The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917--2017

By: Rashid Khalidi

Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Rashid Khalidi - introduction

Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

This program includes an introduction read by the author.

A landmark history of 100 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.

Cover photograph © Amnon Bar Or--Tal Gazit Architects Ltd

©2020 Rashid Khalidi (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

A must read

Professor Khalidi gives an excellent historical overview of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including background on the different currents of the Zionist movement and cultural context of late Ottoman Palestine, covers each stage of the conflict from the Balfour declaration through the Trump administration. As a participant in talks in the 1990s, he has a lot of insight into the blind spots and failures of the leadership of the PLO and Fatah, and the processes that led to a dynamic favoring the religiously conservative parts of Israeli and Palestinian society, each favoring exclusive control and domination of the other social group, a dynamic mutually beneficial to each minority and damaging to long term stability and prosperity for both societies on the whole. He’s especially critical of the magical thinking of the PLO leadership, the cynicism of Israeli military strategy in Lebanon, and the role of U.S. aid and diplomacy over the last several decades and the impossibility of treating the U.S. as a neutral and primary broker in talks, as has been the case since the 1990s. Written before the 2023 Hamas attacks and the Israeli military response, his prescriptions for finding a mutually acceptable political solution for Palestinians and Israelis are probably even more difficult to implement today, but still not impossible, and sound, at least to this non-expert, eminently sensible and offer some sorely needed optimism.

Very insightful

Given the current climate, and most recent outbreak of violence, I found this book very informative. It brought into clarity many things that I have recently been becoming more aware of with respect to how Israel has treated Palestine and its citizens. I would encourage this book for anyone who is looking to improve their understanding of the nuanced relationship between Israel and Palestine.

Palestine a Hundred Years

Khalidi has written a history and a personal memoir that brings his people to reality for an outsider. The tone is appropriately sober for a blighted history filled with outrageous acts from the western powers. This is an important book for the present moment, more story telling than academic, an appeal for justice and humanity.

Eye opening and insightful.

"The Hundred-Year’s War on Palestine offers a comprehensive historical perspective on a complex and enduring conflict."

Extremely detailed and inclusive of all information.

This is an impressive read. One that had me absolutely astounded at the level of horror allowed to persist by occupying forces in Palestine is terrifying. God save us. Palestine needs to be free.

Great book

When you need to understand the details of everything.. this book explains it very well.

Honest Appraisal

This book is engaging and well researched. It should be read by all Americans who truly want to understand what is happening in Palestine.

awesome summary

balanced intelligent description of the Palestinian pligh lost to miss miss management of media and the severe odds against them

clear , concise description of history...

I didn't come across any omissions. Detailed enough but kept interest going. Highly recommend to understand this complex issue from Palestinians perspective

Enjoyable, heartbreaking, and necessary

The storytelling is on another level, while also providing much needed context and information on an ongoing problem, now more than ever.