In keeping with worldwide tribute to an important intellectual,
memorial services for Edward W. Said, a prolific yet controversial
writer and supporter of the Palestinian movement, will be held at
UCLA on Saturday.
The event, sponsored by the United Arab Society of UCLA and
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, will reflect on the
life and legacy of the well-known writer and social critic.
Edward W. Said died on Sept. 25, in a New York hospital. He had
suffered from chronic lymphoid leukemia since 1992.
Like his life, memorial services for Said have taken an
international scope, with tributes taking place in Britain, Brazil
and numerous other countries.
Said was perhaps the most prominent advocate of Palestinian
independence in the United States, and sometimes expressed views
more radical than those of Palestinian leadership members. At
times, he sharply criticized Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for
being too lenient when he dealt with Israel.
In 2000 Said stirred controversy when he threw a rock toward an
Israeli guardhouse on the Lebanese border. Said was a Columbia
University professor at the time.
Though he denounced terrorism and suicide bombings, Said accused
Israel and its “homicidal” prime minister, Ariel
Sharon, of worse “barbarity” against unarmed
Palestinians.
“Are Palestinian civilian men, women and children no more
than rats or cockroaches that can be attacked and killed in the
thousands without so much as a word of compassion or in their
defense?” he wrote last year in The Nation, a liberal U.S.
magazine.
Said was a prominent member of the Palestinian
parliament-in-exile for 14 years, until he finally stepped down in
1991.
After the signing of the Oslo peace accords two years later
between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Said
criticized Arafat because he believed the PLO leader had sold out
the Palestinian cause.
In a lecture at Tufts University, Said said Arafat and the
Palestinian Authority “have become willing collaborators with
the (Israeli) military occupation, a sort of Vichy government for
Palestinians.”
On Feb. 20 Said visited the UCLA community to speak about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, addressing a crowd of some 1,800.
Said said the current Israeli occupation of the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip is brutal, citing widespread violations of
Palestinian human rights.
During that forum, UCLA Hillel’s Rabbi Chaim
Seidler-Feller disagreed with some of Said’s statements,
particularly that the Jews in Palestine in 1948 drove out 800,000
Palestinians in an unprovoked attack.
Said had a strong stance on an emotionally charged and
controversial subject, and many see him as an important
intellectual and inspiration.
Sondra Hale, a professor of anthropology and women’s
studies at UCLA, considers Said “one of the important
thinkers of the 20th century.”
Hale, who met Said, said she had been influenced by his works,
and she is currently co-organizing a symposium intended to
highlight the various contributions Said has had on a number of
disciplines.
“His accomplishments, academic and humanistic, often get
overlooked because of his stand for the Palestinian cause,”
she said.
His 1978 work, “Orientalism,” focused on the history
of the West “(coming) to terms” with the so-called
“Muslim Orient.” The book helped launch a new academic
field of post-colonial studies.
Miriam Segura, a second-year biology student and member of the
student board at Hillel, felt it was important to memorialize
Said’s life.
“It’s important to memorialize someone’s life,
irrespective of whether or not one agrees with his or her
politics,” she said.
With reports from Bruin wire services. The memorial service
will take place at Schoenberg Hall on Saturday at 7 p.m.