An important Op-ed in Canada's Now magazine by Misha Shulman an ex-IDF commander, defending Caryl Churchill's play and castigating the misguided opposition that does a disservice to the real fight against anti-semitism. In defense of Seven Jewish Children Controversial play about Israel is a chance to re-examine ourselves Misha Shulman Perhaps having spent three years in Southern Lebanon as an IDF commander has lowered my tolerance for misconstructions of Israeli ideology. But when I heard names like "Sons of Hitler" and "Jew killers" were called out as theatre-goers entered Theatre Passe Muraille last week for the play Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza, I was angry. The recent fiasco surrounding Crow’s Theatre’s staged reading of Caryl Churchill’s controversial play provided yet another example of the way North American Jews do their worst to perpetuate the conflict in the holy land, and keep anti-Semitism stronger than ever. So it has come time for th...

The campaign against Caryl Churchill's play for Gaza, Seven Jewish Children sadly had success at the Liverpool City sponsored Writing on the Wall cultural festival. The sponsors refused to show the play unless a 'right to reply' - Richard Stirling's play Seven Other Children - was shown. The city authorities cut funding after the organisers of the cultural festival refused to comply. On a happier note, Caryl Churchill's play is to be shown in Tel Aviv. A controversial play, "Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza," written after Israel's Operation Cast Lead by British writer Caryl Churchill, will be staged for the first time in Israel in Tel Aviv's Kikar Rabin this evening, as part of Hebrew Book Week events. It is directed online via Skype and video by Samieh Jabbarin, who has been under house arrest for four months. Jabbarin, a Jaffa resident and director at the city's Arab-Hebrew Theater, was placed under arrest in his parents' Umm al-Fa...

I've got my tickets today for the Two Plays for Gaza show this Thursday at the Hackney Empire and confirm that show is almost sold out so ring the number below now if you want to see Caryl Churchill's Seven Jewish Children and David Wilson's The Trainer. All funds raised are going towards the rebuilding of the Gaza Music School. For tickets (£15) call: the Hackney Empire box office on 020 8985 2424 or visit: www.hackneyempire.co. uk Two Plays for Gaza A benefit evening for the Gaza Music School & Stop the War Coalition Hackney Empire, Thursday 21 May @ 7.30 PM This exciting evening will include Caryl Churchill's powerful Seven Jewish Children , a 10-minute play about Gaza. The playwright Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon said of it " . . . dense, beautiful, elusive and intentionally indeterminate. It's disturbing, it's provocative, but appropriately so given the magnitude of the calamity it entails." Caryl will introduce her play which will include...

****************************** 1) WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN THE GAZA DEMONSTRATION 16 MAY REMEMBER GAZA DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY 16 MAY FREE PALESTINE: END ISRAELI OCCUPATION: END ARMS TRADE ASSEMBLE 12 NOON MALET ST LONDON WC1E 7HY MARCH TO TRAFALGAR SQUARE The world has forgotten Gaza. Watch these two videos and know why on Saturday 16 May we will show that we have not: http://bit.ly/BHoH9 ****************************** 2) SEE THE PLAY THE BBC BANNED The BBC refuses to broadcast Caryl Churchill's play Seven Jewish Children, saying it must remain "impartial", the same reason it gave for not broadcasting the Gaza emergency appeal. Does the play "articulate moral outrage" (The Guardian)? Or is it anti-semitic, as Israeli supporters say? You decide. Book Now: http://bit.ly/HSuGk Tony Benn introduces Two Plays for Gaza Hackney Empire 291 Mare Street London, E8 1EJ Thursday 21 May 2009 at 7.30 pm Performed by Roger Lloyd Pack, Janie Dee, Jana Zeineddine, Paul Herzberg ...

Seven Other Children has been penned by Richard Stirling (pictured) as a response to Caryl Churchill's Gaza play. Churchill has been accused of peddling anti-semitism with her play. The charge seems to revolve around an interpretation of the play sees all Jewish people as somehow being charged with, and responsible for the slaughter in Gaza earlier this year. But of course the play does no such thing. The problem, to the extent that there is one, arises from the fact that Israel itself describes itself as 'the Jewish state' when of course it is no such thing, given that there is a growing minority of Jewish people that have no truck with Israel and its oppression and warmongering. I haven't seen this new play or had the opportunity to read a transcript but a review of sorts appeared in one of my local papers here in north London and is reproduced in full below. In tonight's Evening Standard Stirling says that Cooke [Dominic Cooke, artistic director at the Royal Cour...

A PLAY that has been condemned by Jewish groups and some theatre critics as anti-Semitic will this month be performed at the State Library of Victoria. The cast of the eight-minute Seven Jewish Children, by English playwright Caryl Churchill, includes Sydney-based Anglo-Jewish actor Miriam Margolyes and Max Gillies, husband of high-profile Melbourne Jewish identity Louise Adler. It will be presented in a rehearsed reading on Monday, May 18, at 6.30pm by the lobby group Australians for Palestine. More at The Age Caryl Churchill's Gaza play is anti-war not anti-semitic

The play is approx 10mins long

Excellent article by Antony Lerman at the Guardian this morning on Caryl Churchill's Gaza play, Seven Jewish Children , which has seen its most recent international performance in Montreal, Canada, hosted by Independent Jewish Voices Montreal . Lerman is the former director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and draws this powerful conclusion about why those that level the charge of anti-semitism at the play are so wrong: How should we explain why they get this play so wrong? I suggest two reasons. First, they're trapped in a self-generated atmosphere of extreme defensiveness. They genuinely believe that antisemitism is at such a high level, fuelled largely by anti-Zionism, which they regard as mostly antisemitism, that any critical discourse about Jews sets alarm bells ringing. Second, the continued insistence on unmasking anti-Zionist antisemites leads to fatal confusion about what antisemitism is. I sympathise with those who watch the exchanges over this play'...

Photograph: Tristram Kenton On Sunday, May 3, Independent Jewish Voices Montreal (IJVM) is organizing the Canadian premiere of the play. It will be read in both English and French and followed by a discussion that organizers hope will help to initiate dialogue between the communities affected in Montreal. “This play is likely to spark conversation,” says director Rose Plotek, on the phone from Toronto. The piece provoked a flurry of response when it was staged at the Royal Court in London less than three weeks after Israel pulled out of Gaza. Comments ranged from predictable charges of anti-Semitism in the New Atlantic to ardent praise from figures like American playwright Tony Kushner. But Plotek insists the play is kosher. “It’s about the human struggle of parents struggling with how to communicate violence to children, how communication passes from generation to generation,” she says. SEVEN JEWISH CHILDREN AT THE GEORDIE SPACE (4001 BERRI, SUITE 103) ON SUNDAY, MAY 3, 3 P.M. AND...

Ari Roth is not surprised that his decision to stage a reading of "Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza" has infuriated some in the Washington Jewish community. "People have a right to be offended, and I respect those who have read the play and are offended," said Roth, the artistic director of Theater J at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center where the 10-minute play was performed this week. It also will be staged Saturday night and Sunday afternoon in Washington at the Forum Theater. Roth himself was upset by the script. However, he has added two pro-Israel plays to the evening as well as a panel discussion as part of an effort to give a broader context to the play. more This play is not anti-semitic, it is anti-Israel. Read our reviews/comment below: http://gazasolidarity.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-gaza-plays-take-stand-for-justice.html http://gazasolidarity.blogspot.com/2009/02/play-about-gaza-is-anti-war-and.html

Caryl Churchill's play, Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza is coming to New York. Excellent news. It's an outrage the BBC doesn't feel it can air the play on Radio 4 because it might damage its 'impartiality', but it had a sell-out run at the Royal Court. The Israeli war on the people of Gaza has produced a crop of plays of which Go to Gaza , Drink the Sea is a stunner, but has also attracted criticism from the pro-Israel crowd. See our answer to these critics in our post Why Gaza plays take a stand for justice , and our earlier report on Churchill's play, and the Zionist attack dog Melanie Phillips, here The New York Theater Workshop and two theaters in Washington will hold staged readings this month of Caryl Churchill’s provocative new play, “Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza,” along with talk-back sessions with audiences about the piece’s controversial portrayal of some Israelis, leaders of the theaters said Sunday. The play, which runs just 8 to...

[UPDATE - The Guardian reported on 16 March that BBC Radio 4 is refusing to broadcast the play Seven Jewish Children claiming it might damage the BBC's impartiality. The BBC is caving in to the zionists again. In the footsteps of the refusal to show the Gaza humanitarian appeal this is truly unbelievable and outrageous. They'll probably refuse to report the next Israeli war against the Palestinians on the pretext it might create sympathy for Palestinians. Protest to the BBC using the online complaints form here ] Photograph: Tristram Kenton Some critics - yes Melanie Phillips is among the zionist attack dogs - have claimed the 10-minute play, Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza , by British playwright Caryl Churchill, is anti-Semitic. See Jeffrey Goldberg's 'critique' here The Royal Court Theatre's Blood Libel . Churchill’s play is currently being performed at London’s Royal Court Theatre as a benefit for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians. You can d...

Andrew Haydon has written an amazingly foolish piece at the Guardian Theatre blog on the recent crop of Gaza plays showing in the UK. The 10-minute Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill and now Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea by Justin Butcher and Ahmed Masoud (described as a multimedia verbatim testimony) both make no bones about highlighting the injustices - and death - being heaped on the people of Gaza by the Israelis. But Haydon thinks it is 'worrying' that Churchill's play portrays 'the Jews (at least in part) as victim-turned-persecutor' and castigates Go to Gaza for presenting a 'parade of blameless innocents'. He concludes that both plays risk 'demonising a whole country - if not every single Jew on the planet'. The problem with people like Haydon, who is quick to criticise the lack of social context in the plays, is there ignorance and reluctance to face the truth and the social context. So he finds the description of Hamas as the resistance...

SATURDAY 7 FEBRUARY: ISRAELI BOYCOTT A major boycott protest, organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, will be held at the Agrexco HQ in Hayes, Middlesex. Agrexco is one of the main despatch centres for Israeli produced flowers. The next week is one of the busiest times for the sale of flowers, with Valentine's day approaching. What most people do not know is that many of the flowers sold in Britain come from Israel. For full details of the Agrexco protest, including available transport, and for other boycott activities this Saturday, go to: PSC SUNDAY 8 FEBRUARY: CHILDREN'S DEMONSTRATION A children's demonstration for the children of Gaza and for all children of Palestine will take place outside 10 Downing Street on Sunday 8 February, 1.30pm to 3.00pm. The protest is organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission and Palestinian Forum of Britain and is supported by many other organisations, including Stop the War Coalition. MONDAY 9 FEBRUARY: ISRAELI AMBASSAD...

From: Stop the War Coalition < office@stopwar.org.uk > Date: 28 January 2009 22:54:00 GMT To:   Subject: BBC and Sky: What is wrong with you people? STOP THE WAR COALITION     NEWSLETTER    No. 1081  29 January 2009    Email office@stopwar.org.uk    Tel: 020 7278 6694    Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk IN THIS NEWSLETTER:    1) BBC AND SKY: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?     2) HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED?    3) OBAMA'S FIRST ACTS OF WAR    4) NATIONWIDE PROTEST IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES    5) GAZA - FAILED BY THE MEDIA     6) SEVEN JEWISH CHILDREN: A PLAY FOR GAZA    7) STOP THE WAR NEEDS OFFICE AND STORAGE SPACE     8) YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP: NO. 1744 **********************************************     1) BBC AND SKY: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? "What is wrong with you people?" These were the words of actor     David S...