History

            Web site: http://www.bw.edu/academics/his/faculty/igesink/

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN? You will learn the major events of Arab-Israeli history from the beginnings of Jewish settlement in Ottoman Palestine in the 1880s to the present time.   You will investigate both Jewish and Arab views through primary sources: government documents, UN treaties, memoirs, video-taped interviews, and literature.  By the end of the course, you will understand and be able to explain to others the larger issues behind the violence shown endlessly on TV: the human tragedy of the conflicts, the moral struggles and convictions of the participants, and the possibilities for peaceful resolution.

HOW WILL I EVALUATE YOUR LEARNING?

•      Quizzes (15 points): If you decide to stay in this class, there are certain things you must agree to do.  You should keep up with the readings and prepare the questions on the syllabus for discussion.  If you do not prepare, you will not only damage your own learning, you will also deprive the rest of the class of the chance to learn from your own unique insights.  To encourage you to keep up, I give one-question quizzes based on the questions on the syllabus.

•       Participation (5 points): Some discussions will be in small, assigned groups, and others may be whole class discussions or debates resulting in written group projects.  Bring notes, and do your best to prepare your answers as a historian would: cite your evidence, evaluate authors’ perspectives, and consider alternative answers.  This is in no way intended to be an intimidating process; rather, it is your chance to contribute to the way the rest of the class (including me) understands the subjects of our study.

•        Two Exams (50 points): These exams may include multiple choice, matching, true/false, short answer, or map questions.  Short answer questions will test the skills you have learned and ask you to reflect on the major themes of the class. 

•         Research Paper (25 points): This class will require an 8-10-page research paper, with Chicago Manual of Style documentation and an annotated bibliography.

•         Research Assignments (5 points): To help you choose and investigate a research topic, I will have you do a series of short assignments (heuristic questions, annotated bibliography with source analyses, and outlines).  Revised research assignments must be turned in with the final research paper.

•         Cultural Enrichment Projects: I want to encourage you to do reading or watch documentaries on topics that we may not cover in class, visit mosques, synagogues, or Middle Eastern churches, or do projects that expose you to Arab or Israeli/Jewish culture.  I also think it is important for you to be able to pursue subjects of your own interest.  So I allow you to get up to five points of extra credit; see the External Links page on the Blackboard site for details and restrictions. All extra credits must be turned in by the last day of class (before finals week).

WHAT WILL YOU READ?

•           The Arab-Israeli Conflict, by Kirsten E. Schulze.  A very brief chronological introduction to Arab-Israeli history.  Readings indicated on course schedule as AIC.

•           The Israel-Arab Reader: A documentary history of the Middle East conflict, edited by Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin.  6^th revised and updated edition.  A collection of primary sources.  Readings indicated on course schedule as R.

•           Men in the Sun and other Palestinian Stories, by Ghassan Kanafani.  Short stories by a Palestinian author.

•           Night, by Elie Wiesel.  Memoirs of Holocaust survivor’s experience in Nazi death camps.

•            Course Documents and Assignments in Blackboard.  Readings indicated on course schedule as B. 

WHAT DO I EXPECT OF YOU? I will do everything in my power to help you achieve the learning objectives for this class.  But I can only do so much.  Ultimately, how much you learn depends on your own effort.

•                     I do not take attendance.  Since I give frequent quizzes, if you miss a class, you will not only miss the lecture or discussion for that day but risk losing points on quizzes as well.  I know that everyone gets sick or has an occasional emergency that prevents class attendance once in a while, but because of federal privacy laws, I do not collect excuses for absences.  If you miss an occasional class, get the notes from a classmate and do an extra credit assignment to make up for the missed quiz.  Keep in mind that only five points of extra credit are available, and that missing over three days of class could have a serious impact on your learning. If you have a serious illness or other problem that requires a lengthy absence, you must contact the Dean of Students and ask her to send an explanation to all your professors.

•                     Missed assignments will receive a grade of zero.  Note that a zero is worse, mathematically-speaking, than an F (anything below sixty percent).  If an assignment is due on a day when you must miss class, please use the digital drop box in Blackboard to turn it in (I accept MS Word and Corel WordPerfect formats, but not MS Works).  Please practice professional standards in your work and turn materials in typed and on time.

•                     Students who know that they will miss the midterm or final exam due to planned absence may schedule a make-up. 

•                     Any student with a documented disability (e.g., mobility, learning, psychological, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange accommodations must contact both me and Disability Services for Students (826-2116) at the beginning of the term.

•                     Plagiarism and cheating are ways of avoiding true learning.  If you learn to rely on them in college, they will become bad habits that may embarrass or ruin you as a professional.  If I suspect you of either, I will make you re-do the assignment until I am sure you have learned to do the work on your own.  Deliberate violations of the “Policy on Academic Honesty” detailed in the Baldwin-Wallace College Catalog will be reported for disciplinary action.  In that event, your case will be decided by college judicial authorities, which can take up to a year and may delay your graduation.

•                     I strongly encourage you to make use of my e-mail and office hours.  This is the best way to ensure that I get to know you as a person, so that I am aware of your individual strengths and any difficulties you may experience.  I offer help preparing assignments, papers, or for exams, and if you would like help on a more regular basis, I can arrange for tutoring.  Contact me to schedule an appointment. 

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE: Reading assignments should be completed for the day on which they are assigned.

Week One: Introductions and Overview

M 1/8 Overview of the history of Palestine, from ancient times to the present.  Assignment: Please give me a photocopy of your student ID (or a recent picture) with the following information: your (1) name as you want to be called, (2) major, (3) year in school, (4) reasons for taking this class, (5) something to help me remember you.

W 1/10 Judaism. Assignment: Read the Sectarian Groups handout in Blackboard Course Documents.  Go to the Judaism 101 web site (http://www.jewfaq.org/)and explore the materials.  See esp. the link http://www.jewfaq.org/613.htm.  This lists the 613 mitzvot to which I will be referring in class.  These links are also in Blackboard Course Documents.

F 1/12 Islam. Web assignment: Explore the “Introducing Islam” page on the Islam On-Line web site (http://www.islamonline.net/english/introducingislam/index.shtml).  Come to class prepared to ask questions.  These links are also in the Course Documents section of Blackboard.

Week Two: Historical Background

M 1/15 MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY – no class

W 1/17 Ottoman Palestine: Geography, tax farming, and the legacy of European imperialism. B: maps of Ottoman Palestine and the Middle East.

F 1/19 Anti-Semitism and Zionism in Europe. R: 3-10 (Bilu Manifesto, Herzl’s Jewish State, Basle Declaration).

Week Three: Early Jewish settlement in Palestine and the Growth of Arab Nationalism

M 1/22 Anti-Semitism and Zionism in Europe.

W 1/24 B: “Two Farms in Palestine”.

F 1/26 R: 10 (Negib Azouri’s “Program of the League of the Arab Fatherland”)

Week Four: Palestine in WWI

M 1/29 Begin reading assignments for Friday. 

W 1/31 AIC: 1-5.

F 2/2 Group discussion exercise: The fate of Palestine and neighboring Arab countries was decided at the Paris Peace Conferences following WWI.  Negotiators intended to construct a settlement that would prevent future wars, but the conflicting promises they had made during the war to the various parties ensured there would be a legacy of disagreement over territory.  Today we will be doing models of the conferences.  Read R: 11-25 (McMahon letter, Sykes-Picot Agreement, Balfour Declaration, Feisal-Weizmann Agreement, Feisal-Frankfurter Correspondence, Memo Presented to King-Crane Commission, King-Crane Commission Recommendations) and B: “British Treaty with Ibn Sa‘ud,” “British and Anglo-French Statements to the Arabs,” “Amir Faysal’s Memorandum,” “Tentative Recommendations for President Wilson,” “Summary Record of a Secret Meeting of the Supreme Council at Paris,” and maps of WWI promises.  Have each member of your group represent a different faction (Arab nationalists, Zionists, British, French, American...).  Use the various agreements and treaties in your readings as evidence to defend your claims to territory. You must adhere to the positions taken by the actual negotiators, as presented in the evidence, but you may negotiate different settlements than they did. Your goal is to negotiate a written settlement that allocates territory in Palestine in a way that satisfies all parties, by trading other territories, etc.

Week Five: Mandate Palestine

M 2/5 R: 25-36 (Churchill’s White Paper, British Mandate); B: “Rise and Decay of the Irgun”

W 2/7 AIC: 5-8; R: 36-41 (MacDonald Letter), B: “Izz al-Din al-Qassam: Preacher and Mujahid” and “The Father of Jewish Armed Resistance.” Discussion: Was al-Qassam a terrorist?  Was the Irgun a terrorist organization?

F 2/9 R: 41-51 (Peel Commission Report, Policy Statement Against Partition, 1939 White Paper, Zionist Reaction).  Read Elie Wiesel’s Night over weekend.

Week Six: The Holocaust, the Immigration Question, and the Palestinian Civil War

M 2/12 VIDEO: excerpt on the Holocaust from World War II: Into the Storm. Heuristic question exercise due.  Instructions in Blackboard Assignments section.

W 2/14 Finish Night.  Discuss in class.

F 2/16 AIC: 8-12; B: “The King David Hotel,” by Menachem Begin.

Week Seven: Israel’s War of Independence

M 2/19 R: 65-77 (UNSCOP’s report, Partition Resolution) and 81-83 (Israel’s Proclamation of Independence)

W 2/21 B: Excerpt from The Lady Was a Terrorist, by Doris Katz; “The Jews Attack,” by J. Bowyer Bell;“Deir Yassin Remembered: Survivors’ Accounts”;  “The ‘Altalena’ Affair,” by Menachem Begin; “Deir Yassin: Arab study shows there was no massacre.”  Discussion: What happened at Deir Yassin?  What does it mean to “know what happened” in the past?

F 2/23 B: “The Generation of 1948,” by Ehud Ben-Ezer, “The Prisoner” by S. Yizhar (1949), and “The Swimming Race” by Benjamin Tammuz (1951).  Discussion: What do these readings suggest about changing settler attitudes toward the Arabs after 1948? 

Week Eight: al-Nakba, ‘the Catastrophe’   

M 2/26 VIDEO: Al-Nakba: the Palestinian Catastrophe.  Read “Land of Sad Oranges” (1958) in Men in the Sun: illustrates the suffering of Palestinian refugees departing from Acre. 

W 2/28 Discussion: According to these sources, who was/is responsible for the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel?  AIC: 13-22 and 101-104 (“Plan D”); B: “The Palestinian Refugees,” by Ahmed Shukairy; “The Other Exodus,” by Erskine Childers; and “The Refugee Problem,” by Abba Eban.

F 3/2 MIDTERM EXAM

M 3/5 - F 3/9 SPRING BREAK

Week Nine: After ‘the Catastrophe’: From 1948 to the Suez Crisis

M 3/12 R: 87 (Law of Return).

W 3/14 AIC: 23-32 and 106 (Sevres Protocol); R: 89-91 (Nasser speeches).

F 3/16 Read “Letter from Gaza” (1956) from Men in the Sun.

Week Ten: The genesis of the PLO and the Six-Day War of 1967

M 3/19 Read “Men in the Sun” (1962) from Men in the Sun.  Also read the book’s introduction.  R: 102-103 (Nasser speech). Discussion: “Men in the Sun” is a parable of Palestinian inaction, weakness, and divisiveness before the formation of the PLO.  Who do you think the characters symbolize?

W 3/21 Annotated bibliographies due.  Instructions and example in Blackboard Assignments.

F 3/23 Discussion: Does UN Resolution 242 give Palestinians a ‘right of return’?  Is the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights illegal?  AIC: 33-41; R: 110-113 (Rabin on the right of Israel), 116 (UN Resolution 242); B: “Stop Distorting UN Resolution 242!”

Week Eleven: Wars of attrition

M 3/26 PLO terrorism. R: 117-131 (on PLO and al-Fatah doctrine).

W 3/28 The 1973 War.  R: 148-152 (Sadat’s speech and Resolution 338).

F 3/30 Changes in Israeli society and the Camp David Accords. AIC: 42-60; R: 206-215 (Likud Party Platform and Sadat’s speech to the Israeli Knesset), 220-221 (Carter’s statement on Palestinian rights), 222-228 (Egypt and Israel’s Framework for peace and the peace treaty).

Week Twelve:The first ‘war on terror’

M 4/2 Lebanon.  R: 221-222 (Resolution 425), 239-243 (Sharon on Israeli Security), 254-257 (Operation Peace for Galilee).

W 4/4 Lebanon (VIDEO: Frontline: Target America). AIC: 61-70; R: 257-263 (Reagan), 269-274 (Kahan Commission Report on the Sabra and Shatila massacres). B: Termsheet for video (print and bring to class).

F 4/6 GOOD FRIDAY: No class.

Week Thirteen: the 1988 intifada and the genesis of Hamas and Islamic Jihad

M 4/9 EASTER MONDAY: No class.

W 4/11 AIC: 71-81; R: 317-319 (14 points); 341-348 (Hamas Charter), 354-358 (Palestinian Declaration of Independence); B: “Inside Hamas”.

Outlines due.  Instructions in Blackboard Assignments.

F 4/13 B: “U.S financial aid to Israel: figures, facts, and impact”; Maps of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, 1967-1987.  Discussion: By the late 1980s, had the conflict become more religious in nature?  If so, why?  How?

 Week Fourteen: The Peace Process, the July 2000 summit, and the al-Aqsa Intifada

M 4/16 VIDEO: Frontline: Shattered Dreams of Peace. AIC: 82-96; B: Handout on Peace Process of 1990s; Termsheet for video (print and bring to class).

W 4/18 VIDEO: Frontline: Shattered Dreams of Peace. R: 499-502 (interview on reaction to terrorist attack); B: “The Peace of the Powerful,” by Glenn Robinson, “Decline and Disfigurement: the Palestinian Economy After Oslo,” by Sara Roy, and MAP: A Land Divided.

F 4/20 R: 549-562 (on the July 2000 summit and recent violence); B: “The Politics of Memory,” by Amos Elon, “The Art of Forgetting,” by Anton Shammas, “Cocked and Locked,” by Etgar Keret [1994], “Greater Israel,” “Escaping the Hell of the Holy Land,” “Arafat’s Harvest of Hate,” and “Why did the July 2000 summit fail” by I. Gesink.  Discussion: (1) According to the readings for today and last week, why did the peace process of the 1990s fail?  (2) What are the underlying causes of recent violence? Additional questions to consider: (3) Considering Glenn Robinson’s concept of a “hegemonic peace,” was Ehud Barak’s offer as generous as claimed? (4) What role might personal politics have played in the summit’s collapse?  (5) Did Arafat have the popular support to agree to the deal?  (6) Were Israeli and Palestinian Authority policies at the time good faith efforts to prepare for peace?

Week Fifteen: Possibilities for Resolution

M 4/23 Contemporary developments. B: Articles in Contemporary Developments folder in Course Documents–will be updated during the semester.

W 4/25 R: 562-564 (Clinton Plan and Roadmap), 567-573 (Palestinian Reaction and Settlements); B: “Young Jews and Arabs Learn Peace Through Humor,” “Support the Israeli Army Reservists,” “For Palestinian Refugees, Dream of Return Endures” by Neil MacFarquhar, “Observations on the Right of Return” by Rashid Khalidi, “Do Palestinian Refugees Have the Right to Return to Israel?” by Ruth Lapidoth, cartoon “March Madness,” map of security fence.  Final Group Discussion Project: Considering all the evidence available to you, construct a comprehensive written peace agreement with your discussion group.  Your group will turn in a written agreement, and it will be evaluated for (1) awareness of territorial, economic, and psychological causes underlying the cycle of violence, (2) comprehensive attempt to address these causes, and (3) feasibility.

F 4/27 continue final discussion project.

FINAL EXAM: Wednesday, May 3, 1-3 PM