10486 Israel: The First Decade 1

Credits: 6 intermediate credits in Political Science or in Sociology & Anthropology

Prerequisites: none

Authors: Alan Dowty, Yechiam Weitz, Benyamin Neuberger, Zaki Shalom, Sara Osacky-Lazar, Yael Enoch, Ilan Ben-Ami, Arnon Golan, Dan Giladi, Yitzhak Greenberg, Zvi Zameret, Moshe Schwartz

The course analyzes the formative period of the State of Israel – the first decade of its existence, addressing this period from various social science perspectives and exploring central phenomena of Israeli society during its first decade using sociological, economic, political and social tools.

Topics: State-creation and nation-building; Immigration and its absorption: a sociological analysis; The agricultural settlements; Urban planning and development; From austerity to economic growth; The Histadrut: between economic and national-cultural considerations; Development of the educational system; Culture and the arts; General elections and government crises; Political and ideological conflicts: the Prague trials and the debate over the reparation agreement with Germany; Selected national security issues; The Arab minority in the first decade.

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1This course is also offered in Russian (42147). Its description is available on the Russian-language website of the Open University (https://www-r.openu.ac.il/).

There is some overlap in the content of this and other courses. For details, see Overlapping Courses.