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"It is as if two insane people, crazed with wrath, had decided to turn
into a fatal embrace the forced marriage from which they cannot
free themselves. Forced to live together and incapable of uniting,
they decide at least to die together. And because each of them by
his excesses strengthens the motives and excesses of the other,
the storm of death that has struck our country can only increase to
the point of general destruction".
(Albert Camus, Letter to Algerian Militant
Aziz Kessous October 1955)
Seminar Lecturer: Dr. Gilad Ben-Nun
MA Course: 'Fatal Embrace' – Settler- Based conflicts in a comparative analysis: Northern
Ireland, Israel/Palestine, South Africa, France / Algeria
Abstract
Settler-based conflicts are characterized by their perpetual protractedness and lethality.
Contrary to imperial colonial conflicts, or border conflicts where occupiers plunder the land
and then leave, in settler based conflicts the descendents of the first comers remain and
attach themselves to the land. These settler communities gradually distance their
motherland ties, eventually severing them. And thus they reduce their desire or ability to
disengage from the native population. The eternal ever growing cycles of inter-community
violence, waged between the privileged settlers and the oppressed local indigenous
populations, these cycles become self perpetuating preventive mechanisms, running
counter to the prospects of the conflict’s resolution.
Yet contrary to Camus' grim vision of his own native Algeria and the prospects for his natal
Pied Noir community, settler based conflicts have recently demonstrated a remarkable
ability for resolution and significant improvement. This has been most notably in the mother
of all settler conflicts- Northern Ireland as well as South Africa. The Palestinian/ Israeli
conflict in turn, has assumed the primordial role of intractability, hitherto reserved for
Northern Ireland.
This seminar deals with the history, theory, and development of settler based conflicts. It
looks at the prospects for their resolution, and at the pitfalls of their failed attempts for
resolution and exacerbating characteristics.
Seminar objectives
For student knowledge:
1. To acquaint the students with the general topic of ethnic conflicts, their structural
causes, and generic concepts and categories thereof and provide initial conflict
analysis capabilities.
2. To enhance the knowledge of the students concerning the specific Topos of settlerbased conflicts, their terminology, modes of resolution, and unique characteristics.
3. To provide modalities of thought geared towards the resolution of this specific type
of conflict, and to alert the students from destructive modes in these specific cases.
For student qualifications and capacities:
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a) To promote presentational skills of the students, and provide a space for the
students to bring in their questions/ experiences.
b) To promote the students ability to see all sides of a complex conflict, rather than
tagging "good guys- bad guys", and to heighten the alert towards any "quick-fix" of
complex conflicts.
c) To promote the writing skills of the students through the writing and oversight of a
written dossier at the end of the course- to be graded.
Course enrolment
 MA seminar: will take place over 14 bi-hourly sessions, along the summer term of
the GESI, in a compressed format during the months of April- May 2013, so as to
accommodate both the MA students of the African program, as well as the generic
Master students of the GESI. The MA sessions shall be held on Wednesday mornings
– as double sessions with a pause in between, from 11:00 to 15:00. Lecturer
consultation hours shall take place directly after the course on Wednesdays.
Course requirements and grading
In order to reduce the reading load of the students, yet have them conversant in the topic
reading material, each participant shall be assigned 1 reading item which she or he shall
present and advocate in front of the class, in an "on the clock" 10 minute presentation. Each
session shall comprise of directly opposed and contradictory reading material, so as to
promote a bi-polar view for the class of the issues at stake, through the advocating of each
student's selected reading item.
Final course grade will consist of the following aggregated mark:
25 % - presentation of reading material as chosen per the session
25% participation in class discussions and acquaintance with the rest of the reading material
50 % written Dossier at the end of the course
 All student presentations shall be given verbally in front of the class. Power-Point
presentations shall not be allowed, so as to enhance the audience based speech
skills of the students.
 Written dossiers shall be in the form of one proposed research question, to be
answered in a structured essay – no longer than 5 pages. MA students shall also
benefit from the option of incorporating the written assignment of this course into
their extended essay with other GESI courses.
Course structure
The seminar will comprise four generic parts:
Part 1 -2 sessions (paradigms): Introduction to conflict theories, concepts and
categories, generic jargon and base trends of conflicts. : Causes of conflict between
ethnicity and socio-economy, thematic location of conflict (internal/external- order
or intercommunity ethnic or colonial or both).
Part 2 -7 sessions (2X sessions per conflict + 1 session annihilation) : Settler-based
conflicts in their respective paradigms settings: Power sharing- Northern Ireland,
Participation in government- South Africa, Subjection coercion- Israel/Palestine,
Separation and partition of the land – France/Algeria, Annihilation – Rwanda
Srebrenica & the Armenian genocide.
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Part 3 (2 sessions): Intellectuals in Conflict & psychological aspects dynamics of
resolution and failure: "Top-Down"– former Yugoslavia and Dayton & De Gaulle and
Algeria, "bottom up" – Northern Ireland & South Africa, Failure- mixing top down
and bottom up, and doing none in full- Israel/ Palestine
Part 4 (2 session): Conclusions: - future tendencies of a ' brave new world':,
incrementalism versus armed intervention R2P and the militarization of peace
building.
Detailed syllabus and compulsory reading material
In order to enhance student participation and avoid the routine frontal lecture each session
will include deliberately contradictory texts to be presented in a 10 minute – "on the clock"
mode by the students who will be pushed by the lecturer to promote and advocate as best
they can for their chosen text, so as to open the floor to a lively discussion afterwards.
Part 1- Introduction to paradigms, concepts and categories
(Presentation readings marked in red)
1) Session # 1 – Course Introduction + Causes of conflict between ethnicity religion
and socio- economy - The Creed, the Greed and the Grievance. Course
requirements, detailed partitioning of reading list, expectation management of
students and lecturer- Do's and don'ts in the course and ground rules. What is ethnic
conflict, and what are settler based conflicts and distinguishing between them,
Conflict theories base presentation – the creed, the greed, and the grievance
 Oliver Mcternen, Violence in God's Name: Religion in the Age of Conflict, Longman
(London 2003).
 D.H. Akenson, God's People: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel and Ulster,
McGill University Press (Montreal 1991) pp: 3-42
 Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, Greed and Grievance in Civil War, World Bank Policy
Research paper – 2335 PRSP, May 2000.
http://www.wds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2000/06/17/
000094946_00060205420011/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf
 David Keen, 'Greed and Grievance in Civil War' in International Affairs 88: 4 – (2012),
Royal Institute of International Affairs, (Blackwell publishers), 757-777.
2) Session # 2 The four paradigms of settler based conflict – Participation in government (N.
Ireland & South Africa), Separation (Algeria), Subjection (Israel/Palestine) and Annihilation
(Rwanda/ Srebrenica etc.), The Ontological location of settler based conflicts: internal Vs.
border conflict, inter state Vs. intra-state, colonial conflict Vs. ethnic conflict.
1) Brendan O'Leary & John McGarry, The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation 1-40,
2) Ian Lustick, Unsettled States Disputed Lands, Cornell University Press (Ithaca 1993),
pp:1-25
3) Meron Benvenisti, Conflicts and Contradictions, Vilard Press (London 1986) pp: 156180
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1) Timothy Sisk, Power Sharing and International Mediation in Ethnic Conflicts,
Carnegie Commission on Preventing deadly Conflict & United States Institute for
Peace (USIP) (Washington DC 2002), 1- 47.
Part 2- conflicts in their respective paradigms settings
3) Session # 3 -Power sharing – the integrated approach: Northern Ireland
 Lustick, unsettled states disputed lands - Northern Ireland
 Oliver Mcternen, Violence in God's Name: Religion in the Age of Conflict,
Longman (London 2003).- Ch. 3 – Northern Ireland
 Akenson- Covenant - Northern Ireland
4) Session # 4 -Power sharing – the Consociational- “Top Down” approach: South Africa
 Heribert Adam & Kogila Moudley, Seeking Mandela, Peace Building South Africa
and Israel-Palestine.
 Akenson - Covenant - South Africa Afrikaaners
 Allister Sparks, Tomorrow is Another Country: the Inside Story of South Africa's
Road to Change, Chicago University Press (Chicago 1996) pp: 1- 20; 68-108; 179241.
5) Session # 5 Separation – France and Algeria- History
1) Alister Horne, A savage war of Peace : the Algeria War 1954-1962, New York Review
of Books ( New York 2006)
2) Lustick – Unsetteled States – disputed lands- Algeria
6) Session # 6 Separation – France and Algeria- intellectual legacy
1) Raymond Aron, ' The Algerian Tragedy' & ' Algeria and the Republic' in The Dawn Of
Universal History: Selected Essays from a Witness to the Twentieth CenturyIntroduction by Tony Judt , Basic books ( New York 2003), vii- 1, 426-461
2) James Le Sueur, Uncivil war: Intellectuals and Identity Politics During the
Decolonization of Algeria- Forward by Pierre Bordieu, University of Pennsylvania
Press( Philadelphia 2001), - Aron, Camus, manifeste 121
7) Session # 7 Subjection and Coercion – Israel and the Palestinian Peoples – from border
conflict to colonial subjection
1) Mcternan- chapter on Israel
2) Lustick, unsettled states- ch on Israel
3) The Nusseibah- Ayalon Blueprint for a Two State Solution in Israel and Palestine. PLO
Negotiation Unit
8) Session # 8 – the permanency of occupation
1) Gary Sussman, The Challenge to the Two-State Solution in Middle East Report (34)
2004. http://www.merip.org/mer/mer231/challenge-two-state-solution
2) Menachem Klein, The Shift, 13-34; 89-135
3) Sammy Smooha, Ethnic Democracy: Israel as an Archetype, Wissenschaftszentrum
Berlin (1997).
9) Session # 9 Annihilation – the extreme of scenarios, and horribly realistic at that !
1) James Ron, Frontiers and Ghettos- State Violence in Serbia and Israel, University of
California Press- (Berkeley 2003), 1-24; 189-2002.
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2) Robert Fisk, 'Terrorists – the Sabra and Chatila Massacres' in Pity the Nation:
Lebanon at War 3rd ed., Oxford University Press ( Oxford 2001), 359-401
3) Haaretz, Sharon feared genocide charges after Sabra and Shatilla
4) Samantha Power, A problem from Hell: America and the age of Genocide, intro +
conclusion
5) Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform you that Tomorrow we will be killed with our
families, Picador (London 1999), 101-109
Part 3- Role of Intellectuals, dynamics of success and failure
10) Session # 10 psychological aspects of settler based conflicts- the mindsets of the intellectuals
and intelligentsia.
1) David Schalk, War and the Ivory Tower: Algeria and Vietnam, University of Nebraska
Press (Omaha 2005).
2) Seamus Heaney- Crediting Poetry- Nobel Prize Lecture
3) Yehuda Shenhav, Beyond the Two State Solution
11) Session # 11 "Top Down" and "Bottom up" approaches to ethnic conflict resolution
1) Itamar Rabinovich, 'Ehud Barak and the Collapse of the Peace Process' in Waging
Peace: Israel and the Arabs 1948-2003, Princeton University Press (Princeton NJ
2004), 123-180
2) Richard Holbroke, To End a War
3) Mari Fitzduff, Beyond Violence: Conflict Resolution Process in Northern Ireland,
United Nations University, (New York 2003)
4) Shira Herzog & Avivit Hai, The Power of Possibility: The Role of People-to-People
Programs in the Current Israeli- Palestinian Reality, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung & the
Economic Cooperation Foundation (Tel Aviv 2005)
http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/israel/04093.pdf
12) Session # 12 the failure of Settler based conflict resolution and its aftermath- the case of
Israel and Palestine.
1) Ian Lustick- ‘Two State Illusion’ in The New York Times 15 Sep. 2013
2) Yossi Sarid, ' The zealots have 'won' again' in Haaretz 27th July 2012.
3) Meron Benvenisti, 'Bantustan plan for an Apartheid Israel' in Haaretz 26th April 2004.
Part 4- Conclusions for a 'brave new world'
13) Session # 13 – Incrementalism and interventionism
1) Thomas Mitchell, when peace fails, lessons from Northern Ireland and the Israeli
Palestinian Peace Process
2) Charles Lindblom, ' Still Muddling, Not Yet Through' in Public Administration Review,
Vol. 39, No. 6. (Nov. - Dec., 1979), pp. 517-526.
3) Norrie Macqueen, Humanitarian Intervention and the United Nations, Edinburgh
University Press (Edinburgh 2011), 141-204 xi-66; 207-227
14) Sesssion # 14 – Responsibility to Protect and the militarization of Peace Building- what does
this spell for settler based conflicts?
1) Gareth Evans and Mohamad Sahnoun,' The Responsibility to Protect' in Foreign
Affairs Vol. 81 (6) Nov-Dec 2002, 99-110
2) Meron Benvenisti- Epilogue