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Greens Note With Great Sadness the Death of Edward Said. |
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Friday, September 26, 2003 Contacts: WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Members of the Green Party of the United States are mourning the death and celebrating the life of Edward Said, the Palestinian scholar and political writer who passed away on Thursday, September 25. "Professor Said was a model for many of us in the Green Party," said Ben Manski, Co-Chair of the Green Party of the United States. "We read his articles regularly, and we admired the principled stands he repeatedly made for human rights, democracy, and nonviolence. He condemned the terrorism that the Israeli state visited against Palestinians, and the terrorism that Palestinians inflicted on Israelis. Professor Said insisted that democracy, equality, and adherence to international law and justice were the only solutions to the crisis. In his absence, the Green Party will continue to voice the humanist values he defended." "He spoke out on behalf of Ralph Nader in the 2000 election and was heartened by our party and the possibilities it presented," said Connecticut Green Justine McCabe, Ph.D., an anthropologist who has done research in the Middle East and is member of the party's International Committee. "Edward Said embodied that great combination of high intellence, superb scholarship and political activism. Perhaps most significant for Greens was his constant reminder that political events and history are not 'natural' -- they're not like a rock or a tree; but are made and unmade by men and women. Said provided great hope that if we keep at it, we can change the course of events." "Edward Said criticized both the lawless violence of the government of Israel and the corrupt despots of Arab nations, including the Palestinian Authority, and he held the US responsible for supporting both," said Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ph.D., Palestinian-American Professor of Genetics at Yale Medical School and a Connecticut Green. "It helped that Professor Said was an excellent writer, with an encyclopedic knowledge and profound understanding of literature and music, and wasn't afraid to voice independent opinions. Books like 'Orientalism' and 'Culture and Imperialism' helped lay the basis for multicultural studies, the recognition of diverse ethnic literary voices, and the complex historical relationship between the imperial West and the 'exotic,' exploitable Muslim east." Greens note that Edward Said correctly foresaw the collapse of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which forced a dependent and inferior status on the Palestinian territories, rendering them vulnerable to Israeli settlements, dispossession, and state brutality. "To me, Edward Said was one of those rare philosopher kings whose politics emerged as poetry," said Ross Mirkarimi, spokesperson for the California Green Party, who has worked in the Middle East on humanitarian issues. MORE INFORMATION search:
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