The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

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The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 is a 2020 book by Rashid Khalidi, in which the author describes the Zionist claim to Palestine in the century spanning 1917–2017 as late settler colonialism and an instrument of British and then later American imperialism,^[1] doing so by focusing on a series of six major episodes the author characterizes as "declarations of war" on the Palestinian people.^[2][3][4] In the book, Khalidi—historian and Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University—argues that the struggle in Palestine should be understood, not as one between two equal national movements fighting over the same land, but rather as "a colonial war waged against the indigenous population, by a variety of parties, to force them to relinquish their homeland to another people against their will."^[3][4]

In addition to the more traditional sources and methods employed by a historian, Khalidi draws on family archives, stories passed down through his family from generation to generation, and his own experiences, as an activist in various circles and as someone who has been involved in negotiations among Palestinian groups and with Israelis.^[1][4]

Synopsis

Introduction

The book begins with an examination of correspondence from 1889 between Yusuf Diya ad-Din Pasha al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem and relative of the author, and Theodor Herzl, father of modern political Zionism.^[5] In his response, Herzl ignores the main concerns raised by the Pasha and in reference to the indigenous, non-Jewish population of Palestine, Herzl quips: "But who would think of sending them away?"^[5][6]: 7

"The First Declaration of War, 1917–1939"

The first chapter of the book deals with the Balfour Declaration November 1917, announcing the British Empire's support for the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," and the Mandate for Palestine granted by the League of Nations to Britain in 1922, which established Mandatory Palestine in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire—neither document made reference to "Arabs" or "Palestinians" or to their national rights.^[3][7] The Jewish Agency for Palestine, acting as an almost governmental administration over the following 26 years, was an officially recognized representative of the Jewish minority in Palestine, and there was no comparable institution for the Arab majority.^[3]

"The Second Declaration of War, 1947–1948"

The second chapter has the United States and the Soviet Union replacing Britain in 1947 as the imperial powers, with their moves to gather international support to ensure the passage of UN partition resolution, which approved the establishment of a Jewish state on 56% of Arab majority land; Khalidi argues that this violated Palestinians' right to "national self-determination" as guaranteed in the UN Charter.^[3]

This was followed by

The fifth chapter addresses the Israeli backlash against the First Intifada, the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, and the Oslo Accords—which did not resolve any fundamental Palestinian demands, such as national sovereignty, an end to occupation and colonization, the right of return for refugees, an agreement on Jerusalem, delineated borders, and land and water rights, and which were arranged based on close political, diplomatic, and military ties between Israel and the US, and were therefore tantamount to "another internationally sanctioned American-Israeli declaration of war on the Palestinians in furtherance of the Zionist movement's century-old project."^[3]

"The Sixth Declaration of War, 2000–2014"

The sixth chapter covers four chapters of Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza: backlash against the

American political scientist Lisa Anderson described the book in Foreign Affairs as presenting "the most cogent, comprehensive, and compelling account yet of this struggle from the Palestinian vantage point."^[1]

Israeli historian