Smearing Said and Hanan Ashrawi

[bluesoul]

By ROBERT FISK

Is "Palestinian" now just a dirty word? Or is "Arab" the dirty word? Let's start with the late Edward Said, the brilliant and passionate Palestinian-American academic who wrote--among many other books--Orientalism, the ground-breaking work which first explored our imperial Western fantasies about the Middle East. After he died of leukaemia last month, Zev Chafets sneered at him in the New York Daily News in the following words: "As an Episcopalian, he's ineligible for the customary 72 virgins, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's honoured with a couple of female doctoral graduates."

According to Chafets, who (says the Post) spent 33 years "in politics, government and journalism" in Jerusalem, Orientalism "rests on a simple thesis: Westerners are inherently unable to fairly judge, or even grasp, the Arab world." Said "didn't blow up the Marines in Lebanon in 1983 ... he certainly didn't fly a plane into the World Trade Centre. What he did was to jam America's intellectual radar."

When I read this vicious obituary, I recalled hearing Chafets' name before. So I turned to my files and up he popped in 1982, as former director of the Israeli government press office in Jerusalem. He had just published a book falsely claiming that Western journalists in Beirut--myself among them--had been "terrorised" by bands of Palestinians. He even claimed my old friend Sean Toolan, who was murdered by a jealous husband with whose wife he was having an affair, was killed by Palestinians because they disapproved of a US television programme about the PLO.

<snip>

http://www.counterpunch.org/fisk11042003.html

[bobbieinok]

1. questions about the book Orientalism??

read the book.

When I did my dissertation, I learned about some of the people he wrote about. He was quite accurate about them.

[Saudade]

2. Pitiful

Chafets:

"Orientalism "rests on a simple thesis: Westerners are inherently unable to fairly judge, or even grasp, the Arab world."

Apparently Chefets either never bothered to read Orientalism or didn't understand it.

Said would never have said that any human being is "inherently unable" to do anything.

In fact, this is exactly the sort of spurious essentialism that characterizes "Orientalism" as an intellectual and cultural institution. (Arabs are "inherently unable to judge, grasp, etc.")

Anyone vaguely familiar with Said's work (which does not include the loathesome Chafets) knows that "orientalism" designates not an "inherent inability to judge fairly" but a systematic refusal to judge fairly, etc, a refusal that has been inherited and become a part of western institutions of scholarship, aesthetics, politics, journalism and so on.

Said showed us how to free ourselves of this institutional blindness, which, of course, would not be possible were it an "inherent inability."

What a jackass.

[Paschall]

3. Thanks for the link

I'm surprised to learn Said was an Episcopalian. From what I understand Ashwari also was raised as an Episcopalian.

I hope the Sydney prize committe will have courage enough to stand by their jury's decision.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. They will...

I can't see them backing down over such obviously vindictive and dishonest whining, and I can't see Bob Carr refusing to present the award. So what if Sydney Uni, part of the Gang of Eight, refused to allow the Great Hall to be used? Big fucking deal. The hallowed halls of the Opera House can be used for the final of Australian Idol, so it's clear that venue doesn't reflect the importance of the event. If I wasn't too lazy and my car wasn't such a death-trap, I'd drive the two hours to watch Hanan Aswrawi be presented her award, even if it was at the McDonalds at Fairfield. What I've learnt from this is there are some who'd have us believe there's no such thing as a moderate Palestinian, no matter how much they denounce suicide bombings. If they dare to mention that Israel is occupying territory that doesn't belong to them and that the Palestinian people are suffering, then obviously they're a Terrorist Sympathiser!

Violet...

[sushi]

6. I'm glad

Bob Carr didn't capitulate. He did give Hanan Ashrawi her peace prize.

The Premier spoke with affection, praising Dr Ashrawi's achievements and having a dig at her critics for judging the situation in the Middle East from a safe distance.

"We are all uncomfortably aware that for you those things are not an academic argument, they are the life you have lived every day."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s984100.htm

[Forkboy]

4. Wow

One thing that struck me was that we're seeing these same tactics right here.