Name: HUNDRED YEARS WAR ON PALESTINE.
Rating: 4.5 (46 reviews)
ISBN: 9781788165631

RASHID I. KHALIDI

HUNDRED YEARS WAR ON PALESTINE.

Jemima Scott

Kay so Queso

Instead, with the smug self-assurance so common to nineteenth-century Europeans, Herzl offered the preposterous inducement that the colonization, and ultimately the usurpation, of their land by strangers would benefit the people of that country.

“Partition both in principle and in substance can only be regarded as an anti-Arab solution.” - United Nations Special Commission on Palestine

I can’t imagine how painful that must’ve been.

He left unwillingly, lamenting that he could not take his books with him. Neither he nor his children ever saw their home again.

Oh wow, what an interesting quote by President Reagan.

"I was angry — I told him it had to stop or our entire future relationship was endangered. I used the word holocaust deliberately & said the symbol of his war was becoming a picture of a 7 month old baby with its arms blown off."

fareez

Herzl, the acknowledged leader of the growing movement he had founded, had paid his sole visit to Palestine in 1898, timing it to coincide with that of the German kaiser Wilhelm II. He had already begun to give thought to some of the issues involved in the colonization of Palestine, writing in his diary in 1895: 

We must expropriate 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 own country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.

In a confidential September 1919 memo by Arthur Balfour

After summarizing the incoherence of British policy in Syria and Mesopotamia, he bluntly assessed the situation in Palestine: 

…The four Great Powers are committed to Zionism. And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land. In my opinion that is right.

could not download this on acrobat so every single one of my highlights will be here

nhu ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹

Further complicating this understanding is the fact that this colonial conflict, conducted with massive support from external powers, became over time a national confrontation between two new national entities, two peoples. Underlying this feature, and amplifying it, was the profound resonance for Jews, and also for many Christians, of their biblical connection to the historic land of Israel. Expertly woven into modern political Zionism, this resonance has become integral to it. A late-nineteenth-century colonial-national movement thus adorned itself with a biblical coat that was powerfully attractive to Bible-reading Protestants in Great Britain and the United States, blinding them to the modernity of Zionism and to its colonial nature: for how could Jews be "colonizing" the land where their religion began?

The idea that the Palestinians simply do not exist, or even worse, are the malicious invention of those who wish Israel ill, is supported by such fraudulent books as Joan Peters's From Time Immemorial, now universally considered by scholars to be completely without merit. (On publication in 1984, however, it received a rapturous reception and it is still in print and selling discouragingly well.)2 Such literature, both pseudo-scholarly and popular, is largely based on European travelers' accounts, on those of new Zionist immigrants, or on British Mandatory sources. It is often produced by people who know nothing about the indigenous society and its history and have disdain for it, or who worse yet have an agenda that depends on its invisibility or disappearance.

This war has continued since then, waged sometimes overtly and sometimes covertly, but invariably with the tacit or overt approval, and often the direct involvement, of the leading powers of the day and the sanction of the international bodies they dominated, the League of Nations and the United Nations.

Significantly, the overwhelming Arab majority of the population (around 94 percent at that time) went unmentioned by Balfour, except in a backhanded way as the "existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." They were described in terms of what they were not, and certainly not as a nation or a people-the words "Palestinian" and "Arab" do not appear in the sixty-seven words of the declaration. This overwhelming majority of the population was promised only "civil and religious rights," not political or national rights. By way of contrast, Balfour ascribed national rights to what he called "the Jewish people," who in 1917 were a tiny minority— 6 percent —of the country's inhabitants.

Among its many motivations were both a romantic, religiously derived philo-Semitic desire to "return" the Hebrews to the land of the Bible, and an anti-Semitic wish to reduce Jewish immigration to Britain, linked to a conviction that "world Jewry" had the power to keep newly revolutionary Russia fighting in the war and bring the United States into it. Beyond those impulses, Britain primarily desired control over Palestine for geopolitical strategic reasons that antedated World War I and that had only been reinforced by wartime events. However important the other motivations may have been, this was

The British refused to recognize the representative authority of the congresses or its leaders, and insisted on Arab acceptance of the Balfour Declaration and the terms of the Mandate that had succeeded it-the antithesis of every substantive Arab demand—as a precondition for discussion. The Palestinian leadership pursued this fruitless legalistic approach for over a decade and a half.

Indeed, the Zionist movement's leaders understood that "under no circumstances should they talk as though the Zionist program required the expulsion of the Arabs, because that would cause the Jews to lose the world's sympathy," but knowledgeable Palestinians were not deceived.

Article 7 provided for a nationality law to facilitate the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews. This same law was used to deny nationality to Palestinians who had emigrated to the Americas during the Ottoman era and now desired to return to their homeland. Thus Jewish immigrants, irrespective of their origins, could acquire Palestinian nationality, while native Palestinian Arabs who happened to be abroad when the British took over were denied it. Finally, other articles allowed the Jewish Agency to take over or establish public works, allowed each community to maintain schools in its own language-which meant Jewish Agency control over much of the yishuv's school system—and made Hebrew an official language of the country.

In sum, the Mandate essentially allowed for the creation of a Zionist administration parallel to that of the British mandatory government, which was tasked with fostering and supporting it.

Everything changed in 1933 with the rise to power in Germany of the Nazis, who immediately began to persecute and drive out the well-established Jewish community. With discriminatory immigration laws in place in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other countries, many German Jews had nowhere to go but Palestine. Hitler's ascendancy proved to be one of the most important events in the modern histories of both Palestine and Zionism. In 1935 alone, more than sixty thousand Jewish immigrants came to Palestine, a number greater than the entire Jewish population of the country in 1917. Most of these refugees, mainly from Germany but also from neighboring countries where anti-Semitic persecution was intensifying, were skilled and educated. German Jews were allowed to bring assets worth a total of $100 million, thanks to the Transfer Agreement reached between the Nazi government and the Zionist movement, concluded in exchange for lifting a Jewish boycott of Germany.

During the 1930s the Jewish economy in Palestine overtook the Arab sector for the first time, and the Jewish population grew to more than 30 percent of the total by 1939.

Infuriated by rebels ambushing their convoys and blowing up their trains, the British resorted to tying Palestinian prisoners to the front of armored cars and locomotives to prevent rebel attack, a tactic they had pioneered in a futile effort to crush resistance of the Irish during their war of independence from 1919 to 1921.

The United States and USSR, which both voted in favor of the resolution, now clearly played the decisive role in sacrificing the Palestinians for a Jewish state to take their place and control over most of their country. The resolution was another declaration of war, providing the international birth certificate for a Jewish state in most of what was still an Arab-majority land, a blatant violation of the principle of self-determination enshrined in the UN Charter. The expulsion of enough Arabs to make possible a Jewish majority state necessarily and inevitably followed. Just as Balfour did not think that Zionism would hurt the Arabs, it is doubtful that when Truman and Stalin pushed through UNGA 181 they or their advisors paid much heed to what would happen to the Palestinians as a consequence of their vote.

It transformed most of Palestine from what it had been for well over a millennium—a majority Arab country—into a new state that had a substantial Jewish majority.40 This transformation was the result of two processes: the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Arab-inhabited areas of the country seized during the war; and the theft of Palestinian land and property left behind by the refugees as well as much of that owned by those Arabs who remained in Israel. There would have been no other way to achieve a Jewish majority, the explicit aim of political Zionism from its inception.

Rashid I. Khalidi

'Riveting and original ... 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 The twentieth century for Palestine and the Palestinians has been a century of denial: denial of statehood, denial of nationhood and denial of history. The Hundred Years War on Palestine is Rashid Khalidi's powerful response. Drawing on his family archives, he reclaims the fundamental right of any people: to narrate their history on their own terms. Beginning in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, Khalidi reveals nascent Palestinian nationalism and the broad recognition by the early Zionists of the colonial nature of their project. These ideas and their echoes defend Nakba - the Palestinian term for the establishment of the state of Israel - the cession of the West Bank and Gaza to Jordan and Egypt, the Six Day War and the occupation. Moving through these critical moments, Khalidi interweaves the voices of journalists, poets and resistance leaders with his own accounts as a child of a UN official and a resident of Beirut during the 1982 seige. The result is a profoundly moving account of a hundred-year-long war of occupation, dispossession and colonialisation.

A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

M. Sosotris

A balanced analysis of the way Britain and the US have used Israel as a weapon against the Arab people and the wounds this has left on that area. The author isn’t afraid to criticize the actions of Palestinian extremist groups or their fragmentation, and the book has no agenda against the Jewish people. It merely looks at the actions of governments and examines how Israeli leaders have treated the Palestinian people through the years. I especially appreciated the concluding section where the author points out the complexities of de-escalating the situation, and points out that student activism has done more to help the Palestinian people than the actions of Palestinian freedom groups. 

Very informative and eye-opening.

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

🀥

Essential reading for understanding just how convoluted the occupation is and how western powers have sustained it from the outset -- a highly detailed chronicle of events from even before the occupation officially began

A comprehensive overview of Palestinian history since the start of the zionist movement, though bereft of solid political analysis. It is more of a multi-generational memoir than a history book, written almost entirely through the perspective of the author's notable, relatively wealthy Jerusalemite family, which is interesting in its own right, but offers a very limited lens. Good audiobook version on Spotify btw!

Lukas

This literature wasn’t the easiest of reads, but absolutely necessary and generously informative. If you want a deep dive into the war-torn history and decades of horrific oppression the Palestinian people have had to endure, this is it. 

This literature wasn’t the easiest of reads, but absolutely necessary and generously informative. If you want a deep dive into the war-torn history and decades of horrific oppression the Palestinian people have had to endure, this is it. 

Free Palestine. 

super eye-opening. some of the political stuff was abit hard to follow, so it wasn’t the easiest read but still really informational

Of course this is high quality and full of info. I do want to mention that this is not Palestine for dummies. I was painfully aware of my gaps in World History and that’s on me. Highly recommend the audio version. 

Abigail

George

Arianna

Very well written historical perspective on the Palestinian struggle. The author’s intimate experiences and wealth of knowledge regarding its history make it a worthwhile read to anyone. 

However, I honestly cannot say I enjoyed reading this book. It was often difficult and at times depressing to read, although the education and perspective it provided was invaluable. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone with a mild interest in the subject matter.

Very well written historical perspective on the Palestinian struggle. The author’s intimate experiences and wealth of knowledge regarding its history make it a worthwhile read to anyone. 

However, I honestly cannot say I enjoyed reading this book. It was often difficult and at times depressing to read, although the education and perspective it provided was invaluable. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone with a mild interest in the subject matter.

Bassel Katamish

The genius of this book is its honesty. Khalidi does not pull punches to appeal to Western readers, he is explicit in calling Zionism what it is. But he is also honest about the countless strategic mistakes made by Palestinian leaders over the last century. And contrary to what many Arabs may believe, he eloquently makes the point that Israel is here to stay, and that any hopes that its national movement will be eliminated are delusional and perhaps even morally questionable.

At the end of the book, one is left dejected by the misery and oppression inflicted on Palestinians by their Zionist colonizers in the last hundred years. But there is hope; Khalidi presents a compelling strategy for Palestinian liberation. One can only hope that a united and enlightened Palestinian leadership emerges from the ashes of this latest wave of war, ready to heed his wise words in their struggle for freedom.

Ruby Huber

If you know the bare bones about what is happening and has been happening in Palestine, this is a great way to get the full backstory of how we got here. Extremely comprehensive, and in my opinion, essential reading.

A very valuable and informative read - definitely worth adding to your TBR

John Balek

Rashid Khalidi's "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine" offers a great overview to the last hundred years of Levantine history. This is quite an accomplishment, especially at the shorter page length, as there is a lot to cover. While This book does not cover everything it does a good job addressing many of the major events from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to our current Trump Administration climate.

As someone who has read other books on this subject some of the subject matter was a review for me but I haven't read a book as contemporary as this. This lead to my engagement in the later chapters to be stronger than those earlier on. Some of the greatest takeaways for me were the consistent disadvantage Palestinians have been at throughout the last 100 years and just how rapidly the situation has intensified just in my lifetime. 

Khalidi does a good job of explaining the major conflicts that have happened since 1917 and the climate that they arose from. What is unique about this book is the fact that Khalidi offers his personal perspective and the perspective of his ancestors during each of these events. The Khalidi family served in many leadership and public service roles in the history of Jerusalem and Palestine and this offers insight into situations that very few other authors could offer.

If you are someone who is new to learning about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I would recommend this book as it is the most concise and comprehensive I have read so far. That being said, someone who has already been introduced to the subject matter would still find some new and informative revelations from this book.

HUNDRED YEARS WAR ON PALESTINE.

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