History in times of genocide: MEMO in Conversation with Rashid Khalidi

In times of genocide what responsiblity does a teacher and a historian have? Israel’s onslaught on Gaza has left more than 23,000 Palestinian civilians dead, many more injured and shows no sign of slowing down. While pro-Israel supporters frame all Israeli actions through the prism of 7 October 2023, the latest Israeli invasion of Gaza was decades in the making. With dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestine dating back to 1948, how has the decades of occupation shaped what we are now seeing? How does Israel’s assault on Gaza compare to previous wars and Israeli violence against Palestinians? MEMO in Conversations is joined by Rashid Khalidi.

Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1970 and a D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1974, and has taught at the Lebanese University, the American University of Beirut and the University of Chicago. He was president of the Middle East Studies Association, and is co-editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies. He served as an adviser to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993.

Khalidi is author of eight books, including the best-selling The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, and Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness, has co-edited three others and has published over 100 academic articles. He has written op-eds in the New York Times, Washington Post and many other newspapers and has appeared widely on TV and radio in the US and abroad.

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