The historian of Palestinian origin Rashid Khalidi, one of the greatest specialists in the Middle East, carries the history of his people in his DNA. His grandfather was mayor of Jerusalem, and his father was a diplomat at the UN. He was born in New York in 1948, the year Israel proclaimed its creation and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their lands. The Edward Said Chair of Arab Studies at Columbia University and a Palestinian advisor to the 1991 Madrid peace negotiations, he recently published Palestine: One Hundred Years of Colonialism and Resistance (Captain Swing). Khalidi, who has part of his family in Gaza, affirms that the Hamas attack has meant a paradigm shift for an “arrogant” Israel that thought it could control the Palestinian problem without the need to make concessions or reduce tension.
There is talk of genocide. Is it an accurate term?
Genocide is a legal concept. There are international law experts who think that what Israel is doing against civilians in Gaza fits the term. I believe that the death of more than 10,000 people is a horrible war crime that could well rise to the level of genocide.
Do the October 7 attacks destroy the Israeli idea that they were capable of controlling the Palestinian problem?
For a long time Netanyahu argued that no political initiatives or concessions to any Palestinian demand were necessary. That dividing the Palestinians and treating Hamas as a partner in Gaza would be enough and Israel could continue to improve its relations with Arab countries and ignore the problem. This theory has collapsed.
Netanyahu even refused to meet with members of intelligence who warned him of a possible attack.
Netanyahu thought his analysis was superior to that of the military and intelligence services. But they also made mistakes. The attack caught the military forces around Gaza completely off guard. Several bases were invaded.
The Israeli Defense Minister has even referred to Palestinians as “human animals.” What is the purpose of this language?
It is a racist and supremacist attitude towards Palestinians that may have been provoked by the high number of victims in Israel, but which has deep roots. Many Israelis had assumed, like their leaders, that the conflict was contained, that Israel could do as it pleased and nothing would happen. The term “mowing the grass” used by the Israeli military to refer to the periodic attacks on Gaza to contain the conflict and produce periods of calm comes from the same kind of arrogance and racism. Killing people is just “mowing the grass.”
Apart from revenge, what is Israel's strategic objective? Is it possible to end Hamas?
Hamas has a military wing that Israel may or may not defeat. But it is also a Palestinian political movement, not just from Gaza. They are supported by around a third of the Palestinians, several million people. Destroying Hamas as an ideology, as a social, cultural, religious movement... is impossible without a large-scale genocide. This Israeli operation in response to the Hamas attack lacks strategic clarity. The military is frustrated because it has not been explained to them what the objectives are. How do you defeat Hamas if it is a military and political phenomenon? What to do to control the Strip? What will happen the day after the war? They don't have answers.
Could the conflict expand to the West Bank or the region?
It does not appear that either Hezbollah or Iran have any intention of escalating the conflict. There are clashes on the border with Lebanon and there have been some missiles fired from Yemen or Syria, but if it stays at that limited level, it will not lead to an escalation. Now, there may be miscalculations or unexpected consequences. But Iran sees Hezbollah as a deterrent to Israel from attacking them. Regarding the West Bank, some 120 Palestinians have died since October 7. And there are intense Israeli operations throughout the territory. Bombings, drone attacks, raids and hundreds or even thousands of arrests. In addition to numerous attacks by armed settlers in isolated towns with the intention of removing them from their lands. This could go further and this is the intention of the dominant factions in the Israeli government. Two generals have joined the government, but it remains a far-right, neo-fascist, Jewish supremacist executive determined to annex and absorb the West Bank.
With the paralysis of Fatah and Hamas as an international pariah, do you see a new Palestinian leadership as possible?
One of the biggest problems the Palestinian national movement has had since the creation of Hamas has been division, a division that Israel has worked incessantly on. The Palestinian leadership has fallen into this trap and helps Israel achieve its goal, which is to keep the Palestinians divided and weak. This is a Palestinian problem that Palestinians must solve and that external actors have exacerbated. But if the Palestinian leaders are so stupid as not to understand that they are playing the Israeli game, there is no way to solve the problem. Following the 2005 and 2006 elections, there was an attempt to form a unity government, but it was rejected because it included Hamas. Israel didn't want negotiations, so they said they were terrorists and they wouldn't talk to them. And the US and the Europeans stupidly and slavishly followed them. There is a collective responsibility for all the bloodbath that has followed. It may or may not have worked, but it would have at least been worth a try.
There is no doubt that the so-called Arab street has always been with Palestine, but not its leaders. Something seems to be changing now in his attitude and his language. Has Israel gone too far this time?
Those who said that the Arabs no longer cared about the Palestinians can shut up. Another thing is what their governments did. The trend among the dictatorial and kleptocratic elites of the Arab countries had been that of rapprochement, that is clear, but that did not represent public opinion. For the first time in a long time, public outrage led governments to fear the reaction of their people. Bahrain has broken off relations, Jordan has expelled the Israeli ambassador... Each Arab country in its own way has distanced itself from Israel. This is an indicator of the blindness of legislators in Europe, Israel and the United States. They assumed that, because they had the approval of dictatorial and non-representative governments, they could ignore the Palestinians. The pressure from the street has changed the situation.
As a university professor in the US, how do you assess the polarization on American campuses?
There has been a shift in the last ten or fifteen years towards greater solidarity with the Palestinians. 20 years ago this feeling did not exist or it was invisible. There is a lot of division, but the change is that the pro-Palestinian side on many campuses is greater. University administrations are trying to suppress these movements by denying them space. However, pro-Israel movements are still very strong on American universities.
You have family in Gaza. What is your situation?
They have been forced to move several times. They lived in Gaza City and went south thinking it would be safer, but there were bombings there too and they returned. Then they had to leave home again due to the bombings and took refuge in the Al Shifa hospital. They have been there ever since. It is very difficult to communicate with them. I haven't heard from them in more than a day, I hope they are well.
