Facts, Faces and Facets of Israel-Part 3-the Israel-Palestinian Conflict

LESSON 1 – HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?

Goal

To offer an even-handed approach to the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so that the students will be able to understand and sympathize with both sides in the conflict.

Materials

Included in the kit

Palestinian and early Zionist garb – kafia and kova tembel, timeline of Zionist history from 1917 until 1948

Included in the Student Reader

Timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict until the rise of the State of Israel

Needed: appropriate number of photocopies of the Yosef and Yousuf stories, chalk

Suggested Lesson Plan

Step 1 (5 minutes)

The teacher should select two male students, or ask for two volunteers, who will play the roles of Yosef and Yousuf. Both characters should stand in front of the class, put on the appropriate garb and be given a copy of the script which they are to read. They should then introduce themselves and read their stories. Since there is a great deal of parallel between the two stories, it is important to have the students read only one box at a time and not to proceed until their counterpart has read his parallel section.

Step 2 (15-20 minutes)

The class should be divided into 2 (or 4, depending on the size of the class) groups, 1 (or 2) Israeli and 1 (or 2) Palestinian. Each group will be handed the texts of the characters for careful review and will have to come up with a case to explain why their claims to the land are stronger and more justified than the other.

Step 3 (20-25 minutes)

The class should reassemble and representatives of each group should present their case. Time should be allotted for responses and rebuttals.

Step 4 (5 minutes)

The teacher should list some of the arguments in support of each side in the conflict and list them on the blackboard.

Step 5

The teacher should review the timeline of the major events that took place since the conflict first emerged in full force during the period of the First World War until the rise of the State of Israel, highlighting the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict became more intense and violent as time passed. 

The Stories of Yosef and Yousuf

YosefYousuf  
ShalomSalam
I am a Jew originally named Sasha but now I call myself YosefI am a Muslim Arab named Yousuf
I was born in 1904 and am now 17 years oldI was born in 1904 and am now 17 years old
I grew up in Moscow and I moved with my family to a new settlement called Merhaviya in the land of Israel, known as Palestine.I have lived all my life in a village near the town of Nablus in Palestine.
The land of Israel is very important to me and I want to tell you whyThe land of Palestine is very important to me and I want to tell you why
My connection to the land began with my ancestors long agoMy connection to the land began with my ancestors long ago
The Bible tells us that this land was promised to our forefather Abraham by God more than 3,500 years ago. He was told that we his children would inherit it and that they would become a great nation. It then tells us how Joshua led us into the land where we continued to live and prosper and where we built a Temple for God in our capital city Jerusalem. We would never have left if not for the fact that we were forcibly exiled from it after living here for over 500 years. Although some of us managed to return and live here under foreign rule, most of us lived outside the land. In many of the countries of our dispersion and at many times in our history we were subject to second-class status, persecution and expulsions. Although we managed to survive as a people outside our ancient homeland we never stopped praying and yearning for our eventual return to our homeland where we would become a proud and independent nation once again.My family has been living on this same plot of land for over 7 generations where we have planted and cultivated vineyards. Furthermore, the tradition of the hamula (extended family) is that we have lived in this land without interruption since the Moslem conquest in the 7th century. No one ever considered leaving. The same is true of the Arabs in the neighboring villages. Even when we suffered at various times under the rule of the Christians, Mameluks and the Ottoman Turks we never considered any place else as our home.
Many years passed and something amazing started to happen. Jews from all over Europe decided to take matters into their own hands, to take responsibility for their own fate rather than have it decided for them by others. They began organizing in groups and settling in the land of Israel. The first wave of aliyah numbered 25,000 but the second wave of which we were a part numbered about 35,000. The increase in the numbers of settlers and the continued purchase of large tracts of land will hopefully allow us one day to claim our right to establish an independent Jewish state in our homeland.Many years passed and something amazing started to happen. Arabs everywhere began to stand up for their national rights and freedom from foreign rule. Many Palestinian Arabs including my father and many of his friends were active in the movement to free the Arabs from the rule of the Ottoman Turks. This movement grew and became stronger. The continued growth of this movement will hopefully one day allow us to claim our right to independence in Arab countries, as well as in Palestine.
One of the biggest obstacles in our way is the Arabs in the land. They started to become increasingly hostile toward us as our numbers and presence in the land increased. Some of us feel that we will never succeed in our efforts if we don’t cooperate with them and take their needs and feelings into account but with their increasing hostility toward us I agree with those who say that the most important thing is to continue to go about our business of buying new tracts of land and bringing more Jews to work and settle on them. Once we become a major presence, our legitimate rights in the land will have to be respected.One of the biggest obstacles in our way is the Zionist settlers in Palestine. At first we didn’t like the fact that they forced many of us off lands which they had bought but which were where we had worked and lived for generations. Now that it is clear that what they really want is not merely to buy lands but to completely take over our land, and to establish a Jewish state in it, we are growing to hate them. How dare a small group of settlers come from Europe thinking they can set up a Jewish state in Palestine where they are outnumbered by us by a ratio of nearly 7 to 1!
During the World War we genuinely believed that our independence was just around the corner. That is because of the 1917 Balfour Declaration in which Britain resolved to create a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine once they drive the Turks out of the country. I still remember it as the most exciting time in my life.During the World War we genuinely believed that our independence was just around the corner. The British encouraged us to join forces with them by revolting against the Turks and, in return, they promised that they would support Arab independence in all the Arab regions. I still remember it as the most exciting time in my life.
Unfortunately, the Arabs have been exerting pressure on the international community to suspend Jewish immigration and annul the Balfour Declaration. To make matters worse they started rioting and have already killed 50 Jews and injured another 140 in Jaffa and other Jewish towns. Who are these people anyway? Is their connection to the land as deep as ours? Besides, they never had an independent state in the land, as we did! And do they really think that by killing us we are going to go away? Now that we’ve returned to our homeland after 2000 years of suffering as strangers in strange lands, are we going to just surrender and leave?Unfortunately, the British did not live up to their promises in most places, especially not in Palestine. Not only did they claim that Palestine was excluded from the agreement but they had the nerve to promise our homeland to the Jews when they issued the Balfour Declaration. What right did they have to give the Jews a land that belongs to us?! So the Jews have suffered. Is that our problem? Should we have to pay the price for their suffering? Some of our leaders have appealed to the international community in behalf of our legitimate rights to Palestine and to protest against the claims of the Zionists and the Balfour Declaration. At the same time some of us have begun to take matters into our own hands and are engaged in an armed uprising to attack the Zionists.
We don’t know how all of this will end but we are not prepared to allow our dreams to just slip away.We don’t know how all of this will end but we are not prepared to allow our dreams to just slip away.

Timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict until the rise of the State of Israel

  • 1870s-80s – Hovevei Zion (lovers of Zion) societies in Russia and Romania promote agricultural settlement in Palestine
  • 1881 – Persecution of Russian Jews
  • 1882-1903 – First Aliyah (large scale immigration) mainly from Russia
  • 1891- First civil unrest between Palestinian peasants and Jewish settlers
  • 1897 – First International Zionist Congress
  • 1903 – Persecution of Jews in Kishinev
  • 1904 -1914 – Second Aliyah
  • 1908-09 – Arab nationalism is intensified leading to increased opposition to Zionist settlement
  • 1914-18 – First World War during which the British gain control of Palestine from the Ottoman Turks
  • 1917 – The Balfour Declaration is issued pledging British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine
  • 1919-23 – Third Aliyah
  • 1920-21 – Arab anti-Jewish riots in Palestine
  • 1924-32 – Fourth Aliyah
  • 1929 – Arab riots in Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed
  • 1933-39 – Fifth Aliyah
  • 1936-1939 – Arab Revolt against British rule in Palestine and Zionism
  • 1937 – Peel commission recommends partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs which was accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs
  • 1939 – The British government issues the “White Paper” limiting Jewish immigration and supporting the gradual creation of a Palestinian state
  • 1942-1946 – Increased Jewish opposition to British immigration policies in Palestine including riots and armed uprisings
  • 1947 – The U.N. approves partition of Palestine into a Jewish and Palestinian state. It is accepted by the Jews but rejected by the Arabs
  • 1947 – guerilla wars between Zionist and Palestinian forces
  • 1948 – Ben-Gurion declares the State of Israel
  • 1948 – Neighboring Arab countries invade and the Arab-Israeli war ensues


LESSON 2 – THE REFUGEE PROBLEM

Goal

To offer an even-handed approach to one of the central issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – the refugee problem – so that the students will have a better understanding of, and greater sympathy for, each side in the conflict.

Materials

Included in the kit

Video clip on the background to the refugee problem

Needed

Video player

Suggested Lesson Plan

[Step 1 (5 minutes) – optional

One way to introduce the subject of the lesson is by connecting it to the immediate surroundings of the students. Thus, it may be helpful to raise the following questions: Are there any circumstances in which you might lose the right to live in your own home. Certainly you will lose your right if it is sold. But there may be other circumstances. What if you are in debt and cannot pay it back? What if you use your home to deal drugs or some other crime? What if you are causing damage to the environment? What if you have abandoned it for an extended period of time? Clearly, a person has a right to his or her home but at the same time there are circumstances in which that right is denied.

At this point the teacher should explain that this lesson will focus on one of the central issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that relates to the question of a people’s rights to their homes – the rights of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel.]

Step 2 (7 minutes)

Show the video on the refugee crisis and explain the extent of the problem based on the information provided.

Step 3 (20 minutes)

The class should be divided into 2 or 3 groups. Each group should first read and discuss the Palestinian and Israeli perspectives on the refugee problem and then try to come up with a solution which they will be able to defend in the larger forum.

Step 3 (15 minutes)

The class should reconvene and a representative of each group should present the group’s proposal and its justification. Then students should be given time to react freely to the proposals of other groups with time remaining for some responses.

Step 4 (5 minutes)

If there is still time, it may be helpful to ask the students whether this lesson helped them better understand, or sympathize with, one of the sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Refugee Problem

Almost immediately after the UN voted in favor of the partition of Palestine in November of 1947 Palestinian Arabs began an assault on the Jewish community living there. After a series of successful campaigns the Jews gained control of most of the territory allocated to the Jewish state by the UN. Nevertheless, when the British Mandate expired on May 14th 1948 and the State of Israel was declared, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria launched a coordinated attack. By the time the fighting was over in early 1949, Israel was in possession of the territory allocated for a Jewish state by the UN resolution as well as a considerable portion of the area allocated for a Palestinian state. The parts of Palestine not incorporated into Israel soon fell under the control of neighboring Arab states, Egypt and Jordan.

From the beginning of the fighting in 1947 and the armistice in 1949 between 500,000 to 750,000 Palestinians left their homes in the territory encompassed by the new Jewish state and made their way either to that part of Palestine remaining under Arab control or to neighboring Arab countries. Only about 150,000 remained inside Israel by the end of 1949. This refugee crisis led to a radical shift in the demographic balance of the country dramatically. Before 1947 Jews constituted roughly 30% of the population of Palestine but after 1949 they constituted close to 80%!

Due to natural population growth since 1948 and additional refugees from subsequent wars, as well as other factors there are currently about 3.9 million refugees registered as such with the UNRWA (United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees).

Since 1948 the Palestinians have continued to demand that Israel grant these refugees the right to return to their homes. Israel refuses.

Palestinian Arguments

  1. The Palestinians were deliberately driven from their homes by a deliberate campaign of intimidation and terror.
  2. Since they were deliberately driven out of their homes they possess to return to their communities of origin.
  3. Proof of this deliberate campaign is in the massacre of 254 defenseless civilians at Deir Yassin, a Palestinian village about five miles west of Jerusalem. This massacre was aimed at inciting panic among the Palestinian population in order to frighten many Arabs into leaving their homes.
  4. Attacks to provoke the Arabs to flee from their homes were not limited to the Jewish underground but were approved or carried out by the regular forces of the Hagana.
  5. Even when acts of violence were condemned by the Israeli leadership they were tolerated because they contributed to the desired political objective of the flight of the Arab population.
  6. The few Arab calls for an exodus were isolated and unrepresentative. Furthermore, they were a response to, rather than a cause of, panic that took hold in many Palestinian communities. Finally, most of these calls were made after 1948 when some Arab journalists and broadcasters wanted it to appear that the mass exodus was a planned Arab maneuver and not the result of defeat at the hands of the Israeli forces.
  7. A number of Israeli leaders discussed the possibility of getting rid of the Arab majority in Palestine.
  8. Much of the international community in 1948 and 1949 favored repatriation of Palestinian refugees including the U.S. Israel’s closest ally.
  9. Many Palestinian villages had been deliberately destroyed in an effort to unjustly prevent the return of refugees in the future.

Israeli Arguments

  1. If the Arabs hadn’t refused to accept the UN partition plan and started a war there wouldn’t have been a refugee problem in the first place. Since the problem was caused by Arab intransigence it is not Israel’s duty to solve it.
  2. There was no deliberate campaign to drive Palestinians from their homes.
  3. Some simply abandoned their homes because of rumors or exaggerated reports about Zionist atrocities circulated by the Arabs themselves. These reports were aimed at inflaming hatred of the Jews and strengthening armed resistance but instead filled them with terror and cause them to flee.
  4. Other Palestinians were uprooted by the wartime situation and the general climate of insecurity, just as most other wars produce a large number of refugees.
  5. Others were told to leave their homes by Arab leaders in order to facilitate a military campaign against the Jews and were given promises that they would soon return behind victorious Arab armies and be compensated with the property of the Jews driven into the sea. This fact is acknowledged by a number of Arab writers.
  6. The Deir Yassin episode can be defended on the grounds that the village was a legitimate military target since it was blocking the road to Jerusalem at a time when Jewish sections of the city were under siege, that before the battle a sound truck had urged the village to surrender, and that residents who did so were escorted to safety, that the village harbored armed Palestinian and Iraqi soldiers and that the village was taken in fierce house-to-house combat. Even it cannot be defended it was merely an isolated incident carried out not by the regular forces of the Hagana but by the extremist military groups.
  7.  Since is not responsible for the refugee problem it should not be expected to provide a solution.
  8. Refugee problems are always solved within the countries to which the displaced population fled not through repatriation.
  9. Israel cannot possibly readmit hundreds of thousand of people bent on its destruction.
  10. Refugees should be resettled in neighboring Arab countries.
  11. Several hundred thousand Jews living in Arab countries had migrated to Israel after 1948, so there had actually been an exchange of populations between Israel and the Arab world.
  12. These Jews can also be considered “refugees” who were forced to leave their homes because of persecution in Arab lands were successfully absorbed by Israel. Thus, the Arab countries which caused a Jewish refugee should be the ones to absorb the Palestinian refugees.
  13. If the Palestinians refugees be allowed to return, Israel would eventually cease to exist as a Jewish state because, considering the much higher birth-rate of the Arab population, Jews would eventually be in the minority.


LESSON 3 – THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Goal

To enable the students to understand and sympathize with both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the status of the Occupied Territories, and to give them some insight into the obstacles in the way of a peaceful resolution.

Materials

Included in the Teacher’s Guide

Guidelines for the Palestinian, Israeli and UN groups

Included in the Student Reader

Historical background, maps of Israel pre-and-post 1967, UN Resolution 242.

Needed

Appropriate number of photocopies of the guidelines for each group, chalk

Suggested Lesson Plan

Step 1 (10-15 minutes)

Since there is a lot to do in this lesson the students should immediately be divided into 3 groups: Israel, the Palestinians and the United Nations. Explain that each group will have to advance its own interests in light of the new circumstances – Israel’s occupation of territories conquered in the 1967 war. In order to do this each group will be handed a summary of the historical background, 2 maps reflecting the changes that occurred as a result of the war, and guidelines that reflect the perspectives and attitudes of that particular group. Each group should then decide on a course of action that best serves its own interests.

Step 2 (20-25 minutes)

After each group arrives at a decision, a “reporter”, i.e. a representative from the group, should approach the “press release desk”’ i.e. the teacher’s desk, and report the decision. The teacher then writes the decision on the blackboard and it becomes a “news item”, i.e., an event that occurred, to which other groups may react accordingly. Thus, a dynamic process takes place by which plans are formulated and then reformulated in light of each new “press release” reflecting the new “circumstances on the ground”.

Note: The teacher has to make sure that the proposed courses of action are at least plausible.

Since this process can continue indefinitely it is important that the teacher stop it after about 20 minutes and then summarize the “developments” that took place.

Step 3 (10-15 minutes)

The teacher should then explain that we are going to move from hypothetical developments to real developments, the most important of which was UN Resolution 242 introduced in November of 1967 and which became one of the most important United Nations resolutions addressing the Israel-Arab conflict.

Have the students find Resolution 242 in their Student Readers and read it (or have students read it) aloud and then ask both the Palestinians and Israeli groups whether they thought this resolution is satisfactory.

Step 4 (3 minutes)

Explain that while the Arab countries (barring Syria) and Israel accepted the resolution in principle it was never implemented in reality. Two of the key obstacle at the time were, from the Israeli perspective, the belief that complete withdrawal from the area it conquered in 1967 would leave the country with boundaries that are neither secure nor defensible, and from the Palestinian perspective, the realization that an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders meant merely the return of the occupied territories to Jordanian, Egyptian, and Syrian control and not the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Then mention that two additional obstacles arose later: 1) the PLO’s decision to embark on a campaign to liberate Palestine through armed resistance and 2) Israel’s adoption of a policy of Jewish settlement in the Occupied Territories.

Despite these obstacles, Resolution 242 is considered, to this day, the foundation for any peace agreement that will hopefully be reached between the two peoples.

The Occupied Territories – Background Summary

In the years prior to 1967 there were escalating tensions between Israel and both Syria and Jordan as a result of their sponsoring and harboring of Palestinians who launched attacks on Israelis civilians. In May 1967 both Egypt – which in 1966 had signed a mutual defense pact with Syria – and Syria became convinced that Israel was about to launch a major offensive inside Syria. Israel vehemently denied this claim. As a result of Arab fears Egypt ordered the UN force out of the Sinai Peninsula, thus removing the buffer that had separated Egypt and Israel since 1956. Egyptian troops moved up to the frontier. On May 23rd President Nasser of Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping knowing full well that this was a provocation that would almost certainly lead to war. Soon thereafter a mutual defense agreement was reached between Egypt and Jordan. After a period of waiting, of intense debate and of failed diplomatic efforts to end the crisis, on June 5th 1967 Israel decided to attack.

By the time the fighting was over, Israel had captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the West Bank – including east Jerusalem – from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. This effectively gave Israel control over all the territory that had been allocated for Jewish and Palestinian states under the 1947 UN Partition Resolution.

Israeli Guidelines

The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is the result of the military success of Israel in a war started by the Arabs aimed at destroying Israel.

The 6 Day War started by the Arabs was another indication of their continued refusal to acknowledge the right of the Jews to statehood in any part of the Land of Israel. This refusal was evident in the countless terror attacks against the early Zionist settlers, in the war that they started after rejecting the 1947 UN plan calling for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and a Palestinian state, and in their continued launching of terrorist attacks from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank of Jordan, and Syria.

The ultimate proof of the goals of the Palestinian Arabs is found in the 1964 PLO Charter which calls for the liberation of the Palestinian homeland and the destruction of the Jewish state which occupies it.

Some of these occupied territories have military and strategic importance in preventing future terrorist attacks.

If occupation is illegal why aren’t Jordan (the West Bank) and Egypt (the Gaza Strip) required to withdraw from areas that they illegally occupied after since 1948?

There are roughly 600,000 Arabs living on the West Bank and 350,000 in Gaza.

Palestinian Guidelines

Israel consistently retaliated with excessive force to isolated attacks of Palestinians against Israel and it is these extreme and excessive retaliations that have provoked further attacks and which ultimately led to the June War.

The occupation of territories after military conquest is a violation of international law.

Just a few weeks after the war Israel’s Parliament annexed Arab east Jerusalem. This proves the imperialist intentions of the Zionists.

The fact that Israel did not immediately withdraw from the territories it had occupied during the war proves that Israel is interested in territorial expansion rather than peace with its neighbors.

Israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied in the June War would not help the Palestinian cause since before the war the West Bank was controlled by Jordan and Gaza by Egypt.

UN Guidelines

From the UN Preamble

We the peoples of the United Nations determined

To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and

To reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and

To establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and

To promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

And for these ends

To practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and

To unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and

To ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and

To employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples

From the UN Charter

The Purposes of the United Nations are:

To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;

To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace

UN Resolution 242

The Security Council

Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,

Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,

Emphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter,

  1. Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:

(i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;

(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for an acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;

  1. Affirms further the necessity
  2. For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area;
  3. For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
  4. For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones;
  1. Requests the Secretary-General to designate a Special Representative to proceed to the Middle East to establish and maintain contacts with the States concerned in order to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement in accordance with the provisions and principles in this resolution;
  2. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council on the progress of the efforts of the Special Representative as soon as possible.

LESSON 4 – A (DIFFERENT) TOUR OF JERUSALEM

Goal

The goal of this lesson is to provide insight into the conflict over Jerusalem. While tours of Jerusalem tend to highlight the city’s beauty and harmony, this lesson will provide a tour that highlights the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Materials

Included in the kit

Video of Jerusalem today, map of Jerusalem, 6 packets for each of the 6 sites to be toured in this lesson. Each packet contains background information and a number of pictures of the site.

Suggested Lesson Plan

Step 1 (8 minutes)

We recommend beginning the lesson with the enclosed video clip of Jerusalem. Ask the students to describe their impressions of Jerusalem based on what they saw in the video. Ask them if any of them had ever been on actual tour of Jerusalem. If so, to what extent does the video genuinely reflect the reality of Jerusalem?

Explain that, although much of Jerusalem is beautiful as portrayed in the video, we will be focusing in this lesson on some of its less than beautiful side. In order to do this we are going to take a long distance tour of Jerusalem and focus on places that reflect some of the tensions over Jerusalem in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Step 2 (2 minutes)

The teacher should divide the class randomly into 6 groups with each group responsible for learning about, and then conducting a tour of, its particular Jerusalem site. Each group should then be handed the packet with the information about the site.

Step 3 (10 minutes)

Each group should then study their particular sites and appoint a representative who will soon serve as the tour guide for the class.

Step 4 (25 minutes)

The class should reassemble around the map on the floor. The tour should be conducted according to the order of the numbers on the map to enable the tour to conclude dramatically with the most contentious site of all, the Temple Mount. To highlight the tension around it the teacher should allow the students to decide which group should speak first.

Step 5 (5 minutes)

Summary discussion. Ask the students to compare their impressions of Jerusalem to those that they formed from the video. Did this tour deepen their understanding of, or sympathy for, either of the sides in the conflict?

The Arab Market

In the section of the Old City known as the “Moslem Quarter” there is a long street that divides the city into west and east. Centuries ago this street became the site of the city’s central marketplace. Although Jerusalem has since grown and expanded, including numerous other commercial centers, Jews from Israel and abroad frequented the Arab marketplace, because it provided a colorful and unique shopping experience as well as merchandise at rock bottom prices. Furthermore, because the street was the quickest route to the Western Wall, Jews of all stripes and colors, walked through the Arab market on their way to their prayers at the Wall.

However, in 1991, 4 years after the first Intifada (The Arab uprising against Israeli occupation which began in 1987), there were several instances of stabbings in the Moslem Quarter. These stabbings led to a widespread fear among the Jewish population about the dangers of walking freely through the entire area, including the Arab market. Even today when the situation has calmed to some degree, the Arab market is frequented only by a small number of “courageous” Jews.

In addition to the cultural loss to both Arabs and Jews, the Arab merchants have suffered severe financial loss due to a dramatic decrease in the number of Jewish shoppers. In the words of Hazim Bachry, one of the Arab merchants at the market:

The situation in the market is very bad. There are hardly any clients other than the Arab residents of east Jerusalem. In the past, the market was full all year around, with both Jews and tourists. Neither side had any fears. But since the first Intifada the situation has deteriorated to this very day. Each time that something happens – Intifada, a stabbing, a terror attack, fewer and fewer clients come to the store. By the time things clam down a bit something else happens. If I had to give an estimate I would say that business is only 2-3% of what is was before the 1987 Intifada… see, take a look, all the stores are closed now, because they declared a protest strike as a result of the assassination of the sheikh Ahmed Yassin the leader of Hamas. All of this is bad for business. The end result is that all sides lose from this story and I wish it would be over already. Everyone wants some peace and quiet. ”

The Abu Tor Neighborhood

When, in November of 1947, the UN introduced a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state, it called for the internationalization of Jerusalem. However, this resolution was rejected by the Arabs, and the city became the scene of some of the bitterest fighting in the subsequent war. As a result of this war, Israel gained control of the western part of the city and the Arabs of Transjordan (known today as Jordan) gained control of most of the eastern part and in 1950 it was formally incorporated into Jordan.

The Armistice agreement formalized the division of the city and the precise boundaries were determined by the Jordanian and Israeli military commanders who drew a line connecting the various army posts stationed in the city. This line is called the “City Line” and the Abu Tor neighborhood stands on both sides of this line. 

Until 1948 Jewish and Arab families lived side by side and enjoyed good relations. Nevertheless, when the fighting ended in 1948 the residents of this neighborhood suddenly found themselves separated by a fence and residents of different countries, the eastern section belonging to Jordan and the western section belonging to Israel. When Israel took control of both parts of the city in 1967 the fence was removed and the two neighborhoods generally enjoyed peaceful relations. However once the Intifada broke out in 1987 conditions in the neighborhood took a turn for the worse. As Yoram, a 28 Jewish resident of the neighborhood tells:

I remember as a child the question before going shopping for groceries was always whether to buy at the store of the expensive Jew or of the inexpensive Arab. Thus, at the age of 3 I would shop to Ziad’s convenience store a five minute walk from home and into the heart of the Arab village. Ziad used to welcome me with a smile and give me what I wanted. Not far from there was a pigeon-hole and on Sabbaths my father used to take me there to see the pigeons. When we had to travel someplace in east Jerusalem we would travel through the village without any fear. The years passed, I grew up, and in 1987 the Intifada broke out.

When I was 14-15 the situation began to change. There was more and more tension in the neighborhood. A neighborhood council was set up composed of Jews and Arabs which tried to set up different days for Jews and Arabs on the soccer field which until then was used jointly every day of the week. When I went to the convenience store I felt more and more uncomfortable and that I was being watched, until the store was closed and I heard that Ziad had to move elsewhere because neighbors were angry that he was too friendly with the Jews. Later, I saw him again. He was driving his car near my parent’s house and when he saw me he stopped and quickly asked how I was doing. He quickly ended the conversation because he didn’t want us to be seen talking.

Once when my mother was driving through the neighborhood a few wild kids broke her rear window until one of the older men of the village sent them away, got into the car and accompanied her until she left the village.

Today things are a bit quieter but it doesn’t seem like things will ever return to the way they were.

The Hebrew University at Mount Scopus

In 1925 the Hebrew University was opened on Mount Scopus located north of the Old City where as the picture shows (picture # ?) there is a fabulous view of the Old City and Bethlehem on one side and the rugged landscape of the Judean Wilderness, the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea on the other. However, the route to the university goes through Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, and although the university grew and expanded, academic work had to be suspended in 1947 when fighting broke out between Arabs and Jews. Some of the fighting during the 1948 War involved the university and grave damage was done to the buildings. When the city was divided in the 1949 Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement, the university was to remain an Israeli enclave surrounded by Jordan and the normal operations of the university were to be restored. Nevertheless, Jordan restricted access to the university to small convoys of police guards. Under such circumstances the university ceased to function and an alternate campus was built in the western part of the city.

When Israel gained control of east Jerusalem in the 1967 War and the Mount Scopus became accessible once again there was much discussion as to the relationship between the two campuses. It was decided to rebuild the Mount Scopus campus primarily for the humanities, the social sciences and law leaving the other campus as the science center. Thus, students are often forced to travel three quarters of an hour between the two campuses for their studies.

Today there are nearly 23,000 students at the various campuses of Hebrew University roughly one third of whom are Israeli Arabs. For the most part there is peaceful coexistence among the student population and the university is one of the few places in which widely different views are expressed openly and without fear. Ironically, however, in July 2001 the university was the site of a terrorist attack as a bomb placed by an east Jerusalem Arab employee in one of the university cafeterias exploded, killing 9 students and other university employees and injuring 85, including 10 Arab citizens of Israel. As the picture shows (picture # ?) the university has been forced to adopt strict security measures and continues to restrict entry only to those with approved entry passes.

Orient House

You may have heard about the Orient House because of the enormous controversy surrounding it just a few years ago. What was the importance of this building and what was this controversy all about?

The Orient House was first built by Ismail Musa Al-Husseii in 1897. As you can see (picture # ?) the building was designed with both good taste and grandeur. Due to the prestige of the Husseini family and the grandeur of the building many foreign dignitaries were hosted at this mansion over the years. Under the ownership of Ibrahim Husseini, Ismails’ son, the House was opened to the public and became a hotel better known as “The New Orient House Hotel” and it was among the first hotels in Jerusalem to be opened after the British Mandate forces withdrew from Palestine in 1948.

With the onset of the 1967 War and the quick deterioration of the political and economic conditions, tourist traffic became scarce and the owners decided to close it as a hotel and use it again as a private residence. Although the Orient House became a center of the Arab Studies Society in 1983, it assumed monumental importance as the Oslo peace process got under way in 1993. The peace process led to the creation of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority in Gaza and the West Bank. But Arafat considered it vital to have a foothold in Jerusalem so the Orient House became the headquarters of the Palestinian Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs, with Faisal Husseini as its head. From that time onwards the building served as the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in Jerusalem serving the more than 200,000 residents of east Jerusalem – almost one third of the city’s total population – and it came to symbolize the Palestinian claim to Jerusalem. It later was the location in which negotiations on the final status of Jerusalem in the peace process took place.

For most Israelis however the idea of a Jerusalem based center for Palestinian activity aroused the fear that it might jeopardize the status of Jerusalem – both east and west – as the eternal capital of Israel. That is why many of Israel’s leaders did their utmost to close it down, but these efforts were generally unsuccessful.

Nevertheless, after a suicide bombing in a Jerusalem Pizzeria in August 2001 killing 15 Israelis, Ariel Sharon closed the Orient House along with several other institutions in the Jerusalem area claiming that these buildings were being used for Palestinian Authority political activity aimed at promoting east Jerusalem as part of a Palestinian state. Despite numerous protests, it has not been allowed to reopen ever since.

Haram al-Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary) – Al-Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock

According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad was taken on a night journey on a wondrous winged animal from Mecca to the Temple Mount (al-Aksa, the Farthest Mosque) and from there he ascended to Heaven from atop a rock where he met Allah and important figures from earlier generations.

About 50 years after the Muslim rulers conquered Jerusalem in the late 7th century they removed the piles of garbage that had accumulated on the Temple Mount and built a mosque named “al-Aksa” and then later built the Dome of the Rock to commemorate this great miracle as well as to highlight the importance of Jerusalem to Islam.

Since the al-Aksa mosque was built above the system of vaults built by Herod in the first century BCE when he extended the southern part of the Temple Mount, it was extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. This required the continual rebuilding of wings that had been ruined and have turned it into a patchwork. Nothing remains of the original structure except for a small part of the southern wall.

The Dome of the Rock is one of the earliest and finest examples of Islamic architecture in the world. The eight sides of the original structure were paneled with marble but few of these have survived. The upper part and the drum bearing the dome were decorated with mosaics that did not survive and were later covered by colorful ceramic tiles. The current covering is from this century. The original gold-colored outer dome was replaced a number of times most recently in 1994 at the cost of $15,000,000.

For twelve of the last thirteenth centuries (apart from the Crusader period in the 12th century) this area has been a Muslim holy place and, to this day, thousands of Muslims make pilgrimages to it for communal prayer on Fridays.

Although the Israeli army captured the entire area in 1967 the Israeli government left day to day control over the Muslim holy places to the Muslim religious authorities – the Waqf. Although Jews were permitted by Israeli law to enter the Temple Mount, there have been numerous attempts by Jewish extremists to enter it in order to advance Jewish claims on the Temple Mount. These attempts have been strongly condemned by both the Israeli government and the Muslim community. Then in September of 2000 in an extraordinarily controversial act, Ariel Sharon, who was then a member of Member of the Knesset, entered the site – known by the Jews as the Temple Mount – accompanied by a thousand armed police and soldiers. It was this act that led to the outbreak of the “Intifada Al-Aksa”.

The Temple Mount

According to Jewish tradition this is the site where Abraham was called upon to sacrifice his son Isaac. Later this became the site of the First Temple built by Solomon in the 10th century BCE, rebuilt by the Jews in the 6th century BCE after its destruction by the Babylonians 70 years earlier, and then significantly enlarged and enhanced by Herod just before the beginning of the Common Era which was then destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.

The Temple was the central sanctuary of worship for the People of Israel and their spiritual center. It was considered to be the site of the revelation of the Divine Presence and God’s home on earth. Despite its destruction nearly 2000 years ago and the dispersion of the Jewish people, the area where it once stood is still considered the holiest place in the world and Jewish law prohibits Jews from entering its precincts due to their state of ritual defilement, their prayer continues to be directed toward it, and they continue to believe in its eventual rebuilding and in its reemergence as the center of Jewish life.

The Holy of Holies in both Temples was apparently the area located next to the rock housed in the Dome of the Rock and the picture that you see (pictures # ?) is a rough reconstructions of the its structure in the late 1st century BCE. While no remains of the Temple itself have been found, there are several remains of the supporting walls, the most important being the section of the western supporting wall of the Temple Mount which has become known as the “Western (or “Wailing”) Wall” or just the “Wall”.

Starting in the 16th century the “Western Wall” became a central place of assembly and prayer, and Jews added national significance to the traditional religious significance after the rise of the Zionist movement. As the picture shows (picture # ?), it assumed monumental national importance when the Israeli army gained control of it and the Temple Mount in the June 1967 War.

Although the Israeli army captured it in 1967, the Israeli government left day to day control over the Temple Mount – other than the Western Wall – to the Muslim religious authorities – the waqf. Although Jews were permitted by Israeli law to enter the Temple Mount, there have been numerous attempts by Jewish extremists to enter it in order to advance Jewish claims on it. These attempts have been strongly condemned by both the Israeli government and the Muslim community. Then in September of 2000 in an extraordinarily controversial act, Ariel Sharon, who was then a member of Member of the Knesset, entered the site known by the Muslims as “Haram al-Sharif” (The Noble Sanctuary) accompanied by a thousand armed police and soldiers. It was this act that led to the outbreak of the “Intifada Al-Aksa”.

LESSON 5 –WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?

Goal

Unlike the previous lessons in which we focused on the history and politics of the conflict, in this – the concluding lesson of the unit – we have chosen to highlight the human dimension of the conflict by showing the way in which it has affected the lives of children on both sides. In doing so, we hope to heighten our students’ sensitivity to the problem and to encourage them to think of constructive ways to address it.

Materials

Included

A VHS version of the “Promises” film, as well as a 50 minute edited version

Needed

A video player

Suggested Lesson Plan

Step 1

It is strongly recommended, if it is possible, to show the entire “Promises” film, which runs approximately one and a half hours. If not, we have included a shorted edited version. However, since the edited version runs approximately 50 minutes and since it is important to conduct a brief discussion after watching the film, this lesson must be at least one hour. If the lessons are generally 45 minutes, then students should be notified ahead of time that this lesson will run for one hour.

Explain that the film that they are about to watch was produced from 1996-2000 a time of relative calm between the Israelis and Palestinians (before the outbreak of the “Intifada Al-Aksa” in September 2000). Also tell the students that it received an Emmy award and was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Documentary”. (More information about the film can be found on their internet site: www.promisesproject.org)

Then show either the original or the edited version of the film.

Step 2 (10-20 minutes)

While it is recommended to have an open discussion about the film it may be helpful to discuss some of the following questions:

Which things disturbed you in the film and which things moved you? What dimension did the film add to your understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Did the film deepen your sympathy for one side or another? What are some of the beliefs and stereotypes that these children had for the people on the other side of the conflict? What are the primary sources of these beliefs and stereotypes? To what extent did you subscribe to these beliefs and stereotypes prior to watching the film and to what extent do you subscribe to them now? Do you think B.Z.’s effort to bring the children together was “in vain’? What do you think you can do to help increase tolerance and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians and their respective supporters?  

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