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.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. 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 Skills4. 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 Skills6. 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;

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)