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- Said: "Of course! But I would not say that the Jewish claim, or the Zionist claim, is the only claim or the main claim; I say that it is a claim among many others. Certainly, the Arabs have a much greater claim because they have had a longer history of inhabitance—of actual residence in Palestine—than the Jews did. If you look at the history of Palestine, there's been some quite interesting work done by biblical archaeologists... you'll see that the period of actual Israelite—as it was called in the Old Testament—dominance in Palestine amounts to about 200 to 250 years. But there were Moabites, there were Jebusites, there were Canaanites, there were Philistines, there were many other people in Palestine at the time and before and after. And to isolate one of them and say, 'That's the real owner of the land,' I mean, that is—that is fundamentalism. Because the only way you can back it up is say, 'Well, God gave it to us.' [...] So, I think the people who have a history of residence in Palestine for a certain amount of time—including Jews, yes, and, of course, the Arabs—have a claim. But... this is very important: I don't think any claim [...] nobody has a claim that overrides all the others and entitles that person with that so-called claim to drive people out!" (en)
- Halleran: "Professor Said, do the Zionists have any historical claim to the lands of Israel?" (en)
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