Syllabus POLITICS OF RECONCILIATION: GLOBAL & LOCAL PERS - 62444 Last update 12-09-2013 HU Credits: 2 Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor) and 2nd degree (Master) Responsible Department: Law Academic year: 0 Semester: 2nd Semester Teaching Languages: English Campus: Mt. Scopus Course/Module Coordinator: Bashir Bashir Coordinator Email: bashbashir@gmail.com Coordinator Office Hours: Teaching Staff: Dr. Bashir Bashir page 1 / 8
Course/Module description: Reconciliation is an extensively debated term with various and sometimes conflicting meanings. However, it is generally proposed that one of its key and most fundamental components is confronting past injustices. The attempt to come to terms with past injustices becomes even more demanding in the context of multicultural diversity. After briefly presenting the background against which the recent prominence of the politics of reconciliation in transition and consolidated democracies should be understood, the course presents and explores historical injustice, and major claims and types of reconciliation. Furthermore, the course aspires to suggest a typology through which students can navigate the extensive literature on reconciliation and the different meanings, layers, and aspects of the term. The course concludes with devoting few sessions to exclusively examine the relevance of the politics of reconciliation in the case of Israel/Palestine. Course/Module aims: The course aims to provide students with a good and critical grasp of the complexity and competing meanings and practices of reconciliation; to encourage students to think in an interdisciplinary manner; and to provide the groundwork for further research in debates of justice (retributive, transitional, restorative, distributive), nation-building in divided societies, reparations, apology, and truth and reconciliation committees/ processes. Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: 1- Critically assess and compare processes of historical reconciliation. 2- Gaining basic skills to design policies of historical reconciliation. 2- Identify,analyse, and map out paths for historical reconciliation Attendance requirements(%): 100 Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Students are obliged to read to read the required readings and come to class prepared for discussion. After brief opening and contextualizing remarks by the instructor, the students are expected to debate the core themes under discussion. Thus the sessions of this class are premised on the assumption that the students have done the required readings. Course/Module Content: 1- Introductory Session: Overview page 2 / 8
2- Theorizing Reconciliation 3- Struggles for Inclusion and Reconciliation and Democratic Societies 4- Recognition, Rule of Law and other Key Normative Concepts 5-Legal Responses: Trials and Truth Commissions 6- Reconciliation and Justice: between Compatibility and Conflict 7- Religion and Reconciliation 8- Enacting Reconciliation: Acknowledgement, Apology and Reparation 9- Constitutional Design for Divided Societies 10- South Africa as a Paradigmatic Example: Successes and Failures 11- Overcoming Colonial Legacies: Reimagining the Boundaries of We- Australia 12- Between Peace Making and Historical Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine 13- Where Now for Israel/Palestine: Alternatives to Partition and Historical Reconciliation 14- Concluding Session: Exchange and Review Required Reading: 1- Introductory Session: Overview 2- Theorizing Reconciliation Verdeja, Ernesto, Theorizing Reconciliation, Unchopping a Tree: Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Political Violence (Temple University Press, 2009), Chapter 1, pp. 1-27. 3- Struggles for Inclusion and Reconciliation and Democratic Societies Bashir and Kymlicka, Struggles for Inclusion and Reconciliation in Modern Democracies, in Kymlicka and Bashir (eds.) The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies (Oxford University Press, 2008), Chapter 1, pp. 1-24. page 3 / 8
Bashir Bashir, Reconciling Historical Injustices: Deliberative Democracy and the Politics of Reconciliation, Res Publica, 18(2), 2012: 127-143. 4- Recognition, Rule of Law and other Key Normative Concepts Verdeja, Ernesto, Key Normative Concepts, Unchopping a Tree: Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Political Violence (Temple University Press, 2009), Chapter 2, pp. 28-65. Teitel, Ruti, The Rule of Law in Transition, Transitional Justice (Oxford University Press, 2000), Chapter 1, pp. 11-26. 5-Legal Responses: Trials and Truth Commissions Verdeja, Ernesto, Institutional and Legal Responses: Trials and Truth Commissions, Unchopping a Tree: Reconciliation in the Aftermath of Political Violence (Temple University Press, 2009), Chapter 4, pp. 92-135. Gutmann, Amy and Thompson, Dennis. 2000. The moral foundations of truth commissions. In Truth v. justice: The morality of truth commissions, ed. Robert. I. Rotberg, and Dennis Thompson, 22-44. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Hayner, Priscilla B. (2001) Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity: How Truth Commissions around the World are Challenging the Past and Shaping the Future (New York: Routledge). 6- Reconciliation and Justice: between Compatibility and Conflict Philpott, Daniel, Reconciliation as a Concept of Justice, Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation (Oxford University Press, 2012), Chapter 4, pp.48-73. 7- Religion and Reconciliation Philpott, Daniel, Is religion Fit for Reconciliation?, Just and Unjust Peace: AN Ethic of Political Reconciliation (Oxford University Press, 2012), Chapter 6, pp.97-118. VanAntwerpen, Jonathan, Reconciliation Reconceived: Religion, Secularism, and the Language of Transition, in Kymlicka and Bashir (eds.) The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies (Oxford University Press, 2008), Chapter 2, pp. 25-47. 8- Enacting Reconciliation: Acknowledgement, Apology and Reparation Philpott, Daniel, Four Practices: Building Socially Just Institutions, Acknowledgement, Reparations, and Apologies, Just and Unjust Peace: AN Ethic of page 4 / 8
Political Reconciliation (Oxford University Press, 2012), Chapter 10, pp.171-206. Bashir, Bashir, Accommodating Historically Oppressed Social Groups: Deliberative Democracy and the Politics of Reconciliation, in The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies (Oxford University Press, 2008), Chapter 3, pp.48-69. 9- Constitutional Design for Divided Societies Choudhry, Sujit (2008) Bridging Comparative Politics and Comparative Constitutional Law: Constitutional Design in Divided Societies, in S. Choudhry (ed.) Constitutional Design for Divided Societies: Integration or Accommodation (Oxford University Press), pp. 3-40. OLeary, Brendan (1999), The 1999 British-Irish Agreement: Power Sharing Plus, Scottish Affairs, 26: 15-37. Gross, Aeyal M. (2005), The Constitution, Reconciliation, and Transitional Justice: Lessons from South Africa and Israel, Stanford Journal of International Law, 40(Winter): pp.47-105. Rouhana, Nadim (2008), Reconciling History with Equal Citizenship in Israel: Democracy and the Politics of Historical Denial, in Will Kymlicka and Bashir, The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies (Oxford University Press), chapter 4, pp. 102-138. 10- South Africa as a Paradigmatic Example: Successes and Failures Hamber, Brandon and van der Merwe, Hugo (1998), What is this Thing Called Reconciliation? (South Africa). http://www.csvr.org.za/wits/articles/artrcbh.htm Villa-Vicencio, Charles (1998) A Different Kind of Justice: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Contemporary Justice Review 1/4: 407-28. 11- Overcoming Colonial Legacies: Reimagining the Boundaries of We- Australia Paul Muldoon, Reconciliation and Political Legitimacy: The Old Australia and the New South Africa, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 49:2 (2003), pp.182-196. Phillips, Michael (2005) Aboriginal Reconciliation as Religious Politics: Secularisation in Australia, Australian Journal of Political Science 40/1: 111-24. 12- Between Peace Making and Historical Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine Said, Edward (2002), What Price Oslo? Counter Punch 24-30 March. http://www.counterpunch.org/saidoslo2.html page 5 / 8
Rouhana, Nadim (2004), Group Identity and Power Asymmetry in reconciliation Processes: The Israeli-Palestinian Case, Peace and Conflict: The Journal of Peace Psychology, 10(1): 33-52. Bar-Siman-Tov, Yaacov (ed.) (2004) From Conflict Resolution to Reconciliation (Oxford: Oxford University Press), Intro + Chapter 3, pp. 61-80. 13- Where Now for Israel/Palestine: Alternatives to Partition and Historical Reconciliation Bashir, Bashir (2012), Alternatives to Partition: A New Grammar in Israel/Palestine, This Week in Palestine, 173: 4-8. http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id3803&ed210&edid210 14- Concluding Session: Exchange and Review Additional Reading Material: 1- Introductory Session: Overview 2- Theorizing Reconciliation No additional readings 3- Struggles for Inclusion and Reconciliation and Democratic Societies Lawrie Balfour, Reparations After Identity Politics, Political Theory 33:6 (2005), pp. 786-811. Schaap, Andrew. 2005. Political reconciliation. New York: Routledge. 4- Recognition, Rule of Law and other Key Normative Concepts No additional readings 5-Legal Responses: Trials and Truth Commissions Walters Mark, The Jurisprudence of Reconciliation: Aboriginal Rights in Canada, in Kymlicka and Bashir (eds.) The Politics of Reconciliation in Multicultural Societies (Oxford University Press, 2008), Chapter 8, pp. 165-191. 6- Reconciliation and Justice: between Compatibility and Conflict No additional readings 7- Religion and Reconciliation No additional readings page 6 / 8
8- Enacting Reconciliation: Acknowledgement, Apology and Reparation De Greiff, Pablo. 2006. Justice and reparations. In The handbook of reparations, ed. Pablo De Greiff, 451-477. Oxford: Oxford University. Miller, Jon and Kumar, Rahul. Ed. 2007. Reparations: Interdisciplinary inquiries. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Barkan, Elazar (2000) The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (New York: Norton). Torpey, John (2006) Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparations Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) Nobles, Melissa. 2008. The politics of official apologies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thomas McCarthy, Coming to Terms with Our Past, Part II: On the Morality and Politics of Reparations for Slavery, Political Theory 32:6 (2004), pp. 750-772. 9- Constitutional Design for Divided Societies Jabareen, Yousef T (2007), An Equal Constitution for All? On a Constitution and Collective Rights for Arab Citizens in Israel, (Haifa: Mossawa Center, The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel. http://www.mossawacenter.org/files/files/file/an%20equal%20constitution %20For%20All.pdf. Lijphart, Arend (2004) Constitutional Design for Divided Societies, Journal of Democracy, 15(2): 96-109. 10- South Africa as a Paradigmatic Example: Successes and Failures Krog, Antjie (1998) Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa (Johannesburg: Random House; reprinted in 1999 by Three Rivers Press, New York). Minow, Martha (1998) Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence (Boston: Beacon Press). Tutu, Desmond (1999) No Future Without Forgiveness (New York: Doubleday). Horowitz, Donald(1991), A Democratic South Africa? Constitutional Engineering in a Divided Society (University of California Press), chapters 6+7. 11- Overcoming Colonial Legacies: Reimagining the Boundaries of We- Australia page 7 / 8
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) Smits, Katherine. 2008. Deliberation and past injustices: recognition and the reasonableness of apology in the Australian case. Constellations, 15: 236-248. Short, Damien. 2008. Reconciliation and colonial power, Aldershot: Ashgate. Ivison, Duncan (2002), Postcolonial Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), Introduction + Chapter 2. 12- Between Peace Making and Historical Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine Bar-Tal, Daniel (2000) From Intractable Conflict Through Conflict Resolution To Reconciliation: Psychological Analysis, Political Psychology 21/2: 351-65. Pettigrove, Glen and Parsons, Nigel (2010), Palestinian Political Forgiveness: Agency, Permissibility, and Prospects, Social Theory and Practice, 36(4): 661-688. 13- Where Now for Israel/Palestine: Alternatives to Partition and Historical Reconciliation Said, Edward (2001), The Only Alternative, Al-Ahram Weekly Online, 1-7 March, No. 523. Farsakh, Leila (2011), The One state solution and Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Palestinian Challenges and Prospects, The Middle East Journal, 65(1):55-71. 14- Concluding Session: Exchange and Review Course/Module evaluation: End of year written/oral examination 0 % Presentation 0 % Participation in Tutorials 0 % Project work 0 % Assignments 0 % Reports 0 % Research project 0 % Quizzes 0 % Other 100 % Additional information: The method of assessment and evaluation in this course is a take home exam at the end of the sessions. There is no Moad B exam in this course The list of required readings is subject to changes page 8 / 8