Posted on 08/03/2017 7:22:53 PM PDT by SJackson
Drama about death of anti-Israel activist Rachel Corrie ‘promotes futile hatred’
A leading theatre’s planned staging of a controversial anti-Israel play has angered Jewish organisations, with one group saying it would support protests against the production.
My Name is Rachel Corrie, based on the emails and diary entries of a pro-Palestinian activist in Gaza, will be performed at the Young Vic in London from September 29 — the night of Kol Nidrei.
Communal leaders have called the play “unapologetically anti-Israel” and described it as a polemic, with one questioning why an organisation receiving public funding was not offering a balanced perspective.
The Young Vic currently receives an annual grant of more than £1.7 million from Arts Council England.
But David Lan, the theatre’s artistic director, who is Jewish, told the JC: “Gaza is a wound to the planet from which so many people are suffering.
“We welcome and hope to encourage as wide a discussion of this terrible situation as possible. Anything that keeps Gaza at the front of our consciousness is to be valued.”
The play, which was put together by Alan Rickman, the late actor, and Katharine Viner, now the editor of the Guardian, was first performed in 2005 at the Royal Court theatre in London.
It has been condemned for its one-sided portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, focusing exclusively on Israeli treatment of Palestinians and downplaying terror attacks on Israel.
Rachel Corrie was an American activist working in the Gaza Strip for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) which describes itself as a humanitarian organisation but has been accused of using its volunteers as human shields.
In 2003, she and other ISM members attempted to prevent Israeli bulldozers from demolishing a house which the IDF believed to be hiding the entrance to a series of terror tunnels.
Ms Corrie was struck and killed by one of the bulldozers in an incident which an Israeli court ruled to be an accident.
News of the Young Vic’s production prompted an angry response.
Paul Charney, chairman of the Zionist Federation, said: “The revival of this unapologetically anti-Israel play is nothing short of an opportunity to fan the flames of hatred. While many are trying to reconcile and de-escalate the struggle between Israel and the Palestinians, the Young Vic is promoting a revival of a play that only aims to drive a wedge between two peoples and their supporters.
He added: “This has nothing to do with ‘justice’ and everything to do with ‘politics’. The ZF will be supporting those who seek to protest against it and will not simply stand by while futile hatred and unconstructive negativity is allowed to run unchecked in one of London’s theatres.”
Marie van der Zyl, vice president of the Board of Deputies, accused the theatre of a lack of balance.
She said: “While free artistic expression is important, from the Young Vic’s recent output, the theatre seems to believe that this is only applicable to plays expressing the Palestinian narrative.
“We are writing to the Young Vic to ask why they have not put on any plays from an Israeli Jewish perspective in recent memory, and to bring some of the best of it to London audiences.
“We feel that they have a particular responsibility to do so given their significant public funding, and we will also be in contact with the Arts Council and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to call for public money to fund art for peace, and not for polemic.”
The production is being directed by Joshua Roche, who won the JMK Young Director competition for his proposal to revive the play. The prize included the opportunity to stage the chosen work at the Young Vic.
After winning the award in May, Mr Roche described the play as being “about the irrepressible political voice of Rachel Corrie.
“Rachel Corrie and I were born only 10 years apart. Her legacy is our inheritance”.
Mr Roche declined to comment when approached this week.
The James Menzies-Kitchin (JMK) Award, now in its 20th year, is held in memory of the young director, who died suddenly in 1996 at the age of 28.
Past winners include Mark Rosenblatt in 1999, who directed The Dybbuk by Ansky, and Natalie Abrahami in 2005, directing Samuel Beckett’s Play/Not I.
Ivan Lewis, the Jewish MP and former Middle East Minister, is on the Young Vic’s Board of Trustees. He did not respond to a request for a comment.
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Guess Rachel isn't old news in the UK. In any case, not a thread on her for awhile. That appears to be an American flag she's tearing up.
Nazis need to pump up their bigotry, periodically, lest they gradually maybe recover from it
She's evergreen, just like her college.
Rachel Corrie won a Darwin award playing chicken with a bulldozer.
Happy St. Pancake’s Day! Can you believe it’s already been 14 years?
The Muslims surrounding her look pretty chill compared to that anger.
how sad a pretty young woman like that could be raised or indoctrinated to be such a hate-filled, meddlesome bigot
she had zero business standing up for terrorist murder thugs no matter how appealing she may have believed them to be
and her parents (and ‘educators’ probably) have a lot to answer for, imho, letting (or enabling) her to turn out so badly. She could have had a good life and helped other good people along the way...
sadly sadly sadly so. but they do.
ps: I’ve met a few similarly mis-guided young folks on college campuses mostly.....
THANK HEAVEN most young people are sane and pretty decent (if still poorly educated, we really need to improve some of our public schools!!!)
one thing I pray DJT can accomplish is to somehow cut federal taxpayer funding for colleges that are over-populated with communist or Islamonazi agents or whatnot
yes, I know...free speech and all that. Sounds good, until your path is blocked by a bunch of hooligans threatening to kill you or smash your face in ...
some college administrators need to stop allowing or facilitating thuggery on their campuses (most of the thuggery is communistic or IslamoNazi type stuff, but ANY and ALL such bad conduct needs to be opposed and if it occurs, punished to set an example for others. At some schools like UC (Berkeley) the thugs are often just released within 24 hours with no prosecution or even fines....this connivance with violence or intimidation has to STOP!)
Mmmmmmmmmmm, pancakes!
I think it was a D-9, and not the one you pictured.
“Are you tired, run-down, listless? I’m your Vitameatacaterpillar girl!
Do you poop out at demonstrations? Well folks,”
I’m writing the review for them: “Art imitates life— Corrie play falls flat!”
This thread needs maple syrup.
I love the late Alan Rickman so much, but this is one creation of his I will never see. European friends are attending the play and while I intend to go back to London while it’s on, there’s no way I’d see it.
The girl was flat-out wrong.
More proof of how deep the radical Islamic movement has gotten into the culture of England, with anti-Semitism as its driver under the guise of anti-Zionism.
ENGLAND, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!
saint pancake? funny how often she comes up
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