Tonight I was having an argument with myself about Jewish responsibility for Israel's brutality. Well that part's over. Gaza has awakened the Jewish conscience. There is less and less Jewish responsibility by the minute; the Jewish community is at last loudly divided, the Israel lobby is getting stick from within the Jewish community, Jewish peace groups are taking on Netanyahu. I'm hopeful. Though yes, the statelessness and oppression of Palestinians must be considered in large part a Jewish achievement– of American Jewish leadership, acting with the community's broad support.
Long buildup. The Australian Age says people were turned away from the State Library of Victoria on Monday night at a reading and discussion of Caryl Churchill's Gaza play, 7 Jewish Children:
Palestinian lawyer and author Randa Abdel-Fatteh described it as
remarkable and courageous in exposing "the distorted logic" used to
justify the dispossession of the Palestinians…
Jewish
actress Miriam Margolyes was one of five actors reading the voices of
an Israeli parent and a friend about how much to tell a child about
Israel's actions. They delivered such coded lines as: "Tell them we're
better haters", "Tell her dead or alive, her family love her", "Tell
her it is the land God gave us."
An exultant Ms Margolyes said
after the panel discussion that followed the reading: "It gives you
hope that we can talk to each other across these divides."
She
said she believed Israel had lost its way, but to rousing applause
added: "I'm not a politician, I'm just a really good actress."
It
was also a triumph for lobby group Australians For Palestine, the
Melbourne organisers of the controversial work by British playwright
Caryl Churchill, that the reading went ahead.
Margolyes, whose
participation had brought a backlash from a Jewish welfare
organisation, said last night that the State Library was to be
applauded for taking the booking. "People tried to stop it," she said.
