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TÊTE À TÊTE © FRANCE 24 12:23 Issued on: 06/03/2026 - 19:25Modified: 06/03/2026 - 19:25
Play (12:23 min) From the show Reading time 1 min In an interview with FRANCE 24, renowned historian Rashid Khalidi described a "seismic, fundamental shift" in American public opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also argued that Israel rests on the "absolute supremacy of one group throughout Palestine", but that equality is the only basis for any "sustainable, just solution".
Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said professor emeritus of modern Arab studies at Columbia University in New York and author of "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine".
"Every opinion poll over the last year and a half, two years has shown a major, apparently lasting shift, away from blind support for Israel and "towards a greater sympathy for the Palestinians," he said of the US.
This shift in US public opinion, he argued, is particularly pronounced among young people, but extends across all age groups and political affiliations. Exposed to the conflict through social media, young Americans have seen what he called "genocide live streamed" from Gaza.
More broadly, Khalidi noted that Israeli law enshrines the concept that "only the Jewish people have the right of self-determination". Yet "you cannot have an ethno-state based on the superiority of one group," he said. "Any kind of sustainable, just solution" has to guarantee "absolute equality".
When asked about the Palestinian leadership, he said neither Fatah nor Hamas had "a clear strategic objective", leaving the Palestinian national movement "unfortunately very badly led".
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