The Pursuit of Peace, Gov 1030: Home

Professor: Allen Springer

Librarian: Barbara Levergood

Some examples...

• History of the Question of Palestine, UNISPAL.
• Historical Timeline, UNISPAL.
• The Question of Palestine- Timeline of Events, UNISPAL.
• SIPRI Yearbook has annual chapters on the enduring Israel-Palestine conflict.
• Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Timeline, Council on Foreign Relations.
• Israel and Hamas October 2023 Conflict: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), CRS Report ((U.S.) Congressional Research Service). See, for example, "Previous major Israel-Hamas conflicts", p. 70; "United Nations", pp. 44-46.
• What’s the Israel-Palestine conflict about? A simple guide, Al Jazeera.
• The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: A chronology, Washington Post.
• Here is a timeline of the clashes between Palestinian militants and Israel, New York Times.

Topic: The Israel-Hamas war.

Goals: To learn about (1) some resources that may be of value to you in your UN simulation and (2) some techniques for using the library. Of course, as you work on your assignment from Prof. Springer, you should go into more depth than we do here.

Names of tabs in this guide are underlined. Right angle brackets > direct you to a subsequent source, tab, link, or choice.

1. Let's say that you are looking for the most current information on the Israel-Hamas war. Which of the following types of publications are likely to include information that is more current than the others, assuming that all were first published 31 October 2023? Which are likely to be more objective than the others? More accurate? More authoritative? More scholarly?
   1. newspaper articles
   2. popular magazine articles
   3. conference papers
   4. reports from "think tanks"
   5. government publications (from the U.S. government, foreign governments, and IGOs (intergovernmental organizations) such as the U.N.)
   6. Europa World (no need to evaluate this one for now)
   7. peer-reviewed scholarly articles
   8. scholarly book chapters
   9. scholarly books
2. What is the recent political history of your country/territory? What has been its recent foreign policy?
   Use: (1) Country Information > Europa World > Countries/Territories > [your country/territory] > Profile > Contemporary Political History and
   (2) Country Information > Europa World > Countries/Territories > [your country/territory] > Recent History > ....
3. With what countries does your country/territory have important relations, historically and currently? Were/are those relations friendly, hostile, or somewhere in between?
   Use: (1) Country Information > Europa World > Countries/Territories > [your country/territory] > Profile > Contemporary Political History and
   (2) Country Information > Europa World > Countries/Territories > [your country/territory] > Profile > Regional and International Co-operation
4. News. Try to find one recent news article published in your country/territory that either (1) sheds light on the recent policy of your country/territory towards Israel or Palestine, or (2) reflects recent opinion in your country/territory relating to Israel or Palestine.
   1. Look through the lists of newspaper databases on Foreign & For.Lang. News to find a current newspaper published in your country/territory. Search for a relevant article. (For the U.S., start with New York Times or Washington Post; for the U.K., start with BBC or The Economist. All on on Major Newspapers.)
   2. If you do not find one, try one of these databases on Foreign & For.Lang. News for relatively current news published in your country/territory:
      • Nexis Uni. (Optionally narrow either by Location by Publication > International or by Geography by Document.)
      • ProQuest Global Newsstream
      • Gale OneFile: News
   3. If you do not find one, try to Google for a newspaper published in your country/territory.
   Sample searches:
   • Palestin* OR Hamas
   • (Palestin* OR Hamas) AND your_country/territory
   Hint: In many databases, you can search for terms as a phrase by putting the terms in quotation marks, e.g. "viet nam"
5. UN speeches.
   1. Try to find a verbatim record of a speech or remarks given by your country's/territory's representative in the United Nations either (a) on the topic of the Israel-Hamas war, (b) on the topic of a previous conflict in the Middle East, or, if not available, (c) on any topic.
      Use: Foreign & Int'l Documents > Find U.N. Documents > United Nations Digital Library Speeches. Limit to your country/territory, and if you wish, by date and Security Council.
      Hint: To find your country/territory in the list, choose "show all", then search within the page for the name of your country/territory.
      Hint: Click on the hotlinked meeting record number to access fulltext of document.
      Hint: A chronology or concise history may help you narrow down your search to a particular time period of interest. See a list of examples in the box to the left, "Chronologies & concise histories".
   2. If you don't find a verbatim meeting record using United Nations Digital Library Speeches, look for a summary record of a meeting.
      Use: Foreign & Int'l Documents > Lagniappes > United Nations Information System on Palestine.
      Hint: A document with a meeting record number (a.k.a. UN document symbol) containing "PV" is a verbatim record of a meeting. A document with a meeting record number containing "SR" is a summary record.
6. Find one recent journal article pertaining either (a) to relations between your country/territory and Israel, or (b) to the United Nations and Israel and/or Hamas.
   Use: Journal Articles.