Muhammad Ali Khalidi is a Palestinian philosopher who primarily specializes in philosophy of science and the history of Islamic philosophy. He has also attempted to draw on the conceptual apparatus of analytic philosophy in order to contribute to debates about Zionism and its victims. In this book chapter Khalidi is concerned with analyzing and assessing the claim
that the Jewish settlers in Ottoman (and then later Mandate) Palestine had a right to national self-determination on the territory that eventually became the state of Israel. Khalidi argues that in fact the necessary conditions for the existence of a right to national self-determination, held by Jewish settlers, on the territory that became the state of Israel after the termination of the British mandate did not obtain.
In this article, Khalidi analyzes Herzl’s well known novel, Altneuland. Khalidi is
concerned with resolving certain interpretative problems that arise from the text. Among these perhaps the most important is the complete absence of Jewish culture from the colonial society that is depicted in Herzl’s novel. Khalidi provides a contextual analysis of the intended audience of this novel that helps explain its content. Among the interesting elements in this analysis is the question of the relationship between Zionism and Jewish history as Herzl himself understood it.
28 сен 2024
