Walid Khalidi

Walid Khalidi (Arabic: وليد خالدي; 16 July 1925 – 8 March 2026) was a Palestinian historian who wrote extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He co-founded the Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center focusing on the Palestine problem and the Arab–Israeli conflict, and was its general secretary until 2016. Khalidi's first teaching post was at Oxford, a position he resigned from in 1956 in protest at the British invasion of Suez. He was Professor of Political Studies at the American University of Beirut until 1982 and thereafter a research fellow at the Harvard Center for International Affairs. He also taught at Princeton University. Khalidi was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Described by the IPS as "the historian of the Palestinian cause" and the first to reveal Plan Dalet, he was influential in scholarship, institutional development, and diplomacy. His academic work in particular, according to Rashid Khalidi, has played a key role in shaping both Palestinian and broader Arab reactions to the loss of Palestine, and in outlining ways for the former to ensure that they remain visible as a presence within the Middle East map.