Rashid Khalidi

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history 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 Herzl: 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, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective. Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the 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. Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine 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. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.

A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

Khalidi critically assesses the narratives that make up Palestinian history and identity and examines the ways in which the Palestinian national consciousness has come full circle.

The Construction of Modern National Consciousness

Palestinian Identity

The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood

The Iron Cage

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.

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 Herzl: 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, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.

Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members - mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists - The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the 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.

Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine 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. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.

A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017

Analyzes three historical moments from the past thirty-five years to reveal how the U.S. and Israel have worked together to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state.

How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East

Brokers of Deceit

Describes the history of Western involvement in the Middle East and argues that the United States ignores history and is blindly committed to a path that is doomed for failure.

Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East

Resurrecting Empire

The Hundred Years War on Palestine

How the U. S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East

Palestina - Uma Biografia

Under Siege is Rashid Khalidi's firsthand account of the 1982 Lebanon War and the complex negotiations for the evacuation of the P.L.O. from Beirut. Utilizing unconventional sources and interviews with key officials and diplomats, Khalidi paints a detailed portrait of the siege and ensuing massacres, providing insight into the military pressure experienced by the P.L.O., the war's impact on Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, and diplomatic efforts by the United States. A new preface by Khalidi considers developments across the Middle East in the thirty years since the conflict. The preface also cites recently declassified Israeli documents to offer surprising new revelations about the roles and responsibilities of both Israeli leaders and American diplomats in the tragic coda to the war, the Sabra and Shatila massacres.

PLO Decisionmaking During the 1982 War

Under Siege

At a time when a lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis seems virtually unattainable, understanding the roots of their conflict is an essential step in restoring hope to the region. In The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi, one of the most respected historians and political observers of the Middle East, homes in on Palestinian politics and history. By drawing on a wealth of experience and scholarship, Khalidi provides a lucid context for the realities on the ground today, a context that has been, until now, notably lacking in our discourse. The story of the Palestinian search to establish a state begins in the mandate period immediately following the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the era of British control, when fledgling Arab states were established by the colonial powers with assurances of eventual independence. Mandatory Palestine was a place of real promise, with unusually high literacy rates and a relatively advanced economy. But the British had already begun to construct an iron cage to hem in the Palestinians, and the Palestinian leadership made a series of errors that would eventually prove crippling to their dream of independence. The Palestinians' struggle intensified in the stretch before and after World War II, when colonial control of the region became increasingly unpopular, population shifts began with heavy Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe, and power began to devolve to the United States. In this crucial period, Palestinian leaders continued to run up against the walls of the ever-constricting iron cage. They proved unable to achieve their long-cherished goal of establishing an independent state—a critical failure that set a course for the decades that followed, right through the eras of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas. Rashid Khalidi's engrossing narrative of this torturous history offers much-needed perspective for anyone concerned about peace in the Middle East.

As a result of the failure of the Bush administration to meet its own goals in Iraq, a debate is finally possible in the United States not only about the rights and wrongs of the Iraq War, but also on what the US role in the world should be, and how long the new American hegemony in the world can be reconciled with respect for international law and democracy and civil liberties in the United States. This debate will take place among US citizens, as it should, but it is a debate from which Arab-Americans are largely absent. To understand the limits of the political influence of Arab-Americans it is essential to understand how poorly assimilated into American society many are. Many of them still do not speak English well; indeed some do not speak any English at all. Many are not citizens, are not registered to vote and have never contributed money to political campaigns. This is understandable, since many of them, especially those who are older, did not grow up in the United States, were not educated in American schools, and do not understand how the American political or legal systems work. They come from authoritarian systems, where the state is regarded with suspicion and fear, and where politics is often dangerous. Many inhabit predominantly Arab communities isolated from the larger society around them. It is impossible to predict how soon there may be an increase in the minimal political influence of Arab-Americans at the national level in the United States, but it will happen sooner or later. When it does happen it will change the way that US domestic politics relates to foreign policy issues. This process will be hampered, however, as long as those Arab countries with great wealth continue to do little to ameliorate the situation of misunderstanding and ignorance of the realities of the Arab world in the West. This ignorance can only be changed by profound self-driven progressive changes in governance in the Arab countries; and by serious efforts to foster education about the Arab world in the United States. Any increase in the influence of Arab-Americans in US society and politics will be retarded as long as the Arab world is blighted by widespread state repression and an absence of democracy.

Can Arab-Americans Influence Middle East Policy?

Iraq and American Empire

Come for a walk with me, if you would, along the streets of Jerusalem. My family has walked has walked these streets for more than a thousand years. . . Come for a walk with me, if you would, along the streets of Jerusalem. My family has walked has walked these streets for more than a thousand years. . . Rashid Khalidi invites readers to learn more about Palestine in what is both a deeply personal and yet expansive account of the last hundred years of the country's history. By blending detailed research with firsthand experiences, this book is equal parts compelling and informative—the perfect educational resource for all ages. From the Balfour Declaration to Israel's siege of the Gaza strip, Khalidi delivers a thorough portrait of the intricacies of the geopolitical conflict occurring in the middle east while keeping the text broadly accessible.

Palestine: A Primer

Marc H. Ellis

Muhammad Hallaj

Don Peretz

Their Problem and Future

Palestinian Refugees

Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the region, Khalidi examines the record of Western involvement in the Middle East and analyzes the likely outcome of our most recent incursions.

Salim Tamari

An edited anthology of articles on Jerusalem

Rethinking the History of the Sacred City

The Other Jerusalem

A fascinating and often terrifying firsthand account of the 1982 war in Lebanon, Under Siege vividly reveals the complex negotiations and military maneuvers which ended with the evacuation of the P.L.O. from Beirut. Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian, lived with his family in Beirut during the siege and ensuing massacres. Using many usually inaccessible sources, such as P.L.O. telexes and government messages, and interviews with key military officials and diplomats, he tells the story from the compelling viewpoint of those living amid the fighting. Khalidi provides a carefully detailed picture of the P.L.O. from within, the local Lebanese environment, the military pressure on the P.L.O. and Palestinian and Lebanese civilians, and of U.S. diplomacy during the crisis. While focusing primarily on the inner workings of the P.L.O., the author also addresses various aspects of Lebanese and inter-Arab politics and examines the military and diplomatic behavior of involved outside parties such as the United States, France, and the former Soviet Union. Offering a totally new perspective on the longest Arab-Israeli war since 1948, Under Siege will have broad appeal to those in international relations, Middle East studies, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the general reader interested in American foreign relations and the Middle East.

P.L.O. Decisionmaking During the 1982 War

Vijay Prashad

Miko Peled

Richard Falk

Omar Barghouti

Roger Heacock

Petra Wild

Salah Abdel-Shafi

Ludwig Watzal

Tariq Dana

Nur Arafeh

Nasser al-Kidwa

Am 2. November 1917 erklärte der britische Außenminister Arthur James Balfour, in Palästina eine Heimstätte für das jüdische Volk errichten zu wollen. Er nahm damit einen genau 20 Jahre zuvor auf dem zionistischen Weltkongress in Basel entwickelten Vorschlag auf. Die Balfour-Erklärung ist eine bedeutsame weltpolitische Zäsur, die den Nahen Osten seither nicht zur Ruhe kommen lässt und darüber hinaus ein Paradebeispiel des britischen Imperialismus darstellt. Denn zum Zeitpunkt der Erklärung war Palästina eine osmanische Provinz, die erst erobert werden musste. Den 100. Jahrestag dieser Verbindung aus britischem Weltmachtstreben und Zionismus nimmt der Herausgeber Fritz Edlinger zum Anlass, einerseits die gegebenen Versprechen und die vergebenen Chancen der seither verstrichenen Jahrzehnte zu analysieren und andererseits aktuelle Lösungsmodelle für den israelisch-palästinensischen Dauerkonflikt zu präsentieren. Erinnerungspunkte, die im Buch behandelt werden, sind der UN-Teilungsplan von 1947, der eine Wirtschaftsunion zwischen Palästina und Israel vorsah, der 50. Jahrestag der Besatzung 1967, als Israel im Sechs-Tage-Krieg die Westbank, Ostjerusalem, Gaza, Golan und die später an Ägypten zurückgegebene Sinai-Halbinsel eroberte, sowie der "Krieg der Steine", wie die erste Intifada von 1987 genannt wird.

Rashid Khalidi

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