It is in times like these that the absence of Edward W. Said's stellar critical voice is most deeply felt; he was one of twentieth century's most influential thinkers, a groundbreaking cultural theorist and a public intellectual of paradigmatic integrity. The first of the following videos provides a concise overview of his life and work, and the second focuses on his pivotal work on Orientalism; the third video is a discussion between Judith Butler and Cornel West that took place last year at Columbia University in honour of Edward Said, ten years after his death; as Butler eloquently put it, when we address Said's work, we speak in the present tense.
All of the above videos include extensive and informative references to the Palestinian cause, which Edward Said addressed both as a scholar and a public speaker. In the following excerpt from a lecture he gave at the University of
Washington a few months before his death, he characteristically argues that Israel has to end its illegal occupation of Palestine; that it has to respect and comply with international law and the
long-standing United Nations resolutions and withdraw from the occupied
territories of 1967; and that this is a land of two peoples who have to live in equality and full self-determination, instead of one people on top of the other (4.10-6.20, the full lecture is available here).
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