Conflict Over the Land Shared by Israelis and Palestinians: A Background

Course description

During fall 2023, an approximately century-long conflict over the land shared by Israelis and Palestinians reached an acutely violent point with some 1,200 killings and 200–300 hostage-takings by Hamas, and a massive retaliatory bombardment and ground operation in Gaza by Israel. Amidst deeply-held pain and sentiments in Canada and elsewhere with respect to the conflict, this lecture will strive for a balanced historical assessment of how matters arrived at this point and, to the extent that humility and unknowability allows, what future trajectories might look like. Emphasis will be placed on the role of transforming ideological and religious rationales for Zionism and Palestinian nationalism, respectively, together with the impacts of a rapidly changing, twenty-first century Middle Eastern and global geopolitical landscape.