Born November 1, 1935

Jerusalem, Palestine

Died September 25, 2003

New York, New York

Political, social, and arts critic and commentator; contributor to Palestine's Declaration of Statehood (1988)

Edward Said. Corbis.

"Palestine is a thankless cause…. How many friends avoid the subject? How many colleagues want nothing of Palestine's controversy? How many liberals have time for Bosnia and Somalia and South Africa and Nicaragua and human and civil rights everywhere on Earth, but not for Palestine and the Palestinians?"

Edward Said was the most visible supporter in the United States for Palestinian people. He helped author the English-language version of the Palestine Declaration of Statehood in 1988, through which the Palestine Liberation Organization sought to establish a nation of Palestinian people. They had been without a country since 1947, living in lands occupied first by Jordan and Egypt, and then after 1967 by Israel. In 1991, however, Said resigned from his position on the...