PrintApril 10, 2008
Who is lying?
Either the Los Angeles Times misrepresents noted Palestinian advocate (and Barack Obama friend) Rashid Khalidi.. or he is lying. The good professor should either challenge the LAT or clarify which of his statements misrepresents the facts of his involvement with the Palestine Liberation Orghanization.
According to today's LA Times ,
"In the 1970s, when Khalidi taught at a university in Beirut, he often spoke to reporters on behalf of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization. In the early 1990s, he advised the Palestinian delegation during peace negotiations."
But in 2004 Rashid Khalidi told Asaf Romirowsky and Jonathan Calt Harris of the Washington Times that between 1976 and 1983,
"I was teaching full time as an Assistant Professor in the Political Studies and Public Administration Dept. at the American University of Beirut, published two books and several articles, and also was a research fellow at the independent Institute for Palestine Studies,"
and says he had no time for anything else. Mr. Khalidi dismisses the allegation that he served as a PLO spokesman, saying,
"I often spoke to journalists in Beirut, who usually cited me without attribution as a well-informed Palestinian source. If some misidentified me at the time, I am not aware of it."
