An early pilot · A community project
QADIYA is an independent, noncommercial community project: an archive of Palestine’s history, built for the cause and open to everyone.
This is an early pilot. Its records were gathered with AI help from cited sources and are still being checked, so don’t rely on them yet, and tell us if something is wrong.
We’re looking for people and organisations to build it with us: historians, archivists, translators, designers, developers, and partners who can support the work.
Person · Literary scholar and critic; author of Orientalism
1935–2003
Born on 1 November 1935 in Jerusalem’s Talbiyya quarter, he left with his family for Cairo in 1948 and studied in the United States, joining the faculty of Columbia University in 1963, where he remained until his death. He translated Yasser Arafat’s speech to the UN General Assembly in 1974, published Orientalism in 1978, and sat on the Palestine National Council as an independent from 1977, endorsing the Declaration of Independence in Algiers in 1988; he sharply criticised the Oslo accords of 1993. He died in New York on 24 September 2003.
An introductory profile. The source material below provides the fuller record.
Edward W. Said
إعلان الاستقلال الفلسطيني
On 15 November 1988, at the end of the Palestine National Council’s nineteenth session in Algiers, the PLO declared “the State of Palestine in our land of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital”, and accepted UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 as the basis for an international peace conference.
عرفات يخاطب الجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة
On 13 November 1974 Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO, addressed the UN General Assembly on the question of Palestine, ending: “Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom-fighter’s gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.”
Translated the speech for the UN
Attributed to Institute for Palestine Studies (Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, biography)
At the Algiers session as a member of the Palestine National Council; endorsed the declaration
Attributed to Institute for Palestine Studies (Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, biography)
article · PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies
Reference metadata and an original summary only. No permission to copy or host the source’s text, photographs, audio or video is asserted.
EVERY RECORD IS PART OF A LARGER STORY
PersonEdward Said participated in EventArafat addresses the UN General Assembly
Role: Translated the speech for the UN
Attributed to Institute for Palestine Studies (Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, biography).
PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · supports · section: The biography’s chronology: “Said Translates Arafat’s Speech for the UN”
Evidence version:palquest-edward-said-biography:v1References show the basis of this connection; their count is not a measure of independent corroboration.
PersonEdward Said was born in PlaceJerusalem
Role: Born here: 1 November 1935, Jerusalem
Attributed to Institute for Palestine Studies (Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, biography).
PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · supports · section: The biography’s header: born 1 November 1935, Jerusalem
Evidence version:palquest-edward-said-biography:v1References show the basis of this connection; their count is not a measure of independent corroboration.
PersonEdward Said participated in EventThe Palestinian Declaration of Independence
Role: At the Algiers session as a member of the Palestine National Council; endorsed the declaration
Attributed to Institute for Palestine Studies (Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question, biography).
PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · supports · section: “He attended four sessions of the PNC, including the 1988 session in Algiers, which produced the Palestinian Declaration of Independence.”
Evidence version:palquest-edward-said-biography:v1References show the basis of this connection; their count is not a measure of independent corroboration.