Prof Said was a giant among intellectuals at New York’s Columbia University. His advocacy of the cause of free Palestine was so compelling that it earned him many enemies among the hardcore Jewish groups who supported Israel as a cause. But Prof Said was respected by all, even his staunchest of adversaries.

“Palestine was this thing I didn’t understand,” Ms Najla Said explains in an interview with an online blog (Institute of Middle East Understanding). “As I got older, my dad took the time to sit down and explain things to me, and exposed me to Palestine as a cause and the simple issue of people not being given equal rights. I realised that it wasn’t complicated and that I had a voice because I was American and Palestinian.”

She sees acting as a way of empowering her voice. She is a founding member of the Arab-American theatre collective Nibras, which seeks to “increase the positive visibility and creative expression of Arabs and Arab-Americans”. Nibras’ first production, Sajjil, won best ensemble production at the 2002 New York International Fringe Festival.

Now an accomplished actor, it is hard to believe that as a child Najla Said was so shy she rarely spoke, says the article in the online blog.

But it was that very shyness that led her to acting. “My parents thought it might be a good idea to send me to acting classes,” she says. “At six or seven years old, I started taking classes after school and never stopped.”

The New York Times while reviewing the play in its Tuesday’s edition said: “Ms Said just tells her tale (with generous helpings of humour), which includes attending an elite Manhattan prep school (Trinity), where she blended in with her Jewish friends; becoming anorexic at 15; and visiting the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon with her family, where her priority was often getting in some beach time rather than analysing the geopolitical situation.

“I worried about being pretty enough, smart enough and fitting in,” Ms Said recalled during a recent interview about “Palestine” and the years before 9/11 cast a dark shadow. “In the way of many immigrant kids,” she added, “I just wanted all the questions about identity to go away.”

Those questions persisted, of course. And so on a minimalist stage, with shifts in mood.

“You find that because you’re Arab, you’re automatically politicised,” she says. “You’re only called in to audition for a woman with a veil or a terrorist’s wife. I decided that I wasn’t going to let them tell me who I am, I’m going to tell who I am. Every time you’re on stage you’re making a political statement because you’re Palestinian.”

In addition to Nibras, Najla Said has appeared in numerous plays, including the Seattle production of 9 Parts of Desire, and the multi-media theatre piece ReOrientalism, inspired by her father’s book. On the screen, her film credits include The Siege, The Contestant, Femme Fatale and the TV show Party of Five. Her writing has appeared in Mizna, a journal of Arab-American literature, and HEEB magazine. Currently she is writing a play about Lebanon and another about Palestine.