Princeton Said To Be Close To Hiring Harsh U.S. Critic
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A Columbia University scholar, Rashid Khalidi, is one step closer to Princeton University, a source said.
The history department at Princeton University has approved the hiring of Mr. Khalidi, a historian of Arab nationalism who is best known for his harsh criticisms of American foreign policy and activism on behalf of Palestinian Arabs, the source said.
The department’s approval doesn’t necessarily mean that Princeton will hire Mr. Khalidi. His candidacy now goes before a high-level university committee whose membership includes the dean of the faculty, David Dobkin, the source said.
Mr. Khalidi has sought to leave Columbia for Princeton for more than a year. Last year, he was a candidate for a professorship endowed by businessman Robert Niehaus, but he wasn’t offered a job.
Columbia recruited Mr. Khalidi from the University of Chicago in 2003, offering him a professorship named after a Palestinian Arab activist and Columbia scholar, Edward Said, who died that year.
Mr. Khalidi’s efforts to leave Columbia coincided with last year’s accusations by Jewish students that several Columbia Middle Eastern studies professors at the school were being abusive in the classroom and intolerant of opposing viewpoints.
Mr. Khalidi at the time expressed alarm at the university’s investigation into the alleged misconduct of the scholars and compared the administration’s response to a witch-hunt.
While scholars in his field have praised Mr. Khalidi for his scholarship on the making of the modern Middle East, his critics have said his work veers toward anti-Americanism and is biased against Israel.
In his book “Resurrecting Empire,” Mr. Khalidi said America started a war in Iraq to gain “hegemony over the region, in collaboration with Israel.” In public statements, Mr. Khalidi has doubted the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In an article he wrote last month for the Financial Times, Mr. Khalidi said the most pressing problem in the region is Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. He said America and Israel would be making a disastrous mistake if they didn’t deal with Hamas.
