Harry's Place

Thank you Harrys Place

First performed at the New End Theatre London NW3 on 5 May 2009.

This play may be performed free of any charge for performing rights, provided a collection is made at the end for ‘One Voice’.

http://www.onevoicemovement.org/

http://www.onevoicemovement.org/about-onevoice/contact-us.php

The original cast would be happy to perform ‘Seven Other Children’. For this, please contact Richard Stirling of Evergreen Theatrical Productions Ltd, London at email evergreenrs@aol.com

The last night at the New End Theatre NW3 is tonight. There are still a few tickets. They are free, call 020 7592 9666 and leave a clear message with your name, telephone number and number of tickets you want.

In Liverpool, ‘Writing on the Wall’ has refused to show this play alongside ‘Seven Jewish Children’ on Tuesday. Liverpool City Council has reportedly responded by cutting out their grant for next year. Any theatre, school or university which shows ‘Seven Jewish Children’ but refuses to show ‘Seven Other Children’ will be named and shamed – starting with the Royal Court, London.

http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2009/03/seven-themes-for-caryl-churchill.html

1
Tell them it’s a play
Tell them it’s serious
But don’t enlighten them
Tighten them
Put some night in them.
Tell it in the voice of Jews
Tell it only in the voice of Jews
That way any bad thought will be the thought of Jews
(Like that ‘they’ don’t understand anything except violence)
And any thought ascribed to others will be ascribed by Jews
And not necessarily true
And maybe just an excuse
(Like that there are still people who hate Jews)
And any bad deed ascribed to others will be merely ascribed by Jews
(Like that ‘they’ set off bombs in cafés)
And ascribed maybe as a pretext.

2
Tell them this was the land God gave us
Tell them it was our promised land
Tell them we said it was a land without people
Tell them again that we said that
And said it wasn’t ‘their’ home.
Don’t enlighten them
Put some spite in them
By making it a story of eviction and dispossession only.
Don’t tell them of two peoples with a right to self-determination
Two peoples with a claim on justice and humanity
Don’t enlighten them.

3
Tell them that we won
Tell them that we’re fighters
Tell them we are stronger
Tell them we’re the iron fist now
Prussia of the Middle East.
Powerful Jews
Night in them, spite in them.
Don’t tell them it’s a play
Tell them it’s real.
Frighten them.

4
Powerful Jews (tell them)
And hating, racist Jews
(Tell them this too).
Tell them we think we’re the chosen people
Tell them we say that ‘they’ are animals.

5
Tell them about occupation and settlements
Do tell them about this because it’s true
Tell them about bulldozers, knocking down houses, checkpoints, olive trees
Do tell them all this.
But don’t mention the war
Whatever you do, don’t mention that the foundation of the state of Israel took place with the backing of the UN, the world community
Don’t mention that Israel’s Arab neighbours at once mobilized for its destruction
Don’t mention that they really did speak of ‘driving us into the sea’, that this is not just what we tell
Don’t mention the Hamas Charter and its promise of killing Jews and destroying Israel
Don’t mention Hizbollah, or the threats and denials of Ahmadinejad, or the growth of anti-Semitism everywhere, or the attacks on Jews, or, in certain places, the teaching of anti-Semitism.
Thank you, don’t mention it.

6
Yes, tell them it’s serious
Tell them not only hating, racist Jews
But also pitiless Jews.
Tell that we say ‘they’ want their children killed to make people feel sorry for them
And that ‘they’ can’t talk suffering to us
Tell that we think we’re the ones to be sorry for, we’re entitled
And that we wouldn’t care if we wiped them out, we’re just happy it’s not us.
Execute the reversal beloved of every spewing Jew-hater from his pit, and by every anti-Zionist who can shit
Tell them the Shoah is mere pretext now
Exploited to claim entitlement
Entitlement to inflict suffering upon others
Tell them it, tell them.

7
Tell them finally (shrinking not even from this,
Ancient libel from before the Holocaust was text let alone pretext)
That Jews kill babies, girls, boys
Tell them we say ‘they’ want their children killed
Tell them that Jews look at one of ‘their’ children and ask ‘what do I feel?’
And say ‘happy it’s not her’.
Tell them this
And tell them it’s a play
No, don’t tell them it’s a play
Tell them it’s serious, deadly serious
Don’t enlighten them
Exciten them
Whiten them
Hate in them.

Is this a Festival of Execrably Awful Playwriting?

Let’s all join in:

Scene 1 The Roundhouse. An Experimental Workshop
The Modern Parents and The Critics from the pages of Viz are gathered onstage, with the drama critics of several highbrow newspapers and weeklies:

Male voice: Ask them who wants to watch this tripe.

Female Voice: Ask them who will pay to get in.

Child’s Voice: Ask them if the taxpayer ought to subsidise rubbish as dire as this.

[Continue from there ...]

PLAYWRIGHT’S FOOTNOTE:
An earlier experimental play, ‘Old Rope,’ attracted a substantial Arts Council grant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Other_Children

Writing is on the wall for festival’s future funding

LIVERPOOL City Council is to withdraw future funding from Merseyside’s Writing on the Wall Festival following a row over the staging of Caryl Churchill’s play Seven Jewish Children at a Palestinian evening next Tuesday.
The decision came after Zionist Federation co-vice chair Jonathan Hoffman accused the festival of “blatant bias” after it refused to stage the play Seven Other Children as a balance to Churchill’s work.
Seven Jewish Children, which charts Jewish and Israeli parents’ attitude to protecting their children from the Holocaust and Palestinians, whom they hate, was condemned as “antisemitic” when it opened in London in February.
The 10-minute play, which is to be followed by a collection for Medical Aid for Palestine, is due to be performed at the Bird Theatre, Contemporary Urban Centre, 41-51 Greenland Street on Tuesday (7.30pm) alongside the play Both Sides of the Story, by John Graham Davies and a reading of In Search of Fatima – A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi.
The evening ends with a panel discussion chaired by Dr Ros Merkin, who is Jewish but admits to being critical of Israel.
Liverpool City councillor Eddie Clein, who chairs the city’s Regeneration and Culture Select Committee which partially funds the festival, investigated the possibility of banning Seven Jewish Children, but came to the conclusion that this was not a legally possible.
After a WoW spokesman told the Jewish Telegraph that organisations wishing to have a “profile” at the event would be welcome to the “open” evening, Mr Hoffman requested the festival stage Seven Other Children by Richard Sterling, which was written as a response to Seven Jewish Children.
But this week WoW development coordinator Madeline Heneghan said: “The decision of the trustee board is not to programme Seven Other Children.
“The primary reason is that the festival programme is planned months in advance.”
She added that the trustees felt that the ZF request was “unrealistic at this point in our annual cycle”.
Mr Hoffman described the WoW decision as “disgraceful”.
He said: “Seven Other Children is only eight minutes long and could easily have been performed alongside Seven Jewish Children.
“This is blatant bias. Moreover public money is involved.”
He demanded: “Now it is time for Liverpool City Council to protest in the strongest possible terms and to stop funding Writing on the Wall.”
Cllr Clein confirmed that Liverpool would not be repeating its WoW funding next year.
He said: “We have sent them a loud and clear message that we are not happy.”
But he said that this year’s funding would still go ahead because of contractual arrangements, which would have incurred “huge debts for local taxpayers” if they had been broken.
He admitted that he was not surprised by the WoW decision not to stage Seven Other Children, saying: “The type of people who go to a Palestinian evening are not the type of audience to be swayed by a play with a different message.”
Meanwhile Ms Heneghan invited Council of Christians and Jews chairman Joan Fletcher, who had complained about the Palestinian evening, to join the event’s panel to present “an alternative view”.
But Mrs Fletcher declined, saying: “The only effective alternative view would be one that is opposite to that being presented.”
She emphasised: “A voice for Israel must also be heard. While CCJ is ever ready to combat antisemitism and will engage in robust debate, those artists performing the Palestinian pieces are not interfaith advocates, but advocates for Palestine.”
She accused the festival of taking a “clearly biased stand against Israel” while benefiting from public finance and urged the festival to honour its commitment to celebrating diversity.

© 2009 Jewish Telegraph
http://www.JewishTelegraph.com

It has to be said, as a work of literature I think ‘Seven Other Children’ is inferior to Churchill’s ‘Seven Jewish Children’.

I’ve said before what I think of the contents of Churchill’s play, so won’t repeat myself.

It has to be said, as a work of truthfulness I think ‘Seven Other Children’ is superior to Churchill’s ‘Seven Jewish Children’

(but then so is Alice In Wonderland)

Thanks for publishing this.

‘He admitted that he was not surprised by the WoW decision not to stage Seven Other Children, saying: “The type of people who go to a Palestinian evening are not the type of audience to be swayed by a play with a different message.”

That is an extremely quotable quote which absolutely says it all.

Really, this is just tit-for-tat isn’t it? As crap as the original.

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh C’thulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”

An unquotable quote.

I have to say, on first reading. I do not really understand this play. I am somewhat disappointed.

* Writing on the Wall is a programme of events culminating in an annual festival that, with schools, young people, local communities and broader audiences, celebrates writing, DIVERSITY, TOLERANCE, tolerance+, story telling and humour through controversy, inquiry and DEBATE.

http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/

Tuesday 19th May

Palestine: Outsiders in their Homelands

The BBC was widely attacked for its alleged pro-Israeli bias during the
recent bloody bombing and invasion of the Palestinian enclave in Gaza. Its
subsequent refusal to broadcast an appeal by the Disasters Emergency
Committee appeared to back up these claims. To explore these issues WoW presents a night of theatre and readings around the issues of Israel and Palestine and the invasion of Gaza, featuring:

Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza by acclaimed playwright Caryl Churchill. What do you tell a child when her government is trying to kill her? What do you tell a child when her government is killing other children? Caryl Churchill’s controversial new play moves from Nazi-occupied Europe to contemporary Israel through the fears of generations of Jews for their children.
Both Sides of the Story: a play by John Graham Davies (Beating Berlusconi).
Ghada Karmi reading from her memoir, In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, described as an intimate narrative which reflects the author’s personal experiences of displacement, loss and nostalgia against a backdrop of the major political events that have shaped the Middle East conflict.
Pankaj Mishra, award winning writer, novelist and visiting Fellow at University College, London, will join the evening’s participants for a panel discussion with the audience.

From the proceeds of this event a donation will be made to Medical Aid for Palestinians

7.30pm
The Bird Theatre, The Contemporary Urban Centre,
41 – 51 Greenland Street, Liverpool, L1 0BS
Tickets £6.00/£4.00 available from the
Philharmonic Hall Box office Tel: 0151 709 3789
For online booking click here

http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/index.php?id=149

“Really, this is just tit-for-tat isn’t it? As crap as the original.”

I must admit, I don’t really understand it at first reading.

Zionist Federation co-vice chair Jonathan Hoffman accused the festival of “blatant bias”

LOL!

I don’t get it. It’s not satire or propaganda. What does this mean?

I see Israeli Ministry of Tourism has now wiped Palestine off the map:

http://thinkingoutoftheblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/wiping-palestine-from-map.html

However, personally I don’t see much point in the pro-Palestinian crowd protesting. This “one state solution” would result in the end of Israel. It would be a demographic time-bomb.

Oh. It’s “honest.”

Bias against bombing, murder and genocide is not really bias though is it Mr Hoffman?

“Bias” against Israel in Gaza in 2009 is like “bias” against the Nazis in Warsaw, 1942.

Oh, how they love to call Jews Nazis in order to minimize the Nazi’s crimes!

Wow, from what little I’ve read of it already it absolutely stinks! Do people actually pay to watch this crap? It’s probably just something for the zeitgeist to feel all clever and pleased about themselves. You’d have to force me in at gunpoint! It makes me really glad I never go to the theatres if this is the sort of stuff on offer. Entertainment should really be politics-free.

The play passerby posted is much better.

Danny Smircky – It has to be said, as a work of literature I think ‘Seven Other Children’ is inferior to Churchill’s ‘Seven Jewish Children’.

Perhaps Seven Muslim Children might strike a chord. Scroll down to where ‘Seven Muslim Children’ starts. Makes interesting assertions.

There is no reason why the display or performance of a work of art with a political theme must neccessarily be balanced by another with an opposing message. No artist has any particular right to have their work performed.

Andrew Adams,

forgive me, but you can’t see ANY racist connotations in the play, Seven Jewish Children??

Yawn…

And to think there’s so much to report on, on this bright day… Here, let me spice up your lives a bit:

Another Arab kid shot by the boys from the AOF…

John Mearsheimer in The Conservative American: Two states or Apartheid…

NYT full page ad: Yes you can Mr President…

Here Gert let me spice up your day a little bit:

Following are excerpts from an interview with PLO Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki, which aired on New TV, January 6, 2009.

Interviewer: “I asked you earlier if you support martyrdom operations today, and you said that the Israelis are afraid both of the Palestinian stones and people.”

Abbas Zaki: “First of all, in light of the blood that is being shed in Gaza, and the crying of the men – not only of the women… The hardest thing is to watch the men crying in Gaza. I now support any operation that will make the women and men in Israel cry. When the Al-Qassam Brigades and all the other forces were told to strike everywhere, I expected things to be carried out quickly. All those who always flex their muscles, and say they want to slaughter Israel – this is their opportunity. Soon, the world will view us as those responsible for the crime. Currently, in light of what is happening to the children of Gaza, any martyrdom operation is permissible, I swear by Allah.”

Interviewer:”Do you call for such operations to be launched from the West Bank as well? Some people are asking: What can the people of the Gaza Strip do right now? Perhaps now, with the land invasion, they will be able to act. But do you really call upon the people of the West Bank to carry out martyrdom operations?”

Abbas Zaki: “The people of the West Bank are active day and night – with stones, with demonstrations, all the people have taken to the streets. You asked me if I support, in light of this bloodshed… Don’t forget we’re Arabs – we believe in blood vengeance. No one can treat our blood like water. We should have afflicted them with three or four operations, and then their women would have said to those sons of bitches: ‘Come home, we are getting killed here.’ When Israel focuses on one front, other fronts should be activated.”

Following are excerpts from an interview with PLO Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki, which aired on OTV, November 7, 2008.

Abbas Zaki: “We consider the U.S. to be an enemy because its only strategic alliance is with Israel.”

Interviewer: “How could you possibly accept your enemy in your land?”

Abbas Zaki: “What do you mean? We meet even with Israel.”

Interviewer: “How can you consider Israel to be your enemy, if you signed a peace treaty with it?”

Abbas Zaki: “Allow me… This enemy… If I had the capabilities of the U.S. – would I be fighting it or negotiating with it?”

Interviewer: “Israel ceased being an enemy once you signed a peace treaty with it. I don’t know how it could be your enemy. Do you talk to the Israelis as if they were your enemies? Do you talk to Israel as a friendly or enemy country?”

Abbas Zaki: “An enemy country, which owes us certain things. The heroic Vietnamese used to negotiate with the French, while they were slaughtering them.”

Interviewer: “I can assure you that in his speeches, Abu Mazen says the U.S. is a friendly country.”

Abbas Zaki: “Well, this isn’t true. Perhaps Abu Mazen, in his position, needs to use diplomatic language, but he is the greatest critic of the U.S.”

Following are excerpts from an interview with PLO Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki, which aired on NBN TV, April 9, 2008.

Abbas Zaki: “We believe wholeheartedly that the Right of Return is guaranteed by our will, by our weapons, and by our faith.”

Interviewer: “Do you still believe in weapons, not just in negotiations?”

Abbas Zaki: “The use of weapons alone will not bring results, and the use of politics without weapons will not bring results. We act on the basis of our extensive experience. We analyze our situation carefully. We know what climate leads to victory and what climate leads to suicide. We talk politics, but our principles are clear. It was our pioneering leader, Yasser Arafat, who persevered with this revolution, when empires collapsed. Our armed struggle has been going on for 43 years, and the political struggle, on all levels, has been going on for 50 years. We harvest U.N. resolutions, and we shame the world so that it doesn’t gang up on us, because the world is led by people who have given their brains a vacation – the American administration and the neocons.”[...]

Young Palestinian: “As I recall, the invasion of 1982 and the destruction of South Lebanon was not just in response to missile attacks, but in response to operations as well. Israel does not use only the missiles as a pretext. It uses any activity of the resistance as a pretext.”

Abbas Zaki: “The important thing is that in any operation, Israel will pay a price. We don’t want cases in which you don’t kill even a chicken, but Israel kills 20 of you. I salute any operation that makes Israel pay a heavy price.

[...]

“The P.L.O. is the sole legitimate representative [of the Palestinian people], and it has not changed its platform even one iota. In light of the weakness of the Arab nation and the lack of values, and in light of the American control over the world, the P.L.O. proceeds through phases, without changing its strategy. Let me tell you, when the ideology of Israel collapses, and we take, at least, Jerusalem, the Israeli ideology will collapse in its entirety, and we will begin to progress with our own ideology, Allah willing, and drive them out of all of Palestine.”

And finally, the following are excerpts from an interview with PLO Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki, which aired on ANB TV on May 7, 2009

Abbas Zaki: “What is needed is a settlement, not a hudna [truce]. After 45 years of struggle, we have the right to reach a conclusion to this conflict, rather than extending the hudna, enabling Israel to expand on a daily basis.

“My advice is: we should not give Israel a hudna, because whenever Israel is given a hudna, it consolidates its position and becomes more deeply rooted. What hudna? If they do not withdraw from the 1967 lands – what hudna? Israel will become a fact on the ground, and we will end up as small enclaves, and should be driven out with time.

“Therefore, it is high time that we found a final, comprehensive solution. The Arabs talk about a comprehensive solution and present initiatives, and the world talks about a solution, yet we say: Let’s stick to the hudna. No, my friend. I personally joined Fatah somewhat belatedly, in 1962. Work out how many years that is. Should I keep on extending the hudnas? Impossible. We want a solution now.

“They talk about a two-state solution, and when that is achieved… Even Ahmadinejad, leader of the rejectionists throughout the region, said he supports a two-state solution. Nobody fools anybody.

“With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? What will become of all the sacrifices they made – just to be told to leave? They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse. It will regress of its own accord. Then we will move forward.”

As for your first link Gert, the source for the story, Max Blumenthal, in the comments at your MondoWeiss antizionist link reports that the Arab kid (Summer Amira) was released from hospital with a “superficial wound to her arm”. He reports that a bullet may have ricocheted off a wall and into her house, but does not mention whether or not bullets were fired from the house itself or from the vicinity of the house beforehand, nor clarify whether the “superficial wound” to the girl’s arm was in fact from a bullet.

As to your second and third links, Mr. ‘I’m not a bigot, but from my review of secondary and tertiary antizionist sources, I’m convinced that a monolithic and disloyal domestic Jewish Lobby controls American foreign policy against American interests’ Mearsheimer and Mr. MJ Rosenberg apparently have a very different picture of the Palestinian Authority’s position on the US role in Israel-Palestinian negotiations and on the two state solution than Abbas Zaki, the PLO’s Ambassador to Lebanon quoted above.

Perhaps Gert, you can account for why Zaki speaking in Arabic on Arabic TV channels who has been a Fatah member and activist since 1962, isn’t as reliable on these issues as the unilingual English speaking American “Mid East Experts” Mearsheimer and Rosenberg. Answers on a postcard.

“I see Israeli Ministry of Tourism has now wiped Palestine off the map”

Probably because it doesn’t exist.

Linda posting anti-Semitic lies again, eh?

http://www.bluetruth.net/2009/04/seven-muslim-children.html:

Seven Muslim Children

1 (circa 900)
Tell him how wonderful it is
Tell him that we won
Tell him about the swords and the rivers of blood
Don’t tell him about the swords and the blood
Tell him we’re doing it in the Name of the Prophet
Tell him they will all convert or be dhimmis
Don’t tell him about dhimmis
Tell him this will all be ours forever
Tell him al-Andalus is Dar al-Islam

2 (circa 1800)
Tell him how we used to rule
Tell him how the world changed
Tell him it was the Europeans’ fault
Don’t tell him it was the Europeans’ fault
Tell him we will go back to al-Andalus and all the other lands one day
Don’t tell him about al-Andalus

3 (circa 1900)
Tell him the Jews are coming back
Don’t tell him the Jews are coming back
Don’t tell him they were ever here
Tell him they’ve always been here
Don’t tell him they’ve always been here
Tell him they want to live as a free people
Tell him they are buying the land
Don’t tell him they’re buying the land
Tell him they’re stealing our land
Tell him they love the land and are draining the swamps
Tell him we want to live where they have built hospitals and schools and roads
Don’t tell him that we didn’t build anything
Don’t tell him they love the land
Don’t tell him they have prayed every day for hundreds of years to return to the land

4 (1948)
Tell him to get his gun
Tell him to shoot the Jews
Tell him to block the road
Tell him to shoot the convoys
Tell him they can’t have a country here
Tell him we were going to have a country too
Don’t tell him we were going to have a country too
Tell him the Jews will slaughter him
Tell him about Deir Yassin
Tell him about Deir Yassin
Tell him about Deir Yassin
Don’t tell him about Kfar Etzion
Don’t tell him about Latrun
Don’t tell him about “itbach-al-Yahud”
Tell him “itbach-al-Yahud”
Tell him we will drive them into the sea

5 (1967)
Tell him we’re going to go back
Tell him we’re going back to Jaffa one day
Don’t tell him we’re never going back to Jaffa
Tell him our Arab brothers will help us
Don’t tell him our Arab brothers refuse to help us
Tell him how our Arab brothers kicked out all their Jews
Don’t tell him that the Zionists took in their Jews
Don’t tell him why we can’t leave the camp
Don’t tell him why we can’t live in Cairo, or Beirut, or Damascus
Don’t tell him that it’s because they hate us
Tell him they are doing this for our own good
Tell him they will help us go back to Jaffa
Tell him we’re going to go home soon
Tell him Nasser will take us home
Tell him the armies are ready
Tell him the Jews are scared
Tell him we will slaughter all of them
Don’t tell him we will slaughter all of them, even the children
Don’t tell him…..that we lost again
Don’t tell him that they’ll give it all back for peace
Tell him “no, no, no”

6 (2002)
Tell him to put on the bomb belt
Tell him he will have 72 virgins
Don’t tell him that he must die
Don’t tell him that he must kill children
Tell him the Jews aren’t human
Tell him they’re the sons of apes and pigs
Tell him they are infidels in Dar al-Islam
Tell him they let their women be free
Tell him their gays are free
Don’t tell him their gays are free (just in case…)
Tell him Allah will bless him
Tell him we will call him a hero
Don’t tell him how they will die
Don’t tell him how they will be scarred
Don’t tell him they have parents too
Don’t tell him they offered us a country again
Tell him they have no right to a country
Tell him it’s better to die than to admit it
Tell him how we danced in the streets on 9/11
Don’t tell him we danced in the streets on 9/11
Tell him it’s better to kill them than live with them

7 (2008)
Tell him to launch the rockets
Tell him to use the school yard
Don’t tell him to use the school yard
Tell him they’re afraid to fire back because the world will hate them
Don’t tell him they might fire back anyway
Tell him they must all die
Don’t tell him they might attack
Tell him we’re living in the Warsaw Ghetto
Tell him what the Warsaw Ghetto was
Don’t tell him what really happened in the Warsaw Ghetto
Don’t tell him about Auschwitz and Treblinka
Tell him they’re afraid of us and won’t attack us
Tell him we can shoot off rockets forever.
Tell him if he’s lucky the rocket will hit a kindergarten
Tell him “itbach-al-Yahud”
Tell him “Filastin hi arduna, Wa al-Yahud kilabuna”
Tell him we will go back to al-Andalus
In the Name of the Prophet

Gert linking to Mearsheimer … Yawn, indeed.

Next week: Gert links to a Flat Earth website to prove that the 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy (but with help from Bronze Age Celts with a time machine).

“The evening ends with a panel discussion chaired by Dr Ros Merkin, who is Jewish but admits to being critical of Israel.”

Well, gosh. That settles it, dunnit?

You know the original one was presumptuous and not good enough to overcome that and anything that copies the form will have the same flaws.

If you want to explain the problem in Palestine, a collage of TV broadcasts, political speeches, textbook excerpts, sermons, excerpted articles and interviews would do an infinitely better job of giving people a sense of perspective than some stupid shallow finger-wagging dialog.

Producing agitprop when dealing with a complex reality that people are ignorant about is pretty much unforgivable. Educate people first before you start wagging fingers.

“Seven Other Children” is a disappointment. “Ask him” is weaker than the “Tell her” of Churchhill’s play. “Seven Muslim Children” is much stronger but naturally would not be posisible to stage due to an undoubted uproar from the Muslim community in the UK and abroad, the issuing of fatwas, etc. What a pity we don’t have genuine freedom of speech in the UK!

I’ve been waiting a while for discussion of Seven Other Children on HP.

I went to see this at the New End Theatre, and found it to be a bad, bad play.

Churchill’s play Seven Jewish Children, which I also saw at The Royal Court, was shallow, nasty, juvenile, myopic, patronising, disgustingly one-sided, and often slipped into casual racism.

SOC was just unfocused and histrionic – it didn’t really seem to have a point, just a lot of shouting. I used to be a boxer, and this play reminded me of a first timer in the ring, flailing wildly to defend themselves from attacks, and never effectively parrying blow, let alone landing one of their own.

Perhaps the worst thing about the play is the last line, about Hitler maybe having the right idea. This just recapitulates Churchill’s lame, patronsing little psychodrama about this arab-Israeli conflict being rooted in neurosis about the European slaughter of the Jews in the 20th century. This is exactly the dialogue we need to get away from.

All in all, Seven Other Children is a massive missed opportunity. This is NOT the play we needed to answer Churchill – it will further muddy the national conversation surrounding this topic, and will clarify nothing. What a dissapointment.

Entirely agree with go rimbauds summation. I went last night and found it histrionic and irrelevant. My impression at the end was that the actors could not wait to leave the stage . I think we all wondered what we were doing there ,actors and audience . The highlight was the introduction which rather dramatically featured the Royal Court injunction on New End reading the reply to Stirlings letter – an absolute absurdity in its own right .So much for freedom of speech but to be expected in Gulag Sloane Square.

However , I would like to propose a cyber vote of thanks to Richard Stirling for recognising the need to counter the one sided diatribe from the Royal Court and devoting the time and effort in staging his production. Perhaps some collaboration with non revisionist historians would have provided more relevant material to work with.

I dont believe it will achieve a wide enough audience to muddy the national conversation as go rimbaud suggests but if nothing else it deprived WOW of its funding . Not much in the greater scheme of things but one in the eye for the bastards whoever they might be .

Stirling has attempted to redress the balance ,something the rest of our apathetic community has failed to do . There is a propoganda war being fought out there ,one which saw last weeks Israel Independence celebration cancelled at the last moment by the Bloomsbury theatre because of its ‘Political nature – a few kids singing and dancing and celebrating their love of their country. Respect to MPAC and their Jihadi cronies ,they were only doing their job.

“Seven Palestinian Terrorists”

Act 1
Tell him that red is positive and blue is negative.
Tell him again RED IS POSITIVE and BLUE IS NEGATIVE!
Tell him the positive terminal has a “+” sign on it.
Tell him the negative terminal has a “-” sign on it.
Tell him NOT to connect the green and yellow wire to anything at all”
Tell him NOT to play about with that button.
Tell him . KABOOM!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!

Act 2
Tell them we can’t actually confirm which bit belongs to who.
Tell them we have a feeling that 72 virgins will be a waste of time.
……………………

Tell her they are Europeans, foreigners, they move about, they’ll go away.
Tell her they have lots of lands round about.
Tell her there never was a Jewish temple on the Haram. Tell her there was always a mosque, the Quran says so.
Tell they think they are the chosen people, and that they think they can do anything so long as it benefits them.
Tell their scriptures are myths and fables. Tell her the Quran says so.
Don’t tell her they were dispossessed from this land by the Servants of Allah.
No, tell her. Tell her the Servants of Allah entered their temple and disfigured their faces for rejecting Isa and the prophets, twice.
Just don’t tell her that in the same breath as telling her there was never a Jewish temple there, and not in front of western journalists.
Tell her we don’t hate Jews, not real Jews. They are not real Jews.
The Jews who were here before them never gave us any problems.
Don’t tell her that is because they were few in number and we kept them in their place.

Tell her the British and the UN, which is really the US and the western powers, had no right to let the Jews come and live here.
Don’t tell her partition was the first time in our history when there could have been a free and independent Palestine.
Tell her the Jews stole more land than was allotted to them anyway.
Don’t tell her if we had accepted partition we would have had a nation state for the last 60 years.
Don’t tell her our leaders rejected partition and called for our Arab brothers to throw out the Jews.
Don’t tell her, that, if we had won and they had lost, we would have done the same to them, if not worse.