| WASHINGTON
- September 26 - 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.
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