excerpt of the TEACHING GUIDE for Gaza revisted
Since the Second Palestinian Intifada, or Uprising, that began in September 2000, Israel has worked to shift its relationship to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) from Occupier to non-state belligerent. Consider that after Israel’s 2005 unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, it declared Gaza, a “hostile territory.” It has characterized its conflict in the West Bank as rising to the level of an international armed conflict. This shift is significant as it implicates Israel’s duties and obligations under international law to the Palestinian population. Rather than treat them as a civilian population to whom they owed a duty to protect, they attempted to characterize the population as a non-state belligerent actor that poses a national security threat. Significantly, the US global “war on terror” helped to facilitate this shift. In this context Israel launched two military campaigns against Gaza. This JadMag focuses on the second of these campaigns, Operation Pillar of Cloud, and attempts to unpack this shift and to assess its implications for the population of Gaza and the Israel-Palestinian conflict more broadly.
This text is intended for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students of human rights, laws of war, peace and conflict studies, humanitarian emergencies, political science, anthropology, journalism, and history. It is especially relevant for courses on the Arab-Israeli Conflict; Contemporary History of the Middle East; National Security in the 21st Century; and Human Rights.
Although not indicated in the magazine, the text is divided into the following sections: Armed Conflict; Gaza and Hamas; Media and Representation; and Law. Should you choose not to assign it as a single reading assignment for 1-2 classes, you can assign the readings according to the aforementioned sections together with other readings on this conflict beyond the Middle East for comparative purposes.
Armed Conflict
Colonial Experiments in Gaza; Samera Esmeir
Who's Afraid of the Qassams?; Max Ajl
Netanyahu's First War; Mouin Rabbani
Timeline: Israel's Latest Escalation in Gaza; Jadaliyya Reports
Text of Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement; Jadaliyya Reports
Gaza and Hamas
A Separate Piece? Gaza and the 'No-State Solution'; Darryl Li
Counting Calories and Making Lemonade in Gaza; Sherene Seikaly
Media and Representation
Dissecting IDF Propaganda: The Numbers Behind the Rocket Attacks; Phan Nguyen
Do Photographs Pose An Existential Threat to Israel?; Amahl Bishara
Mowing the Lawn in Gaza; Sinan Antoon
The Agonies of Susan Rice: Gaza and the Negroponte Doctrine; Vijay Prashad
Law
Is Gaza Still Occupied and Why Does it Matter?; Lisa Hajjar
No, Israel Does Not Have the Right to Self-Defense in International Law Against Occupied Territory; Noura Erakat
The Limits of International Law Legalese; Lama Abu Odeh
Here is a set of suggested questions for each section to help stimulate in-class discussions:
Armed Conflict
Gaza and Hamas
Media and Representation
Law
After completing this reading, students should be prepared to conduct in-depth research on the various dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its many related topics. For example, this should help students examine the role of Hamas in Gaza as it relates to the political Islamic movements in the region. It should also prepare the students to research the debates within international law and the tensions between state rights and human rights. If the course is one that focuses on theme, rather than region, these sets of readings will prepare the students to research and write on comparative studies across regions. Alternatively, the materials can help simulate practical exercises in conflict studies, negotiations, humanitarian emergencies, and media.
The additional resources included herein will enable the instructor to assign outside readings or to show films within the classroom to assist in the exploration of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Gaza Strip, in particular. It will also afford the students an opportunity to continue their own exploration in the course of writing their research papers or otherwise. The social media resources will provide a unique opportunity for the instructor as well as the students to become intimately attuned to the ongoing conflict from untraditional sources. These include international human rights organizations, Palestinian organizations, Israeli organizations, bloggers on the subject matter, and twitter handles of social media activists within Gaza. This could benefit the class outside the classroom but may also provide unique pedagogical approaches within the classroom.
[See more inside...]
This text is intended for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students of human rights, laws of war, peace and conflict studies, humanitarian emergencies, political science, anthropology, journalism, and history. It is especially relevant for courses on the Arab-Israeli Conflict; Contemporary History of the Middle East; National Security in the 21st Century; and Human Rights.
Although not indicated in the magazine, the text is divided into the following sections: Armed Conflict; Gaza and Hamas; Media and Representation; and Law. Should you choose not to assign it as a single reading assignment for 1-2 classes, you can assign the readings according to the aforementioned sections together with other readings on this conflict beyond the Middle East for comparative purposes.
Armed Conflict
Colonial Experiments in Gaza; Samera Esmeir
Who's Afraid of the Qassams?; Max Ajl
Netanyahu's First War; Mouin Rabbani
Timeline: Israel's Latest Escalation in Gaza; Jadaliyya Reports
Text of Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement; Jadaliyya Reports
Gaza and Hamas
A Separate Piece? Gaza and the 'No-State Solution'; Darryl Li
Counting Calories and Making Lemonade in Gaza; Sherene Seikaly
Media and Representation
Dissecting IDF Propaganda: The Numbers Behind the Rocket Attacks; Phan Nguyen
Do Photographs Pose An Existential Threat to Israel?; Amahl Bishara
Mowing the Lawn in Gaza; Sinan Antoon
The Agonies of Susan Rice: Gaza and the Negroponte Doctrine; Vijay Prashad
Law
Is Gaza Still Occupied and Why Does it Matter?; Lisa Hajjar
No, Israel Does Not Have the Right to Self-Defense in International Law Against Occupied Territory; Noura Erakat
The Limits of International Law Legalese; Lama Abu Odeh
Here is a set of suggested questions for each section to help stimulate in-class discussions:
Armed Conflict
- Why does Esmeir refer to the Gaza Strip as a site of colonial experimentation? On whose behalf is Israel experimenting? What is the role of Palestinian individuals, militant groups, and Hamas as its ruling body?
- How does the socio-economic make-up of Israel complicate its national security narrative?
- What are the domestic forces that propel Israel’s leadership to support war against the Gaza Strip?
- Is there any relationship between Israel’s 2008/09 military operation, Operation Cast Lead and its 2012 Operation Pillar of Cloud? What do these similarities tell us about the conflict?
- Does it matter that Hamas was willing to enter into a ceasefire with Israel? Why or why not?
Gaza and Hamas
- How does the blockade of Gaza benefit Hamas? What does that tell us about Palestinian society as a whole?
- What is the relationship between the control of food and control of populations historically? How does this bear upon the present-day conditions in the Gaza Strip?
- Darryl Li suggests that the Hamas government is willing to consider a political outcome that treats Gaza as an entity independent of the Palestinian-Israel conflict. What implications does this have for finding a solution to the conflict? What implications does this have for Hamas’s representation mandate of the Palestinian people?
Media and Representation
- Why does former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren refer to the image of Jihad Masharawi as an existential threat?
- Based on Oren’s comments, what is the role of propaganda, and media more generally, in asymetric warfare? Is it applicable in the Palestinian-Israel conflict? Why or why not?
- How does the national security narrative depict Palestinians and Israelis relative to one another? How does the status of each group impact the way that policy is shaped in the US and beyond?
Law
- These articles present opposing perspectives about the purpose and value of international law and conflict? What are they and can they be reconciled?
- Why does the status of the Gaza Strip under international law matter? Would recognition of that status alter Israel’s behavior? Why or why not?
- How has Israel attempted to change the status of the Gaza Strip and why?
- If Israel does not have the right of legal self-defense in its campaigns against the Gaza Strip, does it still have the right and capacity to defend itself and its citizens from harm? If so, what means are available to it to do so?
- How is international law part of the problem? Why does Lama Abu-Odeh argue that politics are sacrificed at the altar of rights? Do you agree or disagree?
After completing this reading, students should be prepared to conduct in-depth research on the various dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its many related topics. For example, this should help students examine the role of Hamas in Gaza as it relates to the political Islamic movements in the region. It should also prepare the students to research the debates within international law and the tensions between state rights and human rights. If the course is one that focuses on theme, rather than region, these sets of readings will prepare the students to research and write on comparative studies across regions. Alternatively, the materials can help simulate practical exercises in conflict studies, negotiations, humanitarian emergencies, and media.
The additional resources included herein will enable the instructor to assign outside readings or to show films within the classroom to assist in the exploration of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the Gaza Strip, in particular. It will also afford the students an opportunity to continue their own exploration in the course of writing their research papers or otherwise. The social media resources will provide a unique opportunity for the instructor as well as the students to become intimately attuned to the ongoing conflict from untraditional sources. These include international human rights organizations, Palestinian organizations, Israeli organizations, bloggers on the subject matter, and twitter handles of social media activists within Gaza. This could benefit the class outside the classroom but may also provide unique pedagogical approaches within the classroom.
[See more inside...]
