26 Facts About Rashid Khalidi

Rashid Ismail Khalidi is a Palestinian-American historian of the Middle East and the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.

Rashid Khalidi served as editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies from 2002 until 2020, when he became co-editor with Sherene Seikaly.

Rashid Khalidi has authored a number of books including The Hundred Years' War on Palestine and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, served as president of the Middle East Studies Association, and taught at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut, Georgetown University, and the University of Chicago.

Rashid Khalidi grew up in New York City, where his father, a Saudi citizen of Palestinian origin who was born in Jerusalem, worked for the United Nations.

Rashid Khalidi became politically active in Beirut, where he resided through the 1982 Lebanon War.

Rashid Khalidi was cited in the media during this period, sometimes as an official with the Palestinian News Service, Wafa, or directly with the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

Rashid Khalidi is married to Mona Rashid Khalidi, who served as assistant dean of student affairs and the assistant director of graduate studies of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Rashid Khalidi is a member of the National Advisory Committee of the US 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".

Rashid Khalidi is founding trustee of The Center for Palestine Research and Studies.

Rashid Khalidi is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In October 2010, Rashid Khalidi delivered the annual Edward Said memorial lecture at the Palestine Center in Washington.

Rashid Khalidi's research covers primarily the history of the modern Middle East.

Rashid Khalidi 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.

Rashid Khalidi served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 1994 and is currently co-editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies with Sherene Seikaly.

Rashid Khalidi's dating of the emergence of Palestinian nationalism to the early 20th century and his tracing of its contours provide a rejoinder to Israeli nationalist claims that Palestinians had no collective claims prior to the 1948 creation of Israel.

In Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East, Rashid Khalidi takes readers on a historical tour of Western involvement in the Middle East, and argues that these interactions continue to have a colonialist nature that is both morally unacceptable and likely to backfire.

Rashid Khalidi's book, Sowing Crisis, places the United States approach to the Middle East in historical context.

Rashid Khalidi describes the Arab population of British Mandatory Palestine as having "overlapping identities", with some or many expressing loyalties to villages, regions, a projected nation of Palestine, an alternative of inclusion in a Greater Syria, an Arab national project, as well as to Islam.

Rashid Khalidi emphasized in his work that the Palestinian identity had been fundamentally fluid and changing, woven from multiple "narratives" due to individual and family experiences.

Rashid Khalidi described the identity as organically developed due to the challenges of peasants forced from their homes due to Zionist immigrant pressure, but with Palestinian nationalism being far more complex than merely an anti-Zionist reaction.

Rashid Khalidi went on to praise the final chapter's "excellent critique" of the development of the PLO's positions towards Israel and the Two-state solution.

Rashid Khalidi has written dozens of scholarly articles on Middle East history and politics, as well as op-ed pieces in many US newspapers.

Rashid Khalidi has been a guest on radio and TV shows including All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, Morning Edition, Worldview, 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.

Rashid Khalidi served as president of the American Committee on Jerusalem, now known as the American Task Force on Palestine, and advised the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid Conference of 1991.

Rashid Khalidi has described discussions of Arab restitution for property confiscated from the Jewish refugees from 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".

Some opponents of Barack Obama claimed that the relationship between Obama and Rashid Khalidi was evidence that Obama would not maintain a pro-Israel foreign policy if elected.