‘Theater J’ publishes defense of separation wall

by on April 19, 2009 13
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Playwright Israel Horovitz has posted his dramaturgical response to Caryl Churchill's play "7 Jewish Children," on the Theater J website. It's called "What Strong Fences Make" and if you know what to make of it, let me know. In the playlet, Uri, an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint, kills Yitzhak to prevent him from going in to blow up a Palestinian bus to avenge the killing of his own children on a bus by a suicide bomber in Israel. I think that's what it's about. Yitzhak refers to Arabs as "dirty animals." The point seems to be that Israelis are superior to Palestinians because they don't do suicide bombing, or if they try to, other, moraller Israelis stop them.  

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Beyondoweiss, Israel/Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics

{ 13 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Grumpy Old Man says:
    April 19, 2009 at 10:01 pm

    "Moraller?"

    Surely you can be grammatcaller.

  2. Citizen says:
    April 19, 2009 at 10:19 pm

    "I’m going to stop their filthy little animals from growing into what they grow into."

    SS Man

  3. tree says:
    April 20, 2009 at 12:42 am

    Does Horowitz know that IDF soldiers in Hebron are under orders not to shoot at Jewish Israeli settlers even if those settlers are firing at Palestinians.(This came up in testimony after Baruch Goldstein shot 29 Muslim worshippers in Hebron with not a shot fired at him from any IDF soldier.)

    Jesus, Itzhak. Not that. Nobody’s ever done that.

    The "Jesus" line is kind of funny, but I'd think that Uri would know his Israeli history a little better than to tell such a big fib. And Horowitz has apparently never been to a checkpoint if he thinks its just manned by one soldier.

  4. Craig says:
    April 20, 2009 at 1:49 am

    "In the playlet, Uri, an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint, kills Yitzhak to prevent him from going in to blow up a Palestinian bus to avenge the killing of his own children on a bus by a suicide bomber in Israel."

    How sweet. Does the playwright have any idea how little correlation this scenario has to reality, as opposed to the beautiful and true vision of Caryl Churchill? Why do these people insist on rebutting truth with lies? Sure, it's all they've got, but they could try facing reality for a change.

  5. otto says:
    April 20, 2009 at 2:38 am

    "In the playlet, Uri, an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint, kills Yitzhak to prevent him from going in to blow up a Palestinian bus to avenge the killing of his own children on a bus by a suicide bomber in Israel."

    Are there any historical examples of at all – even not very good ones – which could be used to support this sort of narrative?

  6. LD says:
    April 20, 2009 at 5:51 am

    tree, got a source for that? Interesting stuff

  7. tree says:
    April 20, 2009 at 9:27 am

    LD,

    I can't find the one article I was looking for, which went into great detail about the conditions for IDF soldiers in Hebron. It was written a few years ago but referred to the revelation made during the Hebron massacre investigation. If I finally find it I will post it here.

    In the meantime, you can find reference to the no shoot orders here:

    http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0195/9501036a.html

    Although Israeli officials roundly condemned the [Karp] report as exaggerated, its essential charge that settlers were taking the law in their own hands and were being protected by occupation authorities was dramatically confirmed a decade later. In the aftermath of the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers in Hebron's Ibrahimi mosque by Jewish settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein, Israeli police and troops openly admitted that there were different laws for Jews and Palestinians.

    Chief Inspector Meir Tayar of the border police stationed in Hebron testified before a special commission investigating the Feb. 25 massacre that troops had standing orders never to shoot at Jewish settlers even if the settlers were shooting at Palestinians. Tayar said of the massacre: "Even if I had been there I would not have been able to do a thing because there were special instructions regarding this. The open-fire orders were that if a settler in Hebron fires purposefully, under no circumstances should he be shot at." He added that the order applied even if the settler was shooting at Israeli troops, saying: "The order, as I interpret it, is to take cover so as not to be hit, wait until the gun jams or the clip is empty and try to overpower him with other means."5

    Similar revelations had been made several months earlier by reserve paratrooper Amit Gurevitz. But, like the Karp Report itself, they were ignored by the government. Gurevitz revealed in a newspaper interview that the beating of Palestinians, vandalizing their property or otherwise humiliating them in front of soldiers was not cause for arrest.6

    In January 1994, the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz reported a radio broadcast in which an Israeli officer identified as Colonel Y said that the standing orders of the army in the occupied territories were "never, under any circumstances, and in no case whatsoever, to shoot at any Jew." The author of the article, correspondent Amnon Denkner, commented that "when an Arab is thought to be a danger to the life of a Jew, there is no problem. Just kill him and feel good."

    Additional sources here:

    http://tech.mit.edu/V114/N13/israel.13w.html

    And here:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/israeli-troops-under-orders-not-to-shoot-jewish-settlers-hebron-massacre-inquiry-shocked-by-disclosure-of-army-instructions-1428333.html

    Just plug in the name "Meir Tayar" to a google search and multiple additional sources will come up.

    And this, from Israel Shahak, although not about the no shoot orders, might also be of interest to you.

    The Background and Consequences of the Massacre in Hebron

  8. moshe says:
    April 20, 2009 at 10:34 am

    It's all talmudic kosher, nothing new.

  9. David Brown says:
    April 20, 2009 at 11:02 am

    Not too many years ago Isreal H. was convicted for tax evasion and may (if my memory holds) have served a short jail sentence. He failed to report income for a theatre he owned on 13th ST in NYC. This guy is a punk and a felon and the daddy of one of the sissy Beastie Boys. Ugh.

  10. tommy says:
    April 20, 2009 at 11:30 am

    For his next play, I suggest Israel Horovitz write about the moral superiority of the Khmer Rouge.

  11. Toby says:
    April 21, 2009 at 12:05 am

    I'm late to this thread, but dear lord (in an entirely atheistic way):
    How many clichées is it possible to get into one 'playlet'?
    Notice that Uri, our hero, is 'large, strong, [and] handsome', while Itzhak, is 'small, skinny, [and] sweet-faced'. Read: Israel man and diaspora boy. Itzhak, the wannabe suicide bomber, is naturally dressed as an Arab 'home-boy', replete with 'terrorist' scarf (of course!). Hero Uri shoots and cries. There's even a 'haunting violin'. How very, very sad. Heart-wrenching, possibly. Pardon me while I go off to be sick (and that's my professional opinion).

  12. Margaret says:
    April 21, 2009 at 2:02 am

    Todd, it seems to me you are viewing the world from behind the identity of an American, rather than as an American. To do so would be counter-productive to my aim, which is a just, peaceful society. We fund Israel, as citizens through donations and/or through taxes. IMO, not recognizing that Israel in many instances acts on behalf of US interests is handy in allowing us to escape responsibility for it's actions. While Israel's actions make it a central issue of our times, what lies at the basis of that issue is public acceptance of such activity when undertaken by our own government, as well as continued support for Israel.

  13. Margaret says:
    April 21, 2009 at 2:13 am

    Sorry, fellow readers, the above comment goes on the next post.

    I looked around, there doesn't seem to be much interest in the staging or the play. Unless google has failed me again.

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