Edward Said (1935-2003)

Edward Said was a teenager when Israeli forces captured West Jerusalem in 1948. His family fled with other Palestinian refugees to Cairo. He eventually attended Princeton and Harvard and settled in the U.S., where he became a professor of comparative literature at Columbia University, a celebrated intellectual, and the leading advocate for Palestinian self-determination. He wrote his first political essay, “The Arab Portrayed,” in response to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir's declaration in 1969 that “There are no Palestinians.” Said writes that he took on “the slightly preposterous challenge of disproving her, of beginning to articulate a history of loss and dispossession that had to be extricated, minute by minute, word by word, inch by inch.” That piece launched a lifetime of writing and activism. Said championed the rights of the Palestinian people to determine their own future—while insisting that Palestinians acknowledge the persecution and genocide suffered by the Jews. “[T]he struggle for equality in Palestine/Israel should be directed toward a humane goal, that is, co-existence, and not further suppression and denial,” he wrote. The most influential of Said's many books is Orientalism (1978 ), which denounces “subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arabo-Islamic peoples and their culture,” arguing that these biases have served as a justification for the West's imperial ambitions in the Middle East and Asia. Said's activism exiled him from Israel and Palestine for most of his life and provoked criticism in this country. He has been called everything from “the professor of terror” to a Nazi, and his office at Columbia was set on fire. But he persevered, publishing regularly in The Nation, the Arabic newspaper al-Hayat in London, and many other publications. His enduring legacy is the courage to say the most difficult things to the most difficult people in the most difficult circumstances.

Edward W. Said, Power, Politics and Culture. Interviews ed. by Gauri Viswanathan. Bloomsbury 2005.

Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism. Chatto & Windus 1993.

Edward Said: Imperial Continuity – Palestine, Iraq, and US Policy (video), Israeli Occupation Archive, 22 September 2010

Remembering Edward Said Five Years On by Stephen Lendman, The Palestine Chronicle, 22 September 2008

A legacy of understanding by Karma Nabulsi, The Guardian/Comment is free, 15 June 2008

Between the lines by Marc Geelhoed, New Statesman, 3 January 2008

Thinking of Edward Said by Tariq Ali	CounterPunch, 24 December 2007
Hamas of the intellectuals by Martin Kramer	Sandstorm, 31 May 2006
End Notes by Hanif Kureishi	New Statesman, 29 May 2006
On Late Style By Edward W Said: A final ode to autumn's art by Susan Tomes	The Independent, 19 May 2006
Where Edward Said was wrong by Christopher de Bellaigue	The Times, 17 May 2006
Dahrendorf, Said ja antisemitismi Hannu Reime	YLE/Ajantasa 23.3.2006
For Lust of Knowing: the orientalists and their enemies by Robert Irwin, reviewed by Terry Eagleton	New Statesman, 13 February 2006
Unwise men in the East by Barnaby Rogerson	The Independent, 3 February 2006
What the FBI Repairman Wore When He Tried to Bug Edward Said by Alexander Cockburn	CounterPunch, 14/15 January 2006
How the FBI Spied on Edward Said by David Price	CounterPunch, 13 January 2006
Writing for the moment by Tom Paulin	The Guardian, 25 September 2004
The Rootless Cosmopolitan: Edward Said by Tony Judt	The Nation, 1 July 2004
Edward Said: The Last Interview by Peter Bradshaw	The Guardian, 11 June 2004
The last Jewish intellectual by Terry Eagleton	New Statesman, 29 March 2004
Edward Said on poissa Hannu Reime	30.9.2003
The Political Legacy of Edward Said by Irene Gendzier	ZNet, 20 December 2003
Remembering Edward Said by Tariq Ali	New Left Review 24, November-December 2003
On Edward Said by Michael Wood	London Review of Books, 23 October 2003
Edward Said's legacy	The Guardian, 27 September 2003
Edward Said by Malise Ruthven	The Guardian, 26 September 2003
Edward Said, Dead at 67: A Mighty and Passionate Heart by Alexander Cockburn	CounterPunch, 25 September 2003
A window on the world	The Guardian, 2 August 2003
The Meaning of Rachel Corrie: Of Dignity and Solidarity	CounterPunch, 23 June 2003
The Latest Peace Plan: A Roadmap to What and Where?	CounterPunch, 23 June 2003