Palestine 1948: Myth, Memory and Historiography

Dr. Anat Stern

 

Course Description: Marking its seventy years anniversary, the 1948 first Arab-Israeli war still provokes multi-dimensional debates, both in the academic and public circles.  In the Palestinian and Arab collective memory, the war is engraved as the Nakba – the catastrophe, while Israel celebrates it as its day of Independence. For both communities it is the formative event of their National history.  In recent decades, Israel’s “New Historians”, alongside other researchers, contributed to changes in the way Historians, and even the Israeli public, see their past. In this course we will attempt to provide the students with basic knowledge and analytical tools to search for historical facts and to decipher narratives and memories.

           

Aims: The course will explore the historical background of the Jewish and Palestinian communities during the first half of the twentieth century.  It will discuss the currents that lead to the war and discuss the eruption of the first stage of fighting, the “civil war” of “inter-communal war” (December 1947- May 1948), and later on the Arab armies’ invasion of May 1948 and the second stage of inter-state war, until the ceasefire agreements on 1949.  We will examine both national narratives, and the debate around the New Historians, while trying to realize the often complex and ambiguous “truth”.

 

Requirements and Assignments:

1. Reading: Class meetings will consist on group discussions based on reading assignments.  Reading is crucial for learning in this class. Each student will be responsible for reading the weekly materials: come prepared to talk about the question motivating the author, the central argument, the type of evidence used, and how the piece fits into the array of other readings. Student participation in regards to reading and discussion will be 10% of the final grade.
2. Text Presentation: Once during the course, each student will be responsible to present and lead a short (30 min.) discussion about certain articles in class.  Prior to the presentation, the student will submit in paper one or two paragraphs that will include summary and critique of the text and at least three questions for discussion (20% of final grade).
3. Media Assignment: Media is a key element influencing and shaping narratives in our day and age. During the semester each student will be responsible for presenting a short media segment about 1948. The presentation will include viewing in class and discussing questions that arise from the media segment in regards to the course. (20% of final grade).
4. Final paper/referat: During the second half of the course, each student will undertake a study of a topic related to the 1948 War. The (18-25 pages seminar, 8-13 pages for referat) paper can present an Arab, Jewish and international perspective or any combination of the three. Comparative and interdisciplinary studies are welcome. The students will submit a proposal for a final paper with a clear research question and initial bibliography. Final paper will be submitted according to TAU's guidelines – referat to be submitted July 1^st, 2018, seminars to be submitted September 16^th, 2018. (50% of final grade)

PLEASE NOTE: READING MATERIALS AND ASSIGNMENTS MAY CHANGE IN ACCORDANCE WITH NUMBER OF STUDENTS.

Book Purchase – Recommended

1.      Benny Morris, 1948: The First Arab Israeli War, New haven and London: Yale University press, 2008.

2.      Anita Shapira, Israel A History. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2012.

3.      Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999 (New York, 1999)

Internet research guidelines: It is hard to overestimate the importance of the internet, or its contribution, to the build up of contemporary knowledge of the world around us. Albeit it needs to be used wisely. This means that one must be selective and careful when relating to internet-based sources, identifying and distinguishing opinions from facts, and journalism from academics. Most importantly, one should make clear reference to internet sources, allowing the reader the opportunity to consult these resources as and if required.  Please also note that the ‘world-wide web’ – www – exists in many languages. Many sources about Israel in English, for instance, will be aimed at tourists or readers living primarily in English-speaking regions of the world. Sources might differ when reading them in other languages. Use the internet critically. You can never be too safe, so do ensure both the reader and yourself that you know well what your internet sources are.

 

 

Lesson #1 Date

Historical Background I: Palestine in the 19^th century and the emergence of Zionism; Palestine under the British Mandate

• Ian Bickerton, Carla Klausner, a History of the Arab-Israeli conflict, sixth edition. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2010. pp. 15-33; pp. 34- 80.
• Charles D. Smith, Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, sixth edition. Boston: Bedford, 2007. pp. 23-58.
• Benny Morris, 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), pp. 1-36.

 

 

Lesson #2

The British decision to withdraw from Palestine; UNSCOP and its mission,

·         Background on UNSCOP and parts of its report:

http://www.mideastweb.org/unscop1947.htm

• Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008, pp. 37-74.
• Ritchie Ovendale, “The Palestine Policy of the British Labour Government 1947: The Decision to Withdraw”, International Affairs 56:1 (Jan., 1980), pp. 73-93.
• Evan M. Wilson, “The [USA] Palestine Papers, 1943-1947”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 2, No. 4. (Summer, 1973), pp. 33-54.

 

 

Lesson # 3

UN partition resolution, 29 November 1947: Jews, Arabs and the International arena

• Elad Ben-Dror, “The Arab Struggle against Partition: The International Arena of Summer 1947”, Middle East Studies, 43:2 (March 2007), 259-293.
• Walid Khalidi, “Revisiting the UNGA Partition Resolution”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (autumn, 1997), pp. 5-21

Presentation 1: Jamal al-Husseini, “Palestine Partition Denounced”, Vital Speeches of the Day, 10/15/47, Vol. 14:1, pp. 2-9.

Presentation 2: Abba Hillel Silver, “Palestine Partition Acceptable”, Vital Speeches of the Day, 10/15/47, Vol. 14:1, pp. 10-15.

 

Lesson # 4

The first stage of the war – “the civil war” or “the inter-communal war”.

• Benny Morris, 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), pp. 37-74. [same chapter as previous week].
• David Tal, “The Forgotten War: Jewish-Palestinian Strife in Mandatory Palestine December 1947-May 1948”, Israel Affairs, Spring/Summer 2000, Vol. 6 Issue 3/4, pp. 3-22.

 

Presentation 3:   Fauzi Al-Qawuqji, “Memoirs, 1948 Part I”, Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 1, no. 4 (summer, 1972), pp. 27-58.

 

 

Lesson #5

Turning points in the “civil war”: The Hagana moves to the offensive; Nachshon Operation; IZL, Lehi and Deir Yassin.

• Benny Morris, 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), pp. 75-112.
•  Walid Khalidi (ed.) “The Fall of al-Qastel”, in “Selected Documents on the 1948 Palestine War”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3. (spring 1998), pp. 60-105.

 

Presentation 4: Plan Dalet Full Text

Presentation 5: Lehi Radio Announcement after Deir Yassin  

 

Lesson #6

Fighting in Mixed cities. The Fall of Haifa – a Case Study and a comparison to Jaffa

• Motti Golani, “The ‘Haifa Turning Point’: The British and the Civil War in Palestine”, Middle Eastern Studies, Apr 2001, Vol. 37 Issue 2, p. 93-130.

Walid Khalidi, “The Fall of Haifa Revisited”, Journal of Palestine Studies, 37:3 (2008), 30-58.

Presentation 6:  Itamar Radai, “Jaffa, 1948: the fall of a City”, Journal of Israeli History, vol. 30, no. 1, March 2011.

Presentation 7: Nurit Cohen Levinovsky, "The Evacuation of the non Combatant Population in the 1948 War – Three Kibbutzim as a Case Study" Journal of Israeli History, Vol 26 No. 1, March 2007 pp1-34.

 

Lesson #7

The formal birth of Israel- Israeli Declaration of Independence: the debate before declaration; decision making and meaning to the future. The different structure of Palestinian and Jewish Societies

Tuvia Friling and Ilan,Troen, “Proclaiming Independence: Five Days in May from Ben Gurion’s Diary”, Israel Studies, Spring 98, Vol. 3:1, pp. 170-195.  

Presentation 8: Primary Source analysis: Proclamation of the state of Israel

• Yoav Gelber. Palestine, 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the PalestineRefugee Problem. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001, pp. 31-45, 59-73.

Presentation 9: Rashid Khalidi, “The Palestinians and 1948: the underlying causes of failure”, in:  Rogan, Eugene L. and Avi Shlaim. (Eds.) The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd Edition, 2007, pp. 79-103.

Presentation 10: Mohe Naor, "From Voluntary Funds to National Loans: the Financing of Israel's 1948 War Effort", Israel Studies, Vol. 11 No. 3, Fall 2006, pp. 62-81.

 

Lesson #8

The Inter-state war – May 15 onwards: The Arab invasion to Palestine; the aims of the invaders; the role of the Arab league; inter-Arab relations; Jewish and Palestinian-Arab military forces balance and power relationship

• Avi Shlaim, “Israel and the Arab Coalition in 1948”, in:  Rogan, Eugene L. and Avi Shlaim. (Eds.) The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2^nd Edition, 2007, pp. 79-103.
• Joshua Landis, “Syria and the Palestine War: fighting King Abdullah’s “Greater Syria Plan”, ibid., pp. 176-203.
• Fawaz A. Gerges, “Egypt and the 1948 War: internal conflict and regional ambition”, in Rogan and Shlaim, The War for Palestine, pp. 150-175.
• Charles Tripp, “Iraq and the 1948 War: A mirror of Iraq’s disorder”, in Rogan and Shlaim, The War for Palestine, pp. 125-149.
• Matthew Hughes, “Collusion across the Litani? Lebanon and the 1948 War”, ibid. pp. 204-227.

Presentation 11: Walid Khalidi, “Nasser's Memoirs of the First Palestine War”, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2. (winter 1973), pp. 3-32.

 

Lesson #9

The Ten Days battles; What happened in Lydda and Ramla? The Truces, Count Brnadotte’s plan and assassination; Post-second truce: Hiram and Yoav operations. Why a Palestinian State did not emerge in 1948. 

• Benny Morris, 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 273-301. 320-349.
• Avraham Sela, Alon Kadish, “Myth and Historiography of the 1948 War revisited: the Case of Lydda”, Middle East Journal, pp. 617-634.

Presentation 12: Joseph Heller, “Failure of a Mission: Bernadotte and Palestine, 1948”, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 14, No. 3. (Jul., 1979), pp. 515-534.

 

Lesson #10

Conclusion: What really happened? Ethnic cleansing or self-defense?  The debate over the Refugee Problem

• Benny Morris, 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), pp. 392-420.
• Ilan Pappe, “The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”, Journal of Palestine Studies, 36:1 (2006), 6-20.
• Shabtai Teveth, “Charging Israel with Original Sin”, Commentary, 88 (1989), pp. 24-33.
• Gelber, Yoav. Palestine, 1948: War, Escape and the Emergence of the PalestineRefugee Problem. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001, pp. 298-302.

 

Additional Optional Reading:

• Mordechai Bar-On, "Conflicting Narratives or Narratives of a Conflict: Can the Zionist and Palestinian Narratives of the 1948 War be bridged?", in Robert . Rotberg (ed.) Israel and the Palestinians Narratives of Conflict, Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 2006, pp. 142-173.
• Edward Said, “Afterword: the consequences of 1948”, in: Rogan, Eugene L. and Avi Shlaim. (Eds.) The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2^nd Edition, 2007, pp. 248-261.