Palestinian Historian Rashid Khalidi to speak to WESPAC Community on Tuesday, May 19th at 7pm

The Zoom link will only be sent to those who register here which includes information on where to access the book.

Rashid Khalidi is one of the most influential historians of the Middle East alive today. The Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia, he has just written a landmark, and somewhat personal, history of the Palestinian people that adds to the polarizing debate on the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR ON PALESTINE: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 [Metropolitan Books; Jan. 28, 2020; 978-1-6277-9855-6; 336 pp.; $30] is not a chronicle of victimization; nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials Khalidi’s HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR ON PALESTINE upends accepted claims to the same territory. Khalidi traces one hundred years of colonial war on Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.

By using the reports of generations of his own family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—Khalidi has created the first general account of the conflict told by an explicitly Palestinian perspective. In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzel: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Rashid Khalidi is the author of Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, and The Iron Cage, among others. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and many other journals. He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York and editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. 

 ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR ON PALESTINE

“This book is a masterful work of scholarship and personal history excavating unlike any I’ve seen before; this will become a major force in the Palestinian historical canon in the years to come.”

—Literary Hub

“Focused on the Palestinians’ lived experience of a century of war, never losing sight of the geo-political forces that fostered it, Rashid Khalidi has written a book of comprehensive scholarship with the delicacy and intensity of a novel.”

—Ahdaf Soueif, author of The Map of Love

“With wisdom and insight, Rashid Khalidi lays to rest the illusions of Israelis and Palestinians alike. He combines brilliant scholarship with extensive first-hand experience of war and diplomacy in a call for mutual acceptance and equality of rights as the only way to end a century of conflict. An outstanding book.”

—Eugene Rogan, author of The Arabs: A History

“A riveting and original work, the first to explore the century of war against the Palestinians on the basis of deep immersion in their struggle—a work enriched by solid scholarship, vivid personal experience, and acute appreciation of the concerns and aspirations of the contending parties in this deeply unequal conflict.”

—Noam Chomsky, author of Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy

“Brave, brilliant, and magisterial, this outstanding work of historical scholarship is also full of high drama and fascinating narrative. Rashid Khalidi presents compelling evidence for a reevaluation of the conventional Western view of the subject in a book that is a milestone in the study of the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

—Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World

“This is the first true people’s history of the hundred-year struggle of the Palestinian people, a beautifully written text and a call for justice and self-determination.”

—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

“A meticulous account of Palestinian history that provides a brilliant framework for the study of settler colonialism on a global scale. You can disagree with Khalidi but you cannot afford to miss the opportunity of arguing with him.”

—Homi K. Bhabha, author of The Location of Culture

“Through a scholarly narrative rooted in his own family history, Rashid Khalidi offers a fresh interpretation that shows Palestine as a violent, grinding fault in the shifting tectonic plates of Great Power politics. This book is sure to become a classic account.”

—Elizabeth F. Thompson, author of Justice Interrupted: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in the Middle East

“This book is a remarkable interweaving of three distinctive strands: a deeply researched history of the struggle between Zionist aspirations and Palestinian resistance; an analytical framework that places the conflict within the context of settler colonialism; and a personal family history that brings the narrative alive. Newcomers and specialists alike will learn much from reading this sweeping account.”

—William B. Quandt, author of Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967

 “Learned and clear-eyed, this compelling history of the long war to deny Palestinian rights exposes a century of blunders, misjudgments, and willful deceptions. Highly recommended.”

—Stephen M. Walt, coauthor of The Israel Lobby

“Beautifully written and accessible, this book is an invaluable examination of the Palestinian-Zionist encounter as a struggle against settler-colonial domination, not as an issue of conflict resolution—a vital difference, necessary for a deeper understanding of the war and for its meaningful resolution. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine illustrates, at its core, the refusal of Palestinians to accept their own defeat and their desire to live as equals with Israelis in a land they are destined to share.”

—Sara Roy, author of Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector

“As in any book about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is ample room for debate and controversy. And as in any book by Rashid Khalidi, there is history, erudition, politics and passion aplenty. There is also his tenacious conviction that ‘there are now two peoples in Palestine, irrespective of how they came into being, and the conflict between them cannot be resolved as long as the national existence of each is denied by the other.’”

—Rob Malley, International Crisis Group CEO and White House Coordinator for the Middle East under President Barack Obama

“Rashid Khalidi makes clear that the Zionists could not have created modern day Israel without abundant help from Britain and the United States. A must read for the growing number of people who are interested in understanding the real roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

—John J. Mearsheimer, coauthor of The Israel Lobby

“With moral passion and analytical rigor, Khalidi skillfully unearths the narrative of a long and bitter national conflict, providing a multitude of timely, acute, and original insights. This compelling book is a must read.”

—Zeev Sternhell, author of The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition

“In a painfully sober analysis of what made Zionism, an anachronistic colonialist enterprise, so successful, Rashid Khalidi also shows how Palestinians defy fatalism and refuse to vanish. His book is a tribute and contribution to his people’s perseverance.”

—Amira Hass, author of Drinking the Sea at Gaza

“This fascinating and instructive blend of autobiography and history should be read by anybody who wants to understand the tragedy of Palestine and the Palestinians.”

—Patrick Cockburn, author of The Rise of the Islamic State

“Rashid Khalidi has produced a sophisticated and insightful historical analysis of the Palestine-Israel conflict that is enriched by deep knowledge, clear and critical views, and his own experiences of key moments.”

—Ian Black, author of Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017

 “This searing account makes clearer than ever the often deliberately understated colonial nature of the Palestinian experience—and it reminds us of the Palestinians’ extraordinary capacity to remain steadfast despite the local and global forces arrayed against them.”

—Saree Makdisi, author of Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation of Culture