The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood

Writing in the aftermath of the Oslo process’s collapse, Rashid Khalidi asks a question few historians had posed directly: why did the Palestinians fail to achieve an independent state in the twentieth century? His answer looks beyond the usual focus on external enemies. The “iron cage” of the title is the structure of constraint built around Palestinian national aspirations — first by British colonial rule, which under the Mandate denied Palestinians the institutions of self-government while fostering the Zionist movement’s proto-state, and later by Israel, the United States, and the Arab states. But Khalidi also turns inward, examining with unusual candor the failures of Palestinian leadership: its neglect of institution-building, its misreadings of great-power politics, its inability to escape the cage.

Completed as Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon unfolded, the book spans the late Ottoman period to the present. It remains one of the most searching accounts of Palestinian statelessness — clear-eyed about both the forces arrayed against the Palestinians and their own decisions.

About the author

Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He is the author of Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, and The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, among other works, and a former president of the Middle East Studies Association.

Details

• Published by Beacon Press, Boston, 2006
• Beacon Classics edition, 2026
• ISBN 9780807003084