WATCH: Edward Said documentary revisits Oslo period

Omar H. Rahman By Omar H. Rahman March 14, 2012 | Edit

A documentary from Edward Said and the BBC that illustrates life in the occupied territories after Oslo but before the Second Intifada.

I came across this great documentary called “In Search of Palestine” from a friend that was aired on the BBC in 1998. It is about the return of Edward Said to Palestine for the first time since his exile in 1948. For anyone interested in revisiting the pre-Second Intifada Oslo period, it is a spectacular look at the situation on the ground with the preeminent Palestinian scholar of his time.

It also includes interviews with a number of interesting personalities including Israel Shahak, Azmi Bishara, Mahmoud Darwish, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Daniel Barenboim, and others.

For those who don’t know Edward Said, who passed away in 2003, he was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and author of several renowned and influential books, including Orientalism. He was also publicly active and one of the most trenchant critics of the Oslo Process and Yasser Arafat. His writings in the mid-1990s were prophetic in terms of what came out of the Oslo Process and the circumstances we are in today.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksTgAL-e9yo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Omar H. Rahman

Omar H. Rahman is a journalist based in Palestine, covering the socio-political issues of the Middle East. His work has appeared in Foreign Policy, the Guardian, Rolling Stone (ME), Al Jazeera English, and The National among many other publications. Before arriving in the Middle East, Omar was a television correspondent on contract with the Associated Press in Washington DC, where he covered American politics and society. He began his career in journalism as an intern for Al Jazeera television in Washington DC. Omar continues to explore the field of journalism by engaging in all media platforms, including a growing interest in photography and new media.

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