The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017
Rashid Khalidi
سنة 1917, صرح اللورد بلفور بأن القوى العظمى ملتزمة بالصهيونية, << و الصهيونية سواء كانت محقة أو مخطئة , جيدة أو سيئة, فهي متأصلة في تقاليد قديمة راسخة , و حاجيات معاصرة , و آمال مستقبلية لها أهمية أكثر بعدا و عمقا من تطلعات و تحيزات 000 700 عربي يعيشون الآن في تلك الأرض >> . سنة 2017, بعد ذلك بمئة عام , اعترف الرئيس الأمريكي دونالد ترمب بالقدس عاصمة لإسرائيل قائلا: << رفعنا القدس عن طاولة المفاوضات , ولا يجب الحديث عنها بعد الآن. >> و على الرغم من وحشية الحروب التي واجهها الفلسطينيون , و ما زالوا يواجهونها , فإن هذا الكتاب ليس <<تصورا باكيا>> لمئة سنة من تاريخ فلسطين, ففلسطين قاومت و مازالت تقاوم . more
336 pages, Hardcover
First published Metropolitan Books
4.52
Rating
9923
Ratings
1504
Reviews
Rashid Khalidi
32 books 454 followers
Rashid Khalidi is the author of seven books about the Middle East, including Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, Resurrecting Empire, The Iron Cage, and Sowing Crisis. His writing on Middle Eastern history and politics has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and many journals. For his work on the Middle East, Professor Khalidi has received fellowships and grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others. He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York and editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.Community reviews
This book tells us about the war Palestine has been fighting for the last one hundred years. This is written from a Muslim perspective by the author whose family was actively involved in many of the events mentioned in this book. What I learned from this book 1) Balfour Declaration On behalf of Britain's cabinet on November 2, 1917, Arthur James Balfour made a declaration known as the Balfour declaration. It supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. It comprised just a single sentence that promulgated Jewish people's attempt to settle in Palestine. more
5 stars for a book that is both depressing and illuminating. This book tells the story of an indigenous people colonized and deprived of their own land over a 100 year period. The first colonization was by the British who conquered Palestine during World War I from the Ottoman Empire. They had issued the Balfour declaration in 1917, stating their intention to provide a national home for Jewish people in Palestine. Although 94% of the population in Palestine in 1917 was Palestinian, the declaration did not promise them the same political or national right guaranteed the Jews. more
Credit to the Decolonize Palestine reading list for this recommendation. After not being taught whatsoever about Palestine (or Israel, for that matter), this was the first resource I picked up in the endeavour of teaching myself. I would recommend the audiobook for this book because at times the writing can be decently lengthy and academic. Since this book is an overview of 100 years of history, it wasn't able to delve deep into each era, so I found that with every question this book answered, it made me ask four more. If it's your first time reading deeply into the history of Palestine and Zionism, I would come into it equipped with a basic overview, or else be prepared to continue researching during and after reading. more
Rashid Khalidi starts his book by vaguely attacking other books on Israel and Palestine for their one sided narrative that favors Israel, without providing much detail on their historiographic failings. He points out that there is a need to provide a Palestinian narrative using extensive primary sources, which is true. He does not do that however, and instead resorts to primarily relying upon personal and family stories. When he uses historic sources, he proceeds to leave out rebellions, massacres, entire wars and whole sections of essential biographies, that would be easily criticized as callous mistakes, if it was not clear that he carefully left them out to fit his narrative. He left out the Arab revolt of 1929, when Jews were raped and massacred, and the second holiest city in Judaism, Hebron, was ethnically cleansed of Jews. more
Once a person starts reading about the Palestine conflict, they can never un-see Israel and USA's stance on this issue. It is mind-boggling how this matter has been mishandled, misrepresented and ignored for more than a century now. And one can never go back to seeing Jews as only victims of another mind-boggling genocide. Truly a heart-wrenching and deeply insightful book. more
There is a lot of truth here, but also a lot of strategic omission, to an extent that even I — not a professional historian — felt was deliberate and wrong. I was hoping Khalidi would bring out a new perspective, a way to understand the conflict and the Palestinian view that would be more productive, but instead this felt — in tone, and in the selection of events — like propaganda. I listened to the book, and noted all of my skepticism about his reporting of history: Why did Palestinian Arabs not support the Peel commission at all, or offer a cogent counteroffer, either then or in 1947. Khalidi doesn't engage with those proposals in detail; he doesn't confront the Arab belief at the time that Jews had no place in Palestine — a refusal to engage with the Zionist idea that Jews had nowhere to go and that, in hindsight, Palestine was the only solution for them. What would he have done, if he were a Jew in the 1930s. more
An excellent book. Very comprehensive and meticulously researched book. What makes this book more amazing is the fact that the author lived through the history himself and witnessed much of what happened. His family had ties to Palestine from the very beginning and he himself met with so many instrumental and influential people that were core in the Palestine world. This book taught me so much. more
This reminded me of Jakarta Method. A deeply human yet academic and critical look at Palestine and their oppression and resistance. While very critical of Palestinian leadership, Khalidi is still offering a distinctly Palestinian perspective on this story, which is not something I'd gotten before. In the book and elsewhere, it is mentioned that Khalidi was used as a smear against Obama in 08, as they were colleagues and friends. Obama didn't even bother defending his friend, which is exactly what he did to Palestine when he got into office and ignored Israel's most violent siege against Palestine in the 100 year history of this conflict. more
Couldn’t recommend this book enough. I learned so much about the region and the geopolitics of Palestine and Israel that I’ve literally never known about. If you don’t think Israel is a settler colonial apartheid state then you sure as hell will after reading this. . more
Theodor Herzl on his settler-colonial plans for removing Palestinians by force: “We must appropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor (both illegal) must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. ” While apartheid uses natives as workers, settler-colonialism doesn’t – it wants you GONE. more
This NY Times article review of the book says it all. You can read it and get the gist of the entire book: https://www. nytimes. com/2020/01/28/bo. I'm updating my review with some observations: Don’t you think his narrative is overwhelmingly one of Palestinian victimhood without any responsibility. more
My favorite part of this book wasn't the book itself (which was good, it is a good book, I liked the book) but rather the dumbass NYT reviewer who wrote about this book and critiqued it b/c it doesn't "move us any closer to some kind of resolution. " AKA, don't write a book about how fucked up the situation in Palestine is if you're not also gonna solve it for us in a way that doesn't involve ceding any annexed land. more
A sweeping overview of the reality America (and the evangelical community in particular) has willfully ignored for the last century. Rather than packing this with pathos, Khalidi patiently and carefully walks his reader through decades of policy, war, Western support and withdrawal, intifadas, settlements, and lines drawn and redrawn. I lament the US's blind and misguided partnership with a colonizing, ethnically cleansing, nationalistic state so anathema to democracy. I've thought a lot about the similarities between Israel and the United States the last several weeks—their zionism, nationalism, and brutal systems of oppression swept aside by powerful, foundational myths—and Khalidi speaks to this in a way I'd been probing for:"Establishing the colonial nature of the conflict has proven exceedingly hard given the biblical dimension of Zionism, which casts the new arrivals as indigenous and as the historical proprietors of the land they colonized. In this light, the original population of Palestine appears extraneous to the post-Holocaust resurgence of a Jewish nation-state with its roots in the kingdom of David and Solomon: they are no more than undesirable interlopers in this uplifting scenario. more
Instead of opening my mind to the Palestinian perspective, Khalidi closed my mind. I was, to say the least, very frustrated while reading this, and would probably prefer a treatment of the subject by a different (Palestinian) author. Khalidi writes how Westerners often think in terms of “the irrational hostility of intransigent and often anti Semitic Muslims,” and that “dismantling this fallacy… is a necessary step. ” But for me, he only reinforced this fallacy. I enjoyed reading the first third of the book, which paints Israel as a colonialist regime—fantastically written. more
Essential reading if you know nothing about the war on Palestine, or if you know some stuff, or even if you know most stuff. just read it. Free Palestine . more
Rashid Kalidi - Palestina. Uma biografiaNão é um livro com uma prosa cativante, não é por isso que lhe dei 5 estrelas. Também não é um livro dramático ou uma análise histórica do que foi o ”Exodus” palestiniano. É antes uma autobiografia, tal como o nome indica, de alguém que viveu ou ressuscitou em si as angústias e fantasmas de toda uma nação,. Um livro escrito na primeira pessoa que mistura uma história pessoal e familiar com a biografia de um povo. more
An extremely important read at any point, but especially right now. This is very accessible and reasonably thorough, especially if you're someone that was previously very uneducated about this topic. more
A real jaw-dropper of a history that had me wanting to cancel my subscription to the human race. The only weakness of the book was the inclusion of so many personal and family stories that made it less rather than more powerful for me. It remains a very important but depressing read. more
Excellent book. It's comprehensive, readable, well-researched, and current. Each chapter focuses on a major event or time period in the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to argue that Palestinians have--and continue to be--the victims of a hundred years of settler colonial warfare against them. Two things that set this book apart from other histories I've read are (1) the personal dimension Khalidi is able to offer not only as a Palestinian but as someone with first-hand experience in Palestinian politics and (2) a "rigorous, introspective self-criticism of Arab weaknesses and failures" which he takes from historian and intellectual Constantine Zureiq as indispensable for charting the best path forward for Palestinian action. INTROprovides the academic and personal background for the books main thesis: that the modern Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be understood as a colonial war against an indigenous Palestinian population. more
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is an incredibly helpful introduction to various governments' diplomatic and military decisions that enabled Israel's occupation of Palestine. Each section of this book highlights how since its resurgence, modern Zionism has been supported at all points by the major world powers (first the United Kingdom, and later the United States. )I wanted to read this because as someone whose tax dollars and prior voting record have contributed towards America's support of the occupation, it felt really important to understand the US-Israeli entanglement at a level beyond the major leftist talking points ("we send $3. 8 billion in aid to Israel each year and they train our police departments. ") Like many Americans, I have large gaps in my understanding of world history, and so this was my first time clearly understanding how the Ottoman Empire's pre-WW1 control over Palestine and the post-WW1 British mandate over Palestine created the conditions for modern Zionist ambitions to cohere into the settler colonial state of Israel. more
All lies. 1919: Arabs of Palestine refused nominate representatives to the Paris Peace Conference. 1920: San Remo conference decisions, rejected. 1922: League of Nations decisions, rejected. 1937: Peel Commission partition proposal, rejected. more
This nonfiction accomplished what I hoped it would, which was give me a non-western history lesson on what has been taking place in this part of the world. This is a huge gap in my knowledge and I thought this was a good entry point although at times I was overwhelmed by the number of unfamiliar names and locations but that is more on me. I listened to the audio narration of this and if I had read it physically that name confusion would have been less prevalent. I am very interested in reading more works on the 20th century and the history of this region and other countries in North Africa and the Middle East and part of that is this nonfiction and how it opened my eyes to how little I do know about this regions history. . more
*:･ﾟ276/ 100 Such an important resource for educating yourself as this genocide did not start on October 7, 2023. Although I read this as an introductory piece, I would say that this probably isn't the best one to start with. There are quite a lot of footnotes that you will want to read and should read and it is quite an academic text. If you still want to go through with it but know NOTHING of the past, I would recommend starting with Chapter Six + Conclusion and then going on and reading from the beginning. I am still looking for more resources and this was a great start. more
“In the wake of the defeat of the Arab armies, and after further massacres of civilians, an even larger number of Palestinians, another 400,000, were expelled and fled from their homes, escaping to neighboring Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza (the latter two constituted the remaining 22 percent of Palestine that was not conquered by Israel). None were allowed to return, and most of their homes and villages were destroyed to prevent them from doing so. Still more were expelled from the new state of Israel even after the armistice agreements of 1949 were signed, while further numbers have been forced out since then. In this sense the Nakba can be understood as an ongoing process. ”“In the third paragraph of the Mandate’s preamble, the Jewish people, and only the Jewish people, are described as having a historic connection to Palestine. more
I do not know how I got myself to finish this bookIt brought back so many heartwrenching and devastating memoriesAs a Lebanese, I cannot say that I lived through what the Palestinians have lived and still are going through, but I can say that we got a long taste. Over 20 years of occupation where we saw the ugly side of a state that claimed to be "the only democratic country in the Middle East"When I reached chapter four, I was hysterically crying remembering my mother telling us how, in 1982, she and her cousins had to carry their months old babies on foot to leave Beirut to the Syrian Borders and back to Sidon. How the Israeli barricades forbade them from taking any food and water. And how when they learned later what the occupiers did to the people in Sabra and Shatilla, they went into a state of shock that left them unable to speak for weeks. I opened my eyes to this world living in an occupied South of Lebanon. more
if there is one book you need to read about palestine, is this one. rashid khalidi presents a remarkable if not the most comprehensive account of the last hundred years of palestinian history, a century of wars on palestine: from the early 20th century and the formation the zionist movement, all the way to the reoccurring bombings of Gaza in the early 21st century. what makes this an exceptional read is that this book is perhaps one of the few written by the pen of a palestinian that has lived and firsthand seen many of the wars/uprisings as well as actively participated in diplomatic and political negotiations that happened before and after them: it contains accounts of the author’s own lived experiences as well as a very rich introduction of the strong ties that the unfolding history has with that of his own family and ancestral roots. this enables for the history of the colonisation and occupation of palestine to be told by a palestinian voice, reclaiming the narrative that has since the very beginning been hijacked and monopolised by the colonising and occupying force of israel and its benefactors. might be a side note but it has to be mentioned, the author writes “Because of its utility to the occupation in splitting the Palestinian national movement, Israeli indulgence of the (Muslim) Brotherhood was extended to Hamas, notwithstanding its uncompromising and anti-Semitic program and commitment to violence. more
Incredible for looking at the history of the past century from the Palestinian perspective, and the top choice if you had to recommend to anyone looking for an intro to the struggle in this land. Unfortunately another major tragic chapter is currently being written. Names matter, labels matter, and the narrative is controlled by power. This is a very important book right now. more
The hopeful tone at the end of this book breaks my heart. more
A second perspective on the history of Israel-PalestineThis is the second Goodreads review that I mentioned a few days ago when reviewing Anita Shapira's Israel: A History. Because I am a lifelong journalist specializing in covering cultural and religious diversity, and because I have reported on issues related to Israel-Palestine throughout my career, friends keep asking me to recommend a good book "for background. " And, instead, I am recommending two: Shapira's book and now Khalidi's book. For readers with the time to consider both books, a deeper awareness will emerge. Khalidi is both a globally respected scholar on the Middle East and has a deep family connection with the region. more