The “question of Palestine” is one whose answer is often felt to lie in the past. From the Balfour Declaration and onset of British colonial rule to the Nakba, Israeli occupation, intifadas, and the destruction of Gaza, arguments over the historical record dominate academic and popular discourse alike. What, however, of Palestine’s future? While parties across the ideological spectrum hold the status quo to be intolerable, they offer diametrically opposed visions of a future settlement for the land and its peoples—from bi-national democracy to theocracy, federation and two-state models, and fantasies of an ethnically “pure” state across the entire territory. What is the nature of these contending visions, particularly in the wake of the genocide in Gaza? What strategies of transformation do they align with? And how do activists, politicians, and scholars imagine the nuts and bolts any future settlement?
This course will survey varied proposals for the future of Israel-Palestine and the peoples who dwell there, focusing on the thorniest questions: What structures of government and society are on offer in these plans? Who will have rights, and of what kind? What would decolonization mean for Israel’s Jewish population and settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem? Who would receive reparations, and from whom? What are the different mechanisms—from violence to boycotts, coalition building and democratic elections—for achieving a future settlement? How would a future state(s) contend with long-standing issues related to Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem? What approaches to military power, natural resources use, and economic development are on offer? In addition to examining proposals from Palestinian, Israeli, European, and American policy institutes, students will also review those endorsed by the Trump administration, the United Nations, and Arab states. Alongside these official proposals, we will consider those put forth in recent works by authors including Tareq Baconi, Ilan Pappé, Michael Omer-man and Sarah Whitson, and Shlomo Sand, among others.
