Posted by
Gabrielle Cusumano on Friday, October 31, 2008 7:38:17 PM
"In actual fact: Rashid Khalidi, newly appointed to the Edward Said Chair at Columbia University, speaking on June 7, 2002, at a conference of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee did endorse terrorism and state that Palestinians have the right to murder any uniformed Israeli. "
Obama friend Rashid Khalidi and adviser speaks about Chicago politics. Do this sound like where Obama is from and where ... Obama friend Rashid Khalidi and adviser speaks about Chicago politics. Do this sound like where Obama is from and where he'll take politics across the country. Rashid Khalidi was spokesman for the PLO, a terrorirt organization that wants Obama to be President. Obama used to have diner at their house and Obama has praised the conversations that they had, and adored his wife Mona. The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, also has held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved in anti-Western terrorism and was labeled by the State Department as a terror group. In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, for which Khalidi's wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN for $35,000 in 2002. Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2000. Obama served on the Wood's Fund board alongside William C. Ayers, a member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971. (more)
Despite Obama Campaign Denials, Long-Standing Relationship Exists
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being
released by the Republican National Committee:
(Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080519/RNCLOGO )
While Teaching At The University Of Chicago, Obama And Khalidi
Developed A "Longtime Relationship":
"[O]bama's Longtime Relationship With Columbia University Professor (And One-Time PLO Adviser) Rashid Khalidi Has Provoked Speculation In The
Israeli Press That He May Be Secretly Anti-Zionist. Another Chicago Academic Ally Of Obama's Is Professor William Ayers, A Weather Underground
Radical In The 1970s." (Gene Lyons, Op-Ed, "Obama Gives Opponents Plenty Of Ammunition," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 2/20/08)
Rashid Khalidi Dined Regularly With The Obamas In His Hyde Park Home. "For years, the Obamas had been regular dinner guests at the Hyde Park home
of Rashid Khalidi... Mr. Khalidi said the talk would often turn to the Middle East, and he talked with Mr. Obama about issues like living conditions in the occupied territories." (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, "Pragmatic Politics, Forged On The South Side," The New York Times, 5/11/08)
"While Teaching At The University Of Chicago, Khalidi And His Wife Lived In The Hyde Park Neighborhood Near The Obamas. The Families Became
Friends And Dinner Companions." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
Khalidi: "[Obama] has family literally all over the world. I feel a kindred spirit from that." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
Khalidi Threw A Fundraiser For Obama's 2000 Congressional Campaign, In Which Obama Was Accused Of Sympathizing With The Palestinians:
"In 2000, The Khalidis Held A Fundraiser For Obama's Unsuccessful Congressional Bid." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
At The 2000 Fundraiser, Khalidi Claimed Obama Called For A More "Evenhanded Approach" To The Palestinian-Israel Conflict. "Both Mr. Khalidi and Mr. Abunimah, of the Electronic Intifada, said Mr. Obama had spoken at the fund-raiser and had called for the United States to adopt a more 'evenhanded approach' to the Palestinian-Israel conflict." (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, "Pragmatic Politics, Forged On The South Side," The New York Times, 5/11/08)
"A Local Palestinian Activist Said Obama Attended The Fundraiser And Expressed Sympathy For The Palestinian Cause And Criticism For U.S. Support
Of Israel. "
In 2000, [Ali] Abunimah [a Hyde Park Palestinian-American activist] recalled, Professor Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian American advocate for a two-state solution and harsh critic of Israel, held a fundraiser in his home for Obama, embarked then on an ultimately unsuccessful bid for the House of Representatives. 'He came with his wife,' Abunimah said. 'That's where I had a chance to really talk to him. It was an intimate setting. He convinced me he was very aware of the issues [and] critical of U.S. bias toward Israel and lack of sensitivity to Arabs. ... He was very supportive of U.S. pressure on Israel.'" (Larry Cohler-Esses, "Obama Pivots Away From Dovish Past," The New York Jewish Week, 3/9/07)
Obama Spoke At An Event Celebrating Palestinian Culture And Bidding Farewell To Rashid Khalidi:
Obama Spoke At An Event Bidding Farewell To Rashid Khalidi When He Was Leaving Chicago For New York. "It was a celebration of Palestinian culture
-- a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar,
critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York. A special tribute came from Khalidi's friend and
frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona,
and conversations that had challenged his thinking." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
Obama Praised Khalidi For A Conversation The Two Shared That Had Been"Consistent Reminders To [Obama] Of [His] Blind Spots And [His] Own
Biases." "A special tribute came from Khalidi's friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama
reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking. His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama
said, had been 'consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to
come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table,' but around 'this entire
world.'" (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
One Speaker At This Event Recited A Poem Accusing The Israeli Government Of Terrorism In Its Treatment Of Palestine. "At Khalidi's 2003
farewell party, for example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, 'then you will never see a day of peace.'" (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend
In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
Another Speaker Likened "Zionist Settlers On The West Bank" To Osama Bin Laden. "One speaker likened 'Zionist settlers on the West Bank' to
Osama bin Laden, saying both had been 'blinded by ideology.'" (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
"At Khalidi's Going-Away Party In 2003, The Scholar Lavished Praise On Obama, Telling The Mostly Palestinian American Crowd That The State Senator
Deserved Their Help In Winning A U.S. Senate Seat." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
Khalidi: "You will not have a better senator under any circumstances." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
Obama Served On The Board Of The Woods Fund When It Contributed $75,000 To Mona Khalidi's Arab American Action Network (AAAN):
"
Obama Was A Director Of The Woods Fund Board From 1999 To Dec. 11,
2002, According To The Fund's Website. According To Tax Filings, Obama
Received Compensation Of $6,000 Per Year For His Service In 1999 And 2000."
(Aaron Klein, "Obama Served On Board That Funded Pro-Palestinian Group,"
The Jewish Press, 2/27/08)
NOTE: Khalidi Was A Member Of The Woods Fund Board. "Like Ayers and
Obama, Khalidi was a member of the Woods Fund board..." (Edward McClelland,
"The Crazy Uncles In Obama's Attic," Salon, 3/18/08)
"
In 2001, The Woods Fund ... Provided A $40,000 Grant To The Arab
American Action Network, Or AAAN, At Which Khalidi's Wife, Mona, Serves As
President. The Fund Provided A Second Grant To AAAN For $35,000 In 2002."
(Aaron Klein, "Obama Served On Board That Funded Pro-Palestinian Group,"
The Jewish Press, 2/27/08)
RASHID KHALIDI
Rashid Khalidi Is A Former PLO Spokesman:
"In The 1970s, When Khalidi Taught At A University In Beirut, [Khalidi]
Often Spoke To Reporters On Behalf Of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation
Organization." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In
Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
"In The Early 1990s, He Advised The Palestinian Delegation During Peace
Negotiations." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In
Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
"Khalidi Now Occupies A Prestigious Professorship Of Arab Studies At
Columbia." (Peter Wallsten, "Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama,"
Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
Khalidi's Views Are Considered Troubling By Pro-Israeli Activists.
"Still, many of Khalidi's opinions are troubling to pro-Israel activists,
such as his defense of Palestinians' right to resist Israeli occupation and
his critique of U.S. policy as biased toward Israel." (Peter Wallsten,
"Allies Of Palestinians See A Friend In Obama," Los Angeles Times, 4/10/08)
Khalidi And Bill Ayers Have Acknowledged Each Other In Their Books:
In The Book, A Kind And Just Parent, Ayers Mentions Khalidi's Wife,
Mona, In The Acknowledgements Section. "Thanks to my friends and family who
provided models and standards and shared struggles of parenting: ... Mona
Khalidi, sister, friend, and co-parent today..." (William Ayers, A Kind And
Just Parent, 1997, p. ix)
Khalidi Acknowledged Bill Ayers In His 2005 Book, Resurrecting Empire.
"First, chronologically and in other ways, comes Bill Ayers. He persuaded
me a little over a year ago that I should write this book, and he put me in
touch with my editor... Bill was particularly generous in letting me use
his family's dining room table to do some of the writing for the project."
(Rashid Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire, 2005, p. 212)
While Appearing On
Al-Jazeera, Khalidi Criticized AIPAC As A "Zionist
Lobby" Whose "Basic Function Is To Spread Lies And Falsehoods About The
Arab World":
While Appearing On Al-Jazeera's "From Washington," Khalidi "Blew A
Gasket." "[A]l-Jazeera's program 'From Washington' held a discussion on
Middle Eastern studies in America. Chief guest: Professor Rashid Khalidi,
the newly seated incumbent of the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at
Columbia University, and director of that university's
(government-subsidized) Middle East Institute. He said little that was
original or surprising - until the end, when he blew a gasket and uttered
the sort of thing he would only dare to say in Arabic. It happened like
this." (Martin Kramer, "Columbia's Radical Caravan," The New York Sun,
1/6/04)
Khalidi Criticized Think Tanks "That Don't Want True Dialogue," Citing
The Washington Institute For Near Eastern Policy. "At one point in the
discussion, Khalidi criticized think tanks 'that don't want true dialogue
with people whose views differ from their own, but who want to force their
opinions on American citizens and the world.' He mentioned, by way of
example, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which he labeled
'the fiercest of the enemies of the Arabs and the Muslims.'" (Martin
Kramer, "Columbia's Radical Caravan," The New York Sun, 1/6/04)
After Being Pressed, Khalidi "Boiled Over," Calling AIPAC A "Zionist
Lobby" And "The Center Of Zionist Interests In Washington For At Least A
Decade." "The moderator, Hafiz al-Mirazi, played devil's advocate. Hadn't
the institute often hosted Arabs and others holding diverse views? It had
provided a podium for Nabil Amr, Palestinian information minister, as well
as Egyptian presidential adviser Osama al-Baz. Just recently, Washington
Institute mainstay David Makovsky had written a joint op-ed with an
Egyptian writer from Al-Ahram (the reference was to Dr. Hala Mustafa, a
visiting fellow),on democracy promotion in the Arab world. At this point,
Mr. Khalidi boiled over: 'By God, I say that the participation of the sons
or daughters of the Arabs in the plans and affairs of this institute is a
huge error, this Israeli institute in Washington, an institute founded by
AIPAC, the Zionist lobby, and that hosts tens of Israelis every year. The
presence of an Arab or two each year can't disguise the nature of this
institute as the most important center of Zionist interests in Washington
for at least a decade.'" (Martin Kramer, "Columbia's Radical Caravan," The
New York Sun, 1/6/04)
Khalidi Continued To Criticize AIPAC As "Directed Against Palestinians"
And Saying "Its Basic Function Is To Spread Lies And Falsehoods About The
Arab World." "'I very much regret the participation of Arab officials and
non-officials and academics in the activities of this institute, because in
fact if you look at the output of this institute, it's directed against the
Palestinians, against the Arabs, and against the Muslims in general. Its
products describe the Palestinians as terrorists, and in fact its basic
function is to spread lies and falsehoods about the Arab world, of course
under an academic, scholarly veneer. Basically, this is the most important
Zionist propaganda tool in the United States.'" (Martin Kramer, "Columbia's
Radical Caravan," The New York Sun, 1/6/04)
Paid for by the Republican National Committee. Not authorized by any
candidate or candidate's committee.
According to Columbia University Professor of History Rashid Khalidi, Americans have the right to kill Indians with their weapon of choice: long distance sniper rifle from a concealed position, machine gun at close range, package bomb, or suicide bomb belt. Khalidi specifies that this right does not apply to the murder of civilians. However, every Americans of immigrant, nonnative ancestry has the right to kill on sight every uniformed individual working as a guard in an Indian-owned casino, every Indian serving in the Uniformed Services of the United States, and every native American employed as an officer of the law or security guard whether on reservation land or elsewhere in the United States.
Edward Said, a Columbia University Professor of Linguistics, explained Khalidi's brilliant employment of a linguistic sleight of hand technique. "By labeling the original inhabitants of the land, the American Indians, "an occupying power" on what is, after all, their ancestral homeland, Khalidi brings into question the right of the Indians to continue to live in their reservations in Arizona, the Dakotas, and elsewhere. It is an extremely useful technique, akin to the equally useful "big lie," which Khalidi also employs effectively in his writing."
"What you have to understand," Said continued, "is that if scholars like Khalidi and I who hope to destroy the native American people restrict ourselves to the facts, it becomes very difficult to convince the world that the native Americans have no right to exist."
Khalidi affirmed Said's position. "The problem with the native Americans," he said in an interview form his new office on the Columbia Campus, "is that their right to continue to live on their ancestral lands seems self-evident. The only way to undermine the perceived right of, say, the Zuni to continue to occupy Taos Pueblo, where they are known to have lived for hundreds of years, is to completely change the language of the conversation."
"We must ignore the fact that the Zuni were there first and have the only legitimate claim to that land by asserting that it is the Zuni are a foreign, occupying force in Taos. Because the Indians are the occupying power, we have the right to shoot them."
Asked whether he expected some people to take exception to his habit of playing fast and loose with the truth, Khalidi answered, "When I say something that people are likely to find objectionable, such as endorsing terrorism, I protect myself from criticism by doctoring the text that appears on my WEB site."
When asked why he supported shooting only the uniformed Zuni, Khalidi, speaking in Arabic, answered, "It is important to be conscious of the public relations aspect of the problem. Certainly, if we are going to claim Taos for ourselves, we must eventually kill all of the Zuni. However, if we suggest killing unarmed women and children the world may not take our side in the matter. On the other hand, if we merely sit quietly and talk about our right to evict the Zuni from their land, the world is very unlikely to pay much attention."
"The great advantage of terrorism," Khalidi continued, "is that it not only grabs the attention of the world, it makes the world cower. If we blow up enough Zuni police officers with suicide bombs, world opinion will call for peace at any price. They will allow us to drive all the Zuni from Taos and call it a peace process. We will then be in a position to begin attacking the Navajo to drive them from their ancient pueblos as well."
Professor Said concurred, but pointed out that other groups would do well to emulate Professor Khalidi's methods.
"Once the Zuni are driven from Taos," Said said, "I suggest that the Muslim peoples begin to plant terror bombs in Seville and Granada as part of a campaign to drive the Spanish and Portuguese occupying powers from the Iberian Peninsula."
When asked if this would work everywhere in the Mediterranean, Professor Said admitted that it would be difficult in some places. "No matter how big the lies we tell and no matter how cleverly we twist the language, no one is ever going to believe that Israel is an occupying power or that the Jews are foreign interlopers. The fact is that the Jews have the best right of any people to live in Judea, Samaria, the Galilee is simply is simply too well documented to deny. We will be able to reclaim Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Greece, India, most of Italy and Hungary for Islam, but we must face the fact that the Jews have the only right to the land between the river and the sea."
Said maintains, however, that the technique will work elsewhere. "Did you know that a Muslim army sacked Rome in the year 846? We are going to label the Pope a war criminal, bring in snipers to shoot Roman police officers from concealed positions, and demand that the Italian occupiers leave the city to it's rightful Muslim owners."
* * *
In actual fact: Rashid Khalidi, newly appointed to the Edward Said Chair at Columbia University, speaking on June 7, 2002, at a conference of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee did endorse terrorism and state that Palestinians have the right to murder any uniformed Israeli.
His remarks cannot be found at the WEB site of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, which has excised those paragraphs from its posting of his speech.
The real story was broken by the New York Sun on July 23, 2003
Columbia Celebrates Edward Said
by Jonathan Calt Harris
National Review
April 15, 2003
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-harris041503.asp
On April 16th, Columbia University will celebrate a "25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee" of Orientalism, a book by Edward Said, emeritus professor and leading spokesman for a the Palestinian cause against Israel.
The event enjoys some high-level patronage; the university's provost, Jonathan Cole, will deliver the opening remarks. By celebrating Said's work in this manner, Columbia is endorsing its contents.
Why would it do this?
Because Said, although not himself a specialist on the Middle East, has laid down the rules on how the region is studied at his university (and on many other campuses too). His radical leftism, his apologetics for militant Islam, and his advocacy of Palestinian violence have become the norm. So paramount are his ideas at Columbia that an endowed chair has been named after him, virtually canonizing his views.
Said's influence — especially his obsessive hostility toward Israel — has indeed been pervasive at Columbia. Some examples from its lineup of Middle East specialists:
1. Nadia Abu El-Haj, assistant professor of anthropology at Barnard. In her book, Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, she argues that Israeli archeology is but a tool to fabricate an "origin myth" to "efface Zionism's colonial dimension."
2. Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian studies. He organized a Palestinian film festival "Dreams of a Nation" that featured posters of a blood-red Palestine replacing Israel and several films calling for the destruction of Israel. Dabashi once cancelled his class to participate in an anti-Israel rally, and recently joined Ayatollah Khomeini in condemning novelist Salman Rushdie for his "demonizing" of Islamic civilization.
3. Joseph Massad, assistant professor of modern Arab politics. His entire body of scholarship consists of manic anti-Zionism. He labels Israel "a Jewish supremacist and racist state" (yet Columbia allows him to teach a course titled "Palestinian and Israel Politics and Society"). He defends Palestinian violence, "It is only by making the costs of Jewish supremacy too high that Israeli Jews will give it up." He criticized Yasser Arafat for "concessions" to Israel, thus undermining "the right of the Palestinians to resist the occupation."
4. George Saliba, professor of Arabic and Islamic Science. He defends promoting an anti-Israel rally in class, calling it a place to get "accurate information on the Middle East," yet fuels false rumors about Ariel Sharon, "committing his massacres in Jenin." One student warns, "Take this class if you want to hear total and utter nonsense." Another notes, "He only lectured 14 of the 24 class sessions; the other 10, he either cancelled to promote 'Palestine' or showed a movie or played music."
Joining this illustrious group in the fall will be:
Rashid Khalidi
, the new Edward Said Chair of Middle East Studies. Khalidi is yet another obsessive anti-Israel scholar. When Palestinians lynched two off-duty Israeli officers in October of 2000, proudly displaying their bloodied hands, Khalidi found fit to criticize not the perpetrators of the crime but the "prostitute" and "cynical" media that reported it. He glorifies anti-Israel violence as "civil society" poking "its way up through the concrete." He portrays the PLO as democratic and Arafat as an "elected leader." He claims Israel's army has used "awful weapons of mass destruction in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps, a naked lie.
Delirious reactions to Khalidi's imminent arrival confirm the entrenched bias at Columbia. "Everyone in the Middle East area is thrilled," comments history professor Richard Bulliet. "There was a consensus that Khalidi would be the best for this chair," adds Lisa Anderson, dean of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. "Rashid is probably the best scholar we could have gotten," agrees David Cohen, vice president for Arts and Sciences.
Such is what now passes for Middle East scholarship at Columbia University on the 25th anniversary of Orientalism. It would hardly seem worthy of a jubilee celebration.
John Corigliano, a well-known composer and a Columbia alumnus, recently called the Middle East-studies department to task for its blatantly anti-Israel outlook. "I do hope the [Columbia] administration has the courage — for it will take a lot of courage — to stand up to demagoguery of this nature."
No sign of that courage as of yet.
Khalidi accepts chair offer from Columbia
Columbia U's Radical Middle East Faculty
by Alyssa A. Lappen and Jonathan Calt Harris
FrontPage Magazine
March 18, 2003
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6691
A Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award-winning composer might seem an unlikely critic of Columbia Univeristy's Middle East studies department. But last week, when John Corigliano was honored as a distinguished Columbia College alumnus, the composer took it upon himself to criticize the bias in that Columbia department.
"There has been an enormous, enormous amount of publicity about the various departments of Middle Eastern Studies," he said in his acceptance speech. "And about the fact that the anti-Israeli policy in these [departments] is enormous. And one can say that of the department of Middle Eastern languages and cultures at Columbia, that that's true here."
Corigliano's critique of Columbia's department of Middle Eastern languages and cultures (MEALAC), is should put the university on notice that it has a problem. Unfortunately, that problem is about to get worse, with the arrival of Rashid Khalidi next fall as MEALAC's inaugural (anonymously funded) "Edward Said Professor of Middle East Studies" and head of the university's Middle East Institute.
A glance at Khalidi's work shows why this is a step in the wrong direction for Columbia University. His writings and statements routinely cross the line from education into a political advocacy that is not just extremist but often factually wrong. Four examples:
On American foreign policy
. Following Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Khalidi called the widespread resistance to this act of aggression an "idiots' consensus" and called on his colleagues to combat it.
[i] After 9/11, he admonished Washington to drop what he called its "hysteria about suicide bombers."[ii]
Khalidi asserts that the U.S. government has "yet to support the independence of Arab Palestine,"[iii] despite open endorsement by President George W. Bush of a Palestinian state[iv], and nearly $1 billion in direct U.S. aid to the West Bank and Gaza since 1993.[v]
And beware anyone who disagrees with Khalidi! He throws reckless accusations out against them, such as calling Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz "a fanatical, extreme right-wing Zionist."[vi]
On Palestinian violence
. Khalidi glorifies anti-Israel violence as contributing to "political enlightenment"[vii] and unsurprisingly admires those who carry it out. His loyalty to Palestinian terrorist groups run so deep that he actually dedicated his 1986 valentine to the PLO, Under Siege, to "those who gave their lives . . . in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon."[viii] The book whitewashes PLO violence against Israelis and Lebanese, as well as the Syrian occupation.
On media coverage
. When Palestinian violence garners unfavorable publicity, Khalidi's response it to blame the messenger, not the murderers. Thus, in response to Palestinians lynched two off-duty Israeli officers on October 12, 2000, Khalidi did not critique the perpetrators of this crime, but railed against the "prostitute" and "cynical" media that dared to show Palestinians triumphantly displaying bloodied hands after the killings. In like spirit, he faults not those Palestinians who erupted in joyous street celebrations at the murders of 3,000 Americans on 9/11, but the media for having the temerity to report these occurrences.[ix]
On Israel as a U.S. ally
. In Khalidi's fevered imagination, Israel is not a democratic ally but an "apartheid system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state. In his efforts to indict the Jewish state, Khalidi is quite prepared to make up accusations, such as his claim that Israel's army has "awful weapons of mass destruction (many supplied by the U.S.) that it has used in cities, villages and refugee camps."[x] This is a plain lie. That so few Americans agree with his bizarre reading of Israel's democracy as a menacing enemy state causes him to dismiss them as "brainwashed."[xi]
In short, Khalidi's scholarship is laced with a vicious political radicalism. That Khalidi holds such views is, of course, his right. What is worrisome is that Khalidi advocates his political views at a leading research university under the auspices of scholarship. "He is a dangerously powerful academic," says a former student of his, Talia Magnas, speaking to "hundreds at a time of his virulently anti-Israel sentiments."[xii]
To make matters worse, Khalidi is joining at Columbia a university already brimming with politicized scholarship by Middle East specialists, including Nadia Abu El-Haj, Hamid Dabashi, Joseph Massad, Edward Said, and George Saliba.
In short, Khalidi's move to Columbia involves a biased scholar accepting an anonymously endowed chair named for a biased scholar to head a biased department. It's fair to say that the arrival of Khalidi at Columbia will give this university the largest, most politicized Middle East studies roster in North America.
Corigliano's remarks reportedly drew sustained applause at the gala awards ceremony. This is a sign, we expect, that the stakeholders in a great university are beginning to realize the problems in its study of the Middle East.
Alyssa A. Lappen is a writer in New York and Jonathan Calt Harris is managing editor at Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
[i] Norton, Augustus Richard, "Breaking the Gulf Stalemate Strategy," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 18, 1990.
[ii] Khalidi, Rashid, "Challenges and Opportunities," American Committee for Jerusalem, June 2002.
[iii] Khalidi, Rashid, "American Anointed," American Prospect, Nov. 19, 2001.
[iv] Bush, Pres. George W., "President Bush Addresses U.N.," Washington Post, Nov. 10, 2001. http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/631/82/PDF/N0163182.pdf?OpenElement
[v]
http://www.usaid.gov/wbg/budget.htm
[vi] "Bush Winds Back U.S. Policy," Australian Financial Review, Feb. 8, 2001.
[vii] Elgrably, Jordan, "Crisis of Our Times: Nationalism, Identity and the Future of Israel/Palestine, an Interview with Rashid Khalidi" Oct. 2000, http://www.opentent.org/essays/khalidi.html www.opentent.org; Solomon, Alisa, "Fuels for the Fire," Village Voice, Sept. 19-25, 2001.Elgrably, Jordan, ibid.
[viii] Khalidi, Rashid, Under Siege, pp. ix.
[ix] Elgrably, Jordan, "Crisis of Our Times: Nationalism, Identity and the Future of Israel/Palestine, an Interview with Rashid Khalidi" Oct. 2000, http://www.opentent.org/essays/khalidi.html; Solomon, Alisa, "Fuels for the Fire," Village Voice, Sept. 19-25, 2001.
[x] Khalidi, Rashid, "Basic Truths from Both Sides of the Conflict," Chicago Tribune, Apr. 3, 2002; Elgrably, Jordan, ibid.
[xi] Tasker, Fred, "U.S. Policy is a Source of Mistrust," Miami Herald, Sept. 23, 2001, Elgrably, Jordan, ibid.,former Khalidi colleague.
[xii] Magnas, Talia, Dec. 17, 2002 email and interview, former colleague. http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/590
Khalidi accepts chair offer from Columbia
by Isaac Wolf
Chicago Maroon
January 31, 2003
http://www.chicagomaroon.com/news/357123.html
Professor Rashid Khalidi, a University personality both revered and reviled for his heavy criticism of the state of Israel and American policy, will leave his position at the University as director of the Center for International Studies and professor in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department at the end of the school year to teach at Columbia University.
Khalidi, who taught at Columbia for two years before coming to the University in 1987, was offered the position of the first honorary Edward Said Chair and head of the Middle East Studies department in October, but did not decide to accept the position until last week. He said that the main difference between his current position at the University and his future role at Columbia is that he will have increased prominence for his voice.
"The major reason I accepted the chair was the importance of the chair itself, especially at this time," he said. "It was a very hard decision. The reason I didn't take it until January was because I had a real difficulty deciding whether to stay here or accept the chair."
Khalidi exemplified his critical political views Wednesday night while giving a fireside chat in Hutchinson Commons. The event, sponsored by the Chicago Society, came the day after President Bush's State of the Union address.
In a wide-ranging talk, Khalidi issued stinging criticism of the Bush administration, the war with Iraq, and Israel before a crowd of perhaps 250--a large showing for a weeknight program at the University and a testament to his popularity.
Before addressing issues raised in the previous night's State of the Union address, Khalidi examined Bush's political appointments and attacked the legitimacy of Bush's presidency.
"The office of the President is the costliest to buy," he said. "[The President and his senior advisors] have a vision for the United States which is fundamentally different from any president, in my view, since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They are unilateralists. They believe in American primacy. They believe the United States has the right to determine the terms of everything."
His criticism of the Bush administration included comment on the suppression of the free press and a curtailment of civil rights following the September 11 attacks. Khalidi said that Bush has essentially declared an "indefinite state of terror" and, with almost no political opposition, Bush has begun to grossly abuse Constitutional rights.
"He uses 'terrorism' to justify measures which are blatantly unconstitutional," Khalidi said. "Most of these things are happening to Arabs, so no one cares."
On Iraq, Khalidi said that though America would probably easily defeat Hussein, unilaterally conquering--and having to rebuild--the nation would only breed more hatred for the United States. Comparing terror to an animal that regenerates its tentacles when attacked, Khalidi said that only chopping at the visible enemy would be a grave mistake. Instead, Khalidi held, America must contain Iraq and flood it with consumer goods.
"You will undermine them and ultimately destroy them," he said.
As for Israel, Khalidi held similar criticism for newly re-elected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to what he expressed about Bush. "What I said about Bush you can apply to Sharon and his clique," Khalidi said. "What it does is chop and chop and chop--he never gets to the root of the problem."
Responding to a question about the possibility of transferring Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, Khalidi said this was unlikely because there would be no place for the displaced Palestinians to go.
"The Israelis would say to themselves: 'Even if the Americans are too stupid to realize what would be going on, we are too smart to do that to ourselves.'" he said. "Expulsion isn't in Israeli self-interest."
By taking extreme stances on political issues, Khalidi has had a long history of drawing significant criticism from conservatives and supporters of Israel.
Criticism of Khalidi was brought to a boil this past autumn when he was labeled anti-Israeli by the web site campuswatch.org. According to the site, Khalidi "abused power over students...and mixed politics with scholarship," citing mainly his authorship of a study about the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The allegation developed into an extensive discussion among students, faculty, and in the student press that resulted in Khalidi receiving "vicious e-mail," he told the Maroon last fall.
According to Khalidi, these incidents--as well as the general environment of the University--did not make him feel hindered in his ability to express himself freely. Similarly, they were not a factor in his decision to leave.
"The climate here has always been welcoming and positive," he said.
Peter Dorman, chair of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department, explained activism against Khalidi to be solely the product of a more polarized political arena in the Middle East.
"The reaction that has been manifest in the last year or two wasn't a result of what he was saying," Dorman said. "It's the general state of the Israel-Palestinian situation. People have been pushed to take extreme positions on both sides. There is less of a middle ground to discuss issues in a non-confrontational way."
Dorman said that the University tried "just about everything it possibly could" to keep Khalidi, but that it simply could not match the opportunity Khalidi is being given at Columbia. He added that the University is looking for a temporary professor to cover Khalidi's courses for next year, and it will begin a search for a serious replacement over the summer.
"We regard Rashid as one of the mainstays of our modern Arabic program," Dorman said. "His departure is a real loss for the program."
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/500
All articles and more can be found at:
http://www.campus-watch.org/survey.php/id/16
Rashid I. al-Khalidi
Until 2003, Rashid I. Khalidi was professor of Middle East history and director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago. In September 2003, Dr. Khalidi was appointed to the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at Columbia University in New York.
He holds degrees from Yale and Oxford. He is president of the American Committee on Jerusalem and past president of the Middle East Studies Association and was an adviser to the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.
You can hear an interview with Khalidi on the subject of Abu Nidal which was broadcast on US National Public Radio on 19 August 2002.
Material by Rashid I. al-Khalidi
Number of articles: 24
Number of clips: 7
Go to start of articles Go to start of audio-visual material
Number of articles: 25
#77187 Israelis Deplore Advisory Panel Of Palestinians
by Clyde Haberman in The New York Times, 23 October 1991
In Paris today, the P.L.O. chairman, Yasir Arafat, turned up the oratorical volume a few notches with a declaration that the Palestinian negotiators would indeed speak for his organization. "No one can hide the sun with their fingers," he said. " ...
#66707 Uprooting the past - Israel's new historians take a hard look at their nation's past
by Jonathan Mahler in Lingua Franca, August 1997
This past May, an Israeli journalist decided to publish an interview that he had kept buried in a notebook for more than twenty years. It was a 1976 conversation with the late Moshe Dayan, the celebrated general and Israeli minister of defense who or ...
#65262 Review
by Nur-eldeen Masalha in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, November 1999
#6322 The War of the Israeli Historians
by Avi Shlaim, 1 December 2003
»The last decade has witnessed slow and halting progress towards peace between Israel and its traditional enemies but it has also witnessed the emergence of a new kind of war, the war of conflicting narratives. This war is between the traditional Zio ...
#10502 Columbia Profs Smeared as Anti-Semites
by Adam Federman in CounterPunch, 9 November 2004
»Charges of anti-Semitism against professors in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) at Columbia University, are being made by a Zionist organization that claims to promote, "a fair and honest understanding of ...
#10600 Academic Freedom Must Be Preserved
by Arthur Hertzberg in The Jewish Week, 19 November 2004
Some years ago Rashid Khalidi, who had been an assistant professor in the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, was nominated as a professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Chicago. One or two Jewish faculty members tried to cr ...
#11375 NES department faces warring factions
by Chanakya Sethi in Daily Princetonian, 8 December 2004
» Interviews with more than 20 professors and officials involved with the field at Princeton and elsewhere indicate that the Princeton NES department is seen by some scholars as isolated, increasingly out-of-touch and politicized. Those critic ...
#12775 Columbia’s Own Middle East War
by Jennifer Senior in New York Magazine, 17 January 2005
»“Most kids who come to Columbia come from environments where almost everything they’ve ever thought was shared by everybody around them,” he says. “And this is not true, incidentally, of Arab-Americans, who know that the i ...
#14706 Columbia U. Professor, Criticized for Views on Israel, Is Banned From Teacher-Training Program
by Brock Read in Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 February 2005
»The New York City Department of Education will prohibit a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University from appearing in an occasional training program for secondary-school teachers, citing the professor’s criticism of Israel. Rashi ...
#15965 The Mideast Comes to Columbia
by Scott Sherman in The Nation, 16 March 2005
»An intellectual architect of HR 3077 was Martin Kramer, who, along with Daniel Pipes, has taken it upon himself to police and patrol the discipline of Middle East studies. Kramer is the author of Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eas ...
#16290 Can a "Patriotic" Mob Take Over the Universities?
by Baruch Kimmerling in Dissident Voice, 29 March 2005
»In the American academy, there is currently an organized campaign by some public figures to vilify prominent researchers and departments that are regarded as “anti-American” or even as “anti-Semitic” because their research and teaching are not ...
#18581 The New McCarthyism: The assault on civil liberties and academic freedom
by Elizabeth Terzakis in International Socialist Review, May 2005
»BOLSTERED BY the reelection of George W. Bush, right-wing pundits have joined forces with the mainstream media and politicians from “both sides of the aisle” to launch a series of attacks on academics across the United States&mdas ...
#46930 Israel Sends in the Clowns: Debating the Lobby in Manhattan
by Michael J Smith in CounterPunch, 29 September 2006
Does it seem implausible that one might actually feel sympathy for a professor at the University of Chicago? So I would have thought; but as John Mearsheimer got the waterboard treatment from Martin Indyk and Dennis Ross last night at New York's Coop ...
#49480 Campus Conflict
by Chris Hammer in SBS online, 8 November 2006
New York's Columbia University - one of America's, indeed one of the world's, most prestigious seats of learning, and right now, one of its most controversial, for Columbia has become the main battleground in a war being fought across American campus ...
#50117 Who's their Mandela?
by Economist staff in The Economist, 23 November 2006
THERE was no such thing as a Palestinian people, the late Golda Meir famously said when, as Israel's prime minister in 1969, she justified their uprooting. She had a point, of sorts. Though the Palestinians were at least as highly developed a people ...
#85787 Academic Freedom Declines Across the United States
by Terri Ginsberg, Rima Abdelkader in Arabisto.com, 25 November 2006
Historian Tony Judt, Professor of European Studies at New York University, was scheduled to speak on the Israeli Lobby and American Foreign Policy at the Polish Consulate in New York City in October. Due to pressure from two Jewish American organiza ...
#59222 Obama Pivots Away From Dovish Past
by Larry Cohler-Esses in The Jewish Week, 9 March 2007
Subtitle: »In AIPAC debut, candidate talks tough, walking fine pro-Israel line, but did he drop some hints?« »Presidential candidate Barack Obama's maiden speech to the pro-Israel lobby last week saw a man described by early supp ...
#69933 Shooting the messengers
by Mariano Aguirre in Le Monde Diplomatique, September 2007
LMD Abstract: »One reason that the US government, politicians and people don't have a clear idea of the situation in Israel/Palestine is that any criticism or complaint about Israel, no matter how well-researched and moderate, is swiftly attac ...
#72678 The New McCarthyism
by Larry Cohler-Esses in The Nation, 25 October 2007
»Meet Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj, a notorious Barnard College professor now up for tenure who: claims the ancient Israelite kingdoms are a "pure political fabrication," denies the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE and instead blames i ...
#72966 Palestine Versus the Palestinians? The Iron Laws and Ironies of a People Denied
by Beshara Doumani in Z Magazine/ZNet, 30 October 2007
»The emergence in 2007 of two Palestinian "authorities" in two geographical areas-Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank-has given new urgency to several perennial questions: Who are the Palestinians? In what sense do they constitute a polit ...
#74080 Debate rages across US on academic freedom
by Jeminah Steinfeld in Jewish Chronicle, 22 November 2007
»American universities are engaged in a furious debate over whether anti-Zionist academics should be allowed to teach Middle East courses. In the most recent case, Nadia Abu El-Haj, professor of anthropology at Barnard University, a subsidiary ...
#84132 Judonia Rising: The Israel Lobby and American Society
by Joachim Martillo, 15 March 2008
»In Fall 2006 Lady Kishwer Baroness Falkner of Magravine, who is a liberal member of the House of Lords led a study group at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. It was entitled Democracy for the Islamic World?, US & British Foreign Policy Afte ...
#81525 The Petition: Israel, Palestine, and a tenure battle at Barnard
by Jane Kramer in New Yorker, April 2008
»Abu El-Haj was one of the first Americans to look at the origins of Israel's archeological project in terms of Zionism, with its nineteenth-century, essentially German Romantic conflation of place, nationhood, and identity. Another was Jonathan Boy ...
#81482 Digging for Trouble
by Yigal Bronner, Neve Gordon in CounterPunch, 11 April 2008
»"Archaeology has become a weapon of dispossession," Yonathan Mizrachi, an Israeli archaeologist, said in a recent telephone interview with us. He was referring to the way archaeology is being used in Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood in the ...
#92214 Utter Gobsmackeration
by Michael Tomasky in The Guardian, 29 October 2008
This Khalidi business is really desperate nonsense. OK, Obama went to his going away party as he left the University of Chicago for Columbia. But John McCain, reports Seth Colter Walls, did a little more than that: In regards to Khalidi, however, ...
#470 The Israel Lobby: Does it Have too Much Influence on US Foreign Policy
with John J. Mearsheimer, on
A disclaimer applies to this page. This page is not part of the official UCC website. This page is part of a research database of opinions on Palestine and related topics which is maintained by members of the UCC Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which comprises a group of students and staff in the university. The emphasis in this research project is on provenance -- we aim to provide as much information as possible on the background of the people whose opinions are in the database, so that readers can make up their own minds on the credibility that they wish to attach to these opinions.
Published: October 23, 1991
Israelis Deplore Advisory Panel Of Palestinians By CLYDE HABERMAN,
Published: October 23, 1991
Israeli officials said today that they were "most unhappy" with a Palestinian team that will attend the Middle East peace conference next week, and they called on the United States to insist that the group's members have nothing to do with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The Israelis stopped well short of threatening to withdraw from the peace process unless their demand was met. Nonetheless, one senior official charged that the Palestinians "are trying to provoke us," and he cautioned that "at some point it could become too much."
For Israel, the issue is not the official Palestinian delegation, 14 men from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip who were formally named today and who will go to the peace talks in Madrid in tandem with representatives from Jordan. 'People We Can Deal With'
Israel has already got what it wants on that score, having made sure, as a price for going to Madrid, that all 14 have no overt P.L.O ties and live in the occupied territories, but not Jerusalem. "These are people we can deal with," said Yosef Ahimeir, a senior aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who like other officials here was well aware of the names long before they were made public.
What troubles the Israelis now is a second Palestinian team, a six-person advisory panel that will also be in Madrid and will serve as a conduit between the official delegation and the P.L.O. It is this group that presumably will be calling the shots, and one way or another all its members violate Israel's guidelines for the sort of Palestinians with whom it is prepared to negotiate. In particular, they speak openly for the P.L.O.
Questioned on the issue on a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Mr. Shamir played down the advisory group's role.
"We will not speak with these advisers," Mr. Shamir said. "Secondly, they will not be present in the room during the deliberations of the conference." 'Most Unhappy About It'
But he warned that "if the representatives at the conference say that they speak on behalf of the P.L.O., we will not speak with them." Mr. Shamir did not say whether Israel would walk out in such an event.
Equally troubling to the Israelis are reports that the United States sent conference invitations to this group as well as to the regular delegation.
"We feel most unhappy about it, and it is still being discussed with the American Administration," a senior official said. He and others insisted that Washington apply the same Israeli litmus test to the advisory group -- and, for that matter, to all Palestinians at the conference, including bodyguards -- as it has to the official delegation. Shamir May Head Delegation
Israel has yet to make public the names of its own delegation, but there were signs today that it might be headed by Mr. Shamir, at least for the ceremonial opening. Advisers were urging the Prime Minister to go, and a decision was expected in a day or two.
There were also reports here that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt might also attend. That fueled speculation about a possible first encounter between the Israeli and Egyptian leaders, whose countries signed a peace treaty in 1979 that serves as a model for the impending talks.
With the conference only eight days away, an Israeli-Palestinian war of nerves seems to be under way, with each side trying to make sure it is not the first to blink. In one corner, the Palestinian leadership has been trumpeting the delegation's P.L.O. credentials at every turn, while in the other, the Israelis wave this off as posturing by a frustrated group that lacks official standing in Madrid.
Still, officials here acknowledge that they could be pushed too far, especially if the Palestinian delegates declare openly at the conference that they speak for the P.L.O., regarded by Israel as a terrorist organization that has not abandoned its goal of destroying Israel.
"We can leave the conference immediately," Mr. Ahimeir said. "The negative price will be that the conference will be stopped at that moment. We hope the Palestinians realize this possibility, and it is up to the Americans to make sure that this possibility does not happen."
In Paris today, the P.L.O. chairman, Yasir Arafat, turned up the oratorical volume a few notches with a declaration that the Palestinian negotiators would indeed speak for his organization.
"No one can hide the sun with their fingers," he said. "Everyone knows that the Palestinians will represent the P.L.O. Every Palestinian is a member of the P.L.O., inside and outside the territories."
There is yet another side in the pre-conference jockeying: militant Palestinians opposed altogether to talking peace with Israel. One warned today that life would become "a nightmare" for Arabs from the occupied territories who take part in the conference.
Riyad al-Malki, a member of the anti-Arafat Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, did not advocate violence against delegates or advisers. But he said at a news conference in Jerusalem:
"We are going to pressure the people who are going to attend. We will turn their life into a nightmare." Veiled Death Threats
In Iran, the leader of a smaller faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, was reported to have issued veiled death threats against the Palestinian delegates, leading to complaints today from a P.L.O. spokesman in Tunis that such bellicose statements played into Israel's hands. Reuters quoted the radical leader, Ahmed Jabril, as warning that "a day will come when participants would no longer live safely in Palestine."
As expected, the Palestinian delegation will be led by Haidar Abdel-Shafi, a 72-year-old physician from Gaza City, who said this week that he and his fellow members were prepared, if necessary, to pronounce themselves P.L.O. members. But he has also tried to sound conciliatory, saying tonight that "we are going to this peace conference with open minds and hearts" and with a "seriousness about making peace."
The list of 14 names was officially made public not by Dr. Abdel-Shafi but by Faisal al-Husseini, a prominent East Jerusalem resident who has led Palestinian negotiations with Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d.
Mr. Husseini will head the advisory team linking the delegation and the P.L.O. Its spokeswoman will be another veteran negotiator, Hanan Ashrawi, a university professor who lives in Ramallah but carries an East Jerusalem identity card.
Other members of the advisory teamare Sari Nusseibeh, also a university professor from East Jerusalem; Kamil Mansour, a writer living in Paris; Anis al-Qassem, a lawyer living in London, and Rashid al-Khalidi, a lecturer at Chicago State University.
The Official Delegates
The official delegates, besides Dr. Abdel-Shafi, are:
Zakaria al-Agha, a physician from Gaza City; Ghassan al-Khatib, a university lecturer from Ramallah; Freh Abu Medein, a Gaza City lawyer; Elias Freij, Mayor of Bethlehem; Saeb Erakat, a university professor from Jericho; Sami Kilani, a college lecturer from the West Bank village of Yabad, and Abdel Rahman Hamad, a university dean from Beit Hanoun Village in Gaza.
Khalidi to Accept Said Chair After Long Delay
by Chris Beam
Columbia Spectator
January 23, 2003
University of Chicago Professor Rashid Khalidi has accepted the Edward Said chair in Middle Eastern studies, he told Spectator yesterday. Columbia officially offered him the position last October. Khalidi, the director of the University of Chicago's Center for International Studies, will return to Columbia as the inaugural holder of the anonymously-donated chair this fall, 15 years after he left Columbia to begin his tenure at Chicago.
Khalidi described the decision as "wrenchingly difficult," because of the "wonderful friends and great colleagues" he will be leaving at Chicago.
By accepting the University's offer, Khalidi ended doubts about his likelihood of acceptance that had arisen among faculty members after three months of waiting for his response.
"The longer he waited, the more uncertain we were that he was going to come," history Professor Richard Bulliet said.
When he arrives at Columbia, Khalidi will step in as the director of Columbia's Middle East Institute, a program that organizes lectures and debates, conducts research, and seeks to inform the public about issues surrounding the Middle East.
"We were hoping to get somebody who could really reinvigorate the Middle East Institute. Rashid is probably the best scholar we could have gotten," said Vice President for Arts and Sciences David Cohen.
A Palestinian-American, Khalidi has established himself alongside Said, University professor of English, as one of the country's foremost proponents of the Palestinian cause. His views have generated controversy in recent years, especially regarding the place of politics in academia.
Khalidi's critics claim that Columbia's acceptance of the Edward Said chair, and the subsequent choice of Khalidi as recipient, reflects its support of Said's pro-Palestinian views.
Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes in the past has criticized many Columbia professors for their views.
"I think it's a problem that these universities award people with such extreme and unhealthy views with such prestigious positions," Pipes said last October.
Martin Kramer, editor of the Middle East Quarterly at Tel Aviv University, has suggested that the addition of Khalidi to the Columbia faculty would upset the balance of viewpoints in Middle Eastern Studies at the University. He specifically named Assistant Professor Joseph Massad of the Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department and Assistant Professor Nadia Abu-El Haj of the Barnard anthropology department as faculty members who share Khalidi's views.
Despite these criticisms, Khalidi has received praise from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His supporters believe this speaks toward his strengths as a teacher and scholar.
"Professors who are able to be identified with a persuasion and yet who are able to command the respect of those of every persuasion ... those are rare. He was one of those rare professors," Bulliet said when Columbia first extended its offer. Describing Khalidi's strengths, Lisa Anderson, dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, cited his versatility as both a historian and an activist in contemporary issues.
"There was a consensus that Khalidi would be the best for this chair. He is highly reputed [at Columbia] and made many friends when he taught here," Anderson said in October.
Khalidi came to Columbia in 1985 after teaching at Lebanese University and American University in Beirut. He has taught in political science and history departments.
During his previous tenure at Columbia, Khalidi became friends with Said, a reason Khalidi cited for accepting the chair.
"I was certainly honored to be offered [the chair]," Khalidi said, "but the fact that it was named for Edward Said greatly influenced my decision." http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/447
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