Join Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon and Rashid Khalidi for a Zoom discussion of his new book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 as part of CMEP Journeys Book Club. You do not need to have read the book to participate in this event.
A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history
In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.
Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members―mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists―The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.
Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.
About the Author
Rashid Khalidi received his BA from Yale in 1970, and his D.Phil. from Oxford in 1974. He is editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, and was President of the Middle East Studies Association, and an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993. Learn More
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As part of our CMEP Journeys programming, #CMEPReadTogether brings National Book Award–winning and bestselling author Colum McCann to you for a conversation on Zoom.
From the National Book Award–winning and bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin comes an epic novel rooted in the real-life friendship between two men united by loss.
Colum McCann’s most ambitious work to date, Apeirogon—named for a shape with a countably infinite number of sides—is a tour de force concerning friendship, love, loss, and belonging.
Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate.
Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn of each other’s stories, they recognize the loss that connects them and they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace.
McCann crafts Apeirogon out of a universe of fictional and nonfictional material. He crosses centuries and continents, stitching together time, art, history, nature, and politics in a tale both heartbreaking and hopeful. Musical, cinematic, muscular, delicate, and soaring, Apeirogon is a novel for our time.
If you buy something through this link, you won’t pay anything extra, but CMEP will earn a small commission, which helps us offer future events and opportunities to you. Thanks!
*Why is CMEP asking for donations for these events?
Due to Covid-19 all of our in-person programming has been canceled since March 2020 and this will continue to be the norm until at least Fall 2021. As a nonprofit advocacy organization, our advocacy summits and other events are one of the main streams of income we have as an organization. CMEP Journeys is our attempt to offer creative and interesting opportunities to our community. We understand that the cost can be prohibitive for some which is why we are asking for “suggested donation” amounts as we do not want to exclude anyone.
As part of our CMEP Journeys programming, #CMEPReadTogether brings author Wafa Shami to you and your family for a special children’s book conversation on Zoom.
Join Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) and author Wafa Shami for a fun book discussion about “Easter in Ramallah” on April 8, 2021, at 7pm EST. This event will take place on Zoom and registration is required.
A story about friendship and holiday traditions that have been shared among Palestinian Christian and Muslim families for centuries. A story that reflects the tradition of celebrating Easter holiday that was carried on for years and takes the reader to a fun festive place that is filled with a colorful atmosphere, drums playing, love and laughter from the eye of a child.
*If you buy something through this link, you won’t pay anything extra, but CMEP will earn a small commission, which helps us offer future events and opportunities to you. Thanks!
As part of our CMEP Journeys programming, #CMEPReadTogether brings author Robert Stoddard to you to discuss his book Sarah and Her Sisters: American Missionary Pioneers in Arab Female Education, 1834-1937.
Join Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) and author Robert Stoddard to discuss “Sarah and Her Sisters” on March 3, 2021, at 2pm EST. This event will take place on Zoom and registration is required.
When newly married Sarah Smith arrived in Beirut in 1834, she was appalled by the ignorance and ill treatment of Arab women and girls. Well educated for her times, she was not content just to keep house for her missionary husband. Rather, having taught Mohegan Indians in Connecticut, she, in her two remaining years, opened a small school for girls that began the transformation of education for Arab females.Sarah’s pioneering venture inspired a series of Protestant “sisters,” married and single, to follow in her wake as missionary teachers.
As long as any girls anywhere are denied an education, these stories can inspire teachers of girls and advocates for female education worldwide to persevere. And hopefully coeds at Lebanese American University will be inspired and motivated to excel knowing that your university goes back to Mrs. Smith’s Beirut Female School and that you are the direct beneficiaries of Sarah and her sisters.
Robert D. Stoddard was Beirut University College’s director of development in North America (1988-1979) and Lebanese American University’s vice president for development (2005-1999). Bob has a MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary and is an ordained Presbyterian minister. He co-founded Delaware Churches for Middle East Peace (DCMEP) and promotes arts education for minority children in city schools.
*If you buy something through this link, you won’t pay anything extra, but CMEP will earn a small commission, which helps us offer future events and opportunities to you. Thanks!
