In late November 2024, a photograph of U.S. President Joe Biden captured significant attention.
The image shows him exiting a bookstore while holding a book by Rashid Khalidi entitled “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017.”
Some news outlets, such as Fox News and the New York Post, dubbed it as an “anti-Israel” book due to its contents.
This photograph is indeed genuine and depicts President Biden with the book in question. He was leaving the Nantucket Bookworks in Massachusetts on November 29, 2024, during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Many pictures were taken during this time, confirming the claim. Kenside, it can be understood as true.
The way this book is characterized is largely dependent on perspective. Macmillan Publishers, the book’s publisher, describes it as “the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.”
It contends that Palestinian displacement resulted from settler colonialism, which was backed by Western powers.
In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, then mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist vision, wrote a letter to Theodore Herzl. In it, he voiced concern that Palestine’s indigenous population would not take kindly to displacement.
Adding a plea, “in the name of God, let Palestine be left alone,” he captured the essence of ongoing struggles.
This is where Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, picks up the thread in his sweeping historical narrative. The book offers a hundred-year account of a colonial conflict, centering the Palestinian experience.
Khalidi challenges prevailing views, portraying the conflict as a narrative driven by powerful nations such as Britain and the United States, alongside the Zionist movement and Israel.
The book emphasizes key moments and conflicts, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the 1948 destruction of Palestine, extending to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and ongoing peace process initiatives.
Zooming into the photo of Biden in Nantucket, Khalidi’s name is visible on the book, confirming that he was indeed holding Khalidi’s work.
Khalidi, a prominent Palestinian historian, refers to Israel as a “settler colonial” state and has voiced his opinions on Israel’s actions in Gaza.
He is a well-respected figure, known for his critical stance on U.S. involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict and has supported pro-Palestine student demonstrations at Columbia University.
In response to a New York Post inquiry about Biden purchasing his book, Khalidi reportedly said: “I do not speak to the Post (or the Times for that matter), so this is not for publication, but my reaction is that this is 4 years too late.”
A post on X, allegedly by Khalidi’s son, also gained traction. It read, “Hey, @JoeBiden, get my father’s book out of your blood-soaked hands, you genocidal maniac.”
It’s worth noting that President Biden has openly declared himself a Zionist, supporting Israel consistently, even before and after the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023. Since then, over 44,000 people have died in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
This incident, while capturing a snapshot of presidential leisure, taps into longer-standing ideological and geopolitical discussions, highlighting the complexities surrounding the Israel-Palestine issue.
