Israeli-Palestinian ‘normalization’ debate reaches NY theater

posted on: Apr 25, 2015

“Thank you for reaching out to us, however, as SJP has a policy of non normalization, we will not be advertising this play.”

This was the response we received from a local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine when we invited them to take part in a series of talkbacks that we are conducting in conjunction with Martyrs Street, my play about Hebron currently playing at Theater for the New City.

While I understand the frustrations and failures that led to the anti-normalization movement, I still questioned their response. Did it come out of the sense from the press release that the play equates Hamas with Jewish extremists? Was it simply the fact that I am a former commander in the IDF? Or does the rejection of dialogue include those working to end the occupation?

Another rejection came from a journalist for a Jewish publication, who wrote to me:

“Quite frankly, neither my readers nor I need another left-wing, New Israel Fund-type slander against the Jewish State. We have quite enough of it in real life.”

Whatever their reasons, both SJP and this journalist missed an opportunity to influence the way people think and act on issues of occupation and separation. While they may come from opposite sides of the conflict, both make the same mistake under the guise of anti-normalization – the refusal to build reciprocal relations with the other side.

Martyrs Street tells the story of two houses on the same street in Hebron. One is the home of a Palestinian professor who may be forced out of her home by Israel because of the actions of her son, a bomb maker for Hamas. The other is inhabited by a cell of radical Jewish settlers who plan to bomb a rally by anti-settlement Jews in Jerusalem, in order to prevent the coming evacuation of their home. The stories that unfold intertwine to reveal how moderates are left with fewer and fewer options as the logic of radicals appeals to increasing numbers.

Source: 972mag.com