Thoughts on Edward Said

Edward Said once said, “ Remember the solidarity shown to Palestine here and everywhere…and remember also that there is a cause to which many people have committed themselves. Why? Because it is a just cause, a noble ideal, a moral quest for equality and human rights.” In these words perhaps one can sense the conviction of Edward Said, the activist, the intellectual, the humanist, the dissident, the abiding and radiant light in a world suffused with darkness. It is difficult if not impossible to estimate the influence that Said had on a whole generation of individuals like myself; how he made us rethink our priorities, question the purpose of our scholarship and refashion our beliefs and ideas; above all perhaps how he placed the plight of the Palestinian people and oppressed people generally squarely within our lived realities so that the struggle for the liberation of Palestine became our struggle as Khalil Barhoum stated in the Jordan Times Said “provided us with a moral co...