by Ross Plowman and Ethan Hadad
Developing on the groundwork set out by last year’s Late Ottoman history workshops, we have created a source-based workshop on the British mandate of Palestine. We will deliver these workshops to Year 12 students looking to expand their skill set for their final A-level year and boost their personal statements for university. The workshops will teach the history of Palestine using primary source analysis.
The workshop draws on themes central to the period: Religion, Gender and Family, Colonial Practices and Resistance, Agriculture and Land, Trade and Travel and Food and Drink. Through these key themes, students will build a better picture of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Mandate period was turbulent and witnessed trends of increased migration, trade and resistance. We, as Balfour Project Fellows, aim to teach areas of continuity and change throughout the daily lives of Palestinians.
Importantly, the students will learn how to approach primary sources at face value. Questioning the content and authority of different sources will build critical thinking skills and the need to build evidence before arriving at conclusions.
Students will also improve their general understanding of pre-Nakba Palestine. We hope the students will learn that there was a rich culture in Palestine before the different Arab-Israeli conflicts and intifadas, as well as building their academic skills. We hope to provide the students with an extra arrow in their academic quiver that they can bring to other areas of their lives.