`  == Stone-throwing incident ==  I have moved the following section here. It is not that I deny it happened nor that it is relevant, but I believe it is ludicrous for to devote this much space to the incident in such a short article. I will try to research the matter and rewrite it in 1/3 the space, but personally I think it would be more useful to expand the section on his academic work, ie, Orientalism, which is much more interesting and important.     :In July 2000 Said travelled to Lebanon, where along with other Arabs he began hurling large rocks into Israel towards a group of Israeli soldiers.  Agence France Press released a photograph showing him during this attack. When asked about this event, Said told reporters that this was ``a symbolic gesture of joy``, and aimed at an empty place. Eyewitnesses claim that Said was lying; The London Daily Post reported that Said was observed hurling stones, in a group, at Israel soldiers in an Israeli watchtower.  :Said was criticised for this action by the moderate Arab Press. A report in the Beirut Daily Star stated that they were disappointed that a scholar ``who has labored ... to dispel stereotypes about Arabs being 'violent'`` reversed couse, and let himself ``be swayed by a crowd into picking up a stone and lofting it across the international border.`` The student newspaper where he teaches, the Columbia Daily Spectator, commented that Said's ``hypocritical violent action`` was ``alien to this or any other institution of higher learning.``   :Several months later, in an interview with an Israeli newspaper (Haaretz English Edition, August 18, 2000) Said reversed his story, and denied his previous description. He now claims ``in fact what happened was that my son and some of the other young men were trying to see who could throw stones furthest. And since my son is a rather big fellow - he is an American who plays baseball - he threw furthest. My daughter said to me, 'Daddy can you throw a stone as far as Wadia?' and that of course stirred the usual kind of oedipal competition. So I picked up a stone and threw it.`` This latest revision is commonly held to be facetious.`