Penn State University Libraries - Arab-Israeli Conflict

• The CAT (Penn State Libraries' online catalog)
  Search The CAT to locate books, government publications, films, etc. owned by the University Libraries

• WorldCAT [Penn State Libraries]
  Expand your search to libraries worldwide. Use the Request via ILL link to borrow the item from other libraries. Allow at least 2 weeks for delivery.

• Historical Dictionary of the Arab Israeli Conflict
  Provides entries on the military, political, economic, and social aspects of the situation in Israel and among the Palestinians, as well as those in surrounding and outside countries.

• Political Handbook of the World
  Facts and analysis on each country's governmental and political makeup.

• Political Parties of the World
  Coverage of every country in the world, with details of all currently active parties of any consequence as well as concise overviews of national parliamentary and constitutional arrangements.

• Middle East Conflict Reference Library (4 volumes)
  This encyclopedia provides very basic information on issues surrounding the conflict.

• The Contemporary Middle East: A Documentary History — chronicles the political conflicts in the middle east from WWI on.

The University Libraries has a comprehensive collection of United Nations (and its predecessor, the League of Nations) materials in print and micro formats. Most of these materials are not listed in The CAT. Specialized indexes will help you to locate these materials. The collections are located in the Social Sciences Library on the 2nd floor of Paterno Library.

Note: The United Nations uses a specialized call number system consisting of letters, slashes, and numbers that indicate the UN body that issued the publication. For example, S/RES/1850 (2008) indicates a 2008 Resolution from the Security Council. These call numbers are key to locating the documents in the University Libraries collections.

Indexes to the Collection

• League of Nations documents, 1919-1946
  A descriptive guide and index to the microfilm collection of League of Nations documents.

• Yearbook of the United Nations (1946-2005)
  One of the easiest way to track the work of the UN. Provides an annual overview of United Nations activities by broad subject areas. Will give you citations to the most important documents surrounding an issue.

• UNBIS (The United Nations Bibliographic Information System)
  The United Nations Library online catalog of documents and publications. Also contains voting records, indexes to speeches, speech citations. Complete coverage from 1979 forward. Earlier access is spotty. Provides links to full-text documents in the ODS (Official Documents System).

• ODS (Official Documents System of the United Nations)
  Complete full text of UN working documents back to 1993 as well as complete text of all resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council from 1946 onwards.

• AccessUN [Penn State Libraries]
  The primary index to the full collection of UN material in the University Libraries.

Key UN Websites

• United Nations

  • Peace and Security

  • UNISPAL (United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine)

  • Question of Palestine
    A Web site that pulls together many resources on UN actions related to Palestine.

• General Assembly

  • Division for Palestinian Rights (Department of Political Affairs)

• Security Council

Treaties

• United Nations Treaty Collection [Penn State Libraries]

Israeli Government Sources

• Main Israeli Government Portal

• Guide to the Peace Process

The Palestinian Authority

• Palestine National Authority: Office of the Prime Minister

• Permanent Observer Mission to the UN

U.S. Government Publications

Presidential Documents

• Presidency Project
  search for presidential documents, press briefings, and speeches.

State Department Documents

The following links provide access to the primary source material from the Department of State.

• Foreign Relations of the United States, 1861-1958/1960
  Primary historical record of U.S. foreign policy.

• Documents on American Foreign Relations

• A decade of American foreign policy : basic documents, 1941-49

• American foreign policy (1950-1990)

Declassified Documents

• Declassified Documents Reference System [Penn State Libraries]
  A collection of more than 75,000 documents, consisting of more than 465,000 pages, that covers post-WWII to the late 1970s

• Digital National Security Archive [Penn State Libraries]
  The Digital National Security Archive contains the most comprehensive set of declassified government documents available. The resource now includes 33 collections consisting of over 80,000 documents. Collections include:

  • Terrorism
  • Presidential Directives
  • the Kissinger transcripts, and more...

Congressional Documents

• ProQuest Congressional [Penn State Libraries]

British Government Publications

• Middle East Online: Arab-Israeli Relations 1917-1970 [Penn State Libraries]
  Original source material from the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, War Office and Cabinet Papers from the 1917 Balfour Declaration through to the Black September War of 1970-71. Has companion database covering Iraq, 1914-1974.

• To locate other British parliamentary materials use the Guide to British Parliamentary Papers

• Islamic Conference, Council of Foreign Ministers

• XV Summit of the Non-aligned Movement
  use Google to search for earlier web documents from the meetings.

• The Third World without superpowers : the collected documents of the non-aligned countries

• Chronology, bibliography and index for the Group of 77 and the non-aligned movement

• Middle East Special Studies
  microfilm collection of studies from a variety of sources.

• Human Rights Documents Online [Penn State Libraries]
  contains documents collected since 1980 by the Human Rights Internet, the unofficial depository for documentation produced by more than 480 non-governmental human rights organizations throughout the world. Reports may be universal in scope or focus on a specific area of the world. Users can find documents by using a keyword search or browsing by country. Among the organizations covering the Middle East are:

  • Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU)

  • Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) [in Arabic]

  • B'TSELEM — The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

  • Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR)

  • HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual

  • Human Rights Watch: Middle East/North Africa

  • Institute for Palestine Studies

  • Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP)

  • Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP)

  • Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

  • Search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel

  • Women Living under Muslim Laws/Femmes sous lois musulmanes (WLUML)

• PolicyFile [Penn State Libraries]
  An index to policy papers from a wide variety of think tanks.

• Foreign Policy Research Institute's Think Tank Directory
  Lists think tanks devoted to security and international affairs research and education worldwide.

• International Institute for Strategic Studies

  • Armed Conflict Database [Penn State Libraries]

• RAND Corporation

  • Centre for Middle East Public Policy