The Book of Disappearance with Ibtisam Azem

With the streets empty all over the world, we want to introduce another speculation to you, not entirely futuristic this time: What would happen if all the Palestinians disappeared at once? What happens to a nation when its enemies disappear? We see now what happens with a people that disappear to the public, confined to their homes but without the safety a home should provide, constantly under the threat of invasion while the world's attention is turned away. But what follows a complete disappearance? What would Israel look like if the Palestinians were to disappear overnight? We discuss this situation, as imagined by Ibtisam Azem in her novel "The Book of Disappearance" released first in 2014 with the English translation by Sinan Antoon published in 2019 by the Syracuse University Press. In the book both the displacement of the Palestinians in 1948 and the many lived realities in Palestine today are reflected and seen mainly through the eyes of the neighbors and friends Alaa and Ariel, as well as the stories of Alaa's grandmother, a survivor of the Nakba in 1948.

In this session, we discuss Ghassan Kanafani's short story Men in the Sun, delving into the concept of literature as a form of resistance, and connecting the characters to Kanafani's personal and political experiences. 

In our second session, we continue to discuss stories from Palestine +100: Stories from a Century After the Nakba, continuing from Anwar Hamed's The Key. 

Is there a right to "digital return" for all? Who has access to digital safe spaces in times of pandemic? Where does fiction come into play when imagining Palestinian futures? Whose memories are being left out and most importantly, will there ever be a Palestine? All this and many more questions have been tackled in our first episode on Palestine +100: Stories from a Century After the Nakba, a collection of short stories edited by Basma Ghalayini and published by Comma Press.