Rashid Khalidi: Difference between revisions
The candidates need to be listed ALPHABETICALLY! |
→Relations with PLO: rm section again per talk; still a problem. Best to discuss on talk page and get consensus for inclusion |
||
(2 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
Line 136: | Line 136: | ||
Regarding American support for Israel, Khalidi stated in an interview that "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."<ref>[http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/Issues/01-03-SPR/thecrisis.html "The Crisis of our Times - Nationalism, Identity, and the Future of Israel-Palestine"], Interview with Rashid Khalidi, ''North Coast Xpress'', Spring 2001(retrieved on October 21, 2008.</ref> |
Regarding American support for Israel, Khalidi stated in an interview that "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."<ref>[http://www.sonic.net/~doretk/Issues/01-03-SPR/thecrisis.html "The Crisis of our Times - Nationalism, Identity, and the Future of Israel-Palestine"], Interview with Rashid Khalidi, ''North Coast Xpress'', Spring 2001(retrieved on October 21, 2008.</ref> |
||
===Relations with PLO=== |
|||
Rashid Khalidi was noted by media for working as a spokesman for the PLO in Lebanon between 1976 and 1982 as well as heading Palestinian press agency Wafa.<ref>”Lebanon War Hurts Palestinian Cause," Joe Alex Morris Jr., Los Angeles Times September 5, 1976<br>- [[Los Angeles Times]] cited Khalidi as a “a PLO spokesman" in 1976.</ref><ref>Palestinians, People in Crisis, Are Scattered and Divided; The Palestinians First-of a Series, New York Times, February 19, 1978, Sunday, Page 1, James M. Markham<br> - [[New York Times]] called him noted he “works for the PLO.” in 1978</ref><ref>ULTIMATE GOALS OF THE ATTACK ARE ASSESSED DIFFERENTLY FROM THE; TWO SIDES; News Analysis, By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NEW YORK TIMES, June 9, 1982<br>- New York Times described him as “a director of the Palestinian press agency, Wafa.” in 1982</ref> However, The Washington Times reported in 2004 that Khalidi was denying that he ever worked for the PLO.<ref>Arafat Minion as Professor, by Asaf Romirowsky and Jonathan Calt Harris, Washington Times, July 9, 2004</ref> |
|||
In his book ''Palestinian Identity'', Khalidi writes of being asked by [[Faisal Husseini|Faisal al-Husayni]], a leader of the PLO, to serve as an advisor if Palestinian-Israeli negotiations were begun.<ref>Rashid Khalidi, ''Palestinian Identity'' page viii [http://books.google.com/books?id=HbQJbOT5v4UC&pg=PR8&dq=rashid-khalidi+PLO+officials+Madrid+conference&ei=1q0LSfqxJJqktAPrhMjJBA]</ref> Khalidi agreed to serve at the [[Madrid Conference of 1991]]. He was required to travel to the various meeting points - Madrid, Oslo, Jerusalem and Washington D.C. - for weeks at a time over a two year period. Khalidi worked alongside other notable advisors including [[Faisal Husseini|Faisal al-Husayni]]. |
|||
<ref name = "Delegation asserts PLO ties">{{cite web |
|||
|url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE7D91E3FF931A15753C1A967958260 |
|||
|title= Palestinian Says His Delegation Will Assert P.L.O. Ties at Talks |
|||
|accessdate= 2008-11-1 |
|||
|date= [[October 22]], [[1991]] |
|||
|publisher= [[The New York Times]]}} |
|||
</ref> |
|||
Khalidi wrote: "The Palestinian-Israeli negotiations at Madrid, Washington D.C., and Oslo, starting in 1991, appeared to put the process toward statehood back on track, and seemed to justify the highest hopes of, and for, the PLO." <ref>Rashid Khalidi, ''The Iron Cage'', page 157 [http://books.google.com/books?id=xp3MQavDxjIC&pg=PA157&dq=rashid-khalidi+PLO+officials+Madrid+conference&ei=qloMSc_hNI6KswOikeTZBA]</ref> |
|||
=== NYC teacher training program === |
=== NYC teacher training program === |
||
Line 177: | Line 164: | ||
|url=http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/IRIForm9901998.pdf |
|url=http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/IRIForm9901998.pdf |
||
|title=A copy of the IRS filing is provided (see grant #5180 on p. 14 and p. 17 for McCain chairmanship in}}</ref> |
|title=A copy of the IRS filing is provided (see grant #5180 on p. 14 and p. 17 for McCain chairmanship in}}</ref> |
||
====Barack Obama==== |
====Barack Obama==== |
Revision as of 18:49, 3 November 2008
![]() |
Rashid Khalidi | |
---|---|
Born | 1950 |
Citizenship | American |
Alma mater | Yale University Oxford University |
Known for | Histories of nationalism and colonialism in Palestine and the Middle East |
Scientific career | |
Fields | History |
Institutions | University of Chicago Columbia University Georgetown University |
Rashid Khalidi (born 1950), an American historian of the Middle East, is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University,[1] and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. [citation needed]
Family, education and career
Khalidi was born in New York. He received a B.A. from Yale University, where he was a member of Wolf's Head Society,[2] in 1970,[3] and a D. Phil. from Oxford University in 1974[4] and spent many 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 before joining the Columbia faculty. He has also taught at Georgetown University, Lebanese University, and the American University of Beirut. [citation needed]
Khalidi is married to Mona Khalidi, who is the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.[5] He is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East, which describes itself as "a national organization of Jews, Christians and Muslims dedicated to dialogue, education and advocacy for peace based on the deepest teachings of the three religious traditions."[6]
He is 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.[citation needed]
He is founding trustee of The Center for Palestine Research and Studies.[citation needed]
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 press on forming new senses of community, the role of education in the construction of political identity, and in the way narratives have developed over the past centuries in the region.[4] Michael C. Hudson, director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown, describes Khalidi as "preeminent in his field."[7] He served as President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 1994. Khalidi is currently editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.[citation needed]
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 theorists Benedict Anderson who described nations as "imagined communities", he does not posit primordial national identities, but clearly 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. This book won the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Prize as best book of 1997.[8] His dating of Palestinian national emergence to the early 20th century and his tracing of its contours provide a rejoinder to Israeli nationalist claims that Palestinians either do not exist, or had no collective claims prior to the 1948 creation of Israel. Nevertheless, Khalidi is also careful to focus on the late development, failings and internal divisions within the various elements of the Palestinian nationalist movement as well. [citation needed]
In Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East (2004), Khalidi takes readers on a historical tour of Western intervention in the Middle East, and argues that these interventions continue to have a colonialist nature that is both morally unacceptable and likely to backfire.[citation needed]
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 numerous radio and TV shows including All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, Morning Edition, 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. Khalidi had an advising role at the Madrid Conference of 1991 between the U.S., Israel, Palestinians and Arab states. He served as president of the American Committee on Jerusalem, now known as the American Task Force on Palestine.[citation needed]
Khalidi's statements on the status of Palestinians in Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories have been the most controversial. In an interview on PBS, Khalidi used the term "occupied" in reference to Mandatory Palestine in 1948, saying "about half of it was occupied by Israel (which under UNGA 181 was supposed to obtain roughly 55% of Mandate Palestine, and which by the time of the armistice had taken control of about 78%, including half of what was to have been the Arab state)... the remainder was, as you say, under Egyptian and Jordanian control from 1948-1967."[9]
A New York Sun editorial criticized Khalidi for stating that there is a legal right under international law for Palestinians to resist Israeli occupation.[10] For example, in a speech given to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Khalidi said that “[k]illing civilians is a war crime. It’s a violation of international law. They are not soldiers. They’re civilians, they’re unarmed. The ones who are armed, the ones who are soldiers, the ones who are in occupation, that's different. That's resistance.”[10][11] The Sun editorial argued that by failing to distinguish between Palestinian combatants and noncombatants, Khalidi implies that all Palestinians have this right to resist, which it argued was incorrect under international law.[10] In an interview discussing this editorial, Khalidi objected to this characterization as incorrect and taken out of the context of his statements on international law.[10]
Khalidi has described discussions of Arab restitution for property confiscated from Jewish refugees forced to flee 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."[12]
Khalidi opposes the Iraq War and has said that “we owe reparations to the Iraqi people.”[13]
Views on Israel and Zionism
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 Israel-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".[14]
Regarding American support for Israel, Khalidi stated in an interview that "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."[15]
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.[16] The 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.”[17] 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."[16]
Relationships with 2008 Presidential candidates
John McCain
John McCain 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 for the purpose of polling the views of the Palestinian people. The Center was co-founded by Khalidi.[18][19][20] A copy of the IRS filing for the IRI was published online showing the grant and IRI members.[21]
Barack Obama
During the 2008 election race, some opponents of Barack Obama said a reported relationship between Obama and Khalidi was evidence that Obama would not maintain a pro-Israel foreign policy if elected.[22] Martin Peretz, editor of The New Republic and an advisor to the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, disagreed. "I assume that my Zionist credentials are not in dispute. And I have written more appreciative words about Khalidi than Obama ever uttered...the Israelis are trying to live cooperatively and in peace with Palestinians whose unrelenting positions make Khalidi almost appear like a Zionist."[23]
In an appearance at the B'nai Tora synagogue in Florida in May 2008, Obama said Khalidi "is not one of my foreign policy people" and called him "a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel’s policy." Obama said his own commitment to Israel is "unshakeable."[24]
In April 2008, The Los Angeles Times reported on Obama's attendance at a 2003 farewell dinner for Khalidi at the University of Chicago—while both were professors at the university—citing a video from the party. [25]
Works
- This abbreviated list includes only books written by Khalidi. For other works, including papers, articles, and chapters in edited volumes, see Rashid Khalidi bibliography.
- The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood, Beacon Press, 2006.
- Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East, Beacon Press, 2004.
- Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, Columbia University Press, 1997.
- The Origins of Arab Nationalism (Co-editor), Columbia University Press, 1991.
- Under Siege: PLO Decision-making during the 1982 War. Columbia University Press, 1986.
- Palestine and the Gulf (Co-editor), Institute for Palestine Studies, 1982.
- British Policy towards Syria and Palestine, 1906-1914. Ithaca Press for St. Antony's College, 1980.
References
- ^ Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University Faculty
- ^ 2006 Phelps Association Directory
- ^ "Rashid Khalidi". University of Chicago. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
- ^ a b ""Rashid Khalidi"". Middle East Institute of Columbia University. Retrieved 2006-08-29.
{{cite web}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help) - ^ "Mona Khalidi". SIPA Staff. Columbia University. 2006. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ "Sourcewatch". Center for Media and Democracy. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ The Knowledge That Doesn't Equal Power, By Philip Kennicott. The Washington Post, 5/13/2004.
- ^ Albert Hourani Book Award Recipients, 1991-2005
- ^ ""President Declares Failed Mideast States Threat to U.S."". The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. PBS. August 21, 2006. Retrieved 2006-08-28.
- ^ a b c d "Right of Resistance?". Editorial. New York Sun. March 14, 2005. Retrieved 2006-09-04. Cite error: The named reference "NYSunRoR" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Note: The ADC transcript of Khalidi's speech has been edited, and has sections missing. Thus, it cannot be used for verification.
- ^ Perelman, Marc (April 10, 2008). "Study Estimates Assets of Arab Lands' Jews". The Forward. Retrieved 2008-04-13.
- ^ Kohlmann, Mary (March 12, 2007). "Experts Dissect Iraq Consequences". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ Palestine: Liberation Deferred by Rashid Khalidi, The Nation, May 8, 2008 (retrieved on October 21, 2008
- ^ "The Crisis of our Times - Nationalism, Identity, and the Future of Israel-Palestine", Interview with Rashid Khalidi, North Coast Xpress, Spring 2001(retrieved on October 21, 2008.
- ^ a b Purnick, Joyse (February 28, 2005). "Some Limits on Speech in Classrooms". Metro Matters. The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ "The Klein Example". The New York Sun. February 18, 2005. Retrieved 2008-03-12.
- ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/28/mccain-funded-work-of-pal_n_138606.html
- ^ McCain rips L.A. Times on Obama video Chicago Tribune (with assistance from the Los Angeles Times), October 30, 2008
- ^ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/30/fact-check-does-group-mccain-chairs-have-link-to-columbia-professor-khalidi/?eref=politicalflipper
- ^ "A copy of the IRS filing is provided (see grant #5180 on p. 14 and p. 17 for McCain chairmanship in" (PDF).
- ^ Peter Wallsten, Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama, Los Angeles Times, April 10, 2008
- ^ | Marty Peretz | Excuse Me, October 30 2008
- ^ Obama on the Defensive Before Fla. Jewish Voters, ABC news, May 22, 2008.(retrieved on October 26, 2008.
- ^ Wallsten, Peter (April 10, 2008). "Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama". CAMPAIGN '08. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
{{cite web}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=
(help)
External links
- Middle East Institute, Columbia University
- Profile on Rashid Khalidi at the Institute for Middle East Understanding
- Video: Rashid Khalidi - Palestine: 40 Years of Occupation, 60 Years of Dispossession (June 23, 2007)
- Review of Rhashid Khalidi's Resurrecting Empire, Western Footprints, and America's Path in the Middle East at Logosjournal.com
- Review of The Iron Cage by Rashid Khalid at the Institute for Middle East Understanding
- 1950 births
- Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford
- American Middle Eastern studies
- American foreign policy writers
- American historians
- Arab American writers
- Columbia University faculty
- Historians of the Middle East
- Living people
- Palestinian academics
- Palestinian-Americans
- Lebanese Americans
- People from New York City
- University of Chicago faculty
- Writers on the Middle East
- Yale University alumni