The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (*****)
Wow!
That's my one-word review of this book. Now here's my longer review.
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is simply the authoritative history of Palestine from 1917, when the British government's Balfour Declaration asserted the claim to Palestinian land made by the Zionist movement, until 2017. This text was published before the current situation where Palestinian existence is in jeopardy.
The book is written by Rahid Khalidi, who comes from a prominent Palestinian family, and the author and his family have been actively a part of much of the previous century's turmoil. Khalidi is now a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Columbia University in New York, but before his emigration he played a role with the Palestinian leadership that was trying to work out a deal for autonomy with Israel. This personal connection is referred to throughout the book and the stories and anecdotes of his family history and subsequent misfortune are connected to the actual historical events, which adds an even greater depth and richness to the historical narration.
Khalidi's history divides the time from 1917 to 2017 into six distinct eras when Israel displayed extreme aggression (literally war) against Palestinians.
1. 1917-1939 Initial Zionist battles and attacks against the indigenous Palestinians as they attempted to take over Palestinian land, sometimes aided by Britain.
2. 1947-1948 The Nakba, where Zionists expelled 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and formed Israel.
3. 1967 The Six-Day War where Israel defeated all its neighbors and launched a second Nakba against Palestinians (Naksa) where over 300,000 Palestinians are expelled from newly-occupied territories
4. 1982 The War in Lebanon where Israel attacked Palestinian interests there, interfered in Lebanon's internal affairs, and facilitated a great slaughter of Palestinians in the "Civil War" that Israel largely created.
5. 1987-1995 The First Intifada and Palestinian uprisings against Israel's occupation.
6. 2000-2014 The Second and Third Intifada and increased Israeli oppression and attacks.
These six eras are described thoroughly and the reader is provided with an extraordinarily-detailed explanation of why these incidents took place and how all of these wars were waged by Israel for the expressed purpose of gaining control of as much Palestinian land as possible.
The reader is exposed to how the Western powers were complicit with Israel in their Palestinian oppression. From 1917 to 1956 the British were the primary culprits who did everything possible to aid the Israelis and actively thwart Palestinian interests. After 1960, the U.S. took over the primary role of Israeli enabler. But it is not just the Western powers that betrayed the Palestinians by violating agreements they had made and by failing to fairly enforce Israel's commitments to compromise, but the text also demonstrates how every single Arab nation has failed tremendously in their support of Palestine--and in the case of Jordan, Egypt, and Syria specifically--these nations have often actively taken actions that harmed the Palestinian cause, doing this to advance their selfish national interests.
Of course, the main culprit here is Israel and, by the end of the book, one is just overwhelmed by the dishonesty, viciousness, and deceit used by the Zionist cause for over a century. However, after reading Khalidi's text, Israel's current savagery in Gaza seems predictable based on his outlining of their past horrors and misdeeds. One of the themes of this book is the documentation of the Zionists' single-minded purpose since the 19th Century, to expel the indigenous Palestinians from their land. Netanyahu is just the most-vicious holder of this philosophy, we learn, but he is certainly not an anomaly as he is the extreme, yet inevitable, result of Israel's single-minded and oppressive colonial ideology that has never wavered over time.
One might question the fairness of a history written by a Palestinian whose family has suffered deeply over the years and has been forced into diaspora. However, Khalidi is a rigorous scholar and his text is impeccably researched and avoids partisan propaganda. Furthermore, Khalidi goes to great lengths to explain how Palestinian leadership has made incredibly harmful decisions and miscalculations over the years which has helped guarantee their tragic fate. For example, after the 1967 war, the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, led by Yasser Arafat was housed in Tunis, hundreds of miles from Palestine. The arrogant PLO leadership refused to listen to advice from people on the ground in the Occupied Territories and made decisions based on their own wishes and feelings which were often outdated and divorced from reality. Additionally, after 1982 in particular, various Palestinian factions squabbled and undercut each other (even warring against each other). This factionalization, which was exploited cleverly by Israel, made it extremely difficult for Palestinians to effectively advocate for their people with a united front. Khalidi is not afraid to point out Palestinian errors and miscalculations which worsened their situation considerably, which lends his book even more credibility.
The epilogue of the book outlines possible future strategies for potential Palestinian independence, but the events of this new 7th declaration of war against Palestine, I think, renders these strategies moot to a large degree. I would be interested to read what Khalidi now thinks could serve as a realistic path toward Palestinian autonomy during these horrifically bleak times.
This book is phenomenal and I learned so, so much from reading it. I can't recommend it more highly, which is why I have given it my highest-possible rating. I wish every Westerner could read this book; I think most humane people would be shocked and distressed at what the Palestinians have suffered through history and this text provides an incredibly clear picture of how 1917 morphed into today's cruel reality. Anyone who would remain an enthusiastic Zionist after reading this book is simply not a rational, fair-minded person.
(I wasn't able to obtain this book at any local bookstore, but it is available on Apple Books, where I purchased it, or other E-book distributors. Update, June 2024--paperback versions are readily available at bookstores throughout Indonesia and I would suspect in other nations as well.
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