Arab-Israeli Conflict Part I · Class Israel Palestine 1st 8 9 3rd 13 7 4 th 9 10 8 th 12 5 I think it is interesting how two classes supported Palestine and two supported Israel.

LESSON PLAN AND RESOURCES

Grade Level: 8th

Date: April 25, 2011

Arab-Israeli Conflict Part I

Objectives:

SWBAT explain why Jews, Christians, and Muslims all want to possess the city of

Jerusalem.

Standard: NYS 8th

Grade Curriculum point 10.3.B

Materials: Israel note packet and WWII SMART Board presentation (slides 76-82)

Introduction: Students will write the homework assignment in their agendas.

Teaching Strategies and Accommodations:

Test review – I will hand back the tests and go over questions that students had trouble

on. A lot of students missed questions 1, 8, 23, and 35 so I definitely want to go over

those, in addition to any other questions the students want to discuss.

Review Activity: Keyword Matching – student volunteers will match the vocabulary

terms on the right side of slide 75 with the correct definitions on the left side. Afterward,

Amy and I will ask them a follow-up question (ex. “What organization did the United

Nations replace?” “The Nuremberg trials happened in the same city as what?) This

activity has two purposes, to assess the students’ knowledge and to reactivate their

thinking after the two-week break.

Socratic Lecture – notes and illustrations will be displayed on the board.

o Key Ideas:

The UN created the state of Israel to give the Jews a homeland and

prevent another Holocaust from happening.

Giving the Jews land in the Middle East was problematic because there

were other people, the Palestinians, living there.

Both the Jews and the Palestinians have historic and cultural ties to the

land they now compete for.

Jews desire Jerusalem because it was the capitol of their ancient kingdom

and their home before the Romans drove them out. (Key site: the Western

(Wailing) Wall)

Christians desire Jerusalem because it was where Christ ministered and

died. (Key site: the Church of the Holy Sepulcher)

Muslims desire Jerusalem because it was the site where Muhammad

ascended into Heaven and returned. (Key site: the Dome of the Rock)

o Key Questions

Why did the UN create the state of Israel? Why did they place it in

Palestine? (Review)

Why was the creation of the state of Israel problematic? (Review)

Who were the Romans?

Who was Muhammad?

What holiday did Christians just celebrate (on April 24) commemorating

Christ’s resurrection?

Conclusion: Explain the homework assignment

Homework: Finish the Israel note packet (the remaining pages are like a DBQ)

Assessment: Students’ responses during the lecture and activity.

Reflection:

Amy and I co-taught this lesson, but we spent very little time up front together. Instead,

we tag-teamed because it was a better fit for both of our teaching styles than back-and-

forth dialogue.

This lesson could have led to students asking about our personal religious beliefs, but

Amy steered them away from that topic. She also avoided talking about religious

traditions as much as possible, only mentioning the major ones like Christ’s resurrection.

I was inclined to take a slightly different approach. I still wouldn’t have expressed my

own beliefs in front of the class, but I think I might have briefly answered some of the

questions she deflected (ex. “what do the Amish believe?”) because it was apparent that

the students were curious. I also may have summarized all the Jewish, Christian, and

Muslim traditions about Jerusalem in a brief narrative, because I think those traditions are

interesting. (“…King David took over Jerusalem by ordering his men to climb up the

water tunnels, like the itsy bitsy spider…”) However, that is just a difference of

preference. I think either approach would be appropriate and effective.

I made a big factual error 3rd

period. I confused Muhammad’s story with Elijah’s, and

told the students that Muslims believe Muhammad never returned when he ascended to

Heaven. That is not accurate.

Grade Level: 8th

Date: April 26, 2011

Arab-Israeli Conflict Part II

Objectives:

SWBAT describe the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

SWBAT explain and evaluate the arguments of the Arabs and Israelis in a class debate.

Standard: NYS 8th

Grade Curriculum point 10.3.B

Materials: Israel note packet and WWII SMART Board presentation (slides 83-86)

Introduction: Students will take out their Israel note packets to be checked.

Teaching Strategies and Accommodations:

Go over the Israel note packet.

o Key Ideas:

1. Originally, the UN intended for there to be two states in Palestine, but the

Israelis took over most of the land following wars with the surrounding

Arab states in 1948 and 1967.

2. The Arab-Israeli conflict has been going on continuously for 63 years.

o Key Questions:

1. Look at the map on slide 83. What area of land (orange, purple, green, or

striped) did the UN give to Israel in 1948? What area did Israel take over

after the 1948 war? The 1967 war?

2. Based on the timeline on slide 84, describe the relationship between the

Arabs and the Israelis? (Students came up with adjectives like violent,

hateful, conflicted, and bad.)

3. Why do you think the timeline ends in 2000? (Was it because the conflict

ended then, or because that was simply the date the timeline was printed?)

Primary Source Analysis

o Fawaz Turki – have a student volunteer read the source then ask the class:

1. What was Turki’s main point?

2. What does Turki call the Israelis at the end? (“latter day colonial

overlords” – perhaps something Patriots might have said about the British

before the American Revolution)

o Abraham Tamir – again have a student volunteer read the source then ask the:

1. Who does Tamir blame for the violence? (The Arab States) What does he

say Israel is not trying to do? (Conquer territory – The students had

trouble coming up with this one, so I clarified the question by underlining

the part where Tamir says Israel’s “national security has been designed to

defend its existence, integrity and security, and not for expansionist

territorial aspirations” and asking them “what does this part mean?”)

2. Do you sympathize more with Turki’s point of view, or Tamir’s? Why

(Just take one or two answers for this one, save the debate for the end.)

o “Gaza: Israeli forces strike after attack on bus.”

1. What is the date on this article? Why is that important? (April 7, 2011, and

it shows that violence like this is an issue right now. – This surprised a few

students, who didn’t notice the recent date the first time they read the

story)

2. Why did the Palestinians fire an anti-tank missile at an Israeli bus?

3. How did the Israelis respond? What was the goal of that response

according to the Israeli Prime Minister? (To deter future attacks)

4. Who started all this? (Great question – I got an excellent variety of

answers. Some students quoted the bottom line “both sides say the other

started it,” some blamed the Palestinians for shooting first, some blamed

the Israelis for provoking the Palestinians by killing three Hamas

members, some said “who knows,” a couple blamed Britain and the UN

for creating Israel in the first place, and one even blamed the Romans for

kicking the Jews out of Jerusalem 2000 years ago.)

Class Debate – based on the two extended response questions that the students did for

homework (page 12 of the Israel packet.)

o First divided the students based on their answers to the first question (“As a

person do you agree with or feel more sympathetic to the Israelis or the

Palestinians?” – Palestinian supporters to one side of the room, Israeli supporters

to the other.) Give people on each side an opportunity to explain their thoughts

without interruption from the other, then open the discussion up to more back and

forth debate.

o Second, divided the students based on their answers to the second question (“Do

you think that the United States should support Israel, support the Arab nations,

stay neutral, or act as police regarding the conflict?”) Again, give people in each

group a chance to explain their thoughts, then open the discussion up to

responsive comments.

o *Really encourage the students to think about and articulate why they feel the way

they do. If possible, encourage them to consider how their family background,

religious beliefs, and (American) culture have influenced their opinions.

Conclusion: Remind the students that this is a real and very controversial issue that they are

likely to encounter again outside our classroom.

Homework: None

Assessment: Students’ responses during the lecture and debate. (We could also have collected

the students’ note packets but they expressed their ideas so well in the debate that we decided we

didn’t need to.)

Reflection:

Since I know I’ll be curious later, here’s how the voting broke down for each class:

Question 1

Class Israel Palestine

1st 8 9

3rd

13 7

4th

9 10

8th

12 5

I think it is interesting how two classes supported Palestine and two supported Israel. For

the 1st and 4

th period class, Amy and I explicitly used the nearly 50-50 split to illustrate

why the issue is so controversial in society, and to show why it is difficult for the US to

take action one way or the other.

Question 2

Class Support Israel Support Arabs Stay Neutral Act as Police

1st 0 0 16 1

3rd

0 0 17 3

4th

1 2 17 0

8th

3 0 13 1

This material is not emphasized in the standards, but Amy and I decided to use it as

enrichment because

A. It’s interesting

B. It’s relevant and applicable to current events and the student’s lives

C. It’s an easy and important issue to encourage the students to think critically about

D. We had two free days and little else to do (we finished teaching new material

about WWII, but it didn’t make sense to move on to the Cold War before the

students had finished their research papers.

Again Amy and I co-taught this one, similar to the way we taught Monday’s lesson.

STUDENTS’ NOTE PACKET NAME _____________________________

1. Why is Jerusalem, Israel holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims?

Judaism

Christianity

Islam (Muslims)

2. Why is the Western Wall in holy to Jews?

3. Why is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher holy to Christians?

4. Why is the Dome of the Rock holy to Muslims?

5. Why did the United Nations give land to the Jews in Palestine in

1947?

6. What happened to the Palestinians living in the land Israelis took

over?

7. From 1947 to 2000, what is the relationship between Israel and

Palestine?

8. Do you support Turki or Tamir? Why?

Palestine?

9. Why did Palestinian’s send a missile into an Israeli bus?

10. How did the Israeli Prime Minister justify/defend Israel’s actions?

11. Who started it?

“Gaza: Israeli forces strike after attack on bus”

Taken from: BBC News April 7, 2011

1.

An anti-tank missile fired from the Palestinian territory hit a bus in southern Israel. The bus had

been dropping off schoolchildren and was carrying only one passenger when it was hit. The boy on the

bus was critically injured and the driver was also wounded. The bus attackers used an anti-tank missile.

The military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement said it carried out the bus attack. It said this was a

response to the killing of three Hamas members in Israeli strikes earlier this week. Reports say 45 mortars

were fired from Gaza into Israel.

In return, the Israeli tanks, helicopters and planes struck Gaza. Following the bus attack, an Israeli

plane bombed a compound in northern Gaza belonging to Hamas. Helicopters also machine-gunned a

target in Gaza. Four people were killed and some 35 injured in the Israeli strikes. Hamas leaders are

believed to have gone into hiding in expectation of further Israeli strikes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu said Israel would take any action necessary to deter attacks from Gaza.

In one week in March, at least 10 Palestinians - including several civilians and children - were killed by

Israeli attacks. In the same period, militants in Gaza fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells into

southern Israel. Despite recent calls for calm, neither side seems to be able to stop firing, our

correspondent says. Both say the other started it.

YOU DECIDE

12. As a person do you agree with or feel more sympathetic to the Israelis or the Palestinians?

Give reasons supporting your answer.

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13. Do you think that the United States should support Israel, support the Arab nations, stay

neutral, or act as police regarding the conflict? Give reasons supporting your answer.

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SMART BOARD PRESENTATION