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MODULE #
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TOPICS
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KEY DUE DATES
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I. Theoretical and historical considerations
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1
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Opening remarks:
- Israel today—the complexity of contemporary Israeli society
- Theoretical underpinnings: individual and collective identity formation
- The Zionist metanarrative: basic characteristics of the Zionist metanarrative—the New Jew and the return to the old-new homeland
- Palestine and the Palestinians before Zionism
- The Zionist movement
- Zionist colonization
- The British Mandate period (1917–1948)
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2
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- World War Two—the Holocaust
- 1948—the establishment of the State of Israel and the Palestinian “catastrophe” (al Nakba)
- A brief survey of Israel’s wars, 1948–present
- The Palestinians today: the Palestinian Authority and the West Bank, the Hamas and the Gaza Strip
- Israel’s formative years, 1948–1967 [I]: Civil religion in Israel and the formation of Israel’s core identity, the “Sabra”
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Reading assignment #1 due
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3
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Israel’s formative years, 1948–1967 [II]: Political, social and geographical foundations:
- Israel’s political and municipal systems
- The three branches of government
- The educational systems
- The military
- The economy
- Types of urban and agricultural settlements: kibbutz, moshav, development towns, major cities, the Arab towns and villages
- Post-1948 Jewish immigration to Israel
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II. The great divide
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4
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- The watershed of 1973–1982 and the shattering of the old civil religion and the New Jew myth
- Israel as a Jewish immigrant society: Jewish-ethnic relations—the Mizrahim [I]
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Reading assignment #2 due
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III. Israel’s history and identity revisited
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5
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- The shattering of the old civil religion (cont.)
- The Mizrahim [II]
- Modest food feast: Israeli culinary tradition as an expression of the country’s identity
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6
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- 1948 revisited: the debate over the 1948 war, the Palestinian refugees
- The presence of the Nakba in contemporary Israel
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Reading assignment #3 due
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7
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Theoretical underpinnings:
- The role of emotions
- Israel’s occupation and settlements’ projects
- The messianic component in Israeli identity and politics, Gush Emunim
- The Palestinian national movement, the PLO, Palestinian Authority, Hamas
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Reading assignment #4 due
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8
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- The Haredi (Jewish Ultra-Orthodox [fundamentalist]) communities in Israel
- How Jewish is the Jewish state?
- The role of the Holocaust in Israeli identity
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9
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- Israeli economy, globalization in Israel
- Technology and environment in Israel today
- Israeli cinema
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10
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The Palestinian-Arab minority in Israel—history, identity
A talk with Sinan AbuShanab
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11
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- The Israeli Diaspora
- Israeli popular music
- Concluding remarks: Is there an Israeli identity?
- Preparations for the peace conference
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12
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A staged Israeli-Arab-Palestinian peace conference
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Final paper due
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