Rashid Khalidi

Family, education and career

Khalidi was born in New York City. Khalidi is the son of Ismail Khalidi and nephew of Husayin al-Khalidi.{{cite news | access-date = December 2, 2008 worked for the United Nations.{{cite web |access-date = December 4, 2008 |author-link = Andrew C. McCarthy |author2-link = Claudia Rosett |archive-date = January 18, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090118141747/http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=N2I1OWFlMGU1NDYzN2M0Y2ViZGMwMmNmNDkzOWYwMzQ= |url-status = dead

In 1970, Khalidi received a B.A. from Yale University,{{cite web | access-date = September 20, 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060910232408/http://humanities.uchicago.edu/depts/nelc/facultypages/khalidi/ |archive-date = September 10, 2006}} where he was a member of the Wolf's Head Society. He then received a D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1974. Between 1976 and 1983, Khalidi "was teaching full time as an Assistant Professor in the Political Studies and Public Administration Dept. at the American University of Beirut, published two books and several articles, and also was a research fellow at the independent Institute for Palestine Studies".{{cite news | access-date = 28 May 2024 | author-link = Asaf Romirowsky | author2-link = Jonathan Calt Harris He has also taught at the Lebanese University.

Khalidi became politically active in Beirut, where he resided through the 1982 Lebanon War. "I was deeply involved in politics in Beirut" in the 1970s, he said in an interview. Khalidi was cited in the media during this period, sometimes as an official with the Palestinian News Service, Wafa, or directly with the Palestine Liberation Organization.Multiple sources:

• Khalidi has said that he was not a PLO spokesman, and that he "often spoke to journalists in Beirut, who usually cited me without attribution as a well-informed Palestinian source. If some misidentified me at the time, I am not aware of it." Subsequently, sources disagreed as to the nature or existence of Khalidi's official relationship with the organization.Multiple sources:

Returning to America, Khalidi spent two years teaching at Columbia University before joining the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1987, where he spent eight years as a professor and director of both the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago.{{cite news |access-date = December 2, 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081204084352/http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2003/1/31/khalidi-accepts-chair-offer-from-columbia |archive-date = December 4, 2008 |url-status = live

Khalidi is married to Mona Khalidi, who served as assistant dean of student affairs and the assistant director of graduate studies of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.{{cite web |access-date= March 12, 2008 |archive-date= February 23, 2008 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080223121614/http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/about_sipa/staff/mk2388-staff.html |url-status= dead

He is a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Palestine–Israel Journal, a publication founded by Ziad Abuzayyad and Victor Cygielman, prominent Palestinian and Israeli journalists. He is founding trustee of The Center for Palestine Research and Studies. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In October 2010, Khalidi delivered the annual Edward Said memorial lecture at the Palestine Center in Washington.

Academic work

Khalidi's research covers primarily the history of the modern Middle East. He focuses on the countries of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean, with an eye to the emergence of various national identities and the role played by external powers in their development. He also researches the impact of the media, the role of education in the construction of political identity, and the way regional narratives have developed over the past centuries. Michael C. Hudson, director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown, describes Khalidi as "preeminent in his field". He served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 1994 and is currently co-editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies with Sherene Seikaly.

Much of Khalidi's scholarly work in the 1990s focused on the historical construction of nationalism in the Arab world. Drawing on the work of theorist Benedict Anderson who described nations as "imagined communities", he does not posit primordial national identities, but argues that these nations have legitimacy and rights. In Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (1997), he places the emergence of Palestinian national identity in the context of Ottoman and British colonialism as well as the early Zionist effort in the Levant. Palestinian Identity won the Middle East Studies Association's top honor, the Albert Hourani Book Award as best book of 1997.

His dating of the emergence of Palestinian nationalism to the early 20th century and his tracing of its contours provide a rejoinder to Israeli nationalist claims that Palestinians had no collective claims prior to the 1948 creation of Israel. His signature work, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (Columbia University Press, 1997), argues that Arabs living in Palestine began to regard themselves as a distinct people decades before 1948, "and that the struggle against Zionism does not by itself sufficiently explain Palestinian nationalism".

In it, Khalidi also describes the late development, failings and internal divisions within the various elements of the Palestinian nationalist movement.

In Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East (2004), Khalidi follows the history of Western involvement in the Middle East, and describes it as colonialist in nature. He finds hat this morally unacceptable and likely to backfire. Khalidi's book, Sowing Crisis, places the United States approach to the Middle East in historical context. He is sharply critical of U.S. policies during the Cold War, writing that Cold War policies "formulated to oppose the Soviets, consistently undermined democracy and exacerbated tensions in the Middle East".

Khalidi has written, "It may seem hard to believe today, but for decades the United States was in fact a major patron, indeed in some respects the major patron, of earlier incarnations" of radical, militant Islam, in order to use all possible resources in waging the Cold War. He add:The Cold War was over, but its tragic sequels, its toxic debris, and its unexploded mines continued to cause great harm, in ways largely unrecognized in American discourse.Historian and Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren has stated that "Khalidi is [considered] mainstream" only because "the stream itself has changed. The criteria for scholarship have become very political."

''Palestinian Identity''

In Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (1997) cited book. Khalidi argues that a Palestinian national consciousness emerged in the beginning of the twentieth century. He describes the Arab population as having "overlapping identities", with some or many expressing loyalties to villages, regions, a projected nation of Palestine, an alternative of inclusion in a Greater Syria, an Arab national project, as well as to Islam. Khalidi writes, "Local patriotism could not yet be described as nation-state nationalism."

Khalidi emphasized in his work that the Palestinian identity had been fundamentally fluid and changing, woven from multiple "narratives" due to individual and family experiences. He described the identity as organically developed due to the challenges of peasants forced from their homes due to Zionist immigrant pressure, but with Palestinian nationalism also being far more complex than merely an anti-Zionist reaction. Praise for his book appeared in the journal Foreign Affairs, with reviewer William B. Quandt viewing the work as "a major contribution to historical understanding of Palestinian nationalism."

Khalidi also documents active opposition by the Arab press to Zionism in the 1880s.

''The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood''

Main article: The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood

In 2006, Khalidi published The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood which critically examines the Palestinian struggle for statehood during the British Mandate. It highlights both the failures of Palestinian leadership and British and Zionist roles in hindering statehood for Palestine.Multiple sources:

Public life

Khalidi has written dozens of scholarly articles on Middle East history and politics, as well as op-ed pieces in many U.S. newspapers. He has also been a guest on radio and TV shows including All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, Morning Edition, Worldview, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, and Nightline, and has appeared on the BBC, the CBC, France Inter and the Voice of America. He served as president of the American Committee on Jerusalem, now known as the American Task Force on Palestine, and from 1991 to 1993 served as an official advisor to the joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation—later transitioning to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) delegation — during the Middle East peace conference in Madrid and the ensuing Israeli-Palestinian-American negotiations in Washington.

Views on Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Khalidi has written that the establishment of the state of Israel resulted in "the uprooting of the world's oldest and most secure Jewish communities, which had found in the Arab lands a tolerance that, albeit imperfect, was nonexistent in the often genocidal, Jew-hating Christian West." Regarding the proposed two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Khalidi has written that "the now universally applauded two-state solution faces the juggernaut of Israel's actions in the occupied territories over more than forty years, actions that have been expressly designed to make its realization in any meaningful form impossible." However, Khalidi also noted that "there are also flaws in the alternatives, grouped under the rubric of the one-state solution".

He supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Regarding American support for Israel, Khalidi stated in an interview, "every other single place on the face of the earth is in support of the Palestinians, yet all of them together aren't a hill of beans compared to the United States and Israel, because the United States and Israel can basically do anything they please. They are the world superpower, they are the regional superpower."

A New York Sun editorial criticized Khalidi for stating that there is a legal right under international law for Palestinians to resist what Khalidi considers to be Israeli occupation.{{cite news |access-date = September 4, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081101101220/https://www.nysun.com/editorials/right-of-resistance/10510/ |archive-date = November 1, 2008 |url-status = live |url-access=subscription

Khalidi has described discussions of Arab restitution for property confiscated from the Jewish refugees from Middle Eastern and North African countries after the creation of Israel as "insidious", "because the advocates of Jewish refugees are not working to get those legitimate assets back but are in fact trying to cancel out the debt of Israel toward Palestinian refugees".

NYC teacher training program

In 2005 Khalidi's participation in a New York City teacher training program was ended by the city's Schools Chancellor. Chancellor Joel I. Klein issued a statement that "Considering his past statements, Rashid Khalidi should not have been included in a program that provided professional development for Department of Education teachers and he won't be participating in the future." Following the decision, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger spoke out on Khalidi's behalf, writing: "The department's decision to dismiss Professor Khalidi from the program was wrong and violates First Amendment principles... The decision was based solely on his purported political views and was made without any consultation and apparently without any review of the facts."

2008 U.S. presidential campaign

Consequent to publication by the Los Angeles Times of an article about Obama's attendance at a 2003 farewell dinner for Khalidi, their relationship became an issue in the campaign. Some opponents of Barack Obama claimed that the relationship between Obama and Khalidi was evidence that Obama would not maintain a pro-Israel foreign policy if elected. When asked, Obama called his own commitment to Israel "unshakeable" and said he does not consult with Khalidi on foreign policy. Opponents of Republican candidate John McCain pointed out that he had served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI) during the 1990s which provided grants worth $500,000 to the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, which was co-founded by Khalidi, for the purpose of polling the views of the Palestinian people.Multiple sources:

• A copy of the IRS filing for the IRI was published online showing the grant and IRI members.{{cite news

Retirement from Columbia

Khalidi announced his retirement from Columbia University in late June 2024, with the process being finalized in October that same year. In an interview with The Guardian, Khalidi cited the university's crackdown on pro-Palestinian student protests, which he had vocally supported, and the transformation of the university into a "hedge fund-cum-real estate operation, with a minor sideline in education" as reasons for his retirement. The announcement coincided with news that a throng of extremist settlers had stormed a family home on Silsila Road in Jerusalem, which had been Khalidi family property since the 18th century. After the death of a cousin, plans were made to transform it into an extension of the Khalidi library nearby, which holds over 1,200 manuscripts, some as old as the 11th century. Khalidi fears that Israeli courts will ignore their title and open the property to expropriation.

Although formally retired, Khalidi was due to offer his course History of the Modern Middle East at Columbia as a special lecturer in the fall 2025 semester, but cancelled it citing Columbia's adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism in its capitulations to the Trump administration.Multiple sources:

Honors and awards

Academic

• 2007: Lenfest Teaching Award
• 2018: World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES) Seville Award for Outstanding Contribution to Middle Eastern Studies
• 2024: Honorary Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford University
• 2025: Caribbean Philosophical Association Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement AwardMultiple sources:

Books

• 1997: Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Albert Hourani Book Award for Palestinian Identity
• 2004: MESA Albert Hourani Book Award for Resurrecting Empire
• 2007: Arab American Book Award
• 2013: Palestine Book Awards
• 2014: Lionel Trilling Book Award

Bibliography

Books

Author

• Under Siege: PLO Decision-making during the 1982 War. Columbia University Press, 1986.
• Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, Columbia University Press, 1997.
• Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East, Beacon Press, 2004.
• Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East, Beacon Press, 2009.
• Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, Beacon Press, 2013.
• The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, Metropolitan Books 2020

Editor

• Palestine and the Gulf (Co-editor), Institute for Palestine Studies, 1982.
• *The Origins of Arab Nationalism *(Co-editor), Columbia University Press, 1991.

Essays

• British Policy towards Syria and Palestine, 1906–1914. Ithaca Press for St. Antony's College, 1980.

Notes

References

References

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5. 2006 Phelps Association Directory
6. ((Editor)). (2005). "Rashid Khalidi on the Middle East: A Conversation". [[Logos (journal).
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8. (October 29, 2008). "Palin accuses Obama of ties to second 'radical professor'". [[CNN]].
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12. Khalidi, Rashid. (7 October 2010). "The Palestine Question and the U.S. Public Sphere". Palestine Center.
13. Khalidi, Rashid. (2010-10-07). "The Palestine Question and the U.S. Public Sphere". [[The Jerusalem Fund]].
14. Kennicott, Philip. (May 13, 2004). "The Knowledge That Doesn't Equal Power". The Washington Post.
15. "Journal of Palestine Studies". University of California.
16. "Albert Hourani Book Award Recipients, 1991–2005". [[University of Arizona]].
17. Goldstein, Evan R.. (March 6, 2009). "Rashid Khalidi's Balancing Act: The Middle-East scholar courts controversy with his Palestinian advocacy". [[Chronicle of Higher Education]].
18. Khalidi, Rashid. (2009). "Sowing crisis: the Cold War and American dominance in the Middle East". Beacon Press.
19. Provence, Michael. (2005). "The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism". University of Texas Press.
20. Khalidi, Palestinian Identity. p. 32
21. (January 28, 2009). "Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness". Foreign Affairs.
22. Cohen, Hillel. (2008). "[[Army of Shadows, Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917–1948]]". University of California Press.
23. (September 28, 2018). "Rashid Khalidi {{!}} MESAAS".
24. Toensing, Chris. (April 20, 2013). "A Dishonest Umpire".
25. Morris, Benny. (2020). "The War on History".
26. Khalidi, Rashid. (May 8, 2008). "Palestine: Liberation Deferred".
27. . (March 1, 2016). ["40 Columbia University professors sign BDS petition"](https://www.jta.org/2016/03/01/news-opinion/united-states/40-columbia-profs-sign-bds-petition). *[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]*.
28. (Spring 2001). "Jordan Elgrably Interviews Rashid Khalidi: The Crisis of our Times – Nationalism, Identity, and the Future of Israel-Palestine".
29. Note: The [http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=355 ADC transcript of Khalidi's speech] has been edited, and has sections missing. Thus, it cannot be used for verification.
30. (August 8, 2003). "Interview with Joe Scarborough". [[MSNBC]].
31. Perelman, Marc. (April 10, 2008). "Study Estimates Assets of Arab Lands' Jews".
32. Purnick, Joyce. (February 28, 2005). "Some Limits on Speech in Classrooms". [[The New York Times]].
33. (February 18, 2005). "The Klein Example". [[The New York Sun]].
34. Wallsten, Peter. (April 10, 2008). "Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama". [[Los Angeles Times]]; Politics.
35. (May 22, 2008). "Obama on the Defensive Before Fla. Jewish Voters".
36. Lanard, Noah. "The most prominent historian of Palestine on what the last year has meant".
37. Iqbal, Razia. "Rashid Khalidi, America's foremost scholar of Palestine, is retiring: 'I don't want to be a cog in the machine any more'". [[The Guardian]].
38. (April 1, 2025). "Khalidi, Rashid".
39. (May 2-3, 2024). "Rashid Khalidi Retirement Conference".
40. (May 18, 2018). "IPS Scholars Rashid Khalidi and Salim Tamari Awarded Prestigious Accolades".
41. (2025). "Key events in the history of St Antony's: 2000-2025 (2024-2025)".