POL378H1F L0101

Topics in Comparative Politics II

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Themes

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable and multifaceted protracted conflicts in modern times with flare-ups of violence between its various actors continuing to claim lives and to threaten wider war. This course will survey the main political junctions in the conflict and will connect them to their reincarnations in contemporary times. We will study all of this, exploring the conflict’s many layers and relating it to broader International Relations and sociological concepts from the emergence of the conflict’s political fault lines during Ottoman times through the establishment of a Jewish state and its continued modern-day development. The course will include cultural products relating to both societies, including movies, clips, songs and forms of art and cultural representations.

Tags: State and Society, Israeli Politics, Conflict Studies

Format and Requirements

Students are expected to come to class every week having read and critically reflected on the required readings before class. This is not a lecture course; discussion is primarily student-generated and based on weekly reading. Students will engage in individual and small group assignments.

Prerequisites

1.0 credit in POL/ JPA/ JPF/ JPI/ JPR/ JPS/ JRA courses