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Introduction

The purpose of this briefing book is to provide some basic information on Israel for those of you who may not have had extensive contact with the country or the region. The briefing book is organized around a series of issues that are likely to be of most interest to political scientists and students of international law and that will come up in the course of the trip. The book is followed by a short list of references that we hope are useful if you choose to read further or integrate a discussion of these issues into your own courses. The briefing book also contains an appendix with all of the relevant UNSC Resolutions cited in the text.

An important caveat at the outset: It is impossible to write about Israel or the Middle East without antagonizing someone. We don't imagine everyone (or anyone) will agree with everything written here. But we consider this a work in progress, a kind of wiki briefing book and curriculum that will be modified as we move forward. Please feel free to send your comments, criticism and annotation and we will work to incorporate them. If there are other topics or materials, or ways of approaching the existing topics, that you think would be helpful, we'd also like to hear your thoughts on that as well.

The briefing book was put together by a team under the direction of Asher Susser (Senior Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies and Professor, Tel Aviv University), including Duygu Atlas and Joyce van de Bildt. Additional references in the bibliography were provided by Tamara Coffman Wittes (Brookings). The modules are reviewed by the Academic Exchange’s Academic Board including Stephan Haggard (UCSD), Stephen Krasner, Judy Goldstein (Stanford University), Matthew Waxman (Columbia University) and Yedidya Naveh (Academic Exchange). Research assistance was provided by Brenna McKee and editorial assistance by Jason Moore.

A PDF version of this briefing book can be downloaded for offline viewing here:

AE Briefing Book 6th Revision 2023.pdf

Contents

List of Abbreviations

Preface: The History of the Land

Chapter 1: The Evolution of Israel’s Borders

Chapter 2: Israel and Its Neighbors

Chapter 3: The Palestinian National Movement

Chapter 4: The Palestinian Refugee Question