arab Revolt, 1936–1939 102 vii Contents Part Two DISPERSAL 5. The Meaning of Disaster 135 Part Three RECONSTITUTING THE PALESTINIAN NATION 6. Odd Man Out: Arabs in Israel 169 7. Dispersal, 1948–1967 214 8. The Feday: Rebirth and Resistance 240 9. Steering a Path under Occupation 274 Part Four ABORTIVE RECONCILIATION 10. The Oslo Process: What Went Right? 315 11. The Oslo Process: What Went Wrong? 355 Conclusion 398 Chronological List of Major Events 419 Notes 457 Index 547 viii MAPS 1. Palestine under Ottoman Rule 39 2. Two Partitions of Palestine (1921, 1949) 148 3. United Nations Recommendation for Two-States Solution in Palestine (1947) 149 4.
  • What Jewish American Children Learn About Palestinian Displacement During the Founding of the State of Israel

    What Jewish American Children Learn About Palestinian Displacement During the Founding of the State of Israel

    The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Master's Theses Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects Winter 12-11-2020 #YouNeverToldMe: What Jewish American Children Learn about Palestinian Displacement during the Founding of the State of Israel Nancy Sheftel-Gomes [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/thes Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Sheftel-Gomes, Nancy, "#YouNeverToldMe: What Jewish American Children Learn about Palestinian Displacement during the Founding of the State of Israel" (2020). Master's Theses. 1342. https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/1342 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, Capstones and Projects at USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of San Francisco #YouNeverToldMe: What Jewish American Children Learn about Palestinian Displacement during the Founding of the State of Israel A Field Project Proposal Presented to The Faculty of the School of Education International and Multicultural Education Department In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Human Rights Education By Nancy E. Sheftel-Gomes December 2020 i #YouNeverToldMe: What Jewish American Children Learn about Palestinian Displacement during the Founding of the State of Israel In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS in HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION By Nancy E. Sheftel-Gomes December 2020 UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approval by all the members, this field project (or thesis) has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree.
  • The Six Day War and the French Press, 1967

    The Six Day War and the French Press, 1967

    Three Visions of Conflict: The Six Day War and the French Press, 1967 Robert Isaacson The George Washington University Abstract: Examination of the journalistic coverage of the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War by the French mainstream media reveals the centrality of the war experience as a turning point in French public discourse on Israel. Shared assumptions about Israel's vulnerability were replaced by diverse and often contradictory discourses of religious triumphalism, territorial revisionism, and ideological anti-imperialism. This analysis shows that French President Charles de Gaulle's interpretation of the war was far from dominant, and indicates that French public discourse on Israel was fractured and diverse, responsive to different events, and far from the monolith that polling that would suggest. In November 1967, five months after Israel's dramatic victory in the June 5 to June 10 Six Day War, French President Charles de Gaulle publically ended the "tacit alliance" that had existed between France and Israel since the early 1950s.1 In a nationally broadcast speech, de Gaulle expressed his frustration with Israel by critiquing Jews broadly, calling them "an elite people, sure of themselves and domineering...charged [with] burning and conquering ambition," and blamed the war on Israeli territorial aspirations.2 These statements were a far cry from those de Gaulle had made only a decade prior, when he told then-Herut Party chairman, Menachem Begin, "Don't let go of Gaza. It is a sector essential for your security."3 The November remarks drew fire from critics in France and Israel who saw the words as antisemitic and cementing his "betrayal" of Israel on the eve of the Six Day War by adopting a policy of "active neutrality."4 This policy, itself a gesture meant to boost relations with the Arab world, threatened condemnation on whichever party initiated hostilities, and preemptively moved to cut off arms shipments to Israel.