Areas of interest: Comparative Politics, State and Society, Racism and Ethnicity, Citizenship and Nationalism.

Areas of interest: Marxism and Post-Marxism, Populism, Health Policies, Body Politics.

Areas of interest: Comparative Politics, National Identity and Nationalism, the Politics of Memory.

Areas of interest: Public Policy, Ethnic Politics, Immigration, Jews in American Politics, American Politics.    

Areas of interest: Political Geography, Geopolitics, Ethno-territorial Conflicts, Israel-Palestine Conflict, Border Studies, The Politics of Science and Research.

Areas of interest: European Integration, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Euro-Israeli Relations, Euro-Mediterranean Relations, European Neighbourhood Policy, European Jewry, Public International Law.

Areas of interest: Jews in Modern France, World War II, Holocaust Studies, History and Memory.

Areas of interest: Third World Development, Colonialism / Post Colonialism, Protest Movements, Racism and Ethnic Relations, The Palestinian

Minority in Israel.

Areas of interest: African History, Cultural and Social History of Colonialism in West Africa.

Areas of interest: Urban politics, Planning, Ethnic Relations.

About
The Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University has 
developed a unique graduate program which examines the different ways in 
which global and local processes have formed numerous sites of conflict 
both within Israeli society and in its relations with its neighbors.  As researchers 
and teachers, these are some of the issues we focus on:
The politics of space and territory as a site conflict 
both internally and between Israel, the Palestinians and several neighboring countries 
The nature of different social and political identities 
within Israeli society, and how these identities have become sites of contestation 
Welfare policies and the growing socio-economic inequality as a site of conflict 
Migrant workers, Palestinian laborers, and the construction of multiple borders within Israeli cities 
Israel's democratic institutions and the ongoing struggle to maintain human and civic rights 
Language and cultural rights as ongoing sites of struggle 
Together, we aim to impart to our students a growing concern for the 
politics of conflict in Israel and the Middle East, and to help them develop the 
necessary intellectual, analytical and professional skills to understand 
social processes and what it would take to bring about political and economic 
change. 
 
 
Arab-Israeli Conflict-An Overview
This course aims to provide an overview of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a regional 
dispute that has lasted for over a century and whose significance extends 
far beyond the Middle East. After tracing the origins of Zionism 
and Arab-Palestinian nationalism during the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate, we 
will examine the developments from 1948 until the present. By 
focusing on the conflict’s origins, the major actors, key events, diplomatic initiatives and 
crises, students will gain 
a greater appreciation for the complexities and dynamism of this international dispute.
Lecturer: 
Dr. Neve Gordon
http://humweb1.bgu.ac.il/politics/sites/default/files/Syllabus_5.doc
Syllabus 
"Arab-Israeli Conflict – An Overview"
Dr. Neve Gordon
 
Description
This course aims to provide an overview of the Arab-Israeli 
conflict, a regional dispute that has 
lasted for over a century and whose significance extends far 
beyond the Middle East. After tracing the origins of 
Zionism and Arab-Palestinian nationalism 
during the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate, we will 
examine the developments from 1948 until the present. By 
focusing on the conflict’s origins, the 
major actors, key events, diplomatic initiatives and crises, 
students will gain a greater appreciation for 
the complexities and dynamism of this international dispute. 
 
Required Readings 
Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 
Second Edition, Indiana University Press, 2009.
 
Sandy Tolan, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, 
A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, Bloomsbury, 2006.
 
A series of academic articles which the students will 
need to download from online journals 
and databases or photocopy from books (see section syllabus).  
 
Suggested Readings
Ha’aretz English Edition at www.haaretz.com 
Al Jazeera English Edition at http://english.aljazeera.net/English 
Daily subscription of the New York Times or on the web at www.nytimes.com 
 
Course Requirements
The grade for the course is divided into the following:
10%     Op-ed 
20%     In-class presentation
5%       Final Paper Topic and Tentative Outline
15%     Literature Review 
50%     Final Paper 
 
Course Outline
 
Reading:  
Hayden White, ‘The Historical Text as Literary Artifact,
” In The Writing of History: Literary Form and Historical Understanding / edited by Robert H. 
Canary and Henry Kozicki.
.
Introduction
 
Reading: 
Introduction and Chapter 1 of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims, Vintage Books, 2001: pp. 100-102
 
Jewish Nationalism: The Rise of Zionism
The Zionist Movement in Palestine
 
Reading: 
Chapters 2 of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
C. Ernest Dawn, “From Ottomanism to Arabism: The Origin of 
an Ideology,” The Review of Politics, Vol. 23, No. 3. 1961:  378-400.
 
Arab Nationalism
 
Reading: 
Chapters 3 and 4 of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Anthony D. Smith, “Zionism and Diaspora 
Nationalism,” Israel Affairs, Vol. 2. No. 2. 1995: 1-19.
Benny Morris, “The Arabs Rebel,” Chapter 
Four of Righteous Victims, Vintage Books, 2001: pp. 121-161.
 
 
The British Mandate
The Rise of a Palestinian National Movement
Palestine and the Holocaust
 
Reading: 
Begin reading The Lemon Tree
Thomas Mayer, “Egypt’s 1948 Invasion of Palestine,
” Middle Eastern Studies, 22:1, 1986: 20 – 36.
Shabtai Teveth, "Charging Israel with Original Sin," Commentary, 88, September 1989, pp. 24-33.
Avi. Shlaim, "The Debate about 1948,"  The International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 287-304, 1995.
Ian Lustick, “Zionism and the State of Israel: Regime 
Objectives and the Arab Minority in the First 
Years of Statehood,” Middle Eastern Studies, 16:1, 1980: 
127 – 146.
Michael Oren, “Escalation to Suez: The Egypt-Israel Border 
War, 1949-56,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 24, 1989: 347-373.
Avi Shlaim, “The Protocol of Sèvres, 1956: Anatomy of a 
War Plot,” International Affairs Vol. 73, 3, 1997: 509-530.
 
 
 
The 1948 war 
The Palestinian Refugee Problem and the Military Government
The 1956 war
 
Reading: 
Chapters 6 and 7 of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Ian Lustick, “Zionism and the State of Israel: Regime 
Objectives and the Arab Minority in the First 
Years of Statehood,” Middle Eastern Studies, 16:1, 1980: 
127 – 146.
Alina Koren, “Military Government, Political Control 
and Crime: The Case of Israeli Arabs,
” Crime, Law and Social Change; September 2000; 34, 2: 159-182.
Moshe Gat, “Nasser and the Six Day War, 5 June 1967: A 
Premeditated Strategy or an Inexorable 
Drift to War?” Israel Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 40, 2005: 608-635.
Ibrahim Abu Lughod, “Israel’s Arab Policy,” Arab World, 1968.
William B. Quandt, “Soviet Policy in the October Middle 
East War – I” International Affairs, Vol. 53, 1977: 377-389. 
William B. Quandt, “Soviet Policy in the October Middle 
East War – II” International Affairs, Vol. 53, 1977: 587-603. 
 
 
Military Government
The 1967 war 
The Resurgence of Palestinian Nationalism
 
 
Reading: 
Chapters 8 and 9 of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
William B. Quandt, “Camp David and Peacemaking in the Middle 
East,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 101, No. 3, 1986: 357-377.
Norman Podhoretz, “J’Accuse,” Commentary, 74:3 September (1982): 21-31
Edward Said, “An Ideology of Difference,” Critical 
Inquiry, 12 (Autumn 1985): 38-58.
 
 
October 22nd – Israel’s Occupation and the war of attrition 
 
October 24th – The 1973 war 
October 29th – Egyptian-Israeli Peace 
 
Reading: Yehezkel Lein, Land Grab (can be downloaded from www.btselem.org) 
 
October 30th – The Settlement Enterprise 
 
Reading: 
Chapter 9 of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 
Ian S. Lustick, “Writing the Intifada: Collective Action in the Occupied Territories,
” World Politics, 45: 4 (July 1993): 560-594.
 
The 1982 War
The First Intifada
 
Reading: 
Chapters  11 and 12 of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 
Jeremy Pressman, “Visions in Collision: What Happened at Camp 
David and Taba?” International Security, 28, 2: 2003.
Norman Podhoretz, “Intifada II: Death of an Illusion?” 
Commentary, September 2000 
Sara Roy, “Decline and Disfigurement: The Palestinian Economy after Oslo,” in  Roane 
Carey, The New Intifada, Verso Books, 2001: 91-110.
Neve Gordon, “From Colonization to Separation: Exploring 
the Structure of Israel’s Occupation,” Third World Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2008, pp 25 – 44
 
 
The First Gulf War 
Oslo I
From Peace with Jordan to Camp David
The Second Intifada
 
Reading: 
Yuval Elizur, Israel Banks on a Fence, Foreign Affairs March/April 2003.
Yehezkel Lein and Alon Cohen Lifshitz, Under the Guise of 
Security (can be downloaded from www.btselem.org) 
 
The Separation Barrier
 
Reading: 
Khaled Hroub “Hamas After Shaykh Yasin and Rantisi,” Journal 
of Palestine Studies, XXXIII no. 4, summer 2004 (download from Jstor)
Gal Luft, The Palestinian H-Bomb: Terror's Winning 
Strategy, Foreign Affairs July/August 2002.
Neve Gordon and Dani Filc, “Hamas and the Destruction 
of Risk Society,” Constellations Volume 12, No 4, 2005.
Shaul Mishal, “The Pragmatic Dimension of the Palestinian 
Hamas: A Network Perspective,” Armed Forces & Society, 
Vol. 9, No. 4. Summer 2003: 569-589.
International Crisis Group, After Gaza, Middle East Report 
N°68 – 2 August 2007  
 
 
The Rise of Hamas
From September 11 to the 2009 Campaign in Gaza