The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017

Throughout the book, Khalidi underscores the power of Palestinian resilience and agency. He traces the start of this agency and resiliency to the Balfour Declaration in 1917, when Arthur James Balfour (British secretary of state for foreign affairs at the time) publicly pledged to create “a national home for Jewish people” in Palestine (24). Palestinians did not immediately learn of the Balfour Declaration, partly because the Ottoman Empire shut down local newspapers during World War I (WWI). Once this bombshell reached Palestinians, Palestinian elites tried to push back. They wrote letters to the British government protesting the declaration. Palestinian leaders grew increasingly concerned about the way Jewish settlers were removing indigenous Palestinians from their land. As one example, Palestinian poet and journalist Isa al-Isa wrote in his newspaper Filastin about “a nation threatened with disappearance by the Zionist tide in this Palestinian land, […] a nation which is threatened in its very being with expulsion from its homeland” (26-27). When these letters failed to halt Zionist aspirations, Palestinians revolted. The revolts became more militant in the 1930s when the younger, more educated Palestinians grew frustrated at the unsuccessful, conciliatory approach of Palestinian leaders.

Since the Balfour Declaration, Palestinians have tried to advocate for their national self-determination. Like other national movements, there is a militant element. The response to the Nakba represents one example. Some Palestinians participated in armed raids against Israel. These raids triggered disproportionate Israeli retaliatory attacks against Egypt in 1956 with support from the US, Britain, and France. As part of this attack, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula. Khalidi documents the brutality of the Israeli attack on Gazan towns and refugee camps. First-person accounts illustrate how Israelis executed civilians. Khalidi notes that “it is not surprising that the Gaza Strip should have been the target in this way: it was the crucible of the resistance of Palestinians to their dispossession after 1948” (94).

While Palestinians are “confronting circumstances more daunting than perhaps at any time since 1917” (247), Khalidi still believes that peace is possible because of Palestinian agency and resilience. Khalidi points to the success of grassroots efforts within Palestine in raising global awareness about the conflict and changing global perceptions. The road to peace will be long but Palestinians must take charge of their destiny and continue to advocate, with Israelis, for an end to the conflict and Palestinian liberation.