A review by marniii
Palestine Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

An emotional, meditative yet beautiful read. Shehadeh writes about his walks through Palestine as a nature and history enthusiast over the course of thirty years or so. His relations to the land are familial, political, legal, personal and as a naturalist. He takes the reader through the evolving terrain and presents different seasons of the land as a result of Israeli settlements and displacement while reflecting on his family history with the land he walks through, his expertise in land law, the various ways that through the law Israel is able to seize more and more land, all while musing the developing political situation from the 70s until 00s, and the transformation of his sense of his role in it all. Very emotional at times but his genuine love for the land he and his family have inhabited comes through, making this not just a story of dread, settler-colonialism and climate disaster, but a beautiful meditation on being in relation with the land, even when the land and access to it is changing. It’s also a very realist perspective and he doesn’t shy away from his rage, resentment, and his failed attempts at political action and/or personal preservation. Highly recommend!