History 692Z - S-Zionism, Palestine, Israel

This seminar explores the history of Zionism and of Israel while placing it within the history of Europe, of Judaism, of Palestine, of the Middle East, and of global trends that gave meaning to the Zionist movement and the state of Israel. We shall explore, among others, the Jewish national movement within European nationalism, colonialism, and settler colonialism; the relations between anti-Semitism and Zionism; the relation of the Zionist settlement in Palestine and the indigenous Palestinians; the place of Palestine within the British Empire; the relations of Israel to decolonization; the place of the 1948 war within a global history of partitions and forced migrations, especially in Europe and India/Pakistan in the 1940s; the post-1948 making of the Israeli welfare state in global perspective, and, more recently, the relations of Israel to issues of human rights. Throughout the course we shall pay special attention to topics of history and memory.

Open to Graduate students only.