Module POLM170 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Postgraduate Module Descriptor
POLM170: Understanding Israel and Palestine: Anatomy of Violence
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Module Aims
This module will:
- Provide an advanced level introduction to the causes, dynamics, key issues, and main developments in the politics of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and situate the analysis within key International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies theories, concept and debates on violence.
- Introduce you to various, often contradictory, interpretations of the conflict going beyond the two 'official' narratives.
- Provide you with the opportunity to develop a range of study skills, including the ability to work individually and in a group, formulate your own research questions in preparation for the Skype sessions with NGOs in the region, evaluate and constructively critique peers’ work, and to construct a coherent and well-reasoned critical analysis of the issues discussed in both oral and written forms.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate substantive and comprehensive knowledge of the main developments, issues and actors in the Israel-Palestine conflict, taking account of varying narratives of events and dynamics of the conflict; 2. Critically engage with and critique different theories and understandings of violence and apply this analysis in the context of the protraction of the Israel-Palestine conflict; 3. Understand, analyse and critically evaluate the political nexuses between different forms of violence and the protraction of the Israel-Palestine conflict; |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Identify, critically discuss, and apply the key theoretical debates in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies to empirical data; 5. Find, use, and analyse primary and secondary data relevant to specific issue areas; |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. Critically evaluate ideas and debates; 7. Locate, research and critically evaluate relevant information from academic sources to form a critical analysis; 8. Develop analytical writing skills; 9. Study independently and in collaboration with peers; 10. Understand assessment criteria, engage in critical, yet constructive, peer-evaluation and produce feedback and suggestions for improvement; 11. Develop oral presentation and communication skills; |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- One Hundred Years of Violence
- Technologies of Violence
- Territoriality and Borders
- Violence of Architecture
- Terrorism
- Cultural Violence: Violence of Words
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 278 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 22 | 11x two-hour seminars. There will be a mix of lectures led by the module convenor, student presentations, and group work. |
| Guided Independent Study | 70 | Private Study - reading and preparing for seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 104 | Preparation for essay - including researching and collating relevant sources, planning the structure and argument, and writing up. |
| Guided Independent Study | 104 | Preparation of exam - including researching and collating relevant sources, planning the structure and argument, and writing up. |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Amnesty International. Israel and the Occupied Territories - www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/
B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories - www.btselem.org/
International Crisis Group - www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/israel-palestine
Israel Foreign Ministry - www.mfa.gov.il
Israel Democracy Institute- www.en.idi.org.il
Negotiations Affairs Department, Palestine Liberation Organisation- www.nad-plo.org
Other Learning Resources
The Gatekeepers (2002, Dror Moreh)
Occupation 101 (2006, Abdallah Omeish, Sufyan Omeish,)
State 194 (2013,Dan Setton,)
Paradise Now (2016, Hany Abu-Assad)
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Azoulay, A. & A. Ophir (2009) The Order of Violence, in: A. Ophir, M. Givoni & S. Hanafi (Eds) The Power of Inclusive Exclusion: Anatomy of Israeli Rule in The Occupied Territories (New York, NY: Zone Books).
Barash, D.P. & C. Webel (2002) Peace and Conflict Studies (London: Sage Publications Ltd).
Coady, C. A. J. (1986) The Idea of Violence, Journal of Applied Philosophy, 3(1), pp. 3- 19.
Galtung, J. (1969) Violence, Peace, and Peace Research, Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), pp. 167-191.
Galtung, J. (1990) Cultural violence, Journal of Peace Research, 27(3), pp. 291-305.
Gordon, N. (2008b) Israel's Occupation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press).
Thomas, C. (2011) ‘Why don’t we talk about ‘violence’ in International Relations?’, Review of International Studies, 37(4), pp. 1815-1836.
Weizman, E. (2007) Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation (New York, NY: Verso).
Winter, Y. (2012) Violence and Visibility, New Political Science, 34(2), pp. 195-202.
Tilly, C. (2003) The Politics of Collective Violence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Caplan, N. (2010)The Israel-Palestine Conflict. Contested Histories (Malden and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell).
Gerner, D., J. (1991) One Land, Two Peoples: The conflict over Palestine (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press)
Gelvin, J.L. (2007) The Israel-Palestine conflict: one hundred years of war (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Milton-Edwards, B. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A People’s War (London: Routledge, 2009)
Mahler. G. S. and Mahler, A., R. (2010) The Arab-Israeli Conflict: An Introduction and Document Reader (London: Routledge)
Peters, J. and Newman, D. (2013)Routledge Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (London and New York: Routledge)
