Author: Rashid Khalidi.
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, Casa Árabe in Madrid and the publishing house Capitán Swing are presenting this afternoon the book Palestina, cien años de colonialismo y resistencia (Palestine, one hundred years of colonialism and resistance), by the award-winning writer and academic Rashid Khalidi, holder of the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia University, who will be present at the event.
Teresa Aranguren, journalist and writer specialising in the Middle East, will be in dialogue with the author of the book. The event will be presented by Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s Coordinator of Culture and International Relations. Free admission until full capacity is reached. In English and Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation. The event will be broadcast live on Casa Árabe’s Youtube channel in Spanish and English.
Seventy-five years ago, on 15 May 1948, the State of Israel declared independence over more than 80 percent of historic Palestine. Some 800,000 Palestinians were expelled in the process and more than 400 Palestinian towns and cities were destroyed. This is what is known as the Nakba (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic), to which Casa Árabe dedicates an annual event in May to mark this important date.
In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call for a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter to Theodor Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the dangers ahead and ended his note by saying: ‘In the name of God, let Palestine be left in peace’. Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-grandson, begins this comprehensive history, the first comprehensive account of the conflict told from a Palestinian perspective.
Palestine: One Hundred Years of Colonialism and Resistance challenges the usual interpretations of the conflict. Khalidi traces 100 years of colonial warfare against the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then by Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the time. It highlights the key episodes of this colonial campaign, from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to the interminable and futile peace process. Original, authoritative and significant, this book offers a new and illuminating insight into a conflict that continues to this day.
