Rashid Khalidi University of Vienna May 2024 I The War on Gaza and its Historic Roots

This talk with Professor Rashid Khalidi from Columbia University, who joins the public event online, will discuss his analysis of lsrael's war on Gaza from a historical perspective. In his latest book "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017", published in 2020, Rashid Khalidi argues that developments in Palestine since 1917 stemmed from a multi-staged war waged on the indigenous Palestinian population by great powers in order to force them to relinquish their homeland to the settler-colonial and nationalist Zionist movement. By referring to this settler-colonial paradigm as basic historical condition, Khalidi understands the period from 1917-2017 as a long war that can be divided into six distinguished phases he characterizes as declarations of war, the last one lasting from 2000 to 2014. Based on his analysis, we discuss the following questions: How does the current war on Gaza fit into the historic framework Khalidi established in his book on the hundred years' war on Palestine? In what way can we speak about a continuity of the Nakba? What are postwar political horizons beyond a two-state solution? How can we deal with a repressive atmosphere currently also enforced on university campuses in the US and Europe?