Vanishing Palestine

In this article, I argue for native writing as a site of recovering memory, particularly that which has been slated for disappearance. I conceptualize “vanishment” as the processes of settler colonialism that rely on the appropriation of the earth's elements, replacement of native landscapes, and erasure of indigenous culture through systems of conditional inclusion. Taking my cue from Avery Gordon and Julie Sze, I look to Palestinian literature to argue that in this context of vanishment, new sites of knowledge necessarily emerge from the realms of culture and imagination where disappearances haunt through the most seemingly benign sites. Drawing from the Palestinian novel Palestinian Walks, I argue for native writing as an alternative epistemological practice to contend with the seemingly benign sites of violence.