Week 5
(Apr. 8)

Credit:Ilan Bruner/GPO

 Link to class recording: https://brandeis.zoom.us/rec/share/yEP-sXGTJArZbLTJtOHVfnq_-rlOiO6B8SZHl5isjC3-uYJmtH-iGGf-ePrMwdgK.BQXsj_jxfKtPAQQo

Link to slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Rt3syOFN465zB7kopH78E7K97e-0TCD8Uw3Dzp_zKWs/edit?usp=share_link 

 Timeline: From the War of Independence/Nakba to the Six-Day War/Naksa

1948: All-Palestine government established in Gaza, but moved to Cairo in December; UN General Assembly approves Resolution 194 calling to permit the refugees to return to their homes "at the earliest practicable date" and to compensate thse "choosing not to return" for loss of or damage to property
1949: Israel admitted to the United Nations
1950: Egypt informs UN it has officially occupied the Straits of Tiran, while Jordan annexes the West Bank and the United States, Britain and France announce the Tripartite Declaration upholding the armistice lines
1952: Free Officers' Coup in Egypt; Gamal Abdel Nasser emerges as leader of Egypt, espousing a pan-Arab philosophy
1954-56: Fedayeen campaign sees dozens of Gazans infiltrating and attacking targets in Israel, mainly civilian, sometimes answered by deadly reprisals from Israel
1956: Suez Campaign/Tripartite agression ends with Israel capturing Sinai and Gaza, withdrawing relatively quickly from Sinai but staying in Gaza six months; Egypt agrees to reopen the Straits of Tiran and the Suez Cananl to Israeli shipping; UN peacekeepers (UNEF) sent into Sinai, but Israel doesn't allow them on Israeli side of the border
1959 (Mar.): United Arab Republic, the Egyptian-Syrian union that lasted 1958-61, proposes at an Arab League meeting "reorganizing the Palestinians and giving them an entity of their own." The issue becomes subject of a three-way dispute between Nasserist Egypt, revolutionary Iraq and Hashemite Jordan.
1959 (Oct.): Fatah founded by Yasser Arafat and a group of exiled Palestinian Arabs
1964: Nasser helps found the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Jerusalem, led by his lawyer Ahmad Shukeiri
1965: Fatah begins guerilla activity against targets inside Israel
1967 (May): Crisis erupts between Israel and Egypt; Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran, orders UN to remove peacekeepers from Sinai and moves its own troops into the peninsula, and signs a defense pact with Jordan
1967 (June): Israel launches Six-Day War, which Arabs refer to as the Naksa (setback), destroying Egyptian and Syrian armies; Israel captures Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights; 300,000-400,000 West Bank and Gaza residents caught outside of the Territories during the war, adding to the refugee problem

Reading #1 

Moshe Dayan's eulogy of Roi Rotberg, April 1956

Guiding questions:

a)    How does Dayan address Roi?

b)    How does Roi's death fit into the narrative of the conflict?

c)    What is the lesson learned from his death, according to Dayan?

Reading #2 

New York Times reports of May 1967 crisis

Guiding questions:

a)    How does the newspaper frame the conflict?

b)    How might the respective behavior of each country reinforce already existing narratives?

c)    What are the most concerning statements?

Reading #3 

Levi Eshkol, May 1967 address to the nation of Israel

Guiding questions:

a)    What is the problem, according to Eshkol

b)    What are his main arguments?

c)     What is his solution?

Reading #4

Gamal Abdel Nasser speech, May 1967 (Note: Even if it looks black to you, article will appear when you click on it)

Guiding questions:

a)    What is the problem, according to Nasser?

b)    What are his main arguments?

c)     What is his concept of peace, particularly regarding Palestinian rights?

d)     What is his solution?

Reading #5

Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook's speech on the occasion of Israel's 19th anniversary, May 1967 

Guiding questions:

a)    What is the problem, according to Kook?

b)    What are his main arguments?

c)     What is his solution?

Map: Israel, before and after the Six Day War, 1967