A GREAT PALESTINIAN SCHOLAR PASSES AWAY

 

The news of Edward Said's death saddens me deeply. He was the most articulate and enduring Arab spokesman for Palestine and my earliest source of information about the plight of the Palestinians. His lucid writing, in both his books and articles, not only made his ideas easy to comprehend, but it distinguished him as one of the great political commentators of our time.
 
For me, his writings never received enough praise from those he defended and cared about, and they brought undeserved scorn, and worse, from those he criticized. Some of the Zionist thugs "honoured" him with death threats, vituperative personal attacks and the torching of his office. In their rabid hatred of any serious critic of Israel, they must now be celebrating the rest of the world's loss. 
 
Throughout, Professor Said persevered courageously and published the facts and comments that had failed to come from other pens. His death is a loss that I personally mourn; and what he accomplished represents a remarkably outstanding body of work, a tribute to Arabs generally, and the finest defence of Palestinians available to the English speaking world.

Also see: "World-renowned scholar Edward Said dies" (Guardian, 25 September 2003)