REL-256: Israel and Palestine, J-term 2003

This course syllabus is a proposed outline only and is subject to change based on the interests of students and the unfolding current events.

Course description

Why can't Arabs and Israelis reach a compromise for peace in the Middle East? We will investigate the roots of the current conflict through the history of the region. How do Jewish Israelis, Palestinians, and other Arabs from Israel and neighboring nations differ on just what happened from 1946 to present? Our focus will be on how that history impacts the current situation. The course will include videos, slide presentations, and student explorations and presentations on the Middle East conflict. Grading Option: Pass/Fail. Students who took ``Jerusalem Past and Present'' in J-term of 2002 may not enroll.

Students will be actively engaged in classroom debates, investigations, and presentations. Students will also arrange activities for the campus community.

Reason for pass/fail grading and general course expectations

The course is more experimental in nature than a regular semester religion course. Although the professors may require a few papers (or tests) in order to insure that the students gain a basic level of understanding of the history of Palestine and Israel, the focus will be on discussing the issues. The goal is for the students to experiment with new ideas and think creatively. The professors encourage students to explore ideas and solutions that are difficult to prove, and realize that this type of creative thinking often happens best when the student is not worrying about saying the right thing to get a certain grade.

It should be emphasized that there are high expectations for the entire class in terms of participation and class preparation. It is assumed that everyone will complete all of the assignments on time and participate in class on a regular basis. The student will be in danger of failing if she or he has more than 2 unexcused absences, 3 absences for any reason, or any tardy assignments. If a student fails to complete an assignment, it is expected that he or she will not pass the course.

General course outline

We will study the history of Palestine and the birth of Israel, with primary focus on the late 19th and 20th century. In particular, we will undertake each of the following topics through assigned readings from the Bible, history books, and newspapers; videos; and in-class discussions.

We will study the history of Palestine from the end of Ottoman rule (late 19th century), through the British Occupation (beginning in 1917), to the birth of the State of Israel (1948).
We will study the history of Israel from 1948 to the present. We will study how Jerusalem moved from being a divided city with Jordan controlling the holy sites to a ``unified'' city under Israeli control. We will examine why this type of ``unity'' is problematic, and why this question must be resolved if there is to be a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Palestine.
We will study Judaism and how it is related to and different from Christianity. We will study how the Zion Tradition developed and how this tradition is vital for understanding the Messianic expectations of Jews and Christians.
We will study the origination of Islam and the role Jerusalem plays in Islam. How is Islam related to and different from Judaism and Christianity, and how did Jerusalem becomes a holy city for Islam second only to Mecca and Medina.
We will study how daily life in Israel and Palestine impacts the peace process. Attention will be given to understanding how people live in different parts Israel and Palestine and in nearby lands in the Middle East. As described below, students will conduct individual research on a ``Day in the Life'' of a typical individual.

The following textbooks are required reading. We'll list other references in the course web page.

Collins, Larry and La Pierre, Dominique, O Jerusalem (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988).
Karen Armstrong, One City: Three Faiths (New York: Ballantine, 1997).

Final Project: students will be divided into groups with the goal of coming up with a tentative proposal for how to move forward in the peace process in present-day Israel. The project will be called the ``Minnesota River Principles for Mideast Peace.'' The rationale for this section of the course is drawn Former President Jimmy Carter's premise that the most promising means of developing a working peace process is for a ``think tank'' of scholars to come up with a proposal that is fair and equitable, and then to let the Israelis and Palestinians work out the details from this starting point. This is basically the method used by a team of scholars and diplomats who came up with the Oslo Accords. The goal will be to have the students negotiate a set of principles in order to understand the possibilities of peace and the problems of achieving it. See below for details for the requirements of this project.

Course Requirements

Attendance and participation: The class will be based on discussions and common exploration, so attendance and active participation is very important. The class will meet 3 hours per day for 5 days per week. In addition, the following are required:

In addition to daily assigned reading, read several on-line news sources to stay up to date on current developments in the Middle East.
Complete 4 group projects (class presentations by students). In each of the 4 rounds of projects, each group will make a different presentation.
1. The first round of projects will focus on the climate, geography and significance of different parts of Israel: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Gaza, Judean and Sumarian Hill Country, the Galilee, the Negev, and the Dead Sea region.
2. The second round of projects will focus different aspect of the history of Palestine from the end of the 19th century to the present. Topics will include the 1948 War of Independence, the 1967 Six Days War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1987 Intifada, the 2000 Intifada, and several UN resolutions and their impact on the region.
3. The third round of projects will focus on a ``Day in the Life of''
  - a Palestinian who is an Israeli citizen and lives in East Jerusalem;
  - a Palestinian living in Ramalah (not an Israeli citizen) and used to work in Jerusalem before the closure (cover two days: one day working in Jerusalem and one day with a closure);
  - a Palestinian in a refugee camp in Jordan;
  - an Israeli on a kibbutz in Megiddo (or similar site);
  - an Israeli Jew who lives in Gilo;
  - a hasidic Jew who lives in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem;
  - an Arab Israeli citizen in Tel Aviv who owns a business in Jaffa;
  - and/or a Druze Arab enlisted in the Israeli army.
4. The final project will be to develop the ``Minnesota River Principles for Mideast Peace'' as described above.
Complete an in-class test or short paper on the history of Israel from the late 19th century to the present. (This requirement may be dropped if there is strong class participation by all students.)
Complete an oral final exam: each student will complete an oral final exam that will be cumulative and require him or her to synthesize everything that we have studied during J-term. (This requirement may be dropped if there is strong class participation by all students.)