This course will explore the origins, the history and, most importantly, the literary and cinematic art of the struggle that has endured for a century over the region that some call the Holy Land, some call Eretz Israel and others call Palestine.   We will also consider religious motivations and interpretations that have inspired many involved in this conflict as well as the political consequences of world wars that contributed so greatly to the reconfiguration of the Middle East after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and after the revelations of the Holocaust in Western Europe.  While we will rely on a textbook for historical grounding, the most significant material we will use to learn this history will be films, novels and short stories. Can the arts lead us to a different understanding of the lives lived through what seems like unending crises?