REPORTS circulated yesterday that the Palestinian Ministry of Information and Culture had banned two books written by the prominent Palestinian scholar, Dr Edward Said.
The two books, Oslo One and Peace without Land, are sharply critical of the PLO and its chairman, Mr Yasser Arafat, for entering into agreements with Israel which, in Dr Said's view, have been "disastrous" for the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian Minister of Justice, Mr Freih Abu Middein, denied the reports. However, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Mr Ziad Abu Amr, said he had obtained a copy of the order. A Palestinian source in Jerusalem told The Irish Times that copies of the two books had been confiscated from, shops and the book distributor in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Mr Abu Amr said he would raise the issue in the next meeting of the council.
Jerusalem born Dr Said is one of the most distinguished literary critics in the US and professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, New York. His books include Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism, two key works which describe how impressions of the Third World and its cultures are formed in the minds of the peoples of the First World. In 1993 Dr Said delivered the Reith Lectures on the BBC, and the following year became the first Palestinian academic to receive an honorary doctorate from a Palestinian University. Dr Said served for several years on the Palestine National Council, the PLO's parliament in exile, but broke with Mr Arafat before the 1993 Oslo Accords.
This would not be the first banning order issued by Mr Arafat's administration. Since his return to the Palestinian self rule enclaves just over two years ago, several newspapers have been shut down temporarily following, the publication of articles critical of the chairman and his policies, and many journalists were detained. On every occasion a responsible voice in the Palestinian Authority denied official action had been taken against the papers or journalists concerned. Closures and bannings have been used by Mr Arafat to silence critics, particularly those who target the authoritarian nature of Mr Arafat's rule and the inefficiency and corruption of his entourage.
Independent Palestinian academics, already intimidated by the detention in May by the Palestinian police of the human rights activist, Dr Iyad Sarraj, fear freedom of expression maybe under greater threat than before. Mr Arafat has lost much popular support due to his failure to deliver a homeland and prosperity to the hard pressed Palestinians of the still largely Israeli occupied West Bank and Gaza.
