Biden picks up anti-Israel book during Black Friday shopping, author responds

Outgoing US President Joe Biden, during his Black Friday shopping, picked up a book on Israel and Palestine that raised eyebrows. The selected book describes the establishment of Israel as ‘colonialism’ that met with Palestinian ‘resistance’, a position that is viewed as contrary to that of the United States.

Biden took The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917–2017, authored by Columbia University professor emeritus Rashid Khalidi, from a bookstore in Massachusetts.

As Biden’s choice of the book sparked discussions, the author remarked, “It’s four years too late”.

The Biden administration has consistently supported Israel, backing its military actions in the Middle East. The United States has provided Israel with military assistance, arms, and other forms of support on multiple occasions.

The book, according to the New York Post, argues that “the modern history of Palestine can best be understood in these terms: as a colonial war waged against the indigenous population, by a variety of parties, to force them to relinquish their homeland to another people against their will”.

However, it was not immediately clear if Biden purchased the book or if it was given to him while in the shop, but he was seen holding the book as he walked out of the store.

When The Post asked author Khalidi about Biden’s selection of his book, he responded, “My reaction is that this is four years too late”.

Biden, who had said ‘You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist’, expressing support for Israel, had even visited the country after it launched a war on Hamas. However, the President has increasingly criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over civilian casualties in Gaza over the past year and has reportedly used expletives to describe him in private conversations.