Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses ethnic cleansing, war crimes, the Holocaust, and anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism and xenophobia.

A central tenet of Khalidi’s work is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply entrenched in colonial decisions made by proponents of the Zionist movement with backing from global superpowers. Khalidi traces this colonial perspective to Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, through Herzl’s own writings, including diary entries and letters. In these writings, Herzl admits that the Palestinians are unimportant to him, that European Jewish settlers will help civilize them, and that he would prefer to remove Palestinians from their land. These sentiments echo that of other settler colonizers.

To Khalidi, the Zionist and subsequent Israeli leaders used colonial techniques to suppress the Palestinian people. First, he argues that Israel has committed ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians. He points to the Nakba as one example. During this conflict, Israeli forcibly removed thousands of Palestinians from their homes. The trauma of the Nakba continues to impact Palestinians today, many of whom never returned to their ancestral homes.

Israeli officials also assassinated many Palestinian leaders.