Introduction

Who This Course Is For

This course is designed for people who are starting from almost zero prior knowledge about the Israel-Palestine conflict. You may have seen headlines, social media posts, or impassioned arguments, but feel unsure about the basic facts, the sequence of events, or the key terms. You might also feel overwhelmed by the intensity of opinions and emotions that surround the topic.

You do not need any background in Middle Eastern history, religion, or international politics. The course assumes only curiosity and a willingness to engage with difficult material in a thoughtful way. It is meant both for students in formal education and for self-learners who want a clearer, more structured understanding than they can get from scattered articles or viral videos.

Because the conflict touches on identity, trauma, and morality, it is also likely that you bring personal experiences, values, or community narratives to your learning. This course will not ask you to abandon your moral intuitions, but it will invite you to test them against evidence, to recognize multiple perspectives, and to separate what can be factually checked from what is interpretive or emotional.

What This Course Will and Will Not Do

This course will provide a chronological and thematic overview of the conflict from its historical roots to current debates about the future. It will explain key concepts, events, and actors, and show how they fit together into a larger picture. You will encounter both Israeli and Palestinian narratives, as well as regional and global dimensions, and you will learn basic tools for evaluating sources and arguments.

The course will not give you a single “correct” political position or tell you what you must think. It does not aim to deliver a final moral verdict on every actor and event, nor to resolve all controversies. Instead, it will clarify what is widely agreed upon by historians and legal experts, what remains contested, and where disagreements hinge on values rather than only on facts.

The course will also not cover every detail. Entire books exist on individual wars, leaders, or legal questions that here receive only a brief overview. Where appropriate, you will be pointed toward further reading and resources if you wish to dig deeper. Think of this as a structured map of the territory: enough to navigate confidently, not an exhaustive encyclopedia.

Why Studying This Conflict Is Challenging

The Israel-Palestine conflict is not just a distant geopolitical dispute. For many people, it is intertwined with religious identity, national pride, historical trauma, and family stories. As a result, information about the conflict is often presented in ways that are emotionally charged, selective, or explicitly partisan.

Several features make it particularly challenging to study:

First, the conflict has a long history that stretches back well before the creation of the State of Israel or the modern Palestinian national movement. Understanding current events requires at least a basic grasp of earlier periods, but it is easy to get lost in centuries of background. This course will therefore be selective about which earlier developments are essential for understanding the modern situation, and which can be left to specialized study.

Second, the conflict spans many domains: religion, nationalism, colonialism, international law, refugee questions, human rights, and more. No single discipline can fully encompass it. You will encounter historical narrative, legal principles, political analysis, and cultural perspectives, and you will need to shift between them without assuming that one automatically explains everything.

Third, the conflict is ongoing. New events regularly change political realities, public opinion, and the visibility of certain issues. This means the course must constantly distinguish between long-term structures and short-term developments, and it must acknowledge that some aspects of the “current situation” may change even while you are studying.

Finally, strong feelings are common and understandable. Many learners experience anger, grief, confusion, or defensiveness as they encounter new information or perspectives that challenge what they thought they knew. Part of studying this conflict critically is noticing those reactions without letting them substitute for analysis.

Guiding Principles and Commitments

Because this topic is so sensitive and contested, the course follows several guiding principles.

It is committed to factual accuracy as far as possible. Where there is broad scholarly consensus on dates, numbers, or events, the course treats that consensus as the baseline. When historians or legal experts genuinely disagree, the course will show you the main positions and the evidence behind them instead of pretending that one view is uncontested.

It aims to keep a clear distinction between description and evaluation. Descriptions focus on what happened, who was involved, and what they said they were doing. Evaluations address questions of right and wrong, legality and illegality, justice and injustice. Both are necessary, but they are not the same, and the course will signal when it is shifting from one to the other.

The course strives for empathy without erasing differences. That means taking seriously the experiences, fears, and aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians, and recognizing that both communities have suffered losses and insecurity. Empathy here does not mean treating all claims as equally true or all actions as equally justified. It means trying to understand how people see themselves and their history before judging their choices.

Finally, the course acknowledges its own limits. No presentation can be entirely “neutral,” and any selection of topics and sources reflects choices. Where those choices significantly affect interpretation, the course will try to make them explicit so you can reflect on them rather than treating them as invisible.

How the Course Is Structured

The course proceeds roughly chronologically, but with thematic chapters that focus on particular dimensions of the conflict.

You will first be introduced to the historical setting of the region before the twentieth century, including the different communities living there and the broader imperial context. From there, the course traces the rise of modern national movements among Jews and Arabs, the period of British rule, the wars surrounding the creation of the State of Israel, and the formation of the Palestinian refugee issue.

Subsequent chapters examine the period after the initial war, including major conflicts and turning points, the military occupation of certain territories, the development of Palestinian political organizations, and key peace efforts and their breakdowns. You will then explore how the conflict has played out in daily life, in law and human rights debates, in narratives and education, and in regional and global politics.

The later sections turn to the present and future: recent escalations, political crises, public opinion, and the role of media, followed by a careful look at major proposed political outcomes and their implications. The course rounds off with tools for thinking critically about the conflict and suggestions for further study.

Throughout, the chapters are designed to build on each other, so that by the time you reach questions about possible futures, you will have a solid grasp of how we arrived at the current situation.

Approaching Sensitive Topics

Many topics in this course involve violence, displacement, discrimination, and suffering. Some terms and events are associated with profound trauma for Israelis, Palestinians, or both. You may encounter descriptions of war, terrorism, state repression, and civilian casualties.

You are encouraged to approach these topics with respect and care, for yourself and for the communities involved. It may help to pace your learning, take breaks, and reflect on your reactions. Analytical distance is useful, but emotional numbness is not the goal; the challenge is to combine human sensitivity with intellectual rigor.

It is also important to recognize that language itself can carry political and emotional weight. Different groups may use different terms for the same place, event, or process, and those choices signal particular interpretations. Later chapters will introduce specific terminology in more depth; for now, it is enough to be aware that even seemingly neutral words can be contested.

How to Use This Course

You can move through the course sequentially, which is recommended for first-time learners, or dip into particular chapters if you are interested in specific aspects such as law, narratives, or possible political solutions. Each chapter is written to stand on its own while still fitting into the broader arc.

As you read, it may be helpful to keep a simple timeline of major dates and events, adding to it as you progress. You might also keep a brief glossary of terms and organizations that recur, noting how their roles change over time. Later chapters will assume familiarity with earlier events and concepts, so revisiting previous sections when you feel lost is part of normal learning rather than a sign of failure.

Finally, you are encouraged to treat the course as a starting point rather than an endpoint. It should equip you to read news, policy debates, scholarly work, and personal testimonies from a more informed and critical position. The goal is not merely to “know the facts,” but to understand how they fit into larger patterns, why people disagree, and how you might responsibly form and revise your own views.