Rashid Khalidi

Palestinian-American Middle Eastern historian and political activist

Rashid Khalidi is a Palestinian-American historian who specialises in the Middle East. Born in New York, Khalidi graduated from Yale University before studying for his DPhil at the University of Oxford. A political activist, he has championed the Palestinian cause since the 1970s. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Georgetown University, and Columbia University, where he was made the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies. He has written extensively on Middle Eastern politics and history, contributing scholarly articles to numerous journals and US newspapers, and has a continuing radio and television presence.

Khalidi was president of the Middle East Studies Association, and was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the 1991-1993 Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. He served as President of the American Committee on Jerusalem, now known as the American Task Force on Palestine. Khalidi has served as a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Palestine-Israel Journal and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a founding trustee of The Center for Palestine Research and Studies.