Thread by @NinaFarnia

A thread in response to Rashid Khalidi as well:
1- Professor Khalidi was my undergraduate IR professor. I was always grateful for his presence & support at UChicago. I have cited his work, and I continue to hold members of his family dear.

https://twitter.com/asadabukhalil/status/1867976836329922637

2- Unfortunately, however, he has made comments or taken positions that are problematic or ahistorical. Just last year, he made a racist remark about Indigenous people.

https://x.com/nickwestes/status/1731094448086368420?s=46

3- He was party to Oslo along with Edward Said. But by the end of his career, Said slowly moved left, thanks in part to the influence of Eqbal Ahmad. Imperialism & anti-imperialism remained central to Said's analysis. Said thanked Eqbal for it in this book.

4- Rashid says there is no axis & never was. This reflects his ongoing support for the Palestinian Authority, as Asad explains. What is most immediately troubling is that he doesnt choose to attack the PA even though its doing this now

https://x.com/MariamBarghouti/status/1867794942602493958?t=qt-rMFOIwUcUEOUpHXSChw&s=19

5- Instead he attacks the Axis in a manner that can best be described as ahistorical. If there is no Axis, who liberated Lebanon in 2000 and 2006? Who has prevented Israel from taking Gaza this past year?

6- Such statements speak not to just to a historical gap, but to a conceptual gap as well. Rashid does not take national liberation seriously as a political event or analytical category.

7- If he did, he would not have made the remarks about Indigenous peoples last year. He also would engage the work of the Axis on political terms, and not seek to erase it altogether.

8- Ultimately, unlike Edward Said, Professor Khalidi is ending his academic career having shifted further to the right of where he was. But history unfolds independent of the proclamations of scholars, and nothing he says will undo national liberation.