Edward Said: Spokesperson for Palestine, Liar

This is not some anti-Palestine Zionist rant. I don't do those. But I will say that in academia you find this guy mentioned a lot. His most famous book is Orientalism (which I will not even provide a link for).

Thanks to Justus Weiner for exposing many of the outright blatant lies of Edward Said, though. Bravo! Or should I say mozel tov? Whatever...

When I say 'lies', I do mean lies, not incorrect opinions, or what have you. Here is one example:

The unraveling of this mystery began as I was preparing an article on "Peace and its Discontents: Israeli and Palestinian Intellectuals Who Oppose the Current Peace Process," which appeared in the Cornell International Law Journal (Winter 1996). Part of my research included reading Said's book Peace and its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process.

Out of natural curiosity, I tried to find out more about this highly persuasive and influential intellectual-academic and his tragic childhood/adolescence in Jerusalem, especially since I had lived around the corner from what he nostalgically referred to as "my beautiful old house" on Brenner Street, and I had worked for years in an office behind St. George's school which Said claimed to have attended.

[...]

Edward Said actually grew up in Cairo, Egypt. His childhood friend Professor Hoda Gindi of Cairo University, who lived downstairs in the same apartment house, confirmed that Said was the scion of a wealthy Cairene family. As was discovered, his father was an American citizen who moved to Cairo from Jerusalem a decade before Edward was born. Living in Cairo until his departure to attend prep school in America in 1951, Edward Said resided with his family in luxurious apartment buildings in the exclusive Zamalek neighborhood, played with childhood friends in the manicured private gardens of the Aquarium Grotto, attended private English and American schools, was driven around in his father's large black American cars by his chauffeur, and enjoyed the facilities at the exclusive Gezira Sporting Club as the son of one of its only Arab members. 

Well, take that, Edward Said. He had the chance to defend himself in an interview with Mr Weiner, but did not return calls. So much for Said. I will never reference the liar in one of my papers.

Just goes to show that in higher education fraud and falsification can get you far :-)

Read the whole essay here.