Just Finished Reading: The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine – A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance by Rashid Khalidi (FP: 2020) [255pp] 

I’ve been meaning to read something about the region for a while now (that and Ukraine!) and the opportunity to ‘couple’ this with my previous 100 Years War book seemed a good time to do it. From news reports over the years (actually decades!) and some general reading around the topic I think I have a moderately OK knowledge of what's going on in Palestine/Israel zone, but it was nice to have some gaps filled in around the history of the Balfour Declaration and the deals struck by the British with various groups in the Middle East. Essentially, we, the Brits, played off various factions against each other and promised everyone the Earth if they helped us fight the Ottomans during WW1. Naturally when the actual dust had settled, we couldn’t live up to our promises and most everyone was (at the very least) annoyed with us. 

It's a truism that whenever you see straight lines on a map you know it's a region full of conflict. Such is the Middle East, drawn up by the French and the British as they/we carved up the region between them. The British got the Palestine Mandate and they facilitated/encouraged European Jewish immigration into the region fully aware of the Zionist philosophy of many of the settlers. The increase, from a very low number (7% I think), of the Jewish population was managed by the British so as not to destabilise things and, for a while at least, they managed to do this. Things ramped up in the 1930’s for obvious reasons and increased again after WW2 ended. The British left in 1946, essentially finding it too difficult to manage, handing it back to the newly formed United Nations to sort out. Then in 1948 Israel declared independence and took control of large parts of Palestine displacing thousands of Palestinians from their homes - known as the Nakba or Catastrophe. The ongoing crisis in that region dates from these events. 

I think the first thing that impressed me about this often-eye-opening volume was that the author (or members of his immediate family) where ‘in the room’ for at least some of the events outlined. Indeed, the author himself was part of several advisory teams and had direct access to some of the major players including Arafat. The second thing that impressed me was how even handed the author managed to remain even though he and his family had been displaced from his home by Israeli forces as a child. The personal element definitely added a human perspective to the narrative of an unfolding tragedy. Another thing that impressed me was the apportioning of blame. There’s certainly enough blame (on all sides) to go around and, I thought, the author distributed it wisely. The foundational blame was laid at the door of the British – which is more than fair. The major blame is given to the Jewish/Zionist settlers – again more than fair – with a heavy side blame laid at the feet of the Americans. Lessor blame, but still significant, is laid in front of Jordan, Syria and Egypt – and the rest with organisations such as the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) and Hamas [remember this was published before the October 7th attack and Israel’s response]. 

Despite the author’s knowledge and narrative skill this was a difficult read – especially with the ongoing ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinian people. Rather ironically in the concluding chapter the author muses on possible futures for the zone – from the perspective of 2020 – and states that one possible ‘solution’ for Israel would be just that, except he said that such events were very unlikely due to the cost in lives and the amount of adverse world opinion. How wrong he was on both counts. If you see the images of starving children and a devastated urban area and wonder how this possibly came to be, then this book is a very good place to start. Highly recommended although it might end up depressing you more than a little. More to come on the history of this troubled region. 

[My next scheduled read was the first book of a triple deep dive into Geopolitics. But after reading this I decided I needed something fun and fluffy - so that's coming soon. Then onto Geopolitics!]