The Question of Palestine
Edward W. Said
Said's foundational political essay placed the Palestinian experience at the center of modern history and demanded that Palestinians be heard as a people, not a problem.
Published in 1979, The Question of Palestine was the first major work to present the Palestinian case to a Western readership in its own terms. Said traces the fatal collision between Zionism and the indigenous population of Palestine, arguing that the conflict is not an ancient religious feud but a modern political question of dispossession and denied self-determination. He writes with equal force about the “web of racism, cultural stereotypes, political imperialism” through which Palestinians had been rendered invisible in the West.
The book remains startlingly current: its account of how Palestinians came to be treated as an obstacle to someone else’s redemption still frames much of the debate today. A 1992 Vintage edition added a new introduction and epilogue assessing the intifada and the run-up to Oslo.
About the author
Edward W. Said (1935–2003) was born in Jerusalem and became one of the most influential public intellectuals of his era — a professor of literature at Columbia University, a founder of postcolonial studies, and an unwavering advocate for Palestinian rights. He served on the Palestinian National Council and wrote extensively for both academic and general audiences.
Details
- Originally published by Times Books, New York, 1979
- Vintage Books edition, 1992, with new introduction and epilogue
- ISBN 0-679-73988-2 (Vintage edition)