In this second episode, we start to explore the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, starting with the initial wave of large-scale Jewish migrations in the early 1880s. The episode highlights the complexity of identities in the region, including the multi-faced relationships between Ottoman, Arab, Palestinian and Jewish/Muslim/ Christian belonging. We'll explore the critical role played by the Ottoman Empire in the story, including the passage of the 1858 Land Reform Act that lies at the heart of the conflict over the land. In the end, we'll see how the current friction between the two groups was not inevitable, but how historical forces set the two peoples of separate paths of national development in the years before World War I.

To jump to a specific section:

Intro (0:50); Ottoman Palestine and Identity (5:28); Origins of Zionism (36:30); Origins of Palestinian National Identity (52:39); Palestine in the 1880s (1:10:33); The First Aliyah (1:17:41); The Second Aliyah (1:26:31); the Kibbutz (1:40:20); modern Hebrew (1:42:00); Arab perceptions of Zionism (1:47:25); violence and the Jewish response (1:54:16); conclusion (2:06:26)

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