Reply #9: That attitude is nothing new.

[Igel]

Seriously. As soon as some kid has so internalized the sense of victimization and views their survival dependent on some symbol or external agency, views the cultural narrative as crucial to their survival or the survival of their group, this is what you get.

Replace "Said" and "Palestinian" by some Jewish refugee from Germany or Yemen. It'll be seen by Palestinian activists as siding with Israel, in the first case, and generally by most Arab Palestinian supporters in the second. Even if they're not directly affected.

Give the context as some African-American ex-slave in 1830, and it'll be seen as supporting Civil Rights for blacks; some KKKers would vehemently object to it. Even though the context would be far past.

Have the writer be a white farmer from Rhodesia, and it'll be taken entirely differently by African-Americans in the US. Moreover, the response would be different in 1981 from what it would be in 2009.

Or perhaps a South Vietnamese former refugee in the US. Somebody will say that the inclusion is supportive of US involvement in Vietnam in the '60s. That somebody might well be born after the US-Vietnamese peace treaty that ended the war in January 1973.

Some things would seem silly. A Pole from Belorussia, a German from W. Poland, a Slovene from Trieste or an Italian from Slovenia; a Serb from Kosovo or a Bosnian from Croatia could write such a thing, and provoke strong responses from Belorusians, Poles, Italians, Slovenes, Kosovar Albanians or Croatians. Once you have that kind of sensitivities instilled in people, even second or third hand, it's just nasty. It's like walking on egg shells, and you have to either watch every word lest, by accident, you (as they perceive it) intentionally commit some horrid bit of racism. The result is a rigid self-imposed (or outwardly imposed) code of speech and conduct.

Fascism writ small. Been there. Done that. Nasty business, because you have to argue about the sincerity of your intent versus the utter righteousness of another's perceptions, and convince them that their perceptions are wrong and your assertions as to your intent correct. Like that's going to happen, cet. par.

Then again, Said is a well known Palestinian activist.