In 1984, [a:Rashid Khalidi|40811|Rashid Khalidi|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1363879765p2/40811.jpg] was part of a group of respected Palestinian academics that tried to persuade Yasser Arafat that the Palestinian movement “needed to take American public opinion into account, and devote to it sufficient resources and energy, but to no avail.” (110-21)

If this book is any measure of Khalidi’s ability to address an American audience and get them to understand the history of Palestine and its people, Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization made a grave mistake.

[b:The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017|41812831|The Hundred Years' War on Palestine A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017|Rashid Khalidi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556345491l/41812831.SY75.jpg|65247140] is a powerful retelling of the last century in the Middle East.

One of the central themes of Zionist justification of their right to set up a Jewish state in the Holy Land is that there is no such thing as “the Palestinian people.” They described the land they wished to claim in the late 19th century as “a land without a people for a people without land.” In practical terms, this was never true. Khalidi notes that while Palestinians are frequently abandoned and marginalized, they usually made themselves heard.

You owe it to yourself to read this book if your understanding of the conflict in the Middle East is limited to the conventional narrative of this conflict: Where brave little Israel builds a democratic beachhead in the desert, but is only beset by constant attack by Arabs and Iranians. Where the only people calling themselves “Palestinians” are terrorists planting bombs or firing rockets against peaceful civilians. Where so-called Palestinians cannot be “partners for peace,” but autocratic monarchs can.