Fayez Sayigh
Born
Fayez Abdullah Sayigh

1922
Kharaba, Mandatory Syria
Died1980 (aged 57–58)
New York City, New York, United States
Resting placeBeirut, Lebanon
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Academic
  • Civil servant
Notable work
Academic work
Institutions

Fayez Sayigh (1922–1980) was a Arab-American diplomat, scholar and teacher. He was one of the most significant scholars who developed various analyses on the Palestinian resistance movement against Zionism.[1]

Early life and education

Sayigh was born in 1922 in Kharaba, Mandatory Syria, where his father was a Presbyterian minister.[2] He was one of Abdullah Sayigh and Afifa Batruni's six sons, including Yusif Sayigh, Anis Sayigh and Tawfiq Sayigh.[3] He also had a sister, Mary.[3] His father was of Syrian origin, and his mother was a native of al-Bassa.[4]

As a child, Sayigh moved with his family to Tiberias and went to school in Safed.[5] He received his bachelor's degree from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1941 and his master's degree from the same university in 1945.[2] In 1949, he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy, with a minor in political science, from Georgetown University.[6][7]

Career

Sayigh, along with his brothers who had joined earlier, joined the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in 1943.[2] He was later expelled from the party after Antoun Saadeh returned to Lebanon in 1947, following his exile.[8] After receiving his Ph.D., Sayegh worked for the Lebanese Embassy in Washington DC. He also worked at the United Nations.[2] He taught at a number of universities, including Yale, Stanford, Macalaster College, as well as at his alma mater AUB and at the University of Oxford.[2]

Sayigh established the Palestine Research Center in Beirut in 1965 and served as its director-general for one year.[6][7] The center published his historical study entitled Zionist Colonialism in Palestine in 1965.[9] His brother, Anes, succeeded Fayez as the director-general of the Palestine Research Center in 1966.[7][10]

Sayigh was instrumental in the establishment of Shu'un Filastiniyya which was started by the Palestine Research Center in 1971.[1] He was the major contributor of the United Nations General Assembly's Resolution 3379 adopted in 1975.[1] The resolution supported the view that Zionism is a form of racism.[1] After this event he acted as the most visible spokesperson of the Palestinian cause.[1]

Sayigh made several appearances on American television as a commentator on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[11]

Views

Sayigh was one of the early scholars who analyzed the negative effects of the sectarianism in Lebanon.[12] For him these effects of sectarianism emerged as a result of the popular life and popular consciousness, not of the historical events.[12] He argued that not only a political change but also a social change should occur for the unified Arab societies.[10]

Sayigh was the first scholar who developed the concept of the Zionist settler colonialism.[13][14] He argued that Palestinians would never accept "a fraction of rights in a fraction of their homeland."[15] He defined the racial principles of Zionism as self-segregation, exclusiveness, and supremacy which are the elements of segregation.[1] These elements are the central characteristic of apartheid.[1]

Death

Sayigh died in New York City in 1980 and was buried in Beirut.[2]

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Nina Fischer (2020). "Palestinian Non-Violent Resistance and the Apartheid Analogy". Interventions. 23 (8): 1129. doi:10.1080/1369801x.2020.1816853. S2CID 234662442.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Michael R. Fischbach (2005). "Sayigh (family)". In Philip Mattar (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. New York: Facts on File Inc. p. 440. ISBN 9780816069866.
  3. 1 2 Hani A. Faris (2016). "Book review". The Middle East Journal. 70 (1): 162–164. JSTOR 43698630.
  4. ↑ "Prisoner of War: Yusif Sayigh, 1948 to 1949. Excerpts from his recollections". Jerusalem Quarterly (29). Winter 2007.
  5. ↑ "فايز صايغ انتصار الحرية على الأيديولوجيا". Palestine Assafir (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 15 November 2017.
  6. 1 2 Andrew I. Killgore, "25 Years After His Death, Dr. Fayez Sayegh’s Towering Legacy Lives On", Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2005, pp 22–23.
  7. 1 2 3 Gribetz, Jonathan Marc (2016). "When the zionist idea came to Beirut: Judaism, christianity, and the palestine liberation organization's translation of zionism". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 48 (2): 246. doi:10.1017/s0020743816000015. S2CID 163254448.
  8. ↑ Beshara, Adel (2019). Fayez Sayegh, The Party Years 1938-1947. Black House Publishing. pp. 39–91. ISBN 978-1912759224.
  9. ↑ Fayez Sayigh (2012). "Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (1965)". Settler Colonial Studies. 2 (1): 206–225. doi:10.1080/2201473x.2012.10648833. S2CID 161123773.
  10. 1 2 Katlyn Quenzer (2019). Writing the Resistance: A Palestinian Intellectual History, 1967-1974 (PhD thesis). Australian National University. pp. 59, 96. doi:10.25911/5d5149b41c470. hdl:1885/155195.
  11. ↑ Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: Where Do We Go from Here in the Middle East?, retrieved 12 July 2023
  12. 1 2 Weiss, Max (2009). "The Historiography of Sectarianism in Lebanon". History Compass. 7 (1): 146. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00570.x.
  13. ↑ Walid Salem (2016). "Jerusalem: Reconsidering the Settler Colonial Analysis". Palestine - Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture. 21 (4). ProQuest 1865399405.
  14. ↑ Sune Haugbolle; Pelle Valentin Olsen (2023). "Emergence of Palestine as a Global Cause". Middle East Critique. 32 (1): 137. doi:10.1080/19436149.2023.2168379.
  15. ↑ Karsh, Efraim (1997). "Introduction: From Rabin to Netanyahu". Israel Affairs. 3 (3–4): 7. doi:10.1080/13537129708719427.
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