Playwright in Palestine

By Peter Frisch

As the artistic director of an established theater devoted to new writing and contemporary thought, I am constantly approached with wacky schemes. During the past month, for example, I have considered hundreds of plays for production including "Six Women with Brain Death," "Dancing the Hora in Rubber Shorts," and "Our Lady of the Tortilla."

In its own way, the notion of traveling to Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip to gather information for a theater piece on the Palestinian situation seemed pretty remote and, well, rather wacky. Though I had dramatized primary material before, the mere fact of Jewish parentage hardly qualified me as an expert on Middle East affairs. Yet, here were several non-profit organizations ready to support composer Roy Barber and me on our mission of research and discovery.

Needless to say, I had no idea that I would be so moved and transformed by the people, the land, and the constant presence of mind-boggling injustice to be seen in every corner of every Arab village and refugee camp. As an English teacher residing in Jebaliya said to me: "There are no rooms in this camp that have been untouched by tragedy."

The very first evening in Jerusalem, Roy and I walked through the deserted Old City, and I began to understand the unique pluralism at the very heart of this land. Christians, Jews, and Muslims live together in this tiny walled-in labyrinth. The tradition of peaceful co-existence is long and deep. I was beginning to see the light.

The next morning two events completed my personal transformation. When we emerged from the air-conditioned mini-van into the sweltering dirt, stone, and concrete composition of Jelazoun camp, hundreds of children surrounded us, chanting "Power to the PLO" and thrusting their little fingered "V signs at us as they led us toward the camp center. The myth of "alternative moderate Arab leadership," as perpetrated by the Likud Party and repeated in the press worldwide, was shattered instantly by these children and their total identification with their political organization.

Minutes later, we sat with a family whose child had been murdered the day before by Israeli soldiers. Amin, who died one day before his 14th birthday, had come to the verbal defense of his sisters who were being forced to remove boulders from a road. Unarmed, of course, the boy was shot through the eye. Amin was then flown by helicopter to an Israeli hospital and kept alive on life support systems while officials approached his parents for permission to remove the vital organs. (Israeli officials know Muslim tradition prohibits the removal of body parts). The humiliation was complete with a demand for 4,600 shekels (about $3,000) in exchange for the return of the dead boy's body. It is impossible for a family in a refugee camp to conceive of this amount of money, let alone raise it.

And so, less than 24 hours after arriving in the Middle East I had the basic story for our theater piece and found myself utterly devoted to the Palestinian people and Palestinian peace.

A Pattern of Usurpation

Israel and the occupied territories are rife with violence, irony, and absurdity. I will mention only a few of the images and narratives which continue to vibrate restlessly in my mind: During the past two years, 28 Jewish families have appropriated housing in the Muslim quarter of the Old City. The settlements form a perfect ring around the Dome of the Rock, the most significant mosque in Palestine, and the third holiest for Muslims all over the world. Hardliner Ariel Sharon has new quarters overlooking the dome.

The military administration seized control of the 26 artesian wells around Jericho, and is selling the water back to Palestinian farmers at three to four times the basic cost. The director of the region's marketing cooperative told us that this extortion is primarily responsible for the drop in this year's crop output to 20 percent of normal agricultural production.

The Palestinian fishing community is under siege—boats which roamed Mediterranean waters freely for centuries are now restricted to a six-mile limit by Israeli authorities. The few remaining families of fishermen fight starvation as they attempt to make political sense of their Kafkaesque foe.

Soldiers used TNT and bulldozers to level 14 homes in the Arab village of Beita after a Jewish girl and two Arab boys were killed in wild shooting by a Jewish settler near the village. Authorities later admitted that villagers were not responsible for the death of the Israeli teen-ager, the ostensible "reason" for the wanton destruction.

Also in Beita, troops dispersed Israeli peaceniks and uprooted 100 olive trees that had just been planted there. As the army tossed the saplings onto the road, the peace group began chanting, "Shoot the trees!"

The prominent Israeli Peace Now group discourages Palestinians from participating in their programs and activities.

We photographed the hole in the screen and the new pane of glass where only a few days before an American-made cannister of tear gas was shot by soldiers into the obstetrics ward of Ramallah Hospital.

Several witnesses talked of the "accidental" electrocutions that take place when Israeli soldiers force children to remove illegal Palestinian flags from overhead power lines.

Israeli law owes much of its diabolical character to the days of the British mandate. The fabled administrative detention statute allows police to arrest Palestinians for a six-month period without charge. We spoke with the erudite chairman of the board of Hebron University who had just returned from Ansar III prison in the Negev Desert. He told us of the subhuman conditions and treatment all prisoners are subjected to. About 2,300 Palestinians are now being held under administrative detention.

Over 1,400 laws have been imposed by the military administration on the occupied territories since 1967. These laws amend, replace, or reinforce the repressive statutes already in force from the British mandate.

We spoke with many Israeli settlers and government officials who continually invoked Abraham, the holocaust, and general security as the justification for all actions taken in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinians are reduced to demographic problems, dehumanized in order to permit the continuation of deportation, harassment, repression, and slaughter.

It is said that the greatest abuses are committed by the abused who have never healed. It makes sense. But I left the Middle East convinced that the resilience, flexibility, and determination of the Palestinian people will bring honor and ultimate victory to their cause. The intifadah has created a unified and spirited people as age, gender, and class differences melt away. The PLO is now supporting Palestinian artists and coordinating nonviolent activities, including the general strikes.

Despite the horrors, the Arabs of Palestine have entered into a promising chapter of their history. As Amin's mother told me only three days after her son's death: "If they insist, let the Israelis prepare graves for each of my children. We can no longer accept life without freedom."

Peter Frisch is artistic director of the New Playwrights Theater in Washington, DC. Jelazoune, a play with music by Frisch and Barber, is scheduled for the spring.