Six Plays of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Michael Malek Najjar
A bold and unique collection of six plays by Arab and Jewish playwrights exploring the human toll of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than strive to achieve balance and moral equivalency between competing narratives, the plays investigate themes of identity, justice, occupation, exile, history, and homeland with remarkable honesty and integrity. Edited by Jamil Khoury, Michael Malek Najjar, and Corey Pond, the collection features 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. 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 Semitic Commonwealth was not motivated by timelines, statistics, or news headlines, but a commitment to illuminate the personal prices that are paid by those most affected. The six plays do not take sides, or adhere to ideological orthodoxies. They challenge tribalism and narrow definitions of nationalism, while varying widely in thematic content, dramatic structure, and time and place. The idea is to pose difficult questions without proffering answers, and to do so in ways that are dynamic, complicated, funny, painful, and sometimes controversial.