Edward Said seems like a prophet: 20 years on, ‘there’s hunger for his narrative’ : Moustafa Bayoumi / The Guardian
Among the many articles published on the Palestine crisis, I found this one about Edward Said of utmost importance, not only historically but also because it is as current as can be in today's news circulating around the world.
Said's views and his articulation of the Palestinian cause are worth a serious read among all who are concerned and empathetic to the catastrophe being incurred on the people of Gaza, as well as on Palestinians in the West Bank and within Israel.
It is as if he is alive today and his views are being reviewed by many in the media and in academia, particularly in the West.
Fouad
Click here for the article in the Guardian
Excerpts:
"One reason people have always turned to Said is his ability to articulate a moral position with a sophisticated historical sensibility. Said described the Palestinian people as “the victims of the victims”, showing how Palestinians have become inexorably part of Europe’s Jewish history, even if Palestinian “life, culture, and politics have their own dynamic and ultimately their own authenticity”. Such a move was typical of his thinking, where connection was ultimately more important than division."
"Said did more than acknowledge Jewish suffering, however. He also understood the damage its misuse could bring. “I do … understand as profoundly as I can, the fear felt by most Jews that Israel’s security is a genuine protection against future genocidal attempts on the Jewish people,” Said explains in The Question of Palestine, published in 1979. “But … there can be no way of satisfactorily conducting a life whose main concern is to prevent the past from recurring. For Zionism, the Palestinians have now become the equivalent of a past experience reincarnated in the form of a present threat. The result is that the Palestinians’ future as a people is mortgaged to that fear, which is a disaster for them and for Jews.”
Fouad
Click here for the article in the Guardian
Excerpts:
"One reason people have always turned to Said is his ability to articulate a moral position with a sophisticated historical sensibility. Said described the Palestinian people as “the victims of the victims”, showing how Palestinians have become inexorably part of Europe’s Jewish history, even if Palestinian “life, culture, and politics have their own dynamic and ultimately their own authenticity”. Such a move was typical of his thinking, where connection was ultimately more important than division."
"Said did more than acknowledge Jewish suffering, however. He also understood the damage its misuse could bring. “I do … understand as profoundly as I can, the fear felt by most Jews that Israel’s security is a genuine protection against future genocidal attempts on the Jewish people,” Said explains in The Question of Palestine, published in 1979. “But … there can be no way of satisfactorily conducting a life whose main concern is to prevent the past from recurring. For Zionism, the Palestinians have now become the equivalent of a past experience reincarnated in the form of a present threat. The result is that the Palestinians’ future as a people is mortgaged to that fear, which is a disaster for them and for Jews.”
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