Walid Khalidi, the Architect of Palestinian Knowledge
It is no easy task to compress, within a few lines and paragraphs, the trajectory of a great historian who lived nearly a century and who remained, until his final days, immersed in research, writing, and reflection — his mind never ceasing to follow what unfolded in his homeland. His cause was always singular: Palestine. Walid Khalidi, who left us just days ago, gathered throughout his long life many remarkable qualities, the most defining of which — attested repeatedly by those who knew him and borne out by his research and books — was that he served as the guardian of the Nakba's narrative and the very man who dismantled the Zionist account of Palestine.
Since his passing, obituaries have appeared in the world's leading newspapers, Arab and international alike, focusing on his substantial scholarly achievements, the many roles he played in political affairs, and the varied activities he pursued in different capacities. Two essential qualities, it may be said, defined Khalidi's character — this Arab Palestinian scholar recognized equally by Western and Arab academic communities for his encyclopedic knowledge and intellectual authority, particularly on the Palestinian question.
The first of these was his strict adherence to the standards of scientific research, without ever yielding on this point; it earned him a widely recognized authority among academics in Western and Arab universities alike. In all his published books, lectures, and articles, Khalidi never deviated by a fraction from this standard, and he extended it to all who worked with him, thereby establishing a decisive and authoritative historiographical tradition.
The second was his institutional mind, which he translated into the founding of the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut in 1963, conceived as a specialized scholarly reference on the Palestinian question and the Arab-Israeli conflict. This fully independent Arab research institution, affiliated with no political party and pursuing no commercial purpose, published during the period of his tenure as secretary general more than eight hundred reference works on the Palestinian cause in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish, with some titles also rendered into other languages.
One can imagine the scale of challenges facing a research institution of this kind, and the pressures from all directions that could compromise its work — pressures that make its independence particularly difficult to uphold, especially given that it is dedicated to the study of a complex question, the Palestinian cause, whose conflict predates the Nakba of 1948. To this is added the fact that the institution relies — in its pursuit of academic independence — on unconditional donations, so as to avoid becoming beholden to any particular faction or sponsor.
In this regard, the Institute's director general, Khalid Farraj, has said: "Khalidi worked to embed within the institution a set of collective values and concepts that set it apart from other organizations and workplaces. The substance of these values lies in the fusion of those who serve within the institution with the shared ethos he established, and with the core of the cause for which the institution was created: to vindicate the rights of those to whom they belong, through rigorous scholarly research." [1]
The mere survival of an Arab research institution — in a region that rarely prioritizes scholarly inquiry — for more than six decades, without ever surrendering to the embrace of any political, financial, or partisan entity, does credit to the institution and to those who have led it. It is the course that Walid Khalidi charted, and which he steadfastly upheld over many long years.
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Walid Khalidi was a man of principle. He resigned from Oxford University in 1956, in protest against Britain's participation in the tripartite aggression against Egypt, and moved to the American University of Beirut to continue his research and teaching. One can measure the difficulty of such a choice for a scholar in his thirties holding a post at one of the most prestigious Western universities: Khalidi chose to place his national convictions above personal interests, foremost among them his academic career, interrupted at Oxford before being resumed in Beirut — a city then pulsing with intellectual vitality —, which allowed him, some years later, to found the Institute for Palestine Studies, whose headquarters remain in Beirut to this day.
The renowned Israeli anti-Zionist historian Ilan Pappé has written of him: "In an informal conversation we had (...), I learned that there was another reason for his dissatisfaction with Oxford: as an academic, he had sought even then to lecture and write on the Nakba of 1948, but it became clear to him that Oxford at that time did not recognize the Nakba as a subject worthy of academic study." [2]
Walid Khalidi left many lasting scholarly marks on his field. Among the most significant was his exposure of the contents of 'Plan Dalet,' drawn up by Zionist paramilitary organizations to seize control of Palestinian territory, particularly in 1947 and 1948 — a plan that dismantles the claim that Palestinian lands were uninhabited, or that their inhabitants departed of their own volition.
Khalidi dwelt at length on the United Nations partition resolution, stating in terms that remain arresting today: "The partition resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 became so central to the victors' narrative that a collective historical amnesia erased all that preceded it — in the distant, the intermediate, and the immediately prior past — as if the partition resolution were the very origin of the Palestinian question, rather than the tragic culmination (for the Palestinians) of everything that preceded it since the beginnings of political Zionism." [3]`
Because scholarly inquiry cannot be severed from the course of politics and its transformations, Walid Khalidi participated — without ever engaging in ways that compromised his academic independence — in numerous spheres of political activity, contributing where he could to the formulation of a Palestinian position and vision anchored in legitimate national rights. He "was part of the inner circle of the Arab Nationalists' Movement and enjoyed the confidence of many of its leaders (...), and he built close relations with the founders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Fatah movement, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (...). In the early 1970s, Khalidi was engaged in private communications with the United States on behalf of the PLO." [4] For those who may not be aware, he played a central role in drafting the celebrated speech that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat delivered at the United Nations in 1974.
A further landmark was his participation in the joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace talks in 1991, which rested on the principle of "land for peace" — a decisive juncture in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, even if it was gradually emptied of its substance and superseded by the Oslo negotiations, conducted in secrecy and culminating in the well-known agreement of 1993.
On the Nakba, on Palestinian villages, and on the systematic displacement of the Palestinian people, Walid Khalidi published two landmark reference works: All That Remains and Before Their Diaspora — their examination alone is sufficient to dismantle the Israeli narrative that the State of Israel was built on a land without a people. Khalidi's books and writings will remain a reference for researchers and students for years to come; he was a devoted mentor to hundreds of scholars who trained under his guidance, in universities as well as at the Institute for Palestine Studies.
In the wake of this great historian's passing, the Palestinian cause must remain an obligation borne by all free people across the world — for it is a moral and human cause as much as it is a political one.
[1] Farraj, Khalid, “On the Centenary of Walid Khalidi: The Mission That Became a Working Method, Special supplement on the occasion of Walid Khalidi's centenary”, Journal of Palestine Studies, no. 143, Beirut (Summer 2025): 123.
[2] Pappé, Ilan. "Walid Khalidi and the Genesis of Palestine Studies, 1963–2025," ibid.:57.
[3] Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 9, no. 33 (Winter 1998): 3.
[4] Khalidi, Rashid, "Walid Khalidi: Pioneer and Innovator." Journal of Palestine Studies, special supplement, op. cit.:18–19.