Walid Khalidi

Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi, 1947
Born1925 (age 98–99)
OccupationHistorian
ParentAnbara Salam Khalidi (step-mother)
RelativesTarif Khalidi (half-brother)
Usama al-Khalidi (half-brother)
Rashid Khalidi (cousin)

Walid Khalidi (Arabic: وليد خالدي, born 1925) is a Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center focusing on the Palestine problem and the Arab–Israeli conflict, and was its general secretary until 2016.

Khalidi's first teaching post was at Oxford, a position he resigned from in 1956 in protest at the British invasion of Suez. He was Professor of Political Studies at the American University of Beirut until 1982 and thereafter a research fellow at the Harvard Center for International Affairs.[1] He has also taught at Princeton University.

He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been influential in scholarship, institutional development and diplomacy. His academic work in particular, according to Rashid Khalidi, has played a key role in shaping both Palestinian and broader Arab reactions to the loss of Palestine, and in outlining ways for the former to ensure that they remain visible as a presence within the Middle East map.[2]

  1. ^ Hirsch & Housen-Couriel, 1995, p. 98.
  2. ^ Rashid Khalidi, 'Walid Khalidi,' in Philip Mattar, Encyclopedia of the Palestinians, Facts on File, rev.ed. 2005 pp.280-284.