Week 8
(May 6)

Credit: Al Jazeera/screenshot

Recording from the class: https://brandeis.zoom.us/rec/share/zP0cCsEKDQq5gEwTlOgwTIQCDzqKHrQxKRSaX3UmBXzkciXqAKJWWG9gwods7r2e.P0oQRoIwadJqGK6E

2007 (June): Hamas violently expels Fatah from power in the Gaza Strip, killing over 100 Fatah members
2007 (Sep.): Israeli cabinet declares Gaza a "hostile territory" and imposes open-ended sanctions and a blockade on Gaza
2008: Israeli PM Ehud Olmert proposes a two-state solution in talks to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who sketches a hand-written map for his advisers but never gives a reply
2008-9: Responding to constant rocket fire, Israel launches Operation Cast Lead, which results in the deaths of 13 Israelis and 1,200-1,400 Palestinians in Gaza during the 22-day ground campaign
2010-11: U.S. President Barack Obama mediates negotiations between Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas that go nowhere
2011: Israel and Hamas reach a prisoner exchange deal, in which Israel gave up 1,027 Palestinians, including Yahya Sinwar, for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit
2012: Responding to constant rocket fire, Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense, which results in the deaths of 6 Israelis and 103 Palestinians in Gaza in one week of exchanges of aerial attacks; after the operation ends, Israel agrees to allow Qatar to send cash to Gaza, which would total over $1.1 billion over the next decade
2014: After the kidnapping of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank, Israel launches an aggressive search campaign, killing 11 Palestinians, which in turn triggers rocket fire from Gaza; Israel responds to escalation by launching Operation Protective Edge, which results in the deaths of 74 residents of Israel and 2,250 to 2,300 Palestinians
2016: United Nations Security Council adopts Resoultion 2334 by a 14-0 vote (with the U.S. abstaining), declaring  for the first time that Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem constitute "a flagrant violation under international law"
2018-19: Gazans protest along border with Israel, which Palestinians called the Great March of Return, triggered by U.S. President's decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem; Israeli forces killed 223 Palestinians over 21-month period
2021: Israeli handling of East Jerusalem evictions and the storming of the Al-Aqsa mosque trigger rocket fire from Gaza, prompting Israel to launch Operation Guardian of the Walls,  which results in the deaths of 15 residents of Israel and 256  Palestinians in Gaza, as well as riots in Israel (2 Jews and 1 Arab killed) and the West Bank (28 Palestinians killed) in 15 days
2022: Israeli arrest of a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank triggers rockets from Gaza, prompting Israel to launch a three-day aerial campaign called Operation Breaking Dawn, leaving 49 Palestinians dead
2023 (Sep.): Qatar brokers Hamas-Israel deal for Israel to admit 18,000 Gazan workers each day

Reading #1: Excerpts from Prime Minister Netanyahu's 2011 speech to Congress

Guiding questions:

a)    How does Netanyahu frame the conflict?

b)    How does he contrast Israeli and Palestinian behavior?

c)     What needs to happen in order for peace to be achieved, according to him?

Reading #2: “Israel-Palestine from both sides of the mirror” (2016):

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/opinion/israel-palestine-from-both-sides-of-the-mirror.html

Guiding questions:

a)    How have the competing narratives evolved compared to earlier narratives you've read?

b)    What differences do you detect between Fayyad and Ajlouni or between Rabinovich and Meridor?

c)     What surprised you, if anything?

Reading #3: “Gaza Blockade: 15 Years of Living in a 'Large Open Prison'” (2022):

https://palestine.actionaid.org/stories/2022/gaza-blockade-15-years-living-large-open-prison

Guiding questions:

a)    How does this article frame the conflict?

b)    What is missing from the message?

c)     How does it make you feel?

Reading #4: “Israelis and Palestinians Overestimate Each Other's Desire to Fight'” (2023):

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-730730

Guiding questions:

a)    What does the poll say about the narratives each side has about each other?

b)    How are these perceptions perhaps accurate or perhaps misguided?

c)     What surprised you, if anything?

Optional Reading: Bezalel Smotrich's narrative

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2017-06-04/ty-article/.premium/haaretz-i-didnt-call-for-the-wholesale-killing-of-all-palestinians/0000017f-f836-ddde-abff-fc7787d90000

MAP: A sketch by PA President Mahmoud Abbas of the proposed two-state solution by Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, made for a meeting with other PA officials (2008):