Course Title: THE
ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT: HISTORICAL MEMORY, IDENTITY,
&
NATIONALISM
Department
Of
Political
Science/Texas State University
The online version of this syllabus can be
accessed @
arnoldleder.com
e-mail address: al04@txstate.edu
Office: ELA 335
Office Hours: TBA & by
appointment
Selected Web Resources For Texas State
University
Texas
State
University Library
Locating
Periodicals @ Texas State University Library
Citation
&
Bibliographic Styles & Related Information
COURSE ORGANIZATION & STUDENT
RESPONSIBILITIES
Please see: Academic Honesty Statement/Student
Handbook/Texas
State University San Marcos
An excerpt from this statement can be found at the
end
of this syllabus.
Class Participation, Oral Presentations,
Exams,
Papers, Grades
1. This course will be conducted as a
seminar.
Students must attend every class meeting and be prepared to
discuss
assigned
readings and other materials. Active participation in
class
discussion
is essential. Course grades will be determined by oral
presentations,
class participation, and written papers.
2. Determinants of Course Grade: Oral Reports
&
Presentations 25%/ Seminar Participation 15%/ Essay
Exams/Papers 60%
Attendance
1. Three (3) unexcused absences are
permitted.
Students with four (4) unexcused absences will have their
course grade
lowered by one letter grade. Students who have five (5)
unexcused
absences will have their course grade lowered by two letter
grades.
No absences beyond five (5) for any reason are
permitted.
Any student who has more than five absences is likely to fail
the
course
and, therefore, should withdraw from the course.
2. The instructor for the course is not
responsible
for bringing students who have missed class "up-to-date" on
missed
material.
Each student has the responsibility to remain current with
respect to
class
material.
Note On Course & Syllabus Materials: Students may find books, articles, links, websites, and other materials provided in this syllabus useful and of interest. Their listing in this syllabus, including those which are required and recommended, does not necessarily indicate endorsement of or agreement with any views or positions on any issues found in these materials, websites, or on other sites to which they may provide links.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is an
introduction
to the origins, politics, and development of the
Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
PURPOSE OF COURSE
This course is designed to
familiarize
students with the issues of historical memory, identity, and
national
consciousness
in the Israeli and Palestinian communities. These
issues will be
examined within the framework of broader theoretical
literature on
nationalism
and the construction of national identity.
MATERIALS AT RESERVE
READINGS
DESK/Texas
State University Library
Anthony Marx, Faith in
Nation,
Chapters 1 & 7.
Anita Shapira, Land and
Power:
The Zionist Resort to Force 1881-1948, Chapter 1 "The
Birth of a
National
Ethos" (pp.1-52.).
Recommended Books
Anthony
Marx/Faith
in Nation: Exclusionary Origins Of Nationalism (Oxford Univ.
2003)/Paperback
Anita
Shapira/Land
and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force 1881-1948 (Stanford
Univ. 1992)/Paperback
Required & Recommended Articles &
Other
Readings
Are Listed in the Appropriate Sections of the Syllabus
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THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN
CONFLICT:
HISTORICAL MEMORY, IDENTITY, & NATIONALISM
Overview Of Course
Topics
I.
Historical Memory, Identity, & National Consciousness:
An Overview
II.
The Question of Identity in the Middle East
III.
Israeli Identity
IV.
Palestinian
Identity
V.
The Conflict: An Historical Perspective
VI.
Jerusalem (Yerushaleyem/al-Quds)
VII.
The
Conflict After 1967
VIII.
Additional Dimensions Of The Conflict
TOPICS
FOR READING, ORAL & WRITTEN REPORTS, & DISCUSSION
I.
Historical Memory, Identity, & National Consciousness:
An Overview
Readings:
Books
Anthony Marx, Faith in
Nation,
Chapters 1 & 7.
These chapters of the Marx
book
are available @ the RESERVE READINGS DESK/Texas State
University
Library.
Adeed Dawisha, Arab
Nationalism
In The Twentieth Century, pp. 52 through 64.
Yael Zerubavel, Recovered
Roots,
Preface, Introduction, & Chapter 1.
Articles
James McPherson, "Southern
Comfort",
The
New York Review of Books, April 12, 2001.
Richard Vinen, "Electric
Koran",
London
Review of Books, 7 June 2001
This article
can be viewed
@ http://www.arnoldleder.com/readings/index.html.
Scroll
to the section on the "Arab-Israeli Conflict" and look for the
author
and title of this
article.
This location is password protected. Password and user
name for
access
will be provided to students in the course.
Fintan
O'Toole, "Lesser Evils" (Review Of
Ireland's HolyWars:
The
Struggle For A Nation's Soul,1500-2000 byMarcus Tanner
Yale
University Press) The New Republic, August 19 & 26, 2002.
O'Toole challenges the book's "misleading" title and the
conventional
view
held by Tanner that religious identity is at the root of the
Irish
conflict.
In O'Toole's words: "What Ireland shows, again and again, is how
the
meaning
of religious identity changes under the pressure of political
and
economic
forces." Consider O'Toole's view in the light of
Anthony
Marx's
treatment of the relationship between religion and nationalism.
For full online access to this article go
to Locating
Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.
A valid Texas
StateUniversity User Name and password are required.
II.
The Question of Identity in the Middle East
Readings: Bernard Lewis, The
Multiple
Identities of the Middle East, the entire book.
Jonathan
Wilson/Ancestral
Journeys/NYT Sunday Book Review July 6, 2008
A review of Origins:
A
Memoir by Amin Maalouf (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008)
“Barely a hundred years ago, Lebanese Christians readily
proclaimed
themselves Syrian, Syrians looked to Mecca for a king, Jews in the Holy
Land called themselves Palestinian
... and my grandfather Botros liked to think of himself as an
Ottoman
citizen,” he writes. “None of the present-day Middle Eastern
states
existed, and even the term ‘Middle East’ hadn’t been invented.
The
commonly used term was ‘Asian Turkey.’ (boldface added)
From Amin Maalouf's book. See Origins:
A
Memoir. Go to "Search inside this book" and type in the
words
"Jews in the Holy
Land called themselves Palestinian" (without the quotation
marks).
This line and the cited passage above are found on page 211 of
Maalouf's book. The passage is cited in Jonathan Wilson's
NYT
review
of Maalouf's book.
See also: Alexander
Star/Liberalism
in the Levant?Slate June 16, 2008
Moshe Shemesh, "The Palestinian Society in the
Wake
of the 1948 War: From Social Fragmentation to Consolidation",
Israel
Studies, Spring 2004, Vol. 9, No. 1.
For full online access to this article by Shemesh
go
to Locating
Periodicals @ Texas State University Library.
A valid Texas
StateUniversity User Name and password are required.
VI.
Jerusalem (Yerushaleyem/al-Quds)
Readings:
Articles
Bernard
Wasserstein/The Politics Of Holiness In Jerusalem/The
Chronicle of
Higher
Education/September 21 2001
Amos
Elon/The Deadlocked City/The New York Review of Books/October
18 2001
Elon's article is a review essay of Bernard
Wasserstein/Divided
Jerusalem: The Struggle for the Holy City (Yale
2001)
For a different perspective, see: Daniel Pipes/The Muslim Claim to
Jerusalem/Middle East Quarterly/Fall
2001
See also:
Emmanuel
Navon/We Forget Thee, Jerusalem/Azure Autumn 2007, No. 30.
A review essay of "How
Dreadful
Is This Place!" Holiness, Politics, and Justice in Jerusalem
and the
Holy Places in Israel
by Shmuel
Berkovitz (Carta Jerusalem, 2006, Hebrew).
VII.
The
Conflict After 1967
1. Israelis & Palestinians
Readings:
Books
Mark Tessler, A History
Of
The
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Part IV.
2. Israelis, Palestinians,
the
Arab States, & Peace Efforts
Readings:
Books
Itamar Rabinovich, Waging
Peace:
Israel and the Arabs 1948-2003, the entire book.
Articles
Michael
Scott
Doran/Palestine, Iraq, & American Strategy/Foreign
Affairs/January-February
2003
Josef
Joffee/A
World Without Israel/Foreign Policy, January-February, 2005
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Academic
Honesty Statement/Texas State University
Learning and teaching take place best in an
atmosphere
of intellectual freedom and openness. All members of the
academic
community
are responsible for supporting freedom and openness through
rigorous
personal
standards of honesty and fairness. Plagiarism and other forms
of
academic
dishonesty undermine the very purpose of the university and
diminish
the
value of an education.
Academic Offenses
Students who have committed academic
dishonesty,
which
includes cheating on an examination or other academic work to
be
submitted,
plagiarism, collusion, or abuse of resource materials, are
subject to
disciplinary
action.
a. Academic work means the preparation of an
essay,
thesis, report, problem assignments, or other projects which
are to be
submitted for purposes of grade determination.
b. Cheating means:
1. Copying from another student’s test paper,
laboratory
report, other report or computer files, data listing, and/or
programs.
2. Using materials during a test unauthorized
by
person
giving test.
3. Collaborating, without authorization, with
another
person during an examination or in preparing academic work.
4. Knowingly, and without authorization, using,
buying,
selling, stealing, transporting, soliciting, copying, or
possessing, in
whole or part, the content of an unaministered test.
5. Substituting for another student—or
permitting
another person to substitute for oneself in taking an exam or
preparing
academic work.
6. Bribing another person to obtain an
unadministered
test or information about an unadministered test.
c. Plagiarism means the appropriation of
another’s
work and the unacknowledged incorporation of that work in
one’s own
written
work offered for credit. (Underline Added)
d. Collusion means the unauthorized
collaboration
with another person in preparing written work offered for
credit.
e. Abuse of resource materials means the
mutilation,
destruction, concealment, theft or alteration of materials
provided to
assist students in the mastery of course materials.
Penalties for Academic Dishonesty
Students who have committeed academic
dishonesty may
be subject to:
a. Academic penalty including one or more of
the
following
when not inconsistent:
1. A requirement to perform additional academic
work
not required of other students in the course;
2. Required to withdraw from the course with
a
grade of “F.” (Underline Added)
3. A reduction to any level grade in the
course, or
on the exam or other academic work affected by the academic
dishonesty.
b. Disciplinary penalty including any penalty
which
may be imposed in a student disciplinary hearing pursuant to
this Code
of Conduct.
This statement is taken from the Texas State
University
San Marcos Student Handbook.
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