Six Plays of the Israeli-palestinian Conflict

A bold and singular collection of six plays by Arab and Jewish playwrights explores the human toll of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Admission by Motti Lerner, Scenes From 70* Years by Hannah Khalil, Tennis in Nablus by Ismail Khalidi, Urge for Going by Mona Mansour, The Victims by Ken Kaissar, and The Zionists by Zohar Tirosh-Polk. Rather than striving to achieve balance and moral equivalency between “competing” narratives, the plays investigate themes of identity, justice, occupation, exile, history and homeland with honesty and integrity. The plays do not “take sides,” or adhere to ideological orthodoxies but challenge tribalism and narrow definitions of nationalism, while varying widely in thematic content, dramatic structure, and time and place. Where politicians and diplomats fail, artists and storytellers may yet succeed—not in ratifying a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine, but in building the sort of social and political connectivity that enables resolution. The curation of this collection was not motivated by timelines, statistics or headlines but by a need to illuminate the personal prices paid by those most affected.

Jamil Khoury is a playwright, essayist, and the founding artistic director of Chicago’s Silk Road Rising, a non-profit theatre and media arts company that tells stories through Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses. Michael Malek Najjar is an associate professor of theatre arts at the University of Oregon. He lives in Eugene, Oregon. Corey Pond is the associate producer for Silk Road Rising in Chicago, Ilinois.