The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017

Khalidi focuses on Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the seven-week siege of Beirut, and the aftermath of this invasion as the fourth declaration of war on the Palestinians. Defense minister Ariel Sharon served as the architect of this war. He often kept Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the Israeli cabinet in the dark about his goals and operations plan. Sharon’s goal was to destroy the PLO militarily. He believed that doing so would weaken the Palestinian national movement in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, making it easier for Israel to control and eventually annex these areas.

Khalidi notes that “the siege constituted the most serious attack by a regular army on an Arab capital since World War II. It was not to be equaled until the US occupation of Baghdad in 2003” (144). The scale and duration of the war was unprecedented. Israeli sent over 120,000 troops into Lebanon to fight far fewer Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrian fighters for 10 weeks. Israeli troops targeted Palestinian refugee camps, which fiercely resisted the Israeli invasion, and apartment buildings in Beirut including in the university district. Israeli forces also committed war crimes such as using car bombs to terrify Palestinians and Lebanese civilians.