Public Intellectuals and Conscious Pariahs: Hannah Arendt, Edward Said and a Common State in Palestine-Israel

Abstract

In late nineteenth-century Europe, a distinct, secular socio-political type appeared: the conscious pariah. This essay traces the genealogy of the conscious pariah. Starting from Bernard Lazare and then comparing public intellectuals Hannah Arendt and Edward Said, it argues that the latter, too, can be interpreted as a conscious pariah. Whilst differences are not ignored, the essay highlights the shared political and scholarly insights Arendt and Said offer as conscious pariahs. The renewed relevance of the conscious pariah's politics and scholarship, owing to the project of the common state, runs through the essay both implicitly and explicitly. ‘The Atlantic City Resolution [October 1944] goes even a step further than the Biltmore Program (1942), in which the Jewish minority had granted minority rights to the Arab majority. This time the Arabs were simply not mentioned in the resolution, which obviously leaves them the choice between voluntary emigration and second-class citizenship.’ (Hannah Arendt, ‘Zionism Reconsidered’, Menorah Journal, 33 (October 1944)) Ari Shavit: ‘You sound very Jewish’. Edward Said: 'Of course. I'm the last Jewish intellectual. You don't know anyone else. All your other Jewish intellectuals are now suburban squires. From Amos Oz to all these people here in America. So I'm the last one. The only true follower of Adorno. Let me put it this way: I'm a Jewish-Palestinian. (Edward Said's interview with Ari Shavit, Haaretz, 18 August 2000)