Great men of history possess the power to nonchalantly light a tinder box that can burn down a forest as well as let open a barrage whose waters can extinguish these embers. In either case, in most scenarios, these men act unbeknownst to the lives on the ground who ultimately have to pay the price for these so-called strategic decisions.
The Middle East is a landmass that has seen conflict for ages, but the one involving Palestine and Israel is unique in the sense that it is an amalgamation of a fight for land as well as a clash of religious and national ideas and identities; it is geopolitics that involves not just the regional hegemons, but also the world's superpowers; a war that has been further exacerbated by the brazen show of injustice and unperturbed violence as seen in the grim pictures with accompanying disclaimers of trigger warning, of bloodshed, lifeless bodies, faces marred by despair over the loss of kin and homes, skies lit with weaponry and heaps of rubble— a land stripped off peace.
A ready reckoner
Rashid Khalidi, who has witnessed the injustices and atrocities meted out to the Palestinians, some from his own family, details in the book the past 100 years of the changing dynamics and the inter-relationships of all the factors mentioned. One must commend Khalidi for having penned this riveting scholarly manuscript, which also has some personal elements. It is highly recommended for anyone wanting to understand the Palestinian crisis. That said, it can be overwhelming as one progresses through chapters, each dealing with the formative years of the issue — Khalidi has divided the 100-year timeframe into six declarations of war that have spelt out the Fait Accompli for the present and the future residents of the region.
The author's explanation of the British attitude to the Palestinians, post conquering the Ottoman domain, reminds one of the similar experience that undivided India and other colonies had experienced, which he mentions and underlines using a quote from Lord Curzon's "Englishman's justification in India", which talks about the natives going nowhere if not for the British — in short, the Lord being insolent about the presumed naivete of the natives. The author tells us how the Palestinian experience was different in the sense that the Zionists backed by the superpower were then able to create a "para" state with its own economy with the men of might almost ignoring the local population; the first of this manifested as the Balfour declaration of 1917.
Another similarity with the Indian experience is the UN partition plan of Israel and Palestine in 1947, the year India was freed from the colonial yoke. Again, the redolence ends here with the subsequent invasions, conquests and wars with neighbouring Arab states: scenarios that have time and again brought the contesting dominant powers, both regional and global, to the centrestage in the region.
Geopolitical and personal
The book is effective in explaining international agreements like the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate for Palestine, the UN resolution 181, United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, Camp David and Oslo accords, among others — all of these have had a significant impact on what is occurring at present.
Some interesting aspects of the book emerge when it explains the Jordanian ambitions in Palestine, the author's experience with the King of Jordan, the inter-Arab rivalries and the shifting of the power patron of the Zionists from the British to the US and the rebranding of the colonial enterprise, notes and stories on Yasser Arafat, the shortcomings of the Palestinian leadership and the chapters on the first and second Intifada and their effects on the global image of Palestine. But, it is the chapter that deals with the siege of Beirut, which will have a profound effect on the reader as the author weaves in a few personal stories.
What's more depressing is the fact that in most of the episodes, there has been a loss of lives and devastation of households. Breaking of hearts.
It's discomforting to know that the dramatis personae of this book live in an Orwellian reality where the anachronic idea of exclusion persists in their lives surrounded by "walls of bayonets", made horrible by the constant threat of being pushed out of their homes by power-backed settlers, living day in and out, bogged down by terror and privation.
The deprivation of this population that has seen a century of grief and loss is articulated by the cover of the book, which has a standalone map of both present-day Israel and Palestine, running down and tapering like a dagger behind the title.
A book like this keeps us informed, in this highly polarised age of propaganda and fake news, about the origins and the course taken by history and her great men, who have shaped our world, some invisible and others conspicuous. It equips us with the wisdom to keep asking for an equitable world and teaches us the trite, yet relevant lesson; learn from history and don't repeat its gravest mistakes.