Learning: Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine

Rashid Khalidi’s portrayal of the Jewish settlers’ establishment of Israel is both insightful and impassioned. Unafraid to criticize Jewish-Israeli policies, particularly those receiving unwavering support from the United States post-1967, Khalidi also highlights the shortcomings of Palestinian leadership. As an activist from a prominent Palestinian family, Khalidi witnessed pivotal moments such as the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and was part of the Palestinian negotiating team preceding the 1995 Israeli-Palestinian peace accords.

Khalidi asserts that the Palestine-Israel conflict was not a fair contest between two national movements, but rather an enduring “settler colonial conquest” initiated by Europe-based Zionists. He traces this colonization through key events, including the Balfour Declaration of 1917, the 1947 UN partition plan, the 1967 UN Security Council resolution 242, the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the 1993 Oslo peace accords, and Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount in 2000.

While Khalidi criticizes Israel’s actions, his narrative also mourns the Palestinians’ dispossession and their failure to effectively resist conquest. He sheds light on the complex dynamics within Palestinian leadership, from elite notables in the 1930s to figures like Yasser Arafat and PLO-Fatah in the 60s, and later, Hamas. Despite the immense obstacles, Khalidi refrains from blaming the victims, acknowledging the deep-seated challenges imposed by external forces, including the support of Protestant Christians in Britain and the U.S.

Khalidi examines the deceitful practices of Zionist/Israeli leadership, juxtaposed with moments of resistance that never coalesced into an organized movement akin to other historical struggles. The tension between colonial superstructure and the patriarchal hierarchy within Palestinian leadership is a recurring theme.

Mainstream Zionism’s public proclamation of coexistence conflicted with private acknowledgment, as early as 1923, by Jewish activists like Ze’ev Jabotinsky that native populations would resist colonialists. Khalidi critiques British rule, which initially supported settlement until a shift in 1939 to gain wider Arab support. The lack of unified Palestinian resistance and organizational structures allowed Britain to crush the 1936 revolt, inadvertently aiding Jewish state-builders.

Khalidi chronicles the post-1948 years, detailing the tightening grip on Palestinians by Israel and neighboring Arab states. The pivotal six-day war in 1967 shifted the U.S. stance towards Israel, aligning as a prime ally against Soviet-backed Arab regimes. Palestinian resistance endured, fueled by unintended consequences such as Israel’s actions in 1967 and the 1982 Lebanon invasion, which led to the 1987 intifada.

In the book’s concluding chapters, Arafat’s leadership comes under scrutiny. Despite the peace accords after 1993, Khalidi portrays a continuation of existing issues, including Fatah’s treatment of Hamas detainees and the persistence of the Greater Israel settlement project.

Khalidi challenges the notion that the Palestinians would forget, emphasizing a growing, resentful non-Jewish population within Israel. He suggests that meaningful dialogue is the solution, contingent on political will, yet acknowledges the distant prospect of such a resolution.

Mainstream Zionism’s public proclamation of coexistence conflicted with private acknowledgment, as early as 1923, by Jewish activists like Ze’ev Jabotinsky that native populations would resist colonialists. Khalidi critiques British rule, which initially supported settlement until a shift in 1939 to gain wider Arab support. The lack of unified Palestinian resistance and organizational structures allowed Britain to crush the 1936 revolt, inadvertently aiding Jewish state-builders.

Khalidi chronicles the post-1948 years, detailing the tightening grip on Palestinians by Israel and neighboring Arab states. The pivotal six-day war in 1967 shifted the U.S. stance towards Israel, aligning as a prime ally against Soviet-backed Arab regimes. Palestinian resistance endured, fueled by unintended consequences such as Israel’s actions in 1967 and the 1982 Lebanon invasion, which led to the 1987 intifada.

In the book’s concluding chapters, Arafat’s leadership comes under scrutiny. Despite the peace accords after 1993, Khalidi portrays a continuation of existing issues, including Fatah’s treatment of Hamas detainees and the persistence of the Greater Israel settlement project.

Khalidi challenges the notion that the Palestinians would forget, emphasizing a growing, resentful non-Jewish population within Israel. He suggests that meaningful dialogue is the solution, contingent on political will, yet acknowledges the distant prospect of such a resolution.

Post Script: Perhaps because of concurrent readings on Islam, and the many generous people guiding me through what can only be seen as the tremendous COURAGE and HUMANITY of the Palestinian people… The book hold one of many keys to understanding not only the Palestinian Identity, but also how we in the West have allowed ourselves to become blind in our complacently. Being good and smart requires us to open our eyes and our hearts to the oppressed.

“The fact that certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation, thus moving from one pole of the contradiction to the other… Theirs is a fundamental role, and has been throughout the history of this struggle. It happens, however, that as they cease to be exploiters or indifferent spectators or simply the heirs of exploitation and move to the side of the exploited, they almost always bring with them the marks of their origin: their prejudices and their deformations, which include a lack of confidence in the people’s ability to think, to want, and to know. Accordingly, these adherents to the people’s cause constantly run the risk of falling into a type of generosity as malefic as that of the oppressors. The generosity of the oppressors is nourished by an unjust order, which must be maintained in order to justify that generosity. Our converts, on the other hand, truly desire to transform the unjust order; but because of their background they believe that they must be the executors of the transformation. They talk about the people, but they do not trust them; and trusting the people is the indispensable precondition for revolutionary change. A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in the people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a thousand actions in their favor without that trust.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed