Deconstruction and the Question of Palestine: bearing witness to the undeniable

While deconstruction has been taken up widely in the field of Postcolonial Studies, there is very little work done on the relationship between deconstruction and the question of Palestine. This thesis maintains that deconstruction has both something to offer the discourses surrounding the question of Palestine and that deconstruction needs to be opened up to the undeniable if it is to continue to be relevant to contemporary emancipation struggles, specifically here the Palestinian struggle. This is not to say that the Palestinian struggle needs deconstruction, or that deconstruction can provide some magical solution. The aim of this thesis is rather to explore Derrida’s own attitudes towards Israel/Palestine and to ask whether deconstruction is hospitable to the needs of Palestinian self-determination.