Politics and Ethnicity in Israel: Social Movements and Collective Action
Professor Liora Norwich
Monday, Wednesday & Thursday 12-12:50 pm Spring 2016
Phone number office: 781-736-5922; Cell: 617-230-5798
E-mail: lnorwich@brandeis.edu
Office: Mandel Building, 3rd floor, Rm. 320
Office hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 2:00-3:00 pm or by appointment
This course applies the scholarship on collective action and social movements to the case
of Israel, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of the social, religious,
and ethnic conflicts that have shaped Israeli society and politics through a focus on the
diverse movements that drove them. The course is divided into three parts: part one,
Introduction to Social Movements and Contentious Politics, provides an overview of the
theoretical foundations of social movement theory; part two, Israel: A Movement society,
explores the development of a range of movements which have shaped Israeli society
since the 1880s; and part three, Between War and Peace, involves an examination of the
different types of mobilization that have developed around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Throughout the course students will be challenged to consider the shared patterns of
mobilization reflected across cases, the connections between the development of Israeli
social movements past and present, and the cumulative impact of the emergence of these
movements on the shape of Israeli political institutions, governance and society. This
course has no prerequisites, however students are expected to come to class having done
the readings and prepared to actively engage in class discussion.
Course Requirements
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Participation 10% (cumulative throughout the semester): This is a seminar
which mandates that students must come to class having read the materials and
prepared to actively participate in class discussions. Achieving a high
participation grade has two components:
Being present (physically) in class and actively involving yourself in class
discussion.
Contributing 10 times throughout the semester to the class Latte on-line
discussion board. Your posts on Latte can involve either answering the question
posted by the professor (available 24 hours before each class) or raising your own
question or insight regarding the reading or the week’s topic. Students are also
encouraged to respond to each other. Posts are judged by quality not quantity, but
should be around half a page.
Oral presentations on the readings 20% (2 throughout the semester, 10% each):
Students are required to present twice throughout the semester. Each presentation
is approximately 10 minutes in length. Presenters summarize, evaluate and
critique the theory in light of the empirics of the week’s case study, and offer a
series of questions to generate and structure discussion which they are required to
take a role in leading. Students are required to consult with the professor
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regarding the content and style of their presentation before they present, and to
submit discussion questions to the professor by 5pm the night before their
presentation.
 Social movement observation exercise 25% (due week 5, Feb. 22nd): This
assignment familiarizes students with social movement practices, and hones skills
in data collection and qualitative analysis. The assignment requires students to
observe a protest or contentious event (otherwise defined) and analyze it in
relation to the theories of collective action and social movements discussed in
class (specifically focused on the content from Part I).
Analysis should center on the ‘why, when, how and who of the event by
answering the questions laid out in the assignment handout. Students can choose
to observe a protest, demonstration or strike in and around the Boston area, or can
find an event on YouTube. Your event needs to be approved by the professor
beforehand.
 Final research paper 45% - two parts:
a) Annotated bibliography: (15%) with at least 10 sources you plan to use (4 out of
10 have to be primary sources). Annotated bibliography will be due March 7th at
the beginning of the class. Students are required to have their research paper topic
and question approved by the professor before submitting their bibliography.
 Final research paper (due at the end of the semester, May 2nd) (35%)-includes
5% oral presentation): The final paper (12-15 pages in length, Times New Roman,
double spaced) requires students to develop a research question based on one of
the movements covered in Part II or III of the course. (*Oral presentation to be
held last day of class)
 Further instructions will be provided, and one-on-one consultation with the
professor will be organized to assist each student in developing their question and
research outline and investigative process.
Assignment submission:
All assignments must be submitted in person by their final due date. If there is a reason a
student cannot submit in person, this has to be agreed upon with the professor ahead of
time. Assignments submitted after the due date will be penalized 2 points per day,
except in cases of a documented illness or personal emergency.
Learning Goals:
1) Facilitating students’ ability to evaluate the Israeli case in light of comparative
theories of collective action and social movements, specifically with an eye to
addressing the multiple understandings how difference is managed in Israel, and
how it leads to power inequalities, of the individual’s role in promoting social
justice,
2) Fostering confidence and developing students’ skills related to public speaking
and presenting, including their ability to generate and lead academic discussions
around contentious subjects.
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3) Strengthening students’ ability to engage in independent research projects, with a
focus on developing theoretically informed research questions which facilitate the
use of a range of primary and secondary sources.
Required Texts
Snow, D., Soule, S., and Kreisi, H. (2004). The Blackwell Companion to Social
Movements, Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Additional assigned articles and chapter excerpts will be made available to students online through the course Latte.
**Please note that the readings and the schedule in the syllabus are subject to change.
Students will be notified in advance.
Academic Integrity:
You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University's policies on academic
integrity:
http://www.brandeis.edu/studentaffairs/srcs/ai/top10students.html. Any suspected
instances of alleged dishonesty will be referred to the Office of Student Development and
Conduct. Instances of academic dishonestly may result in sanctions including but not
limited to, failing grades being issues, educational programs, and other consequences. For
further questions on academic integrity please consult the Academic Integrity Resources
on the LTS website.
Use of cell phones and laptops in the classroom:
Use of cell phones in class, for talking, texting or reading/writing email is prohibited. If
you wish to leave your cell phone on in 'silent' mode because of a specific emergency,
please alert the professor at the beginning of the class.
The use of computers is permitted, if, and only if, this is for the purposes of taking notes
in class. If it is discovered that students are using computers for other purposes during
class time (including texting, messaging, Facebook, or surfing the web), the use of
laptops in the classroom will be discontinued (please don't let this happen!).
Latte Course Website:
On Latte you will find a copy of this syllabus (with hyperlinks) in Course Tools => Get
Course Syllabus. Assignments, course policies, and other materials are posted at the top
center underneath the masthead. In the course modules are links to PowerPoint files for
each week and the electronic readings assigned for that class (it is highly recommended
that you print them all). Additional announcements, questions and material will be
posted on Latte during the semester.
If you are experiencing difficulties logging in/accessing Latte consults the Student Guide
to Latte at http://www.brandeis.edu/legacy-latte/help/student/index.html or contact
the Help Desk at X65883 or latte@brandeis.edu
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If you are a student who needs academic accommodations because of a documented
disability, please contact me and present your letter of accommodation as soon as
possible.
If you have questions about documenting a disability or requesting academic
accommodations, you should contact Beth Rodgers-Kay in Academic Services (x6-3470 or
brodgers@brandeis.edu.)
Letters of accommodation should be presented at the start of the semester to ensure
provision of accommodations, and absolutely before the day of an exam or test.
Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.
< http://www.brandeis.edu/acserv/disabilities/faculty.html>
Part I: Introduction to Social Movements, Contentious Politics and the Case of
Israel
Week 1 The Case of Israel: Introduction to Society and Collective Action
Class 1: Introduction (Wednesday Jan. 13th)
Course design, layout and requirements
Introduction to the topics of Israel and the study of collective action
Class 2 (January 14th): Why and how are we going to use Israel as a laboratory to study
social movements? What political, ethnic and social conflicts are we going to cover?
 Goldscheider, Calvin. (2014) Israeli Society in the 21st Century: Immigration,
Inequality, and Religious Conflict. Waltham: Brandeis University Press. Chapter
1.
Class 3 (January 20th): What do we mean when we talk about collective action and protest
in Israel?
 Yishai, Y. (1998). Civil society in transition: interest politics in Israel. The Annals
of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 555(1), 147-162.
 Lehman-Wilzig, S. N. (1990). Stiff-necked People, Bottle-necked System: The
Evolution and Roots of Israeli Public Protest, 1949-1986. Indiana: Indiana
University Press. Pages TBA, Chapter 3 (history of protest) & 6 (cultural base of
protest).
Recommended
 Wolfsfeld, G. (1988). The Politics of Provocation: Participation and Protest in
Israel.
Week 2 The Study of Movements: Ethnicity and Politics in Israel (January 21st January 27th)
What are social movements and how do they intersect with ethnicity? The Jewish
majority and the Arab minority in Israel
 Snow, D., Soule, S., & Kreisi, H. (2004). "Mapping the Terrain," In D. Snow,
S.Soule & H. Kreisi (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements
(pp.3-16).
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Olzak, Susan (2004) "Ethnic and National Social Movements", in D. Snow,
S.Soule & H. Kreisi (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements
(pp.1-16). Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, pp. 666-688.
Goldscheider, (2014). Ethnic Diversity: Jewish and Arab Populations in Israel,
Chapter 2.
Week 3 The core components of movements: mobilizing bases, repertoires and
frames (February 1st to February 4th)
What are the main features of social movements? How do they combine together to shape
collective action?
 Tarrow, S. (1998). Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious
Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1, pp. 16-34.
 Taylor, V, Van Dyke, N. (2004). “’Get Up Stand Up’: Tactical Repertoires of
Social Movements”, in D. Snow, S.Soule & H. Kreisi (Eds.), The Blackwell
Companion to Social Movements (pp. 262-293).
 Benford, R. D., & Snow, D. A. (2000). “Framing processes and social
movements: An overview and assessment”, Annual Review of Sociology, 611-639.
Week 4 Understanding Political Opportunities: Movements and the State (February
8th to 11th)
How does the political environment effect the development of protest and social
movements? What is the relationship between the state and movement?
 Kreisi, H. (2004). “Political Context and Opportunity”, In D. Snow, S.Soule & H.
Kreisi (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (pp.67-90).
 Della Porta, D. (1996). "Social Movements and the State: Thoughts on Policing
Social Movements", in D. McAdam, J. McCarthy, and M. Zald (eds.)
Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. Chapter 3.
 Hermann, T. (1996). Do they have a chance? Protest and political structure of
opportunities in Israel. Israel Studies, 1(1), 144-170.
Part II: Multiethnic & multicultural Israel: Movements and struggles for power
Week 5 Transnational Activism in the 19th Century: Early Zionist Mobilization
(February 22nd – 25th)
What accounts for the emergence of the Zionist movement in the 1800s? How can we
explain its growth and the development of its ideological agendas?
 Brenner, M. (2003). Zionism: A brief history. Markus Wiener Publishers,
chapter 1 & 4.
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Della Porta, D., & Tarrow, S. (2005). “Transnational processes and social
activism: An introduction.” In D. Della Porta and S. Tarrow (Eds.) Transnational
protest and global activism, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Chapter
1.
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Smith, J. (2013). “Transnational Social Movements”. In D. Snow, D. della Porta
and D. McAdam (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and
Political Movements, Blackwell Publishing Inc, pp. 1-5.
 **Social Movement/ Protest Observation Assignment due**
Recommended
 Berkowitz, M. (2004) “Introduction: From 1900 to 2000 & Beyond: Taking
Nationalism for Granted?”, in M. Berkowitz (ed.), Nationalism, Zionism and
ethnic mobilization of the Jews in 1900 and Beyond, The Netherlands, Brill.
 Keck, Margaret E. and Kathryn, Sikkink, 1999. “Transnational Advocacy
Networks in International and Regional Politics.”
 **Investigative assignment/ participant observation assignment due
Week 6 Mizrahi Activism: ‘From the Margins to the Center?’ (February 29th –
March 3rd)
What are the grievances of the Mizrahi collective? How has this group mobilized or
failed to mobilize? Can we speak about a Mizrahi ethnic movement in Israel?
 Shafir, Gershon, Peled, Yoav. (2002) Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple
Citizenship, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chapter 3 “Mizrahim and
Women: Between Quality and Quantity”.
 Chetrit, S. (2000). “Mizrahi politics in Israel: Between Integration and
Alternative”, Journal of Palestine Studies, 29(4), pp. 51-65.
 Bernstein, D. (1984). “Conflict and Protest in Israeli Society: The Case of the
Black Panthers in Israel”, Youth and Society, 16(2), 129-52.
Week 7 ‘From Acquiescence to Challenge’: The Fractured Ethno-nationalism of
Israel's Palestinian Arab Minority (March 7th -10th)
What are the grievances of the Arab minority in Israel? How has collective identity
developed within the movement, and what political strategies has the collective utilized?
 Shoughry, N. (2012). "Israeli-Arab" Political Mobilization. Political &
International Studies Collection. Chapter 1, pp. 5-18, 25-36.
 Yiftachel, O. (1997). “The political geography of ethnic protest: nationalism,
deprivation and regionalism among Arabs in Israel.” Transactions of the Institute
of British Geographers, 22(1), 91-110.
 Norwich, L. (2015).”Reconsidering Ethnic Radicalization: The Politics of
Deinstitutionalization and the Mobilization of Israel’s Arab minority”.
 **Annotated bibliography Assignment Due***
Recommended
 Haklai, O. (2009). “State mutability and ethnic civil society: the Palestinian Arab
minority in Israel,” Ethnic and racial studies, 32(5), 864-882.
 Jamal, A. (2007). “Strategies of minority struggle for equality in ethnic states:
Arab politics in Israel”, Citizenship studies, 11(3), 263-282.
Week 8: A whisper or a scream? Ethiopian protest in Israel (March 14th – 16th)
Case study of recent protest events
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Ben-Eliezer, U. (2008). Multicultural society and everyday cultural racism:
second generation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel's ‘crisis of modernization’. Ethnic
and Racial Studies, 31(5), 935-961. (required TQs)
In-class group work and assignment
Week 9: Religious Activism in Israel: Challenging Israel as a Jewish and
Democratic Society (March 17st – 23th)
How do different religious groups interact with the Israeli state? How do different
religious communities organize mobilize to achieve their demands? What are the
different ways that religion shapes collective identity?
 Kniss, F, Burns, G. (2004) "Religious Movements", in D. Snow, S.Soule & H.
Kreisi (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (pp. 694-716).
 Stadler, N., Lomsky-Feder, E., & Ben-Ari, E. (2008). “Fundamentalism's
encounters with citizenship: the Haredim in Israel,” Citizenship studies, 12(3),
215-231.
 Rosmer, T. (2012). Resisting ‘Israelization’: The Islamic Movement in Israel and
the Realization of Islamization, Palestinization and Arabization. Journal of
Islamic Studies, 23(3), 325-358.
Recommended
 Davis, N. J., & Robinson, R. V. (2009). "Overcoming Movement Obstacles by the
Religiously Orthodox: The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Shas in Israel,
Comunione e Liberazione in Italy, and the Salvation Army in the United States,”
American Journal of Sociology, 114(5), 1302-1349.
Week 10: 'The People Demand Social Justice': Problematizing master frames,
diffusion and Institutionalization (March 24th – March 31st)
What factors influenced the growth and expansion of the tent protests in 2011? What
problems did the movement face, and what impact did the protest wave have?
 Alimi, E. Y. (2012). “‘Occupy Israel’: A Tale of Startling Success and Hopeful
Failure,” Social Movement Studies, 11(3-4), 402-407.
 Gordon, Ui. (2012). “Israel's ‘Tent Protests’: The Chilling Effect of Nationalism,”
Social Movement Studies, Vol. 11(3-4), 349-355.
 Gamson, W. A. (2011). “Arab Spring, Israeli summer, and the process of
cognitive liberation,” Swiss Political Science Review, 17(4), 463-468.
Recommended
 Shalev, M., & Rosenhek, Z. (2013) “'The political economy of Israel’s ‘social
justice’ protests: a class and generational analysis,” Contemporary Social Science,
9(1), 31-48.
 Pickerill, J., Krinsky, J. (2012). “Why does Occupy matter?”, Social movement
studies, 11(3-4), 279-287.
Part II: Between War and Peace
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Week 11 The Settler Movement: Rejectionist to Insider Status? (April 4th – April
7th)
What opportunities and threats has the settler movement faced, and how has this effected
its development? Has the movement been successful? How is it both an insider and
outside in the Israeli political arena?
 Pedahzur, Ami. “The Silent Victory of the Israeli Settlers Movement,” Current
History, December 2014, pp. 1-13.
 Ondrej, Cisar.“Interest groups and social movements”
 Haklai, O. (2007). “Religious-Nationalist Mobilization and State Penetration
Lessons From Jewish Settlers' Activism in Israel and the West Bank,”
Comparative Political Studies, 40(6), 713-739.
 Case studies of settler organizations.
Recommended
 Gorshom Gorenberg, The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the
Settlements, 1967-1977, Chapter 2-4.
Week 12 Palestinian mobilization: Collective Action in Highly Repressive Settings
(April 11th – 14th)
What are some of the differences between the first and second Palestinian intifadas and
what does this say about the trajectory of Palestinian mobilization?
 Johnson, P. and Obrien, L. (with Joost Hilterman). (1989). “The West Bank Rises
Up” in Zachary Lockman and Joel Beinin (eds.) Intifada: The Palestinian
Uprising Against Israeli Occupation. Washington, DC: South End Press, pp. 2942.
 Araj, B., & Brym, R. J. (2010). Opportunity, Culture and Agency Influences on
Fatah and Hamas Strategic Action during the Second Intifada. International
Sociology, 25(6), 842-868.
 Allen, L. (2008). Getting by the occupation: how violence became normal during
the Second Palestinian Intifada. Cultural Anthropology, 23(3), 453-487.
Recommended
 Julie Norman- Civil Resistance in the Second Palestinian intifadahttp://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781136947353_sample_832948.pdf
 Robinson, G. E. (2004). “Hamas as social movement”, in Q. Wiktorowicz, (Ed.).
Islamic activism: A social movement theory approach. Indiana University Press.
(pp. 112-139).
Week 13 Student presentations on final projects and workshop week (April 18th –
21st)
 Specifics to be announced
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Last Class (May 2nd) Wrap up discussion: Is the case of Israel useful in the study of
social movements? Exploring themes and dilemmas
April
 Film (TBA) and discussion- possible options include Have You Heard About the
Black Panthers (2002); Young Israelis Fight for Social Justice (a Vice
documentary 2012). Class discussion
 **Final papers due**
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