Prince of Asturias Awards 1981–2014. Speeches

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.