Israel palestine history

1. HIST 4325
Israeli-Palestine Conflict
Week I
Cengiz Sisman
sisman@uhcl.edu

2. Why do we Study the Israeli-
Palestine Conflict?
 One of the most important problems in the Middle East
 One of the most covered issues in the media
 Islam is one of the largest and fastest growing world religions. 1.6
billion. 350 million of them lives in the Arab countries or Middle East
 Israel is one of the most important allies of the US
 Islam and Terrorism. 9/11
 Growing public and academic interest in Islam
 New programs in universities

3. A view from the Jewish Quarter,
Jerusalem
11/6/2023
3

4. Jews and Arabs in the Holy Land

5. Countries that support the Palestinian bid
for statehood at UN

6. What is Orientalism?
 Western knowledge about the East is not generated from facts or
reality, but from preconceived archetypes which envision all
"Eastern" societies as fundamentally essentialistically similar to
one another, and fundamentally dissimilar to "Western" societies.
This ‘a priori’ knowledge establishes "the East" as antithetical to
"the West".
 The Orient geographically exists separately from the Western
world, but the "Orient" does not merely refer to a geographical
location. It also has a very profound political and cultural
connotation. This "Orient" has become the "other" of the West,
from which perspective Western people reflect its world. Thus it is
absolutely necessary for them to have such an "other."
 The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since
antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories
and landscapes, remarkable experiences.

7.  Orientalism was defined by the late Columbia University Prof. Edward Said in his 1978 book of the same title as
"subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arabo-Islamic peoples and their culture" in the course of
academic study. The term was turned into a pejorative by Said during his long critique of Near Eastern studies
and the apparent stereotyping of Arab and Islamic peoples.
 Said criticized the West for projecting its views of the East in order not only to study the pitfalls and potentially
exploitable aspects of its culture, but also to justify the entire foundation of an imperialist endeavor. By projecting
the helplessness of such countries and, in Said's view, their "feminine" elements, the "masculine" West could in a
way save the East from its cultural destitution. As Western countries asserted themselves in Islamic territories,
specifically as the Ottoman Empire declined, Western scholars developed more hubris in their attitudes. Earlier
projections of Eastern weakness were apparently affirmed, further justifying a line of research that diminished the
status of the conquered peoples.
 Said pointed to the art from the age to back up his contentions. In these artworks, Eastern women are often
portrayed in kings' courts as vulnerable yet willing sexual objects. In kind, the men are portrayed as uncivilized
and carnal, unable to control their lust. Images of Biblical stories, portraying Jewish figures who by Semitic ties
are linked with their Jewish descendants and contemporary Arabs, also portray a propensity to promiscuity -- for
instance, the image of Judah and Tamar. It has been suggested that there is a connection between this attitude
and the rise of risque art in Europe, which constituted an early form of pictorial pornography in Western culture.
 While Said's points are taken into account largely by all scholars of the Middle East, the extent to which he took
them is often and vehemently opposed by contemporaries and many observers of the Middle East, probably
including a large contingent of those who disagree with his political views. A major criticism of the book itself is
its apparent lack of cohesion and comprehensibility. Additionally, Said made several allusions in the treatise that
critics like to point out are not backed up, at least not clearly, anywhere afterward. Additionally, he was taken to
task for making references without mentioning sources.
 Ibn Warraq has criticized Said as projecting infallibility, thereby presenting a risk to those critiquing him. Warraq
also said Said charged that Arabs and Muslims bore the brunt of Western scholarship, but did not consider the
existence of other ethnic and religious groups that were and have been contemporaneous with Arabs and
Muslims.

8. Binary Oppositions
The Occident The Orient
subject object
masculine feminine
self ‘other’
superior biologically inferior
Historical Natural & essentialized
Evolutionary Static and Primitive
Diversified Homogenous
Rational Irrational
Civilized Violent
Restrained Promiscuous
Hardworking The stereotype of lazy native
Predictable Unpredictable/ mysterious

9. Oriental paintings

10. The Turkish
Bath
1862
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-
Dominique (1780-
1867).

11. Odalisque (Ingres, 1814)

12. Sex and Orientalism…
The Orient is often depicted in dominating and sexual terms…
 The Orient is conquerable and inferior, feminine in its
penetrability…
 The feminine Orient awaits dominance of the West; it is a
defenseless and unintelligent entity.
 Oriental Men are depicted as feminine and weak, yet strangely
dangerous because he poses a threat to ‘civilization’ and to White
Women.

15. The Orient is perceived as
a place where progress
does not exist.
The Orient has a tendency
towards despotism and
danger.

16. Orientalist legacy
 Orientalism has shaped western
perspective of the Middle East for
centuries, and it continues to affect our
understanding, or lack thereof, of the
culturally rich area.
 Orientalism depersonalizes the region and
does not give credit to the diversity of the
countries in the Middle East.

17. Occidentalism
 The term Occidentalism is stereotype
and views on the Western world, including
ideologies or visions of the West in the
eyes of the non-western.
 West as utterly diseased and irredeemably
corrupt, a deadly global pestilence

18. F. Haliday
 Lewis has written nothing substantive on
the Middle Eastern societies since The
Emergence of Modem Turkey in 1961, and
even that is curiously flawed by its failure
in regard to economics.
 Said has focused on discourses about the
region, not the societies or politics
themselves.

19. A historical fallacy: Teleology
 Judging the historical events by looking at the end result, and seeing every
events inevitably leading to the end result.
 The past is reread in terms of the present and events and personalities are
highlighted only when they are considered stepping stones to what
happened later. Aspects of those people and events that do not fit the
teleology are ignored, or only given values when it is assume that they
contributed to the future.
 The danger is that it ignores complexity and forces the puzzle pieces to fit
into a presupposed narrative.
 False causation:
 A, B, C, D led to Z. However, Z could very well be the result of E, F or
G.
 Examples:
 Decline is “bad”. Everything leading towards “decline” is bad, too.

20. Anachronism and
A-historicism
 Anachronism
 representation of an event, person, or thing in a historical
context in which it could not have occurred or existed
 a person or thing that belongs or seems to belong to another
time
 Example: Human Rights, Democracy, freedom…
 Ahistoricsm
 lack of concern related to history, historical development, or
tradition.
 not concerned with or related to history, historical development
 Example: dealing with ideas without context….

21. Who is Muslim? Who is Jew?
 Religious, national or transnational identities?
 Islam means: Selaam/shalom/Peace; and submission.
The word "Muslims" in the Quran often means, simply,
"believers."
 In some cases "Muslims" includes other "people of the
Book"-Christians and Jews-as well.
 There is not one Islam, but islam(s)
 There is not one Judaism but Judaism(s)

22. Pre-Islamic mid-east

24. Competing Narratives over
Jerusalem/Holy Land
 Palestine: Holy land for everyone
 Jewish claim over Palestine:
 God promised it to them
 David conquered it from the Canaanite-
Jebusites
 2000 years of exile
 Palestinian claim over Palestine
 Third holy city: Prophet ascended heaven
 Muslims live there since CE 646
 Palestinians were here before the Jews
 Christian Claim over Palestine
 Jesus crucified there and will return there

29. First paragraphs of Declarations of
Israel and Palestine
The Land of Israel was the birthplace
of the Jewish people. Here their
spiritual, religious and national
identity was formed. Here they
achieved independence and
created a culture of national and
universal significance. Here they
wrote and gave the Bible to the
world. (1948)
Palestine, the land of the three
monotheistic faiths, is where the
Palestinian Arab people was
born, on which it grew,
developed and excelled. Thus
the Palestinian Arab people
ensured for itself an everlasting
union between itself, its land,
and its history.”(1988)

30. A Short History of Palestine
 9th century BCE, Ancient Israel
 476 BCE, Second Temple Period
 70-646, ruled by Rome/Byzantine
 646-1517, ruled by different Islamic
polities
 1517-1917, ruled by the Ottomans
 1917- The British Mandate starts
 1948- Birth of Israel and Nakbah
 1967-Six Days war btw Israel and
United Arab Armies
 1988-Birth of Palestine
 1993-Oslo Peace Process
 Ongoing debates on two-state