122-477: Arab Studies Quarterly ( ASQ ) is an English-language academic journal devoted to Arabist studies. It was established in 1979 by the Professors Edward Said and Ibrahim Abu-Lughod . They envisioned the journal to be a platform for academic research to counter anti-Arab propaganda veiled by academic jargon. Since its inception, ASQ has been a refereed academic journal that publishes articles on
244-617: A binational state with equal rights for all inhabitants is likely. UN resolutions affirm the illegality of settlements in West Bank , including East Jerusalem , including United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 passed in December 2016. As of November 2023, there are at least 700,000 Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem across 150 settlements and 128 outposts. More than three-quarters of
366-688: A Belly-Dancer" (1990), about Tahia Carioca , the Egyptian dancer, actress, and political militant; and a piano sonata, titled Reflections on Exile (1984), which thematically refers to the emotions inherent to being an exile. In 1999, Said and Barenboim co-founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra , composed of young Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab musicians. They also established The Barenboim–Said Foundation in Seville , to develop education-through-music projects. Besides managing
488-530: A British boys' school run by the local Anglican Diocese , but stopped going to his classes when growing intercommunal violence between Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews made it too dangerous for him to continue attending, prompting his family to leave Jerusalem at the onset of the 1947–1949 Palestine War . By the late 1940s, Said was in Alexandria , enrolled at the Egyptian branch of Victoria College , where "classmates included Hussein of Jordan , and
610-556: A Lebanese local resident who said that Said was less than ten metres (ca. 30 ft.) from the Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldiers manning the two-storey guardhouse, when he threw the stone, which hit the barbed wire fence in front of the guardhouse. In the U.S., Said's action was criticised by some students at Columbia University and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith International (Sons of
732-605: A PhD (1964) in English Literature from Harvard University . His principal influences were Antonio Gramsci , Frantz Fanon , Aimé Césaire , Michel Foucault , and Theodor W. Adorno . In 1963, Said joined Columbia University as a member of the English and Comparative Literature faculties, where he taught and worked until 2003. He lectured at more than 200 other universities in North America, Europe, and
854-736: A claim that overrides all the others and entitles that person with that so-called claim to drive people out!" Said's argument against the Religious Zionism traditionally espoused by Jewish fundamentalists (i.e., citing God to project the Jewish/Israeli claim as superior to the Arab/Palestinian claim) asserted that such justifications were inherently irrational because they would, among other factors, enable Christians and Muslims of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds to lay superseding territorial claims to Palestine on
976-594: A joint proposal for an end to the Gaza war, and subsequent steps towards a two-state solution. Yair Golan , former IDF deputy chief of staff and current leader of The Democrats , a political party formed by a merger of the Israeli Labor Party and Meretz , said in a July 2024 interview with the Guardian , "Our vision is a two-state solution [...]". Following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and
1098-489: A man-to-man contest-of-skill, between a father and his son, and an Arab man's gesture of joy at the end of the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon (1985–2000): "It was a pebble; there was nobody there. The guardhouse was at least half a mile away." Said described the incident as trivial and said that he "threw the stone as a symbolic act" into "an empty place". The Beirut newspaper As-Safir (The Ambassador) interviewed
1220-603: A member of the English and Comparative Literature faculties, where he taught and worked until 2003. In 1974, he was Visiting Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard; during the 1975–76 period, he was a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science, at Stanford University . In 1977, he became the Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and subsequently
1342-659: A member of the executive committee of Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS), reiterated the CIS's view that the two-state solution is "the only solution that [...] serves Israel’s security and well-being long-term." Ami Ayalon , the head of Israel's Shin Bet internal security service from 1995 to 2000, said on 14 January 2024 in an interview with The Guardian that "Israel will not have security until Palestinians have their own state". On 17 July 2024, Ehud Olmert and former Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa , signed
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#17327761876901464-508: A peace agreement that leads to both states living side by side as good neighbors" is "essential or desirable". In 2021, a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed that 39% of Palestinians supported "the concept of the two-state solution", while 59% said they rejected it. Support is even lower among younger Palestinians; in 2008, then- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice noted: "Increasingly,
1586-472: A peace settlement based on the 1967 borders so long as each group could be reassured that the other side would be cooperative in making the necessary concessions for such a settlement. A 2013 Gallup poll found 70% of Palestinians in the West Bank and 48% of Palestinians in Gaza Strip, together with 52% of Israelis supporting "an independent Palestinian state together with the state of Israel". Support for
1708-670: A result, Israel was established on the area the UN had proposed for the Jewish state, as well as almost 60% of the area proposed for the Arab state. Israel took control of West Jerusalem , which was meant to be part of an international zone. Jordan took control of East Jerusalem and what became known as the West Bank , annexing it the following year . The territory which became the Gaza Strip
1830-528: A strict security arrangement, would you support this agreement?", only 35% of Israelis said yes. According to a 2021 PCPSR poll, support for a two-state solution among Palestinians and Israeli Jews, as of 2021, had declined to 43 percent and 42 percent, respectively. According to Middle East experts David Pollock and Catherine Cleveland, as of 2021, the majority of Palestinians said they wanted to reclaim all of historic Palestine, including pre-1967 Israel. A one-state solution with equal rights for Arabs and Jews
1952-660: A two-state solution varies according to the way the question is phrased. Some Israeli journalists suggest that the Palestinians are unprepared to accept a Jewish State on any terms. According to one poll, "fewer than 2 in 10 Arabs, both Palestinian and all others, believe in Israel's right to exist as a nation with a Jewish majority." Another poll, however, cited by the US State Department , suggests that "78 percent of Palestinians and 74 percent of Israelis believe
2074-530: A two-state solution, on at least an interim basis, was articulated by Said Hammami in the mid-1970s. The Israeli Likud party, in its manifesto for the 1977 elections which it won in a landslide, declared: "Between the sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty." Similar statements have been made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as late as 18 January 2024. On 18 July 2024,
2196-652: A two-state solution. In the wake of Jewish migration from Europe in the context of Zionism and intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine , the first proposal for the creation of Jewish and Arab states in the British Mandate of Palestine was made by the British Peel Commission report of 1937 led by William Peel, 1st Earl Peel . The plan maintained a mandate covering a small area containing Jerusalem and allotted
2318-542: A two-state solution. This received pushback from Israel's government, especially from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu . On 26 September 2024, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide co-chaired a meeting of representatives of about 90 countries, held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, to launch a global alliance to strive for
2440-522: A two-state solution; Israel at times has also supported the idea, but nowadays rejects the creation of a Palestinian state. Long-serving Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in 2015 rejected a Palestinian state. He again rejected a Palestinian state in June 2023. Former Israeli PMs Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert in late 2023 expressed support for a two-state solution. Public support among Israelis and among Palestinians (measured separately) for “the concept of
2562-591: A year. Nonetheless, he continued to excel academically and achieved the rank of either first (valedictorian) or second (salutatorian) out of a class of 160 students. In retrospect, he viewed being sent far from the Middle East as a parental decision much influenced by "the prospects of deracinated people, like us the Palestinians, being so uncertain that it would be best to send me as far away as possible." The realities of peripatetic life—of interwoven cultures, of feeling out of place, and of homesickness—so affected
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#17327761876902684-522: Is an intellectually limiting influence upon scholars, whilst supporters say that the thesis is intellectually liberating. The fields of post-colonial and cultural studies attempt to explain the "post-colonial world, its peoples, and their discontents", for which the techniques of investigation and efficacy in Orientalism , proved especially applicable in Middle Eastern studies . As such,
2806-496: Is derived from Milica Bakić–Hayden's concept of Nesting Orientalisms. In The Impact of "Biblical Orientalism" in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Palestine (2014), the historian Lorenzo Kamel , presented the concept of "Biblical Orientalism" with an historical analysis of the simplifications of the complex, local Palestinian reality, which occurred from the 1830s until the early 20th century. Kamel said that
2928-559: Is supported by many countries, and the Palestinian Authority . Israel currently does not support the idea, though it has in the past. The first proposal for separate Jewish and Arab states in the territory was made by the British Peel Commission report in 1937. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a partition plan for Palestine , leading to the 1948 Palestine war . As
3050-470: Is to be an alternative to the extremist politics of the social-democratic Fatah and the Islamist Hamas . Said's founding of the group, as well as his other international political activities concerning Palestine, were noticed by the U.S. government, and Said came under FBI surveillance, which became more intensive after 1972. David Price , an anthropologist at Evergreen State College , requested
3172-570: The 1949 Armistice Agreements became the de facto borders of the State of Israel. The war resulted in the fleeing or expulsion of 711,000 Palestinians , which the Palestinians call Nakba , from the territories which became the state of Israel. After the 1967 Arab–Israeli war , the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed resolution 242 calling for Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied during
3294-604: The American Expeditionary Forces , subsequently earning United States citizenship for himself and his immediate family. In 1919, Wadie and his cousin established a stationery business in Cairo , Egypt. Although he was raised Protestant, Said became an agnostic in his later years. Said's childhood was split between Jerusalem and Cairo: he was enrolled in Jerusalem's St. George's School ,
3416-526: The Arab League and other Arab leaders and governments rejected it on the basis that Arabs formed a two-thirds majority and owned a majority of the lands. They also indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division, arguing that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN Charter . They announced their intention to take all necessary measures to prevent
3538-796: The Arab Studies Quarterly in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , on the executive board of International PEN , and was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters , the Royal Society of Literature , the Council of Foreign Relations, and the American Philosophical Society . In 1993, Said presented the BBC's annual Reith Lectures , a six-lecture series titled Representation of
3660-594: The Palestinian Authority (PA) banned the sale of Said's books; however, the PA lifted the book ban when Said publicly praised Yasir Arafat for rejecting Prime Minister Ehud Barak 's offers at the Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David (2000) in the U.S. In the mid-1990s, Said wrote the foreword to the history book Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years (1994), by Israel Shahak , about Jewish fundamentalism, which presents
3782-569: The RAND Corporation , found that also 60% of Israelis across the political spectrum were opposed to a two-state solution. The two-state solution enjoyed majority support in Israeli polls although there has been some erosion to its prospects over time. A 2014 Haaretz poll asking "Consider that in the framework of an agreement, most settlers are annexed to Israel, Jerusalem will be divided, refugees won't return to Israel and there will be
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3904-536: The Second Intifada , the violent consequences of which marked a turning point among both peoples’ attitudes. A two-state solution also formed the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative , the 2006–2008 peace offer , and the 2013–14 peace talks . Currently there is no two-state solution proposal being negotiated between Israel and Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority supports the idea of
4026-607: The UN General Assembly voted by 138 to 9, with 46 abstentions to recognize Palestine as a "non-member observer state". On the following day, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced the building of 3,000 new homes on land to the east of East Jerusalem, in an area referred to as "E-1". The move was immediately criticized by several countries, including the United States, with Israeli ambassadors being personally called for meetings with government representatives in
4148-522: The UN Partition Plan of 1947 and "UN resolutions since 1947" in general, was interpreted as an indirect recognition of the State of Israel , and support for a two-state solution. The Partition Plan was invoked to provide legitimacy to Palestinian statehood. Subsequent clarifications were taken to amount to the first explicit Palestinian recognition of Israel. The 2017 Hamas charter presented
4270-546: The United States Army during World War I . After the 1948 Palestine war , he relocated the family to Egypt, where they had previously lived, and then to the United States. Said enrolled at the secondary school Victoria College while in Egypt and Northfield Mount Hermon School after arriving in the United States. He graduated with a BA in English from Princeton University in 1957, and later with an MA (1960) and
4392-597: The West–Eastern Divan Orchestra , which is based in Seville , Spain. Said was also an accomplished pianist, and, with Barenboim, co-authored the book Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (2002), a compilation of their conversations and public discussions about music at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Said was born on 1 November 1935 into a family of Palestinian Christians in
4514-675: The Zionists have any historical claim to the lands of Israel?" Said: "Of course! But I would not say that the Jewish claim, or the Zionist claim, is the only claim or the main claim; I say that it is a claim among many others. Certainly, the Arabs have a much greater claim because they have had a longer history of inhabitance —of actual residence in Palestine— than the Jews did . If you look at
4636-564: The cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism —how the Western world perceives the Orient . His model of textual analysis transformed the academic discourse of researchers in literary theory, literary criticism, and Middle Eastern studies . Born in Jerusalem , Mandatory Palestine , in 1935, Said was a United States citizen by way of his father, who had served in
4758-518: The history of Palestine , there's been some quite interesting work done by biblical archaeologists ... you'll see that the period of actual Israelite —as it was called in the Old Testament —dominance in Palestine amounts to about 200 to 250 years. But there were Moabites , there were Jebusites , there were Canaanites , there were Philistines , there were many other people in Palestine at
4880-458: The ongoing conflict between two people. After the Trump administration 's controversial decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December 2017, Palestinian officials said the policy change "destroys the peace process" and the decision indirectly meant the United States was "abdicating its role as a peace mediator" that could no longer act as a mediator in the peace process because
5002-430: The 2017 charter, Hamas did not recognize Israel. In December 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu returned as Prime Minister of Israel, forming the most right-wing government in Israel's history. Netanyahu's coalition partners rejected the two-state solution. In February 2023, Netanyahu said he would be willing to grant Palestinians autonomy but not sovereignty, and in any future deal Israel would maintain full security control of
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5124-556: The Anglo–American Orientalist, as "a perfect exemplification [of an] Establishment Orientalist [whose work] purports to be objective, liberal scholarship, but is, in reality, very close to being propaganda against his subject material." Lewis responded with a harsh critique of Orientalism accusing Said of politicizing the scientific study of the Middle East (and Arabic studies in particular); neglecting to critique
5246-578: The Arabs, their history and social and political institutions. In 2021, the journal was made open access for all issues published since 2008. Articles appearing in this journal are indexed in the PAIS Bulletin and are annotated and indexed in Historical Abstracts; International Political Science Abstracts; America: History and Life; Political Science Abstracts; Periodica Islamica, and Index of Islamic Literature. The current editor of
5368-521: The Arab–Israeli dispute, or to people who are judged "too conservative." It has nothing to do with whether they are good or not good in their disciplines. So, Orientalism , for many people, is a word that substitutes for thought, and enables people to dismiss certain scholars and their works. I think that is too bad. It may not have been what Edward Saïd meant, at all, but the term has become a kind of slogan. In Orientalism , Said described Bernard Lewis ,
5490-602: The Covenant). The university provost published a five-page letter stating that Said's action was protected under academic freedom : "To my knowledge, the stone was directed at no-one; no law was broken; no indictment was made; no criminal or civil action has been taken against Professor Saïd." In February 2001, the Freud Society in Austria cancelled a lecture by Said due to the stone-throwing incident. The President of
5612-559: The Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian, and Saudi Arabian boys whose academic careers would progress to their becoming ministers, prime ministers, and leading businessmen in their respective countries." However, he was expelled in 1951 for troublesome behaviour, though his academic performance was high. Having relocated to the United States, Said attended Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts —a socially élite, college-prep boarding school where he struggled with social alienation for
5734-718: The FBI file on Said through the Freedom of Information Act on behalf of CounterPunch and published a report there on his findings. The released pages of Said's FBI files show that the FBI read Said's books and reported on their contents to Washington. Besides having been a public intellectual, Edward Said was an accomplished pianist, worked as the music critic for The Nation magazine, and wrote four books about music: Musical Elaborations (1991); Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (2002), with Daniel Barenboim as co-author; On Late Style: Music and Literature Against
5856-428: The Freud Society said "[t]he majority [of the society] decided to cancel the Freud lecture to avoid an internal clash. I deeply regret that this has been done to Professor Said". In the revised edition of Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World (1997), Said criticized the Orientalist bias of the Western news media's reportage about the Middle East and Islam, especially
5978-540: The Gaza Strip, splintering the Palestinian Authority into two polities, each claiming to be the true representatives of the Palestinian people. Fatah controlled the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank and Hamas Governed in Gaza . The latest initiatives were the 2013–14 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks under the guidance of John Kerry , the United States Secretary of State. These talks also failed to reach an agreement. By 2010, when direct talks were scheduled to be restarted, continued growth of settlements on
6100-429: The General Assembly's agenda. In a resolution adopted on 22 November 1974, the General Assembly affirmed Palestinian rights, which included the "right to self-determination without external interference", "the right to national independence and sovereignty", and the "right to return to their homes and property". These rights have been affirmed every year since. The first indication that the PLO would be willing to accept
6222-414: The Grain (2006); and Music at the Limits (2007) in which final book he spoke of finding musical reflections of his literary and historical ideas in bold compositions and strong performances. Elsewhere in the musical world, the composer Mohammed Fairouz acknowledged the deep influence of Edward Said upon his works; compositionally, Fairouz's First Symphony thematically alludes to the essay "Homage to
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#17327761876906344-477: The Intellectual , wherein he examined the role of the public intellectual in contemporary society, which the BBC published in 2011. In his work, Said frequently researches the term and concept of the cultural archive , especially in his book Culture and Imperialism (1993). He states the cultural archive is a major site where investments in imperial conquest are developed, and that these archives include "narratives, histories, and travel tales." Said emphasizes
6466-414: The Israeli parliament passed a resolution that rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state. The resolution passed in the Knesset with 68 votes in favour and nine against it. Netanyahu’s coalition with far-right parties co-sponsored the resolution, while the opposition left the session to avoid supporting the statement. The Palestinian Declaration of Independence of 15 November 1988, which referenced
6588-423: The Jewish leadership. Partition was again proposed by the 1947 UN Partition Plan for the division of Palestine. It proposed a three-way division, again with Jerusalem held separately, under international control. The partition plan was accepted by Jewish Agency for Palestine and most Zionist factions who viewed it as a stepping stone to territorial expansion at an opportune time. The Arab Higher Committee ,
6710-438: The Middle East. As a public intellectual, Said was a member of the Palestinian National Council supporting a two-state solution that incorporated the Palestinian right of return , before resigning in 1993 due to his criticism of the Oslo Accords . He advocated for the establishment of a Palestinian state to ensure political and humanitarian equality in the Israeli-occupied territories , where Palestinians have witnessed
6832-410: The Oslo Accords and convinced many Israelis that the negotiations were in vain. In 2002, Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (who would go on to be King from 2005 to 2015) proposed the Arab Peace Initiative, which garnered the unanimous support of the Arab League while Israeli leaders continually refuse to discuss the initiative. President Bush announced his support for a Palestinian state, opening
6954-432: The Palestinian state being based on the 1967 borders. The text says "Hamas considers the establishment of a Palestinian state, sovereign and complete, on the basis of the June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital and the provision for all the refugees to return to their homeland." This is in contrast to Hamas' 1988 charter, which previously called for a Palestinian state on all of Mandatory Palestine . Nevertheless, even in
7076-429: The Palestinians who talk about a two-state solution are my age." A survey taken before the outbreak of fighting in 2014 by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) found that 60 percent of Palestinians say the goal of their national movement should be "to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine from the river to the sea" compared to just 27 percent who endorse the idea that they should work "to end
7198-435: The Peace Process (2000). During a lecture conference at the University of Washington in 2003, Said affirmed that Israeli Jews had grounds for a territorial claim to Palestine (or the Land of Israel ), but maintained that it was not "the only claim or the main claim" vis-à-vis all of the other ethnic groups (including Jews and Arabs ) who have inhabited the region throughout human history: Halleran: "Professor Said, do
7320-483: The U.S. government in the late 1970s. Especially troublesome to Said was his belief that Yasir Arafat had betrayed the right of return of the Palestinian refugees to their houses and properties in the Green Line territories of pre-1967 Israel , and that Arafat ignored the growing political threat of the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories that had been established since the conquest of Palestine in 1967. In 1995, in response to Said's political criticisms,
7442-408: The United Kingdom, France and Germany, among others. Israel's decision to build the homes was described by the Obama administration as "counterproductive", while Australia said that the building plans "threaten the viability of a two-state solution". This is because they claim the proposed E-1 settlement would physically split the lands under the control of the Palestinian National Authority in two, as
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#17327761876907564-528: The United States had become a party to the dispute instead of neutral intercessor for negotiations. A 2021 survey among 521 scholars who have dedicated their professional lives to the study of this region and its politics, found that 52 percent of respondents believed the two-state solution is no longer possible. If a two-state solution is not achieved, 77 percent predict "a one-state reality akin to apartheid" and 17 percent "one-state reality with increasing inequality, but not akin to apartheid"; one percent think
7686-418: The West Bank and continued strong support of settlements by the Israeli government had greatly reduced the land and resources that would be available to a Palestinian state creating doubt among Palestinians and left-wing Israelis that a two-state solution continued to be viable. In January 2012 the European Union Heads of Mission report on East Jerusalem found that Israel's continuing settlement activities and
7808-472: The West Bank territory to a "shrinking archipelago of enclaves". Proposals have been offered for over 50 post-evacuation compensation of settlers for abandoned property , as occurred following Israel's withdrawal of settlements from Gaza in 2005 and from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982. Some settlers in those previous withdrawals were forcibly removed by the IDF. In a 2002 poll conducted by PIPA , 72% of both Palestinians and Israelis supported at that time
7930-406: The West Bank. In June 2023, Netanyahu told members of the Knesset that Israel must block the creation of a Palestinian state. Later in 2023, despite Israeli PM Netanyahu's statement denying the creation of a Palestinian state as a condition for a normalization with Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman said normalization with Israel was "for the first time real". This
8052-479: The West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, the Barenboim–Said Foundation assists with the administration of the Academy of Orchestral Studies, the Musical Education in Palestine Project, and the Early Childhood Musical Education Project, in Seville. Besides honors, memberships, and postings to prestigious organizations worldwide, Edward Said was awarded some twenty honorary university degrees in the course of his professional life as an academic, critic, and Man of Letters. Among
8174-406: The analytical reader approaches a scripture from the perspective of a colonial reader. Another book in this area is Postcolonial Theory (1998), by Leela Gandhi , explains Post-colonialism in terms of how it can be applied to the wider philosophical and intellectual context of history. In 1967, consequent to the Six-Day War , Said became a public intellectual when he acted politically to counter
8296-436: The article "Resources of Hope" (2 April 2003), Said said that the U.S. war against Iraq was a politically ill-conceived military enterprise. In 2003, Haidar Abdel-Shafi , Ibrahim Dakak, Mustafa Barghouti , and Said established Al-Mubadara (the Palestinian National Initiative ), headed by Barghouti, a third-party reformist, democratic party meant to be an alternative to the usual two-party politics of Palestine. Its ideology
8418-413: The article's talk page . Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University , he was among the founders of post-colonial studies . As a cultural critic , Said is best known for his book Orientalism (1978), a foundational text which critiques
8540-399: The basis of their faith. From 1977 until 1991, Said was an independent member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC). In 1988, he was a proponent of the two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict , and voted for the establishment of the State of Palestine at a meeting of the PNC in Algiers. In 1993, Said quit his membership in the Palestinian National Council, to protest
8662-441: The city of Jerusalem , at the time under the British Mandate for Palestine . His parents were born in the Ottoman Empire : his mother Hilda Said (née Musa) was half Palestinian and half Lebanese, and was raised in the city of Nazareth ; and his father Wadie "William" Said was a Jerusalem-based Palestinian businessman. Both Hilda and Wadie were Arab Christians , adhering to Protestantism . During World War I , Wadie served in
8784-495: The colonial and imperial ambitions of the European powers and of the U.S. Likewise, Said denounced the political and the cultural malpractices of the régimes of the ruling Arab élites who he felt internalized the false and romanticized representations of Arabic culture that were created by Anglo–American Orientalists. Orientalism proposed that much Western study of Islamic civilization was political intellectualism, meant for
8906-401: The company of his son, Wadie, Said revisited the places of his boyhood, and confronted injustices meted out to ordinary Palestinians in the contemporary West Bank . Despite the social and cultural prestige afforded to BBC cinema products in the U.S., the documentary was never broadcast by any American television company. On 3 July 2000, whilst touring the Middle East with his son, Wadie, Said
9028-572: The concept of Nesting Orientalisms (1992), derived from the ideas of the historian Larry Wolff ( Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment , 1994) and Said's ideas in Orientalism (1978). The Bulgarian historian Maria Todorova ( Imagining the Balkans , 1997) presented the ethnologic concept of Nesting Balkanisms ( Ethnologia Balkanica , 1997), which
9150-418: The cultural proposition that Israel's mistreatment of the Palestinians is rooted in a Judaic requirement (of permission) for Jews to commit crimes, including murder, against Gentiles (non-Jews). In his foreword, Said said that Jewish History, Jewish Religion is "nothing less than a concise history of classic and modern Judaism , insofar as these are relevant to the understanding of modern Israel"; and praised
9272-489: The existing settlements have been constructed since the Oslo Accords . The establishment and expansion of the illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank constitute a major challenge to the possibility of a two-state solution by "violating Palestinian sovereignty, threatening civil peace and security, jeopardizing water resources, and blocking agricultural development." This has progressively reduced Area A and B of
9394-640: The extent of the PNA's authority does not extend all the way to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea . Israel's Labor party has voiced support for the two-state solution, with Isaac Herzog stating it would be "in Israel's interests". in March 2015, Netanyahu declared that a Palestinian state would not be established during his administration, while he also stated that he disapproved the one-state solution for
9516-514: The field of post-colonial studies , for what the British intellectual Terry Eagleton said is the book's "central truth ... that demeaning images of the East, and imperialist incursions into its terrain, have historically gone hand in hand." Both Said's supporters and his critics acknowledge the transformative influence of Orientalism upon scholarship in the humanities; critics say that the thesis
9638-628: The fragile situation of the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem, as well in area C, was making a two-state solution less likely. The Israeli Foreign Ministry rejected this EU report, claiming it was "based on a partial, biased and one sided depiction of realities on the ground." In May 2012, the EU council stressed its "deep concern about developments on the ground which threaten to make a two-state solution impossible'. On 29 November 2012,
9760-533: The framework for how much of Israel's political borders with the Palestinian territories function today. The Accords culminated in the Camp David 2000 Summit , and follow-up negotiations at Taba in January 2001, which built explicitly on a two-state framework, but no final agreement was ever reached. The violent outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000 had demonstrated the Palestinian public's disillusionment with
9882-487: The historian Shahak for describing contemporary Israel as a nation subsumed in a "Judeo–Nazi" cultural ambiance that allowed the dehumanization of the Palestinian Other : In all my works, I remained fundamentally critical of a gloating and uncritical nationalism. ... My view of Palestine ... remains the same today: I expressed all sorts of reservations about the insouciant nativism, and militant militarism of
10004-476: The historical and cultural realities of the peoples represented in the Middle East, featured in journalism (print, photograph, television) and some types of scholarship (specialist journals). In the essay " Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims " (1979), Said argued in favour of the political legitimacy and philosophical authenticity of the claims and right to a Jewish homeland , while also asserting
10126-489: The honors bestowed to him were: Two-state solution The two-state solution is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict , by creating two states on the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine . It is often contrasted with the one-state solution , which is the establishment a single state in former Mandatory Palestine with equal rights for all its inhabitants. The two-state solution
10248-603: The idea of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, but without recognising the statehood of Israel. Diplomatic efforts have centred around realizing a two-state solution, starting from the failed 2000 Camp David Summit and the Clinton Parameters , followed by the Taba Summit in 2001. The failure of the Camp David summit to reach an agreed two-state solution formed the backdrop to the commencement of
10370-607: The implementation of the resolution. Subsequently, the Intercommunal conflict in Palestine gave way to civil war and the plan was not implemented. At the end of the British Mandate, with the establishment of the State of Israel and entry of Arab regular armies into what had been Mandatory Palestine, the 1948 war became an international conflict . At the end of the war, the Green Line established by
10492-464: The increased expansion of Israeli settlements . However, in 1999, he argued that sustainable peace was only possible with one Israeli–Palestinian state . He defined his oppositional relation with the Israeli status quo as the remit of the public intellectual who has "to sift, to judge, to criticize, to choose, so that choice and agency return to the individual" man and woman. In 1999, Said and Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim co-founded
10614-608: The internal politics that led to the signing of the Oslo Accords (Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, 1993), which he thought had unacceptable terms, and because the terms had been rejected by the Madrid Conference of 1991 . Said disliked the Oslo Accords for not producing an independent State of Palestine, and because they were politically inferior to a plan that Yasir Arafat had rejected—a plan Said had presented to Arafat on behalf of
10736-468: The investigation and analysis Said applied in Orientalism proved especially practical in literary criticism and cultural studies , such as the post-colonial histories of India by Gyan Prakash , Nicholas Dirks and Ronald Inden , modern Cambodia by Simon Springer, and the literary theories of Homi K. Bhabha , Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Hamid Dabashi ( Iran: A People Interrupted , 2007). In Eastern Europe , Milica Bakić–Hayden developed
10858-552: The journal is Ibrahim Aoude of the University of Hawaii . This article about a philology journal is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See tips for writing articles about academic journals . Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page . This article about a journal on area studies is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See tips for writing articles about academic journals . Further suggestions might be found on
10980-419: The lack of a Palestinian state as a cause of the war. The Associated Press wrote that Palestinians are "in despair over a never-ending occupation in the West Bank and suffocating blockade of Gaza". After Netanyahu invaded Gaza , he once again reiterated his opposition to the existence of a Palestinian state. Security Council resolutions dating back to June 1976 supporting the two-state solution based on
11102-595: The languages, histories, and peoples of Asia. Therefore, Orientalist scholarship implies that the colonial subaltern (the colonised people) were incapable of thinking, acting, or speaking for themselves, thus are incapable of writing their own national histories. In such imperial circumstances, the Orientalist scholars of the West wrote the history of the Orient—and so constructed the modern, cultural identities of Asia—from
11224-420: The nationalist consensus; I suggested, instead, a critical look at the Arab environment, Palestinian history, and the Israeli realities, with the explicit conclusion that only a negotiated settlement, between the two communities of suffering, Arab and Jewish, would provide respite from the unending war. In 1998, Said made In Search of Palestine (1998), a BBC documentary film about Palestine, past and present. In
11346-425: The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and achieve a two-state solution." WINEP says that "this is a new finding compared to similar (but not identical) questions asked in the past, when support for a two-state solution typically ranged between 40–55 percent". By 2020, 40% in Gaza and 26% in the West Bank believe that a negotiated two-state solution should solve the conflict. Another report, published also in 2021 by
11468-477: The only acceptable criterion for true knowledge." The appearance of academic impartiality was part of Lewis's role as an academic authority for zealous "anti–Islamic, anti–Arab, Zionist, and Cold War crusades." Moreover, in the Afterword to the 1995 edition of the book, Said replied to Lewis's criticisms of the first edition of Orientalism (1978). In the academy, Orientalism became a foundational text of
11590-494: The other side would never accept the existence of their independent state. At the end of October 2023, the two-state solution had the support of 71.9% of Israeli Arabs and 28.6% of Israeli Jews. Prior to the October 7 attack , according to Gallup , just 24% of Palestinians supported a two-state solution, a drop from 59% in 2012. Ehud Olmert , Israel's Prime Minister from 2006 to 2009, told Politico on 16 October 2023 that
11712-474: The perspective that the West is the cultural standard to emulate, the norm from which the "exotic and inscrutable" Orientals deviate. Orientalism provoked much professional and personal criticism for Said among academics. Traditional Orientalists, such as Albert Hourani , Robert Graham Irwin , Nikki Keddie , Bernard Lewis , and Kanan Makiya , suffered negative consequences, because Orientalism affected public perception of their intellectual integrity and
11834-514: The poorest lands of Palestine, including the Negev Desert , and areas that are known today as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to the Arabs; while most of the coastline and some of Palestine's most fertile agricultural land in the Galilee were allotted to the Jews. Consequently, the recommended partition proposal was rejected by the Arab community of Palestine, and was accepted by most of
11956-610: The pre-1967 lines were vetoed by the United States, which supports a two-state solution but argued that the borders must be negotiated directly by the parties. After the First Intifada began in 1987, considerable diplomatic work went into negotiations between the parties, beginning with the Madrid Conference in 1991. The most significant of these negotiations was the Oslo Accords, which officially divided Palestinian land into three administrative divisions and created
12078-414: The quality of their Orientalist scholarship . The historian Keddie said that Said's critical work about the field of Orientalism had caused, in their academic disciplines: Some unfortunate consequences ... I think that there has been a tendency in the Middle East [studies] field to adopt the word Orientalism as a generalized swear-word, essentially referring to people who take the "wrong" position on
12200-747: The role of the Western imperial project in the disruption of cultural archives, and theorizes that disciplines such as comparative literature, English, and anthropology can be directly linked to the concept of empire. Said's first published book, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography (1966), was an expansion of the doctoral dissertation he presented to earn the PhD degree. Abdirahman Hussein said in Edward Saïd: Criticism and Society (2010), that Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness (1899)
12322-539: The scholarly findings of the Orientalists; and giving "free rein" to his biases. Said retorted that in The Muslim Discovery of Europe (1982), Lewis responded to his thesis with the claim that the Western quest for knowledge about other societies was unique in its display of disinterested curiosity, which Muslims did not reciprocate towards Europe. Lewis was saying that "knowledge about Europe [was]
12444-632: The schoolboy Edward that themes of dissonance feature in the work and worldview of the academic Said. At school's end, he had become Edward W. Said—a polyglot intellectual (fluent in English, French, and Arabic). He graduated with an A.B. in English from Princeton University in 1957 after completing a senior thesis titled "The Moral Vision: André Gide and Graham Greene ." He later received Master of Arts (1960) and Doctor of Philosophy (1964) degrees in English Literature from Harvard University . In 1963, Said joined Columbia University as
12566-495: The selective usage and simplification of religion, in approaching the place known as "The Holy Land", created a view that, as a place, the Holy Land has no human history other than as the place where Bible stories occurred, rather than as Palestine, a country inhabited by many peoples. The post-colonial discourse presented in Orientalism , also influenced post-colonial theology and post-colonial biblical criticism, by which method
12688-603: The self-affirmation of European identity, rather than objective academic study; thus, the academic field of Oriental studies functioned as a practical method of cultural discrimination and imperialist domination—that is to say, the Western Orientalist knows more about "the Orient" than do "the Orientals." Western Art, Orientalism continues, has misrepresented the Orient with stereotypes since Antiquity , as in
12810-660: The simultaneously inherent right of national self-determination for the Palestinian people . He also characterized Israel's founding as it happened, the displacement of the Palestinian Arabs that accompanied it, and the subjugation of the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories as a manifestation of Western-style imperialism . His books on this topic include The Question of Palestine (1979), The Politics of Dispossession (1994), and The End of
12932-462: The source of the false cultural representations in western-eastern relations. The thesis of Orientalism proposes the existence of a "subtle and persistent Eurocentric prejudice against Arabo–Islamic peoples and their culture", which originates from Western culture 's long tradition of false, romanticized images of Asia, in general, and the Middle East in particular. Said wrote that such cultural representations have served as implicit justifications for
13054-594: The stereotyped misrepresentations (factual, historical, cultural) with which American news media explained the Arab–Israeli conflict ; reportage divorced from the historical realities of the Middle East , in general, and from Israel and the Palestinian territories , in particular. To address, explain, and correct such perceived orientalism , Said published The Arab Portrayed (1968), a descriptive essay about images of "the Arab " that are meant to evade specific discussion of
13176-688: The tendency to editorialize "speculations about the latest conspiracy to blow up buildings, sabotage commercial airliners, and poison water supplies." He criticized the American military involvement in the Kosovo War (1998–99) as an imperial action; and described the Iraq Liberation Act (1998), promulgated during the Clinton Administration, as the political license that predisposed the U.S. to invade Iraq in 2003, which
13298-509: The time and before and after. And to isolate one of them and say, 'That's the real owner of the land,' I mean, that is—that is fundamentalism. Because the only way you can back it up is say, 'Well, God gave it to us .' [...] So, I think the people who have a history of residence in Palestine for a certain amount of time—including Jews, yes, and, of course, the Arabs—have a claim. But... this is very important: I don't think any claim [...] nobody has
13420-494: The tragedy The Persians (472 BCE), by Aeschylus , where the Greek protagonist falls because he misperceived the true nature of The Orient. The European political domination of Asia has biased even the most outwardly objective Western texts about The Orient, to a degree unrecognized by the Western scholars who appropriated for themselves the production of cultural knowledge—the academic work of studying, exploring, and interpreting
13542-460: The two-state solution "is the only real political solution for this lifelong conflict". On 6 November 2023, he told CBC that "a two-state solution should still be the goal of the Israeli government". Ehud Barak , Israel's Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001 and Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2013, told TIME on 6 November 2023 that "The right way is to look to the two-state solution". Interviewed by Ezra Klein on 8 December 2023, Nimrod Novik,
13664-420: The two-state solution” etc. have varied between far above and far below 50%, depending partly on how the question was phrased. The major points of contention include the specific boundaries of the two states (though most proposals are based on the 1967 lines ), the status of Jerusalem , the Israeli settlements and the right of return of Palestinian refugees . Observers have described the current situation in
13786-486: The war, in exchange for "termination of all claims or states of belligerency" and "acknowledgement of sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the area". The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which had been formed in 1964, strongly criticized the resolution, saying that it reduced the question of Palestine to a refugee problem. In September 1974, 56 member states proposed that "the question of Palestine" be included as an item in
13908-619: The way for United Nations Security Council Resolution 1397 , supporting a two-state solution. At the Annapolis Conference in November 2007, three major parties—The PLO, Israel, and the US—agreed on a two-state solution as the outline for negotiations. However, the summit failed to achieve an agreement. Following the conflict that erupted between the two main Palestinian parties, Fatah and Hamas , Hamas took control of
14030-419: The whole territory, with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and blockade of the Gaza Strip , as one of de facto Israeli sovereignty. The two-state solution is an alternative to the one-state solution and what observers consider a de facto one-state reality. Following the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent Israel–Hamas war , multiple governments restarted discussions on
14152-419: Was occupied by Egypt but never annexed. Since the 1967 Six-Day War , both the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip have been militarily occupied by Israel, becoming known as the Palestinian territories . The Palestine Liberation Organization has accepted the concept of a two-state solution since the 1982 Arab Summit. In 2017, Hamas announced their revised charter , which claims to accept
14274-425: Was "foundational to Said's entire career and project". In Beginnings: Intention and Method (1974), Said analyzed the theoretical bases of literary criticism by drawing on the insights of Vico , Valéry , Nietzsche , de Saussure , Lévi-Strauss , Husserl , and Foucault . Said's later works included Said became an established cultural critic with the book Orientalism (1978), a critique of Orientalism as
14396-672: Was an apparent reversal of Saudi policy, articulated in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative , when Saudi Arabia had offered Israel normalization with the whole Arab world if Israel allows the creation of a Palestinian state. Israeli and other officials involved in the negotiations confirmed that the Saudis were considering normalization with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state. Many Palestinians worried that Israeli-Saudi normalization would cost them their last significant leverage for Palestinian statehood. In October 2023, Hamas launched an attack on Israel. Numerous sources identified
14518-564: Was authorised with the Iraq Resolution (2 October 2002); and the continual support of Israel by successive U.S. presidential governments, as actions meant to perpetuate regional political instability in the Middle East. In the event, despite being sick with leukemia, as a public intellectual, Said continued criticising the U.S. Invasion of Iraq in mid-2003; and, in the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly newspaper, in
14640-548: Was photographed throwing a stone across the Blue Line Lebanese–Israel border , which image elicited much political criticism about his action demonstrating an inherent, personal sympathy with terrorism; and, in Commentary magazine, the journalist Edward Alexander labelled Said as "The Professor of Terror", for aggression against Israel. Said explained the stone-throwing as a two-fold action, personal and political;
14762-419: Was ranked second. Some researchers argue that the two-state solution has already been implemented because Jordan , which makes up 78% of the former Mandatory Palestine, was originally created as a state for the Arabs. In December 2022, support for a two-state solution was 33% among Palestinians, 34% among Israeli Jews, and 60% among Israeli Arabs . 82% of Israeli Jews and 75% of Palestinians believed that
14884-666: Was the Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities; and in 1979 was Visiting Professor of Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. Said also worked as a visiting professor at Yale University , and lectured at more than 200 other universities in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. In 1992, Said was promoted to full professor. Editorially, Said served as president of the Modern Language Association , as editor of
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