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Rashid Khalidi fields questions after his lecture.02/18/2009
Rashid Khalidi Delivers Lecture Entitled "Gaza and Afterwards"
Speaking to a packed Copley Hall, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, mapped out his vision for the “bedrock of any attempt to resolve the [Arab/Israeli] conflict:” the recognition of U.S. and international law.
Dr. Khalidi began his lecture by describing the two parallel universes in which the 22-day war in Gaza took place. The first, made up of the American media and U.S. political discourse, regarded the conflict as a black and white case of self-defense against Hamas, a terrorist organization that indiscriminately targeted civilians.
The other universe was composed of the rest of the world, in which the Israeli-generated narrative was available but tempered by an alternative version, which argued that the war on Gaza had been planned for months—even before the cease-fire began—and which recognized that Israel both broke the cease-fire on November 4 and never lifted the blockade on Gaza during the truce as promised.
Also largely absent in American discourse, Khalidi said, was a reference to U.S. or international law. For example, if there were other means to stop Hamas rocket fire, as the evidence suggests, then U.S. law forbidding the use of its weapons for reasons other than self-defense comes into effect. The disproportion of the casualties (13 Israelis, including 10 soldiers, versus 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians) also calls into question the lawful nature of the conflict, “unless,” Khalidi said, “we are operating according to a system of values whereby one Israeli life is somehow worth 100 Palestinian ones.”
Further, Khalidi argued, though our recent election campaign focused on international law regarding such activities as torture and interrogation, one can sample the U.S. media for weeks or read reams of official U.S. government statements without learning two particularly baneful elements of lawlessness vis à vis the Middle East: that Israel is in the 42nd year of an occupation of the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and that all Israeli settlements in these territories also constitute violations of international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention and many UN Security Council resolutions.
“These two elements are the bedrock of any attempt to resolve this conflict justly and permanently,” said Khalidi, “which necessarily involves using international law.” Ending Israeli occupation and reversing the process of settlement and Palestinian land alienation in the West Bank thus can, according to Khalidi, prevent the future of an unjust and highly unstable status quo.
A dynamic question and answer period followed, with query subjects ranging from the outcome of the Israeli elections to Khalidi’s thoughts on Obama’s character to the role of Turkey in the conflict.
To watch a video of the lecture, click on the links below.
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