The Palestinian Century
The Palestinian Century
Dr. Harel Chorev
The course focuses on central social, cultural and political issues of the Palestinians since the late Ottoman period to the present. We will deal with the process of integration of the Palestinian as a social and political community, and discuss the formation of the distinct Palestinian identity. We shall also discuss the challenges and fundamental issues of Palestinian society during the Mandate period and examine the key processes experienced by it after the wars of 1948 and 1967 and following the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. We will conclude with examination of the central dilemmas that occupies the Palestinians today. The course will combine short clips and films.
Participation and assignments
Absence of three classes without justification cancels the student's participation in the course. The course grade will be calculated according to 20% participation and 80% final exam.
Topics and reading materials
1.Introduction: the main players in the Palestinian realm in the 19th century.
Harel Chorev, Networks of Power (London: I. B Tauris, 2017), pp. 20-52.
2.1834-1918: The wake of a Palestinian identity?
Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal, Palestinians: The making of a People (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1993), pp. 3-35.
Judith Rood, "The Time the Peasants Entered Jerusalem: the Revolt against Ibrahim Pasha in the Islamic court Sources", Jerusalem Quarterly, 27, pp. 28-43.
3.The early British Mandatory period: fundamental problems in the Palestinian socio-political arena.
The League of Nations: The Palestine Mandate (document).
Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), pp. 31-64.
Yeoshua Porath,The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement, 1918-1929 (London: F. Cass, 1974).
4.The formative age, 1929-1936.
Hillel Cohen, Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929 (Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2015).
5.The Great Arab Revolt and the Way to the 1948 War, 1939-1947.
Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), pp. 105-124.
Hilel Cohen, Army of shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948 (Berkeley: California University Press, 2008), pp. 95-145.
6.The 1948 War and its impact.
Benny Morris, 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008).
Khalidi, Rashid, “The Palestinians and 1948: the Underlying Causes of Failure,” in: E. Rogan and A. Shlaim (eds.), The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 12-36.
Itamar Radai, ‟The collapse of the Palestinian-Arab middle class in
1948: The case of Qatamon,” Middle East Studies, Vol. 43, No. 6 (November 2007), pp.961-982.
7.Between Nakba and Naksa, 1949-1967.
Moshe Shemesh, ‟The IDF Raid on Samu‘: The Turning-Point in Jordan’s relations with Israel and the West Bank Palestinians”, Israel Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring 2002).
8.The Israeli occupation and its consequences, 1967-1993.
Salim Tamari, ‟Building other’s People Homes: The Palestinian Peasant’s Household and Work in Israel”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Autumn 1981).
9.Three states for two nations. 1994 –
Litvak, Meir, "A Palestinian Past: National Construction", History and Memory, Vol.6, No. 2 (1994), pp.24–56.
