“There is no excuse for us not to aspire to the courage and clarity that Dr. Edward Said embodied. There is no excuse for us not to envision a better future and to work together with diverse Others for its realization. There is no excuse for any of us to let despair, anger, jealousy or fear poison us or slow us down. And there is no time to waste in honoring and sustaining the legacy of Dr. Said. As an American poet, May Swenson, said about deep sorrow following a great loss: ‘Don’t mourn the beloved. Try to be like him’.” EI co-founder Laurie King-Irani reflects on the lessons to be learned from Dr. Edward Said’s life and vision. Read more about Edward Said: A lesson that will not die, a vision that cannot fail
On September 25, 2003, I received the somber news of the passing of Palestinian Professor Edward Said, at the age of 67. I like many others felt an unbearable loss of one Palestinian hero who had influenced and inspired my quest to ameliorate the long, unjust and unabated suffering of the Palestinian people. Professor Said was one of a kind. Educator and writer Leila Diab remembers Edward Said. Read more about Professor Edward Said's Ninth Symphony plays on
Picking up a work by Edward Said is never intellectually or emotionally easy. Following Said through one of his thrusts into the meaning of the intellectual, of being an Arab or a Palestinian, or exploring with Said what it truly meant to be political is an experience so deep, at times, so painful, so unflinchingly honest that one emerges from it reborn, enlightened, and often on fire. I speak from experience as a young student set aflame by Said’s work in the mid-1990’s. I did not know Edward Said personally. I saw him lecture at Harvard and in Southern California, and I met him once at a conference in Boston. I talked to him about the challenges of being sympathetic to the Palestinians in academia. He responded, with real compassion and even a flash of anger in his eyes, “keep fighting.” MPAC Communcations Director Sarah Eltantawi remembers Said. Read more about Edward Said: The Loss of an Irreplaceable Mentor
Various news organisations reporting on the killing of one Turkish and one Swiss member of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) have included the Israeli claim that it was Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on the TIPH vehicle. A TIPH spokesperson, reached by telephone in Hebron by The Electronic Intifada today categorically stated that TIPH had “No information on the shooting.” Read more about Advisory: TIPH reports "no information on the shooting" of two of its personnel
For Palestinians born in the Diaspora, Said’s writings stand at the centre of their attempts at making sense of the world and of their place in it as a dispossessed people. I am one such Palestinian. I discovered Said’s work as an undergraduate student at McGill University in the mid-nineties. Majoring in Political Science and Women’s Studies, my intellectual growth as a human being, a Palestinian, a Canadian, a writer, a committed peace activist, and a staunchly secular feminist, were all deeply impacted by his work. This summer I had a chance to attend a 4-hour-long unedited documentary interview with Edward Said at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. A.Y. May reports. Read more about Edward Said and the Contours of Palestinian Identity
September 24, 2003 — Today, an extraordinary event will take place in Geneva, New York: the dedication of the first US memorial to the victims of the Deir Yassin massacre. This event was organized by Deir Yassin Remembered, an international human rights organization, half of whose current board includes Jews. On April 9, 1948, members of the Irgun and the Stern Gang massacred over 100 Palestinian men, women and children in the village of Deir Yassin, near Jerusalem. The Deir Yassin massacre marked the beginning of the depopulation of over 400 towns and villages, and the exodus of 750,000 Arabs; it also marked the beginning of the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe, and the creation of a Palestinian diaspora in refugee camps and in neighboring Arab countries. Deir Yassin Remembered executive director Dan McGowan comments. Read more about Remembering Deir Yassin
This morning, I learnt that Professor Edward Said is no more. Said was not only a scholar but an activist who worked tirelessly for peace and justice. His devastating critique of Western scholarship about Islam, Middle East, and the “Orient,” exposed the ingrained bias of intellectuals in service of power interest, economic and political imperialism, and cultural domination. His work was inspired by his life-long commitment to truth, justice, and peace. Read more about A tribute to Edward Said
A university professor of literature at Columbia University has died. He was witty, elegant and powerful, passionate about his field of study and a man of aristocratic bearing. He loved opera and art and wrote lovely, erudite books. What made him especially important, however, was none of the preceding. Edward W. Said was one of the architects of all reasonable discussion on the question of Palestine and commanded the moral authority to discuss the subject honestly and outside the rhetoric of hatred and violence. Read more about Edward Said: one of the architects of all reasonable discussion on Palestine
Perhaps the first thing one remembers about Edward Said was his breadth of interest. He was not only at home in music, literature, philosophy, or the understanding of politics, but also he was one of those rare people who saw the connections and the parallels between different disciplines, because he had an unusual understanding of the human spirit, and of the human being, and he recognized that parallels and paradoxes are not contradictions. The Palestinians have lost one of the most eloquent defenders of their aspirations. I have lost my soul mate. Read more about Edward Said's breadth of interest
Partners for Peace was deeply grieved to learn that Edward Said passed away today in New York after a long illness. Professor Said was a brilliant scholar and powerful voice for a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Even as he waged a difficult personal struggle against cancer, he maintained his vigorous efforts to advance Palestinian freedom. Read more about Edward Said: "I've Been to the Mountaintop"
