Resisting Erasure However, is it necessary to be completely rid of the boundary between stateless and non-stateless to build empathy? Luisa Enria points out that eliciting empathy does not require an erasure of power differentials, rather it must coax us out of a false sense of comfort into constant problematisation and reflexivity. 24 Indeed, whilst we must point to the similarities, one must not do this to the extent whereby one erases the stateless experience. Basel Zaraa, a Palestinian refugee that grew up in the Syrian refugee camp of Yarmouk, movingly displays this dynamic in his comic ‘My Papers, My History’. Here, he narrates the experience of dealing with the United Kingdom Home Office at the border without a recognised travel document, namely the Palestinian travel documents accorded to Palestinian refugees in Syria. 25 We are immersed in Zaraa’s troubling experience, as his character is drawn with a fence or darkness in the background, emphasising the difficulties. The final scene is a close up of his travel document suspended in a black background. 26 This emphasis forces the reader to dwell on the luxury of being able to travel easily. Hereby, Zaraa reconstructs an ‘us’ of those who can travel with a recognised document and an ‘Other’ of stateless individuals who have difficulty travelling, which brightens the boundary between stateless and nonstateless individuals. When the clerk asks him why he has this document, he gives a detailed description of the 1948 expulsion of Palestinians into neighbouring countries, tying his personal experience directly to the larger geo-political context. 27 Hereby, Zaraa establishes difference and forces the reader through this brightened boundary to problematise why it exists and how they feature within it, forging an empathetic connection. Therefore, the reader is forced to recognise this difference and problematise why it exists and how they feature in it, forging an empathetic connection through difference. 24 25 26 27 Luisa Enria, ‘Co-Producing Knowledge through Participatory Theatre: Reflections on Ethnography, Empathy and Power’ (2015) 16(3) Qualitative Research 319, 7. Basel Zaraa, ‘My Papers, My History’, My Journey (Blog Post, 2014) (‘My Papers, My History’) <http://myjourneymrc.tumblr.com/tagged/comics/>. ibid 4. See also fig 8. ibid 2–3. See also fig 9, 10. 323