The Iron Cage

PRAISE FOR THE IRON CAGE “Khalidi, tackling ‘historical amnesia,’ brilliantly analyses the structural handicap which hobbled the Palestinians throughout 30 years of British rule . . . Khalidi restores the Palestinians to something more than victims, acknowledging that for all their disadvantages, they have played their role and can (and must) still do so to determine their own fate.” —Ian Black, The Guardian “A deeply thought-provoking book about Palestinians by a foremost Palestinian scholar that refreshingly challenges stereotypes. Necessary and important.” —Ghada Karmi, author of Married to Another Man: Israel, the Palestinians, and the One-State Solution “A lucid and compelling examination of the Palestinian dilemma by ‘arguably the foremost US historian of the modern Middle East’.” —Warren I. Cohen, Los Angeles Times “A first-rate and up-to-date historical and political analysis of the Palestinian predicament.” —Publishers Weekly, voting The Iron Cage one of the 100 Best Books of the Year “Khalidi asks crucial questions regarding the state of Palestinian identity and viability that no other historians or political analysts have covered with such depth.” —Alejandra Juárez, Political Affairs “The Iron Cage is a patient and eloquent work, ranging over the whole of modern Palestinian history from World War I to the death of Yasser Arafat. Reorienting the Palestinian narrative around the attitudes and tactics of the Palestinians themselves, Khalidi lends a remarkable illumination to a story so wearily familiar it is often hard to believe anything new can be found within.” —Jonathan Shainin, Salon “Khalidi concentrates on the Palestinian side of this complex sui generis case . . . Yet Kahlidi ’s book is no exercise in victimology. He is tough on the British, the Israelis, and the Americans, but he is scarcely less hard-hitting in appraising the Palestinians. The final chapter provides an excellent critique of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s labored moves toward the recognition of Israel and the idea, increasingly bruited, that a two-state solution is no longer feasible. —L. Carl Brown, Foreign Affairs

“The author of numerous critically acclaimed works including Resurrecting Empire, Rashid Khalidi is a historian’s historian. The Iron Cage is his most accomplished effort to date . . . Magisterial in scope, meticulous in its attention to detail, and decidedly dispassionate in its analysis, The Iron Cage is destined to be a benchmark of its genre.” —Joel Schalit, Tikkun “Rashid Khalidi’s Iron Cage is a must-read historical and political study of the national Palestinian movement . . . Supporters of the Palestinians and of Israel will read this book in different ways and with different eyes, but both will find Khalidi’s presentation richly illuminating.” —Neil Caplan, Middle East Journal “A work of forceful historical analysis written in a spirit of self-examination . . . The Iron Cage compels us to reflect more deeply on the problems that continue to bedevil the Palestinian movement.” —Bashir Abu-Manneh, The Nation

Also by Rashid Khalidi British Policy towards Syria and Palestine, 1906–1914 Palestine and the Gulf (coeditor) Under Siege: PLO Decision-Making during the 1982 War The Origins of Arab Nationalism (coeditor) Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America’s Perilous Path in the Middle East

The Iron Cage The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood

Rashid Khalidi

A Oneworld book First published in USA by Beacon Press First published in Great Britain by Oneworld Publications, 2007 Copyright © Rashid Khalidi, 2006 All rights reserved Copyright under Berne Convention A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN-13:978–1–85168–532–5 Typeset by Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services Cover design by D.R. Ink Printed and bound by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

Arabic words have been transliterated in keeping with a modified version of the system used by the International Journal of Middle East Studies (the only diacritics represented being the ain and the hamza), with exceptions for common nouns, individual names where there is a common spelling, and words within quotations. All translations from Arabic and French are the author's own.

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