HISTORY OF ISRAEL AND PALESTINE

The course is part of the second year curiculum "Near and Middle East" of the degree course in "Languages, cultures and societies of Asia and Mediterranean Africa". The course contributes to the achievement of the CdS training objectives in the area of historical, critical, cultural and humanistic competences. The main objectives of the course are to acquire a critical knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its narratives; to acquire the tools to analyze and deconstruct the historical-political and propaganda narratives, with particular reference to 1947-49, date of the establishment of the State of Israel and of the Palestinian Nakba. The objective will be met by analyzing the conceptual node 1947-49 from different points of view and through different disciplinary methods (history, international relations, international law, studies on memory, studies on the diaspora, cinema and literature). Students' active participation - through presentaiton, particpation to class discussions etc - is a requisite in this course.

Knowledge and understanding:
- Learn and understand the main characters and historical events in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Learn and understand concepts and instruments of historiography and critical studies about his period.
- Deepen the understand of this historical period through films and documentaries.

Applying knowledge and understanding
-learn how to analyse and interpret some relevant historical sources
- understand the difference between primary and secondary sources and learn how to use them;
- learn how to uses historiography critically in some of its main concepts (narration, normativity, canon)

Making judgements:
- learn how to make critical judgements on historical, political and social phenomena pertaining to the history of the israeli-palestinian conflict, making use of critically and historiographically solid arguments
- learn how to examine critically various types of sources (primary, secondary, photographic video, documentaries, films etc.)
- become aware of one's own inevitable bias and overcome it

good knowledge of English

The planning below is tentative.

Classes 1-5
War of 1948. History, Memory, Representations.

Classes 6-9
War of 1967 and occupation

Classes 10-11
Lebanon War

Classes 12-13
First Intifada

Classes 14-15
Oslo Accords and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin

An updated and complete bibliography for the course will be made available online and distributed on the first day of class
Each week students will be given 20-40 pages in orde to prepare for the upcoming class. The reading of this material is mandatory and is part of the requirements of this course. The following list of reading is exemplary and might change in some of its parts.

Texts for the exam: Weekly readings and Abdel Monem Said Aly, Shai Feldman and Khalil Shikaki “Arabs and Israelis”, Palgrave 2013 (later reprints are also accepted). Films seen in class represent compulsory material for the exam.

students who attend the course (more than 60 % of classes attended)
- 20 % presence and participation in class
- 30% student presentations
- 50 % oral exam

Students who cannot attend the course in person are required to enroll in the free MOOC online course "Nonviolence and Civil Resistance in israel and Palestine" available together with other online MOOCs. They can then take the oral exam like students who attended the course.

Presentations and questions will evaluate to what extent students have acquired historical knowledge, are able to understand and contextualise historical and literary texts, how they are able to handle the means for critical analysis and their ability to learn autonomously. The questions will also evaluate the students' ability to apply their newly acquired knowledge to the subject matter of the course, their independence in formulating historical analysis and judgements, and their capacity to express themselves in a concise and effective manner.

This course has been approved for 2023-24 as blended. The frontal lectures and the discussions in class will be flanked with individual and collective work on written and video material. According to the methodology of the "flipped classroom", the work done by students at home will be verified in cless during the following meeting.

Italian

some classes may be delivered in English by guests from foreign universities

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "International cooperation" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development