Best of – The History of the Palestinian People with Professor Rashid Khalidi

In light of the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, The Burn Bag is re-releasing several episodes A'ndre and Ryan recorded during the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian crisis, aiming to assess the history of the broader Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts, highlighting a multitude of perspectives. We hope that you listen to all of these re-releases, in an effort to gain a deeper understanding of this conflict.

[Originally released 6/19/21] In the latest episode of our miniseries focusing in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we speak to Dr. Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian American historian who currently is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, on the history of the Palestinian people and Palestinian nationalism. Dr. Khalidi, the author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine (2020) and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (1997), discusses the origins of Palestinian Nationalism and provides a primer on the development of the Palestinian identity, dispelling the myths and talking the realities of Palestinian Nationalism in both the Mandate and Pre-Mandate period (the 'Mandate' referring to British governance of the Palestinian region in the years preceding 1948). Dr. Khalidi discusses why early attempts at creating a Palestinian state failed, and what agency the Palestinians actually had in their own fate amidst the involvement of regional and foreign powers. Dr. Khalidi goes on to talk about the Palestinians as a political entity, with the rise of the PLO, and gives his take on why the Oslo Peace Process failed -- drawing on his own personal experience as an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington peace negotiations between 1991 and 1993.

NOTE: In A’ndre’s introduction, he mentioned that Professor Rashid Khalidi was a negotiator for the PLO. The correct statement is that he was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993.