Palestine! A word that conjures up all kind of emotions for many of us and a word we’ve been hearing incessantly on the news in the last few weeks, the triggering images and footage of war, death and destruction. Palestine, a word that many of us heard ring out in the big cities as thousands marched in protest to raise awareness and highlight the human rights abuses in Palestine and to expose the hypocrisy of our often one sided, biased media and leaders.
What did remain pretty silent was the theatre sector.
We all remember how theatre venues up and down the country pledged their allegiances to the Black Lives Matter movement last year, although the disingenuity from many was the consequence of many a raised eyebrow (we’ll save that for another day), others showed a commitment to changing things and are doing some great work to challenge their ways of working, the results of which yet remain to be seen.
However, what has become clear is that the issue of Palestine is seen as ‘yet another Middle Eastern affair’ that happens ‘over there’, mired in politics, too explosive to handle and like a ticking time bomb. Granted, it is that. But it is also a human issue.
If we look at Anti-Apartheid Movement in the UK, we remember how Equity had placed a ban on selling TV shows to South Africa in 1974 and between the 60’s-80’s, thousands of professional Equity members had signed petitions to refuse performing in South Africa unless it was in front of a multi-racial audience, something apartheid laws did not allow.
We also witnessed a boycott of Apollo theatre in London in 1987, when its starring actress, Marti Caine, said “The best thing we can do for the blacks is send them back into the jungle to recover their culture.” It was only after her apology and signing the petition against apartheid that the boycott was lifted.
But it is now 2021, we’re not quite so ‘British’ about these issues and mere petitions are the least we can do to raise awareness of the settler colonisation which continues to take place in Palestinian Territories, a breach of UN AND human rights. 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes when the state of Israel was created in 1948 and this has continued, followed by many attacks on Palestinian settlements which have decreased in size as the occupation increases.
Maybe the theatre venues of today feel safer to engage in social media activism by placing a black square on their feeds. Or could it be we’ve been sucked into the fear of saying the ‘wrong thing’ amidst cancel culture, where many individuals just point-blank refuse to comment on anything remotely controversial or political in case it ends their careers before they’ve even started? Maybe you don’t want to pick sides? Maybe it’s a venue policy to not comment on religious or political affairs? Only, this is a humanitarian issue.
The purpose of art, specifically theatre, is to educate and provoke through the guise of entertainment, and I’m not even just talking about Theatre of the oppressed, this applies to all practitioners, we make work to tell a story that resonates with the people, a social commentary on the times we are living in. Equally, places like Leeds, London, Bristol, Leicester and many other around the UK have seen mass protests for Palestine in the last week, yet neither of the big venues in these cities have commented on these events taking place on their doorstep amongst their local communities.
It doesn’t take a genius to realise there is nothing political about standing up for the rights of human beings, wasn’t that the reason behind anti-apartheid and the BLM movements? This is about using your platform to call out the establishments and governments that have benefitted from this conflict which has cost thousands of lives.
At the time of writing this, a ceasefire is in effect. Now is the time, now that there is somewhat peace in Palestine and Israel, venues need to speak up on these abuses of human rights.
You don’t have to fly the black, red, green and white flag all over your feed to show solidarity, as mentioned this isn’t about the politics, but nevertheless, the silence is deafening.