Edward Said

Edward Wadie Said (إدوارد سعيد) (born Jerusalem, November 1, 1935 – died New York, September 24, 2003) was a well-known Palestinian-born American literary theorist, critic and outspoken Palestinian activist. According to Columbia News (Columbia University), he was "one of the most influential scholars in the world."

Activism

As a Palestinian activist, Said promoted the cause of Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Related Topics:
West Bank - Gaza Strip

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Writing in 1980, Said anticipated an eventual policy of military aggression by the United States toward the Middle East, a prediction some observers find evident in the actions of the United States after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Related Topics:
United States - September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

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:"So far as the United States seems to be concerned, it is only a slight overstatement to say that Moslems and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists. Very little of the detail, the human density, the passion of Arab-Moslem life has entered the awareness of even those people whose profession it is to report the Arab world. What we have instead is a series of crude, essentialized caricatures of the Islamic world presented in such a way as to make that world vulnerable to military aggression" http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=19800426&s=19800426said.

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From 1977 until 1991, Said was an independent member of the Palestinian National Council who tended to stay out of factional struggles. He supported the two-state solution and voted for it in Algiers in 1988. He quit the PNC over the decision by Yasser Arafat and the PLO to support Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War, a decision he considered disastrous to the interests of Palestinian refugees living in Arab League member states who supported the American-led coalition. Thereafter, Said became critical of the role of Arafat in the process leading up to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, feeling that the Oslo terms were unacceptable and had been rejected by the Madrid round negotiators. He felt that Oslo would not lead to a truly independent state and was inferior to a plan Arafat had rejected when Said himself presented it to Arafat on behalf of the US government in the late 70's. In particular, he wrote that Arafat had sold short the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in pre-1967 Israel and ignored the growing presence of Israeli settlements. He came to prefer and support the binational solution - the creation of one state in the entirety of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and pre-1967 Israel, in which Arabs and Jews would have equal rights over a two state solution with a Palestinian state on the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Related Topics:
1977 - 1991 - Palestinian National Council - Two-state solution - Voted for it - Algiers - Yasser Arafat - PLO - Saddam Hussein - Gulf War - Arab League - Oslo Accords - Madrid round negotiators - Israeli settlements - Binational solution - West Bank - Gaza - East Jerusalem

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:"I have spent a great deal of my life during the past 35 years advocating the rights of the Palestinian people to national self-determination, but I have always tried to do that with full attention paid to the reality of the Jewish people and what they suffered by way of persecution and genocide. The paramount thing is that the struggle for equality in Palestine/Israel should be directed toward a humane goal, that is, co-existence, and not further suppression and denial" http://www.counterpunch.org/said08052003.html.

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His relationship with the Palestinian Authority was so bad that PA leaders banned the sale of his books in August 1995, but improved when he hailed Arafat for rejecting Barak's offers at the Camp David 2000 Summit.

Related Topics:
Palestinian Authority - Barak - Camp David 2000 Summit

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In June 2002, Said, along with Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Ibrahim Dakak, and Mustafa Barghouti, helped establish the Palestinian National Initiative, or Al-Mubadara, an attempt to build a third force in Palestinian politics, a democratic, reformist alternative to both the established Palestinian Authority and to Islamist militant groups such as Hamas.

Related Topics:
2002 - Mustafa Barghouti - Palestinian National Initiative - Palestinian Authority - Hamas

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Said's books on the issue of Israel and Palestine include The Question of Palestine (1979), The Politics of Dispossession (1994) and The End Of The Peace Process (2000).

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Said was also a prolific journalist and his writing regularly appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, the London Review of Books, Le Monde Diplomatique, Counterpunch, Al Ahram, and the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

Related Topics:
The Nation - The Guardian - London Review of Books - Le Monde Diplomatique - Counterpunch - Al Ahram

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A skilled concert pianist, Said also contributed music criticism to The Nation for many years. In 1999, he jointly founded the West-East Divan Orchestra with the Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim.

Related Topics:
West-East Divan Orchestra - Daniel Barenboim

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