Talk:Edward Said

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Said's response to 1999 Commentary reporting[edit]

Hello, the Palestinian National Council subsection (under the Politics section) currently ends with several lines about an investigation by Commentary in 1999 that seem to call into question Said's "claims" about his "Palestinian boyhood". Said's response to these criticisms is not mentioned. Based on this interview, I would like to suggest an addition at the end of the current section, something like:

"Said responded to these reports, noting that he had described his upbringing as being split between Jerusalem, Cairo and Lebanon in his 1999 memoir, Out of Place. Said claimed that Commentary's investigation was intended to discredit Palestinian activism more broadly, stating: "If they can prove that the leading Palestinian intellectual is a liar, what does this say about the rest of the Palestinians?" 2600:4041:5369:5D00:891C:5A13:4FAC:93A4 (talk) 18:26, 29 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I read the paragraph in the PW article you cite, but it is underwhelming. At most, per WP:BALASP, I would write: Said responded that Commentary's investigation was intended to discredit Palestinian activism by discrediting him. -- Ssilvers (talk) 18:11, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Still a GA?[edit]

For anyone who follows this page (or anyone who reviews this sort of thing), do you think this article is still a GA? It looks to me like it has accumulated quite a bit of cruft and varous pet peeves since it was promoted. -- Ssilvers (talk) 18:14, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Looks fine to me. All it needs is a bit of cleaning up for the post 2010 stuff. Cleanitupjanny (talk) 03:02, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

2 editors have already done some cleanup work on it, since I posted the question. Feel free to help out. Happy editing. -- Ssilvers (talk) 03:17, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 21 October 2023[edit]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

I would like to add Edward Said’s son in the info box, Wadie Said, who’s also an accomplished academic. Mauliddin mutz (talk) 07:12, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: this is not the right page to request additional user rights. You may reopen this request with the specific changes to be made and someone may add them for you. By "specific", this means you would provide the exact prose to insert, where to insert it, and relevant reliable sources which support the addition. —Sirdog (talk) 07:19, 21 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

UNDUE content removed[edit]

I have removed this UNDUE content, cited to this source, which has demonstrable errors.

Silvers was editor of the Review between the 1963 founding and his 2017 death.
Obituaries for his brother – who the source claims lived in Israel at the time – show he did not.
These articles by and about Said were published in the Review during that time frame,
including this long letter from Said in 1982.
"He told me" in a non-peer reviewed essay is hearsay; considering the demonstrable inaccuracies in the source, they can be considered UNDUE, and the source is suspect.

SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:30, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And a few more Said publications in the Review:

1984: Chomsky's 'Fateful Triangle': An Exchange
1989: 'The Satanic Verses'
1982: Facing Deportation

SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:11, 13 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Said's father is a Palestinian-American[edit]

Said's father should be identified as a Palestinian-American. According to the Guardian's obituary "His father Wadie, a Christian, had emigrated to the US before the first world war. He volunteered for service in France and returned to the Middle East as a respectable Protestant businessman - with American citizenship - before making an arranged marriage to the daughter of a Baptist minister from Nazareth. In Out Of Place (1999), the memoir of his childhood and youth, Said described his father, who called himself William to emphasise his adopted American identity, as overbearing and uncommunicative."

So while Said's father was born in Palestine (during Ottoman times), he emigrated to the US and later gained citizenship during military service. He returned to the region, then under British control, as an American expat to do business. He married a local woman and raised children. But there is no indication Said's father gave up his citizenship in the US despite living and working in Palestine and Egypt.

So he should be identified as Palestinian-American. Compare his identity to that of Shireen Abu Akleh who is identified as "Palestinian-American" because she gained American citizenship during her adulthood but lived most of her life in the Middle East (mostly the Palestinian Territory of the West Bank and also partially in Jordan). If she is Palestinian-American than so is Said's father.

So the sentence "His parents were born in the Ottoman Empire: his mother Hilda Said (née Musa) was half Palestinian and half Lebanese, and was raised in the city of Nazareth; and his father Wadie "William" Said was a Jerusalem-based Palestinian businessman." should instead read "...Wadie "William" Said was a Jerusalem-based Palestinian-American businessman."ItsRainingCatsAndDogsAndMen (talk) 15:43, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]