Spring 2024 - 59525 - PA 388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

The class will focus on individuals and organizations that work to protect the rights and improve conditions of Israel’s Arab minority, its other abled population, and diverse religious groups, on subjects such as safety, legal rights, access to quality services, freedom of travel, and coexistence. The Israeli nonprofit sector is one of the most complex in the world in terms of the number of its organizations, the size of activities and the variety of fields covered by its organizations, given the relatively small number of citizens. In the last decade, a growing number of organizations including nonprofits, social enterprises and philanthropic foundations are dealing with issues related to co-existence and the social and political situation of the Arab-Palestinian population in Israel, the other-abled population, and diverse religious traditions. While co-existence of populations practicing different religions is a prominent issue in Israel, its complexities are shared in other societies around the world, including the USA. Many nonprofit organizations in the USA are also building co-existence among populations of different religious and ethnic backgrounds; lessons from this course may be transferable to the American reality.    

This course is designed to introduce students to the key issues of civil society activities for shared society and human rights in Israel, enabling students to learn about the challenges and complexities of promoting coexistence in Israel - where civilizations, religions, national identities and ideologies converge. Through a series of in-class lectures and discussions, reading material, pre-recorded lectures, virtual and in-person field study, students will be able to learn about and observe a variety of social initiatives, communities, people, narratives and perspectives on civil society activities in the field of co-existence and on the complexities involved in the work towards shared society. The course provides opportunities for meetings with people who lived the power imbalance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, civil society activists, leaders of nonprofit organizations and communities, government officials, and professional experts. These diverse educational methods will enhance students’ understanding regarding social and human rights of Palestinians within Israel and in the occupied territories and to assess the groups that are active in protecting those rights as well as the role of shared society within Israel for other abled citizens and diverse religious traditions. Students will be introduced to the competing narratives of a conflict and how these narratives are used to sustain the Arab/Jewish conflict and power imbalance. The course will discuss and analyze different issues and problems involved in civil society activity for co-existence in a comparative-international perspective, enabling students to gain a broad understanding of this topic.

This class at UT-Austin is a three-credit graduate course taken as an in-person class during May 2024, including travel to Israel for field study during May 4-12, 2024, with required UT-Austin approval of travel. There will be four required preparatory classes in April 2024 to prepare for fieldwork. This class requires standard UT-Austin tuition, as well as supplemental fees to cover the costs of travel to Israel, including air travel, lodging, meals and other field expenses. UT-Austin students have access to subsidies and fellowships, if they apply for and receive them. There will be four class meetings for students in-person in Austin during Friday mornings in April 2024 to prepare for the field study.