BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
Summer Pre-Reading:
Joe Sacco, Palestine, Seattle: Pantagraphic Books, 2001
September 5 -12, 2012: The Human Rights Framework
September 5: The Basic Human Rights Framework
United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.
United Nations. International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, 1966.
Mary Ann Glendon, "Knowing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Notre
Dame Law Review 73.5 (1998): 1153-1176. On-line reserves.
Michael Ignatieff. "The Attack on Human Rights" Foreign Affairs, 80(6), 2001, p. 102116. On-line reserves
Mahmoud Mamdani “Responsibility to Protect or Right to Punish? Humanitarian
Intervention and its Critics,” PDG - please google the author and title.
Adulaziz Sachedina, “The Clash of Universalisms: Religious and Secular in Human
Rights,” Hedgehog Review, Fall, 2007, at:
http://www.consciencelaws.org/issues-ethical/ethical099.html
Anat Biletzki, “The Sacred and Humane,” The New York Times, July 17, 2011 at:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/the-sacred-and-the-humane/
Rabbi Alana Suskin, “Why Religion is Better than Secular Ethics for Human Rights,”
Huffington Post, july 23, 2011 at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-alana-suskin/rabbis-for-human-rightsr_b_906351.html
Assignment Due: Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Briefly formulate your own conclusions (using the assigned readings) on the
following issues:
a) Does the basic human rights framework, as represented in the 2 U.N.
documents, do a good job in establishing the social contract that should
prevail among nations and between nations and their citizens? Is the
framework too ambitious? And, if so, what rights would you omit? Is the
framework lacking – and, if so, what kinds of provisions would you add?
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
b) Using Leontieff, Glendon and Mamdani, would you defend the human rights
framework as truly universal? Might it be merely “neo-colonialism in a
tux?”
c) Using Sachedina, Biletzki and Suskin, would you argue that human rights
doctrine requires religious grounding? Would secular humanism be
sufficient to ground human rights doctrine?
September 12, 2012: Applying the HR framework to Palestine
Convention (IV) Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Geneva
Convention IV). Geneva, 12 August 1949
Susan Akram, “Palestinian Refugees and their Legal Status,” in Journal of Palestine
Studies (special issue on refugees, Summer, 2011), at:
http://palestine-studies.org/focus.aspx
Eitan Diamond “Before the Abyss: Reshaping International Humanitarian Law to Suit the
Ends of Power,” Israel Law Review 2010, 43:2.
At:
http://law.huji.ac.il/eng/pirsumim.asp?cat=2275&in=735 (you will need to scroll down
and click on the summary to see the whole article)
Avishai Margalit and Michael Walzer, “Israel: Civilians and Combatants,” New York
Review of Books, May 14, 2009, 56:8
at:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/may/14/israel-civilians-combatants/
Jeff Halper, The Second Battle of Gaza: Israel’s Undermining of International Law,”
Pulse, (political weblog)
at:
http://icahdusa.org/2010/03/the-second-battle-of-gaza/
Muhammad Ali Khalidi, “The Most Moral Army in the World? The New ‘Ethical Code’
of the Israeli Military and the War on Gaza,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Spring 2010
(39:3.
at:
http://www.palestine-studies.org/journals.aspx?id=10705&jid=1&href=fulltext’’
Zanotti, Jim. “The Palestinians: Background and U.S. Relations,” Congressional
Research Service, August, 2012 at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL34074.pdf
B’tselem: Human Rights in the Occupied Territories website: http://www.btselem.org/
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions website: http://icahdusa.org/
Assignment: due September 19
The Congressional Research Service provides briefing papers for serious but
uninformed U.S. representatives and senators. Jim Zanotti’s work represents the
most recent summary of the U.S. position on Palestine that a freshman
congressperson might receive. It is accurate as far as it goes, but very incomplete.
Using the readings for last week (plus information on the B’Tselem and ICAHD
websites), write a 3-5 page addendum that would balance the work.
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
September 19 – October 10: Historical Narratives
September 19: The Concept of Nationalism in Modern Jewish and Palestinian
Nur Masalha Expulsion of the Palestians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political
Thought (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992).
Baruch Kimmerling and Joel Migdal, “The Revolt of 1834 and the Making of Modern
Palestine,” The Palestinian People (Harvard University Press, 2003), pp. 1-37.
Ghada Karmi, Married to Another Man (Pluto Press, 2007), Introduction, Chapter 1.
Tom Segev, “Facing Herzl’s statue,” in Elvis in Jerusalem (Henry Holt, 2001), pp. 1-46.
Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim (eds.) The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of
1948, (Cambridge University Press, 2001) pp. ix - 11.
Saleh Abdel Jawad “The Arab and Palestinian Narratives of the 1948 War,” in Robert
Rotberg, ed. Israeli and Palestinian Narratives of Conflict: History’s Double Helix
(Indiana University Press, 2006) pp. 72-114.
September 26: Israeli Self Defense
Benny Morris “Survival of the Fittest” and interview with Ari Shavit, originally in
Ha’aretz, at: http://www.haaretz.com/survival-of-the-fittest-1.61345
Ari Shavit “Countdown: Former Minister Ephraim Sneh fears another Holocaust,” at:
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/ari-shavit-s-countdown-former-ministerephraim-sneh-fears-another-hiroshima.premium-1.460280
Shlomo Avineri “Zionism does not need propaganda,” Ha’aretz, May 23, 2011 at:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/zionism-does-not-need-propaganda1.363443
Uri Avnery “Rest Come to the Weary,” Gush Shalom, April 4, 2009 at:
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1239519715/
David Hare “Wall: A Monologue,” New York Review of Books, April 30, 2009 at:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22611
Assignment Due: October 3
We are studying four major frameworks for understanding the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict: Israeli self-defense, apartheid, genocide, and ethnic cleansing/sociocide.
We will evaluate each in turn. For this week’s paper, please evaluate the adequacy
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
of the Israeli self-defense framework, in light to the historical material you have
read. What facts does this framework emphasize? What facts does it obscure? Is it
based mostly on analysis or on metaphor? How adequate is it to organize a master
narrative?
October 3: Apartheid? Genocide?
For a definiton of apartheid see: “International Convention for the Suppression and
Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid,” at:
http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html
John Dugard “Apartheid and Occupation under International Law,” Hisham B. Sharabi
Memorial Lecture, Jerusalem Fund, March 30, 2009, Washington, D.C.
Video of talk at:
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/5191/pid/3584.
Transcript of talk at:
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/5240/pid/897
Karine MacAllister, “Applicability of the Crime of Apartheid to Israel,” at:
http://www.odsg.org/co/index.php/reports/35-reports/1307-applicability-of-the-crime-ofapartheid-to-israel.html
Ronnie Kasrils “Who Said 50 years ago that Israel was an Apartheid State?” Address on
March 17, 2009 at: http://world.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/60684/
For a definition of genocide, see:
http://www.preventgenocide.org/genocide/officialtext.htm
Richard Falk (U.N. Rapporteur for Palestine), “Slouching toward a Palestinian
Holocaust,” Countercurrents, 7 July, 2007 at:
http://www.countercurrents.org/falk070707.htm
Gideon Levy “The Holocaust and the Israeli Occupation Cannot Be Compared,”
Ha’aretz, April 19, 2009 at: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079368.html
Assignment Due: October 10
We are studying four major frameworks for understanding the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict: Israeli self-defense, apartheid, genocide, and ethnic cleansing/sociocide.
We will evaluate each in turn. For this week’s paper, please evaluate the adequacy
of the genocide and apartheid frameworks, in light to the historical material you
have read. What facts does each framework emphasize? What facts does it
obscure? Are they based mostly on analysis or on metaphor? How adequate are
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
they to organize a master narrative?
October 10 : Ethnic Cleansing, Sociocide
Ilan Pappe “The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,” in Journal of Palestine Studies
(special issue on refugees, Summer, 2011) at:
http://palestine-studies.org/focus.aspx
Saleh Abdel Jawad, “War By Other Means,” from al-Ahram Weekly, 1998, at
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1998/1948/359_salh.htm
Robert Fisk, “Fighting Talk: the New Propaganda,” from The Independent, June 21, 2010
at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/fighting-talk-the-newpropaganda-2006001.html
Hassan Khader “The Nakba Narrative,” Al Hayat, May 24, 209 at:
http://www.americantaskforce.org/daily_news_article/2009/06/01/1243828800_2
Assignment Due: October 17
We are studying four major frameworks for understanding the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict: Israeli self-defense, apartheid, genocide, and ethnic cleansing/sociocide.
We will evaluate each in turn. For this week’s paper, please evaluate the adequacy
of the ethnic cleansing/sociocide framework, in light to the historical material you
have read. What facts does this framework emphasize? What facts does it obscure?
Is it based mostly on analysis or on metaphor?How adequate is it to organize a
master narrative?
In light of this and the preceding two papers, which framework would you
chose to explain the conflict to your roommates. Bear in mind that you
can chose elements from all of these narratives.
October 17 – 24: Points Drive
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
October 31 – November 7: Conflict Management or State Formation?
October 31: Models of Conflict Resolution
Nadim Rouhana, “From Conflict Resolution to Reconciliation,” at
sfpeace.org/files/reconciliation_en.doc.
Michelle Gawerc “Peacebuilding: Theoretical and Concrete Perspectives,” Peace &
Change 31(4) 2006:435-478.
Islah Jad “The NGOisation of Arab Women’s movements,” at
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Islah+Jad+%2B+Ngoization&btnG=Google+S
earch
Guest Lecture: Sarah Woodside
Assignment due: November 7
How could Rouhana’s call for awareness of history, justice, and power be reconciled
with Lederach’s complex alignment among grass roots, civil society, and state
actors? For example, who would be most likely to keep track of history? Would
grass roots involvement make it more likely that power and justice were yoked
together? Does the conflict management perspective contribute much understanding
the Israeli/Palestinian situation?
November 7: The One State/Two State Debate
Tony Klug “Two States for Two Peoples: Solution or Illusion?” in Open Democracy
December 21, 2008, at: http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/two-states-for-twopeoples-solution-or-illusion
Fred Schlomka, “Israel’s ‘Two Roads’ Solution” Dossiers Palestina at:
http://www.flw.ugent.be/cie/Palestina/palestina447.htm
Henry Siegman, “Imposing Middle East Peace,” The Nation, 25 January, 2010 at:
http://www.thenation.com/article/imposing-middle-east-peace
Meron Benvenisti, “Moot Argument,” in Ha’aretz, August 21, 2008
at:http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/moot-argument-1.252459
Omar Barghouti, et. al., “The One State Declaration,” at: http://www.1948.org.uk/theone-state-solution/
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
Diana Buttu, “A United Democratic Nation with Equal Rights for all,” Boston Globe, 29
February 2012 at: http://articles.boston.com/2012-0229/opinion/31106871_1_palestinian-territories-equal-rights-gaza-strip
Sari Makdeesi, “Forget the Two State Solution. Israelis and Palestinians must Share the
Land. Equally.” Los Angeles Times op. ed. May 11, 2008 at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-makdisi112008may11,0,2553769.story
Virginia Tilley, “The Two State Solution and the Ruin in Gaza,” in Global Research,
March 3, 2009 at: http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12532
Jeff Halper, “You Can’t Get There from Here: The Need for ‘Collapse with Agency’”
ICAHD at: http://www.icahd.org/node/270
Assignment Due: November 14
It is unlikely that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians will be resolved in
the absence of a political solution – either one (perhaps bi-national) or two states. If
we were to adopt the position of the poet Yitzak La’or, that any of these solutions is
acceptable and that the most desirable is “whichever one comes first,” which
solution would you advocate? Using course readings succinctly summarize the case
for and against the one state solution; the case for and against the two state solution.
Which is more consistent with the human rights framework you developed in the
first paper?
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
November 14 – 28: The Economic Future
November 14: The Palestinian Economy: Historical Perspectives, Future Prospects
(Alexander Scholch, Palestine in Transformation, 1856-1882: Studies in Social,
Economic and Political Development (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993) pp. 77-168.)
The Rand Palestinian Study Team, Building a Successful Palestinian State (Rand
Corporation, 2005), Chapter 1 (Introduction), Chapter 5 (Economics), Chapter 6 (Water),
Chapter 7 (Health), Chapter 8 (Education), Chapter 9 (Conclusion).
“Tell me again: Who made the desert bloom?”
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2010/03/palestinians-made-the-desertbloom.html
Bernard Avishai “The Economics of Occupation,” in Harper’s October, 2009 at:
www.aim-palestine.com/harpers economics of occupation (bernard avishai) oct09.pdf
Naomi Zeveloff, “The Five Star Occupation,” Guernica, 15 August, 2012 at:
http://bit.ly/Five-Star-Occupation
Sara Roy. “De-Development Revisited: Palestinian Economy and Society Since Oslo,”
Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3, 64-82. April, 1999.
Thomas Friedman, “The Real Palestinian Revolution,” New York Times, June 30, 2010:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/opinion/30friedman.html?src=mv
Leila Farsakh, Palestinian Labor Migration, at:
http://video.csupomona.edu/HotTalk/LeilaFarsakh-035.asx and also
Raja Khalidi and Sobhi Samour, “Neoliberalism as Liberation: The Statehood Program
and the Remaking of the Palestinian National Movement,” Journal of Palestine Studies,
40:2 (Winter, 2011), 6ff.
http://www.palestine-studies.org/journals.aspx?id=10924&jid=1&href=fulltext
Assignment Due: November 28
If you were a consultant for the European Union or the Quartet, what advice would
you give them about healthy economic development in Israel/Palestine? Please be
sure to draw on the reading materials in constructing your answer. Is it possible, as
Netanyahu proclaims (and Fayyad hints), for Israelis to offer Palestinians a purely
“economic peace” (and, implicitly, prosperity) without resolving the political issues
of statelessness?
November 28: The Israeli Economy and the Occupation
Thomas Friedman, “Israel Discovers Oil,” NYTimes op. ed. June 10, 2007 at:
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
http://cmsprod.bgu.ac.il/Eng/engn/Projects/TomFriedman.htm
Naomi Klein, “Gaza: Not Just a Prison, A Laboratory,” in Common Dreams,
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/15/1901/
Amira Hass, “Israel Knows that Peace Just Doesn’t Pay,” Ha’aretz, May 11, 2009 at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1084656.html
Shlomo Swirski, “The Cost of Occupation,” at:
http://www.adva.org/UserFiles/File/costofoccupation2008fullenglish(1).pdf
Omar Barghouti, “Boycotting Israeli Apartheid, Evoking South Africa’s Legacy,” in
State of Nature, Spring, 2006 at:
http://www.stateofnature.org/boycottingIsraeliApartheid.html
Lawrence Davidson and Islah Jad, “Academic Boycott as International Solidarity: The
Academic Boycott of Israel,” in Radical Philosophy, May/June, 2004 and at:
http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/default.asp?channel_id=2187&editorial_id=16030
Assignment Due: December 6:
Succinctly summarize the arguments for and against a boycott of Israeli products.
Do the same rules apply to the boycott of Israeli cultural products, artists and
intellectuals? Where do you stand on the call for boycott, sanctions and divestment?
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
December 6 - December 13: Religious Ethics in the Holy Land
Sara Roy, “A Jewish Plea,” Counterpunch, April 7/8, 2007 at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roy04072007.html
Avraham Burg, “Holocaust’s Unholy Hold,”
Los Angeles Times, November 16, 2008 at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-burg162008nov16,0,4227786.story
(If you want to compare Burg’s view to more conventional Israeli views, see the article
“Jewish and Democratic,” in The Economist
http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12459713)
Rabbi Bruce Warshal, “Shame on America, Jews & the ADL,” Florida Jewish Journal,
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/09/01/rabbi-bruce-warshal-shame-on-america-jewsand-the-adl/
on-line reserves.
Marc Ellis “The On-going Nakba and the Jewish Conscience,” Address to the Palestine
Center, May 27,2010 at:
http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/12975/pid/897
Bassam Aramin “A Palestinian Bar Mitvah,” at:
http://karmalised.com/?p=3318#more-3318
Nurit Peled-Elhanan “Let our Children Live,” Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/01/29/let-our-children-live/
J. Chaitan “Here’s the Separation Wall: Political Tourism in the Holy Land,” Conflict
Resolution Quarterly, 2011: 29(1):39-63, at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/crq.21036/abstract
Extra Credit Assignment: Due December 13:
As manifested in the readings, how do the Abrahamic faiths of the Middle East
understand concepts like right living, care of the world, obligations to self and
others? Do you think these narratives share a large common ground? Can they
produce compatible religious and ethical directives for their respective
communities? Please be sure to use the material above in constructing your
answers.
BOSTON COLLEGE
Building a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine
Schedule of Readings & Assignments
(Sc367.01)
Fall, 2012
Final Project Prospectus – during the finals period for this course
Please complete your prospectus for the project you would like to accomplish after
returning from our field trip.
Describe the project – what do you plan to do?
What are the intellectual foundations of your project – i.e. what questions are you
trying to answer?
Who is the audience for your project – i.e. with whom are you dialoguing?
Who is the intended beneficiary of your project?
How will you know if the project is successful – what are your measures of success?
In what ways might this project be a prototype for your further engagement in
“making history” (as distinct from simply making a living)?
What is the place of your project in the world – i.e. if we consider legislation and
regulation (law), market incentives (economics), people-to-people initiatives (grass
roots action), ngo development (civil society), and faith based initiatives (religion) as
the principle instruments for constructing just societies, where does your project fit
on this map and how could it link to other projects that share your values?