4
O
viedo
| C
ampoamor
T
heatre
| 25
th
O
ctober
2002
As a Palestinian born in Jerusalem my national history and the society of my forbears was
shattered in 1948 when Israel was established. Since that time—the better part of my own lifetime—
I have participated in the struggle not just to bring justice and restitution to my people, but also
to keep the hope for self-determination alive. Our modern history as a people has been full of
unacknowledged suffering and continued dispossession. As an American living a life of privilege
and study at Columbia University, where I have been incredibly fortunate in my career as a teacher,
I came to the realization very early on that I had the choice either of forgetting my past as well as
the many members of my family who were rendered homeless refugees in 1948, or of dedicating
myself to lessening the traumas of suffering and dispossession by writing, speaking, testifying to
the tragedy of Palestine. I am proud to say that I chose the latter course, and with it the cause of a
non-militaristic and non-imperial American policy. I have always believed in the primacy not of
armed struggle, but of rational argument, openness and honesty, all deployed in the interests not of
exclusion, but of inclusion. How to reconcile the reality of an oppressed people, much abused and
ignored as having no political and human rights, with the reality of another people, whose history
of persecution an genocide unjustly, in my opinion, overrode the presence of an indigenous people
in the march toward self-determination? That was the issue. It involved the cooperation of many
people, many colleagues and like-minded friends, Arabs and Jews, and non-Arabs and non-Jews,
whose passion for justice brought them together with the people of Palestine, suffering under
Israeli military occupation for 35 years. That suffering as well as the dispossession of the entire
Palestinian nation in exile cried out for acknowledgement and justice.
It has been a hard fight, and we are far from nearing its end. Daily sacrifices are made by
courageous Palestinian men and women who go on with their lives despite curfews, house
demolitions, killings, mass detentions, and land expropriation. But we are always in need of moral
support, we need to grip the world’s imagination, we need to show those who believe Palestine/
Israel is the land of only one people that it is a land for two peoples who can neither exterminate
nor expel each other, but must somehow approach each other as equals with equal rights to live in
peace and security, together.
Edward Said
—
Prince of Asturias Award
for Concord
2002
Excerpt from the speech given on
the occasion of receiving the Prince
of Asturias Award for Concord on
25/10/2002.
