The Electronic Intifada

Tribute to Edward Said

Mustafa Barghouthi 25 September 2003

It is with heart-breaking sorrow that the Palestinian National Initiative announces the tragic death of Edward Said who passed away today after eleven years fighting leukemia. At this time our thoughts and love are with his family. We wish them strength and courage and assurance that Edward will be a man forever remembered not only for his incredible achievements but for his remarkable qualities as a friend. Though words may do little at such a time to assuage the pain and grief something must be said to pay homage to a man and a life we should truly celebrate. 

The Beautiful Mind of Edward Said

G. S. Naggiar 25 September 2003

Edward Said’s life and work is a story of transcendence of the cultural and spatial barriers that so often thoughtlessly divide humanity. Born in Jerusalem, the capital of the three great monotheistic faiths and a city that he once called “a seamless amalgam of cultures and religions engaged, like members of the same family, on the same plot of land in which all has become entwined with all,” he would live most of his late life and finally die in New York City, the capital of the modern world and where men and women from every corner of the earth converge to form a modern amalgam of peoples unlike anything ever known before. There could have been no more fitting places for the beginning and end of the life’s journey of Edward Said. AAPER president George Naggiar remembers Said. 

Permission to narrate: Edward Said, Palestine, and the Internet

Nigel Parry 25 September 2003


When I think of Palestinian American academic and writer Edward Said, one phrase he penned comes to the fore. It was the title of a piece he wrote for The London Review of Books in February 1984, “Permission to Narrate”. These three words described what Said felt was most denied to the Palestinians by the international media, the power to communicate their own history to a world hypnotised by a mythological Zionist narrative of an empty Palestine that would serve as a convenient homeland for Jews around the world. EI’s Nigel Parry narrates. 

Remembering Edward Said

The Electronic Intifada 25 September 2003


We mourn with greatest sadness the death today of Professor Edward W. Said. We extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to Edward Said’s family, and we share our profound sense of loss with the many and diverse communities that loved him. Said is known throughout the world as a public intellectual, and there are few fields of intellectual endeavor that are untouched by his contributions. A prolific and path-breaking scholar whose contributions helped transform humanities and social sciences, Said’s impact and engagement went far beyond the academy. Said was also an activist who worked courageously for justice, and fearlessly spoke truth to power. The founders of EI remember Edward Said. 

A surprising New Year's blessing from Israel

Gila Svirsky 24 September 2003

“We, veteran and active pilots alike, who served and still serve the state of Israel for long weeks every year, are opposed to carrying out attack orders of the type the state of Israel has been conducting in the territories. These actions are illegal and immoral, and are a direct result of the ongoing occupation which is corrupting all of Israeli society.” An excerpt from a letter of refusal to serve penned by over a dozen Israeli Air Force pilots, which will stun Israeli newspaper readers this morning. 

Remember Durban

Arjan El Fassed 22 September 2003

Two years ago EI’s Arjan El Fassed attended the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR). At that time he was part of the Palestinian delegation at the NGO Forum. Two years after the conference, Israel’s apartheid policies have only deepened and become systematic and widespread. 

Speculative Journalism: The making of "The Death of Rachel Corrie"

Phan Nguyen 17 September 2003


Mother Jones demonstrated how low it could set its standards for investigative journalism when it hired Newsweek reporter Joshua Hammer to surf the web and write a 7000-word feature story on Rachel Corrie and the International Solidarity Movement (“The Death of Rachel Corrie”, Sept/Oct 2003). Indeed fact-checking and verification was not a priority in the production of this article. Phan Nguyen reports. 

21 Septembers Ago

Laurie King 16 September 2003


“A man in his sixties, with kind eyes and a ready smile, waits until I am comfortably situated before he approaches me, pulls up his shirt, and points to an area just to the left of his navel. ‘lammasini hon, sittnaa!’ he quietly requests, ‘Touch me here, Ma’am!’ His middle-aged daughters sit silently around me, their eyes focused on nothing in particular as I gingerly comply with their father’s request. Touching the damp flesh of his round white belly, I am shocked to feel the hard, spherical mass of a bullet trapped in his stomach muscles.” On the 21st anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, EI’s Laurie King-Irani reflects on the search for international justice on a journey from Beirut to Brussels. 

Ramallah: Arafat's Compound

2 May 2002


On 2 May 2002, Israeli forces withdrew from Arafat’s Compound after they had surrounded the area for more than a month during “Operation Defensive Shield”. On that same day, EI’s Arjan El Fassed and Annet Meeuws filmed the “Muqata”, the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. They managed, like hundreds of others to enter the compound and walk around its premises.