This paper tells the story of a Palestinian village inside Israel from which the entire population of Palestinian citizens of Israel was deported and prohibited from returning. By relating the story of this village I aim to shed light on the nature and limits of legal discourse, the nature of legal reasoning itself, and the mechanism through which law conceals traces of violence. A major theme that runs through the paper is the distinction between implicit rules that lie in the background, and explicit legal moves and actions that occupy the foreground or surface of legal language and discourse. I will argue that while background rules remain hidden and unspoken, they nonetheless dictate the result of court cases, without the affected parties being given an opportunity to challenge them openly. At the same time, the paper will also show how law attempts to cover up these traces, and how maintaining an appearance of universality forces it to do some critical work and to place certain limits on power. Though the paper discusses the Israeli legal system, it does not aim to make broad statements or generalizations about this system, and the cases presented here illuminate certain aspects of legal discourse in general.
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