Reflections on Edward Said (1935-2003)
Moshe Behar, Senior Lecturer in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester, argues that the devastation in Gaza constitutes a profound moral and political crisis. Drawing on Edward Said’s vision, he critiques settler-colonial paradigms and reaffirms the relevance of a single binational polity as a horizon for justice and coexistence.
ArtsLab - Heritage, Urban Studies, and Development Autumn Seminar Series
Date: Thursday 23 October 2025
Time: 16:00 - 17:30
Venue: Melville Room (Gilbert Scott 458)
Category: Academic events
Speaker: Dr Moshe Behar (University of Manchester)
By early 2024, it had become apparent to many analysts that the destruction in Gaza represented a profound moral and political crisis in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks of October 2023, which themselves entailed grave and hideous assaults on civilians. For readers of Hebrew-language media, the discursive climate further illuminated the scale of dehumanisation at work. Yet Edward Said’s framework continues to offer interpretive and ethical guidance. Contemporary settler-colonial analyses, while influential, tend to neglect comparative anti-colonialisms, the dynamics of ethnonationalism, and constructivist epistemologies. Moshe Behar argues that Said’s advocacy of a single binational polity remains a compelling horizon for imagining justice and coexistence.