The hundred-year war on Palestine

For more than a century, the Zionists have sought to uproot the Palestinians from their land and replace them with Jewish settlers in many ways, producing narratives in the West to garner support. Historian Rashid Khalidi presents a hundred-year history of the war waged against the Palestinians through notable events that connect his family’s history in Jerusalem with the history of the homeland. The writer Rashid Khalidi mentions that in 1899, Yusuf Diaa Khalidi, the mayor of Jerusalem — from the author’s family — who was angered by the Zionist call to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter to Theodor Herzl in which he said: “In the land, there is an original people who do not easily accept being displaced.” He warned of upcoming dangers and concluded his letter “In the name of God… leave Palestine alone.” The historian relies on a collection of unused archival materials and reports from generations of family members — mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists — fighting the hundred-year war on Palestine and the ongoing conflict. Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, initially launched by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but supported by Britain and the United States, the two great powers of this era. He highlights key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to the futile and endless peace process. The author also shows that the hundred-year war on Palestine does not erase the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements.