ACT I - SEEDS



SET: A bare stage, except for some chairs or stools, risers if available for visual enrichment. Several music stands, holding scripts. If the budget allows use rear projections: Jerusalem, towns, villages, settlements, orchards, images of Arafat and Sharon, scenes of the intifada, IDF occupation actions, attacks, suicide bombing scenes, Arafat at the UN, Sharon at the Temple Mount; others appropriate to the text. Perhaps a stool for a guitar player.



TIME: Now

PLACE: Imagine Jerusalem, towns, villages. Kibbutz’, farms, countryside of Israel, West Bank, Gaza



MUSIC: short overture segueing into soft mid-east guitar



Performers enter, take their places



NARRATOR (VO)

“What is hateful to thee, do it not to thy fellow man, this is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary.” Hillel, 30 B.C.E.



CUT GUITAR



(SOUND: A bomb blast)



LIGHTS UP.



Ariel and Narrator exchange the following lines:



ARIEL

I give you my answer to the bombers, force and more force...



NARRATOR.

But Ariel, people are...



A.

More force, more force...



N.

But Ariel, innocents are...



1



N.

More force, more force,



N.

But Ariel, innocent mothers and ...



A.

More force, more force



N.

But Ariel, innocent children are....



A.

More force, more force....



PAUSE



(MUSIC UP)



WOMAN

These are human beings,

as sweet as the finest Jew.

They feel pain, they bleed , they die,

Just as Jewish Children do.

Shake off the stupor that blinds

your mind, to see the same

our own oppressors have done.

When the whole land is soaked in blood,

Who shall have won?



(MUSIC OUT)

Yasser and Narrator exchange following lines



YASSER

“I am willing to sacrifice 70 martyrs to kill one Israeli”



NARRATOR

But Yasser,



Y.

No Israel.





2

N.

But the highjackings...



Y. (CONT)

No Israel.



N.

But the attacks from Lebanon...



Y.

No Israel.



N.

But the murdered Israeli athletes....



Y.

One million martyrs are on the way to Jerusalem.

This is a revolution, not a picnic.

No Israel!



(MUSIC UP)



WOMAN

Have you ever seen a Jewish child?

What is he or she?

in truth, just a human being

As good as you and me.

And does not a child deserve a home

after 2000 years of none?



MAN

Why deny them that postage stamp of a place

in which Jewish roots had sprung,

Within the multitudinous miles of space,

Your own sweet heritage has known?



YASSER

Not such a postage stamp, my friend.



WOMAN

Yes, a tiny spot of heaven

before the war of ‘67,





3



(MUSIC OUT)





NARRATOR

They won Golan, East Jerusalem,

West Bank and tiny Gaza.

Yes, you remember, Yasser.



ARIEL

Of course he remembers. He led attacks against Israel from those places.



YASSER

What did you expect when you keep your soldiers there on our land?



ARIEL

Not your Land, it was Jordan’s. Even King Hussein couldn’t stand your plots and violence. He kicked you out, I’m sure you remember that also.



YASSER

And still you occupied the Palestinian territories. That is wrong. Even your ‘Israel” is

an occupied territory, which you stole from Palestinians who lived there for centuries.



ARIEL

There was no Palestine, only an area given to the British to govern by the League of Nations. Everyone has a home, why not a few more Jews where Jews lived even before you, even a thousand years before Christ.



YASSER

You’re such a liar, not everyone has a home. Why not Jews? How about Palestinians? Why not Palestinians should have a home?



ARIEL

Who is denying that? I have said more than once there will be a Palestinian state.



YASSER

And more than once you voted against a Palestinian state. In 1991 you opposed the Madrid peace conference. In 1993 you voted No on the Oslo agreement. In 1994 you even voted against a peace treaty with Jordan. Yes, so what kind of state for Palestinians are you for?



ARIEL

A state. A state is a state. You have a president, an assembly, police, all the machinery of a state.



4



YASSER

Hey, you mister, read the terms Mr. Sharon said what kind of state.



NARRATOR

He would agree to a state on the areas presently under total or partial control by the PA, amounting to 42 percent of the West Bank. Israel would control all highways across the west Bank and the water resources. All settlements would stay in place with access to the IDF. All of Jerusalem will remain under Israeli sovereignty with the right to continue building around the city. Golan will remain under Israeli control.



YASSER

That is not a state. That is a ghetto, a Warsaw ghetto.



ARIEL

Now you know how we feel.



(TAPE ON: voices continue the argument, low volume under Narrator)



NARRATOR Voices: Yasser and Ariel

Can peace flow from minds as these Y: So you must punish us for what the

Minds dipped in hate and anger Nazis did to you?

Any peace from minds as these: A: And did not many Arabs side with the

Merely deceits rife with danger. Nazis?

Y: What has that got to do with us? With

What is now?



(TAPE OFF)



ARIEL

There is no now with you. Only always. In 1958 you started Al-Fatah with a network of secret cells and a magazine advocating armed struggle against Israel. And by 1964 you were leading raids into Israel from Jordan. True. That is your now!



YASSER

And 1953 did you not lead your Unit 101 into the refugee camp El-Bureig where you killed 50 refugees? And later in 1953, October, you attacked the village of Qibya killing many more innocents.



NARRATOR

Stop. Enough!



(MUSIC UP)





5



NARRATOR

Arik Sharon and Mohammed Abdel-Raouf Arafat, you are both accused of high crimes against humanity as well as the crime of deprivation.



ARIEL

Deprivation?



YASSER

What deprivation am I guilty of?



NARRATOR

You have both destroyed opportunities for your peoples to live in peaceful coexistence by your relentless aggression.



YASSER

You do not have the facts straight. In 1988 in front of the United Nations I said that I

was ready to recognize Israel and her right to exist.



ARIEL

But...



YASSER

Please to let me finish! Which in the wisdom of Yitzhak Rabin and Mr. Perez who recognized my recognition and together we marched to the Oslo agreement of 1993.



ARIEL

Please, let me say something. After four decades of attacking Israel and killing innocent Jews, suddenly you recognize Israel. Does a leopard change his spots? Why?



ARIEL

If something is not working only a fool would not change his approach. Perhaps, Ariel,

that is why you’re still having a hard time of it.



NARRATOR

Gentlemen, your argumentation only illustrates the point of this proceeding. You have already cited your transgression of 1953 and 1958. The other charges will be read to you. You will have a chance to defend yourselves, and there will be a time for witnesses.



PAUSE



VARIOUS VOICES

(Indian Express 9/2/02)

1946,At 17, Arafat began smuggling arms into Palestine.



1942, At 14 Sharon joined Haganah, an underground organization 6



August 1953, Of the Unit 101 action in El-Bureig camp, Major general Vagn Bennike, UN command said, “Sharon’s men threw bombs into refugee huts and as the people fled they were attacked by small arms and automatic weapons.”



1965 - 1968, Arafat, full leader of Al-Fatah and president of the PLO launched continuous guerrilla and terrorist attacks into Israel, .and terrorist plane highjackings, murder of diplomats, assassinations of own members who were opposed to his autocratic rule.



1971 King Hussein ejected Arafat and the PLO from Jordan because of the violence. They resettle in Lebanon and continue attacks against Israel.



1971, August alone, Sharon’s troops destroyed 2,000 homes in Gaza. Hundreds of young Palestinians deported to Jordan and Lebanon. Relatives of suspected guerillas exiled to Sinai.



1972, Israeli athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics by suspected PLO terrorists.. .

16,000 Palestinian civilians uprooted. 104 guerillas executed without arrest or trial.



1975 - 1982, PLO troops in South Lebanon, oppressive control over civilians, grab property, indulge in violence, run drug and prostitution rings, employ foreign mercenaries. Stories emerge: Civilians in a Christian village executed in the streets, suspected of cooperating with the Israelis. PLO turned prison in Sidon into a place of torture. The basement of the former school called the “entertainment center.”



(From www.



Late ‘70s Sharon, minister of agriculture, establishes West Bank settlements, now obstacles to peace and implicated in harassment and transfer of innocent Palestinians.



1979 Sharon, member of Begin’s cabinet votes against peace treaty with Egypt.



1982, Sharon as Defense Minister under Menachem Begin’s 2nd government attacks Lebanon to destroy the PLO. Civilians bombed at will. 20,000 Palestinian and Lebanonese 1,000 Israeli soldiers killed. Under Sharon’s control, Phalange militia massacres refugees at Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. The slaughter lasts between 6pm, Sept. 16 and 8am Sept 18, 1982. Yitzhak Kahan, president of Israeli Supreme Court, head of Israeli commission of inquiry finds Sharon responsible for the massacre, placing no restrictions or warnings on the Phalange actions.

Sharon never charged, but relieved of his post as Defense Minister, yet allowed to stay in the cabinet as minister without portfolio.



NARRATOR

Let the record speak.

Seek , if you like, rationales,

but hear the Israeli voice 7

of 16 year old Ilil Korney

for all her nationals,

Forlorn and angry, confronting Sharon In Beersheva.



YOUNG FEMALE VOICE

“I think you sent my father into Lebanon.

Ariel Sharon, I accuse you for having made me suffer

for some sixteen odd years.

I accuse you of having made my father suffer for more than sixteen years.

I accuse you of a lot of things that made a lot of people

suffer in this country. I don’t think you can now be elected as prime minister.”



NARRATOR

In everything but this last, Ilil was right.

Let us all sit shiva



VOICES

1982- Arafat, Reestablishes in Tunisia, gives support to Palestinian riots in the territories and the first Intifada.



1985 Sharon votes against withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon.



1990 - Arafat supports Hussein and Iraq in Persian Gulf war



1991 Sharon opposes Madrid peace conference.



1993 Sharon votes no to the Oslo agreement.



1993 - 1994 Arafat Officially recognizes Israel. Oslo agreement With Yitzhak Rabin wins the Nobel Peace Prize.



1995 - Arafat Refuses to sign the Oslo agreement.



1997 -Sharon votes against the Hebron agreement.



2000 - Arafat Starts the 2nd Intifada, blames Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount.



2001 - PLO under Arafat. Assassinations and executions by the State Security Court of the PLO: Trials last from 10 minutes to five hours. .Executed for suspicions of collaborating with Israelis:

July 31st, Samir Abu Zeina, Amjad Hafarza, Abu Alayoun, and three othrs, Al Fatah claimed killings.

17 year old Muhammad Abd al-Rahman sentenced as a minor to 15 years.

Jan 13, 2002, after moratorium on executions, Allam Bani Ouda publicly executed in

Nablus, Majdi Makkawi in Gaza, convicted in State Security Court in summary trials,

no access to lawyers, no right of appeal. Arafat ratified the death sentences. All such executions protested by Human Rights Watch. 8



2002 - Arafat claims no control over Hamas, Jihad, or Al-Acqsa Brigade, although Al-Acqsa is an arm of Al Fatah over which Arafat rules.



2000 -2002 Under rule of PLO and militants, indoctrinating Palestinians with nobility of suicide sacrifice. Starting with teaching children hate for the Jews and glory of death in school curricula, camp activities, TV shows and religious teaching; Portraying Israelis as Nazis, sub-human and worthy of killing. Hamas and Islamic Jihad report “hordes of young men,” request to be sent on Suicide missions. Often at mosques, clerics observe a “notably zealous youth” ready for martyrdom and recommends him for selection.



NARRATOR

Let the record speak,

seek, if you like, excuses,

but hear the Palestinian voice of Jibril Rajoub

(CONT)

Commander of Yasser’s Preventive Security Service Police

Of the abuses of martyrdom



JABRIL

“I think to militarize was a big mistake,

I think civilian attacks in Israel were harming the cause,

many of the events of the past 15 months were wrong”



WOMAN

Of the mistakes, let us sing a grieving song.



ANOTHER VOICE

2000-2002 Under rule of PM Sharon, reoccupation of towns and villages of West Bank and Gaza, inhumane acts against civilian populations, including wounding, killing, ethnic cleansing,

home demolishing and other acts will cited in following documents.



(MUSIC UP)



MAN

Like two drops of water from snow on high

fall down through rough rocks and rivulets,

become wider streams rushed by sharp forces,

battered by broiling currents

bashed by unyielding boulders,

become the unforgiving river

gouging its path, carving its banks,

bending its lands to its demanding will.

Our two boys, like two drops of water,

rough river running to do its slaughter.



9

WOMAN

Two boys, not as they are now, you see,

nor even six decades since,

scarred as they were already by hate

come into a world of war and infamy

perhaps even by the age of ten

when there was no love, nor care and little

of common sense.



ANOTHER WOMAN

Not all boys and girls are so deprived

that the chaos and death, reigning all around,

transform them into hardened shells. But, you know,

(CONT)

add to the carnage that raged outside

homes where, not love, but fear and anger dispels

ideas of care, kindness and the solid ground

where greater sense of humanity could grow.



(MUSIC OUT)



NARRATOR

Yasser Arafat, you were born Mohammed Abdul-Raouf

As Qudwa al-Hussaieni in Cairo, 1929.



YASSER

Jerusalem.



NARRATOR

All records show it was in Cairo, You were sent to Jerusalem at the age of 4

to live with your uncle after your mother died.



YASSER

Now that you remind me of what I don’t wish to be reminded, that is correct.



NARRATOR

I call Shaul Kimhi. You were one of the authors of a recent psychological profile on Mr. Arafat. What are the salient points you wish to share with us?



SHAUL.

At that age of 4, Mr. Arafat witnessed, for the first time, the brutality of British soldiers who ruled Palestine as well as the clashes between indigenous Arabs and immigrant Zionist Jews.



YASSER

“Zionists,” the key word, Zionists.

10

NARRATOR

Mr. Arafat, do you not wish for a national home for your people?



YASSER

A ridiculous question.



NARRATOR

The dictionary states that Zion was a Canaanite fortress in Jerusalem captured by David, and is called in the bible, “The City of David,” to Jews a symbol of Jewish national life. And “Zionism” as the movement to reestablish, and to support, a Jewish national

(CONT)

homeland.



YASSER

But originally the home of the Canaanite people.



NARRATOR

Semitic people?



YASSER

I see where you are going.



NARRATOR

Yes, one of the original inhabitants of Canaan and a group of ancient Semitic languages including Phoenician, Punic and Hebrew. Who is to say which one came first, perhaps all came first? Perhaps this is an argument for both peoples, who thirst to have their Zions. Why not as equal states, side by side. Can you, Ariel and Yasser, not abide such grace? And in the broader sense, what people under the sun, should not have their place?

Should Palestinian or Jew be the only one?



SHAUL

Excuse me, I have a plane to catch.



NARRATOR

I’m sorry, Mr. Kimhi, please go on.



SHAUL

As I was saying, Mr. Arafat was witness to the brutality and the fighting. I believe he understood that territorial problems could and should be resolved by rifles.



NARRATOR

Understood, at the age of 4?



YASSER

Thank you, who that young can think like that?



11

SHAUL

Of course, you’re right, not consciously, but psychologically impressions, even decisions are implanted in the human psyche, more often than not for life, in our most tender years.



NARRATOR

(Pause)

Anything else, Mr. Kimhi?



SHAUL

Yes. Mr. Arafat was never close to his father, he felt his father had abandoned the

family when he was most needed. He didn’t attend his father’s funeral in 1952.

I have no doubt that the fact that Mr. Arafat grew up without parental figures taught him to trust no one but himself.



PAUSE

NARRATOR

Mr. Zeev Avrahmi, writer for the Indian Express, you interviewed Ali W., a Palestinian journalist . Did he say anything about Mr. Arafat’s style of leadership?



ZEEV

Yes, he said that in Tunis, after the PLO was ejected from Lebanon in 1982 that Mr. Arafat enhanced his hold on power by assassinating anyone who threatened his primacy or was suspected of being pro-Jordanian or pro-Israel.



ARIEL

Leopard!



PAUSE. Look at Ariel.



NARRATOR

Thank you, Mr. Avrahmi, I will call on you later, if I may. And thank you, Mr. Kimhi. I trust you’ll make your plane.



SHAUL

I hope so, I would hate to hear another explosion. I hate loud noise.



NARRATOR

Nor, I suppose, the screams of people feeling death and limbs torn away from bodies.



SHAUL

Forgive any insensitivity. Goodbye.



NARRATOR

Thank you, goodbye. Ariel Sharon, you were born Arik Sharon?.



ARIEL

Ariel, I am sometimes called Arik. 12



NARRATOR

Thank you. Born in 1928, in Moshav Kfar Malal near Tel Aviv.?





ARIEL

Yes, I’m proud to say.



NARRATOR

Thank you. Mr. Uzi Benziman, you also did a study on Mr. Sharon?



UZI

A fascinating man, yes.



NARRATOR

What can you tell us about his early life, as relates to this proceeding?



UZI

I believe Mr. Sharon’s distaste for Arabs started in his youth.



ARIEL

I have no distaste for Arabs. A lie!



YASSER

Perhaps you have a taste for Arabs, Ariel?



ARIEL

Only a hunger for your departure from the scene. You should go rest on the beach somewhere.



YASSER

When my people have rest, then I shall consider it..



NARRATOR

Please, gentlemen, outbursts are not welcome.. Not here, not on the streets of Israel,

not in the villages and towns of the territories. Please, go on, Mr. Benziman.



UZI

My study is very deep, very thorough, and I concluded that Mr. Sharon’s dislike for Arabs started in his youth as he watched Bedouins, who were all around the Moshav, frequently attack its Jewish inhabitants. Everything indicates that Sharon was a violent child. At school, even when only 13, he used to carry a baton, and freely used it to bend other kids to his will.



NARRATOR

What do you think accounts for this behavior?

13

UZI

I believe it was the fear and anger shown by his parents towards the Arabs. As an

(CONT)

example, when he was 13, his father gave him as a present, a knife to protect his family.



YASSER

His parents were Zionists, were they not, Mr. Benziman?



UZI

Yes, ardent Zionists.



ARIEL

And what should my father give me, to protect my family, from the daily attacks?.

A white flag?



NARRATOR

I apologize, Mr. Benziman, for the interruptions of our two respondents.



UZI

I am above the fray, Mr. Interlocutor, I am a witness to human events, not a participant. This behavior is consistent, however, with both my study and that of Mr.Kimhi of these

two gentlemen.



NARRATOR

Mr. Post, perhaps you have something to add to this profile?



POST

I do.



NARRATOR

First, Mr. Jerrold Post, you are one of the authors, with Mr. Kimhi. Of the psychological analysis of Mr. Arafat?



POST

I am.



NARRATOR

By the way, for whom was this report made?



POST

The CIA.



YASSER

Birds of a feather.





14

POST

The CIA commissioned and paid for the report, Mr. Arafat; for the report, not my integrity. It is factual and accurate.



YASSER

Factual, yes, but your conclusions are open to interpretation.



ARIEL

And your interpretation is always that the fox is attacked by the chickens.



NARRATOR

Perhaps you two will let us proceed? Thank you. You were saying, Mr. Post?



POST

Just that in 1992, as you may know, a small plane which was carrying Mr. Arafat and some colleagues crashed in the Libyan desert. Everyone was killed but himself. Fearing he might die, he hurriedly changed into his uniform and his gun.



NARRATOR

Your point?



POST

The fact that he wanted to be found dead in his uniform speaks volumes about the man.



YASSER

Sir, you are a psychological analyst. When you are gone, do you wish to be found

wearing an apron? I am a soldier.



POST

My point, precisely.



(MUSIC UP)

POST (CONT)

Soldiers. Hating war or not, addicted to fighting.



YASSER

And after two days, alone and wounded, I decided it was time to put away the gun, and pick up the olive branch.



ZEEV

Ali W., the Palestinian journalist said something about that. Excuse me, If I am out of order, Mr. Narrator.





NARRATOR

Not at all, Mr. Avrahmi, to remind all, Mr. Avarhmi is the research reporter for the Indian Express. Please continue Mr. Avrahmi. 15

ZEEV

Although Mr. Arafat’s efforts, coupled with Mr. Rabin and Mr. Perez, led to a Noble Peace Prize for the 1993 Oslo agreement, Ali says that he kept his real intentions to

himself, to quote Ali, “Arafat can talk to international journalists about the future of the kids from both sides, and one minute later he would talk to militants and say the word ‘jihad’ a dozen times.”



YASSER

Actions are louder than words, my friend.



ZEEV

Indeed they are, as when in Oslo in 1995 you refused to sign the agreement, even though PM Barak conceded the land you wished for a Palestinian state.



YASSER

What good is the land if it does not have a heart? Without Jerusalem, there is no land.



ARIEL

You will never, never have Jerusalem, not even East Jerusalem. When I think of that,

and your impossible demand for the right of return, even when I hear Barak’s name,

I get sick.



YASSER

So go to a hospital, you Jews have fine doctors. Forgive me, that is not a slander, your

doctors are giving great care to Palestinian children, and their parents, who have been hurt by your soldiers. Still, you were not willing to give an inch, and you’re still not, ask your friend Uzi Dan, Ask Dan, Mr. Narrator.



NARRATOR

Yes, I was coming to that. Mr. Uzi Dan, you are a journalist and a close friend of Ariel Sharon’s for the last forty plus years?



DAN

I’m glad to say, yes.



NARRATOR

And, what of Yasser Arafat’s charge?



DAN

What he will or will not do is up to him, but I know that Mr. Sharon tried to persuade

(CONT)

Prime Minister Rabin that any other concessions would bring an end to the state of

Israel.



ZEEV

Mr. Narrator?



NARRATOR

Yes, Mr. Avrahmi?



ZEEV

When Mr. Sharon went to the Temple Mount, with a military escort and other officials, which is also the site of The Dome Of The Rock, it was his first step in becoming the next Prime minister of Israel.



ARIEL

Thank God, the people of Israel kicked Barak out. They knew who to trust.



ZEEV

Perhaps, but you gave Mr. Arafat the very thing he was looking for.



YASSER

You’re insane.



ZEEV

And you, Mr. Arafat, who hates to be out of uniform, both you and Mr. Sharon, who

are so uncomfortable at the negotiation table, yet so at home on the battlefield?



ARIEL

On this I agree with Arafat, you are insane.



ZEEV

And you are not? And you did not know that your trip to the Temple Mount would be

the very excuse Mr. Arafat needed to instigate the second Intifada? You read each other like a book, like two bloodied fighters in the ring, knowing each blow you give, would inspire a greater blow in return, and in return still a greater blow, until one or the other lies crushed at your feet. This is what you want, this is the consecration of your soul, the twisted raison d’etre of your existence.



(MUSIC UP)



NARRATOR

Partners in hate, partners in war

partners who worship that whore of death,

(CONT)

that mendacious goddess of gore and grief,



WOMAN

That thief robbing children from mothers,

and mothers from children, and fathers from families,

and lovers from lovers,



MAN

And from all, their hope, souls and hearts. 17



WOMAN

From all, the gift of life, joyous home and hearth,



MAN

And from both a State of peace and blossoming morrows



WOMAN

You partners in death and wracking sorrow,



MAN

Resign your enterprise,



WOMAN AND MAN

Or live out your wasted time, despised.



(MUSIC OUT)



ARIEL

Why should I listen to this? I should just go.



YASSER

For once, I agree.



NARRATOR

Will you go? Who would defend yourselves against what the other might say?.



ARIEL

Then let me set the record straight. How many times I have said it, Yasser, control the militants, stop the violence, and then we shall have talks.



YASSER

Withdraw your troops from the territories, then I will sit with you and talk I too have said that many times.

NARRATOR

What a deadly game of deception you both play. With no winners, but mostly it is the people with torn families, torn bodies and torn hopes who lose the most. You Ariel, you do not want Yasser to have the power to control the militants...



YASSER

If he did he would not bomb my headquarters, blow up my radio and communications, cars, kill my police, .everything, and then expect me to arrest the militants.



NARRATOR

Please!? No, Ariel if Yasser could subdue the militants, what excuse would you have to keep attacking the towns and villages, to push your goal beyond the green line, to ethnic cleanse, or transfer, as you call it, the Palestinians out of Palestine.



YASSER

Exactly, you see.



NARRATOR

No, you see, Yasser! If Ariel were kind, compassionate and fair, how then could you declare Israel an Illegal, outlaw state? How then can you manipulate the hate in your people, to blow themselves up as their glorious fate?



LIGHTS OUT



END ACT I



































































18A



ACT II – CARNAGE



(MUSIC UP)

NARRATOR (TAPE VO)

“Who is mighty? He who subdues his passions and is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who ruleth over his spirit than he who taketh a city” Simeon Ben Zoma, Rabbinic Sage.



LIGHTS UP



(From LA Times 7/20/02)

YOUNG MALE

“I want to become a suicide bomber. I want to kill as many of them as possible. I will

go to the bus station and explode myself in front of them. This is my wish. I will keep

it to myself until I grow up” I am Mutasem abu Ajamiyya, I am nine.



MAN

“We must yearn for martyrdom and request it from God. God planted within

our youth the love of Jihad, they have turned into bombs.” I am the cleric Ahmed Abdul Razek, on Palestinian TV.



WOMAN

“I am afraid to let my son watch Television. He is only four, he used to say that he wanted to be a journalist. His grandfather says he should become a doctor. We were joking about it a few days ago and asked him which will it be. He said ‘I want to be a martyr, a shahid.’ I really went nuts, I couldn’t believe it.”



MAN

“You are a suicidal-terrorist society...” Ammon Dankner, Editor in chief, Maariv.



MAN

“You Arabs are experts of impurity, cursedness and evil, but we are the blessed. You

are happy at our suffering, but it is the happiness of Philistines, the joy of the uncircumsized... of the little people. I call for revenge.” Effi Eitam, retired general,

Orthodox, now elected to the Knesset and a member of the security council.



MAN

“That you have somebody like this in the government is a deep blemish on our society.” Rabbi Michael Melchior, Orthodox, Meimad Party.



(MUSIC TRANSITION)



MOSHE

“My name is Moshe Nissim, call me Kurdi Bear. I am obsessed with my Beitar football team, and I have taught this to my son. For 17 years I worked as a senior inspector for the



19



(CONT)

Jerusalem principality. On January 29th, the police arrested me for taking bribes from contractors and other businesses. For the past one and a half years my life has been in deep shit. Even before this I was deep in debt. I was injured in my back, my wife was fired and my son got run over, they had to operate to save his leg. He’ll never play again for his team.



On the D-9 bulldozer, I learned to drive back and forward in two hours, I entered Jenin

driven by madness and desperation. I tied my Beitar team flag to the 60 ton monster.



For 75 hours straight, with only some food and whiskey I sat on that D-9, fire exploding all around me, and erased house after house. For 75 hours with my Beitar flag flying so my family could see it was me on television. If I had a say in the matter there would be a Beitar flag on the top of the mosque in the camp. If I died, I didn’t care, at least the insurance would go to my family.



24 soldiers were killed in the camp. Many of the houses were booby-trapped and many had holes for firing rifles. I felt that these were like my kids.

They told me to make a track for tanks to get through. . Don’t worry I said, I will make a teddy football stadium of the place. I ripped off my armed jacket, no clothes, just a towel and my whiskey was enough for me. I couldn’t get out of the D-9 anyway, I could get a

bullet. It didn’t matter.



I had no mercy for anyone. When I had to knock down a house I was ordered to I knocked down all the houses around it to get to it easier. People were warned to come out of the house before I come, but I didn’t wait. I just rammed the house with full power. I thought about our soldiers and the suicide bombings. I don’t give a damn about the Palestinians, but I didn’t just run with no reason. It was all under orders.



I’m sure people died in those houses, but I didn’t see at all, there was dust and we worked at night a lot. I found joy with every house that came down because they didn’t mind dying, but they cared for their homes. If you knocked down a house you buried 40

or 50 people for generations. I felt sorry only for the children and for not tearing the whole camp down.



I know many people think my attitude comes from being a Beitar and a member of Likud. It is true I am heavily on the right. But this has nothing to do with what I did in Jenin. I have many Arab friends. If a man has done nothing, don’t touch him, If he did something, hang him as far as I’m concerned. Shoot a pregnant woman without mercy

if she has a terrorist behind her. This is what I thought in Jenin. The main thing was to help our soldiers. If they had given me three weeks I’d have had more fun. I have no mercy.



20







(CONT)

After I went home. I got a call in the night from the hospital, they wanted to tell me my son Nati has died. Later they said that they drained blood from his brain and that he was coming back. We’ll know in 72 hours they said. .



When I got to the hospital he was awake, lying there in his Beitar football uniform. Nati told me, “Daddy, don’t forget I need to get to the semi finals.” I said to him, Nati, I told you Beitar has already lost.” He said “No way, I am going to the match.” He lost his

short term memory. The doctors talk about a long term recovery, they don’t know if he will ever recover his memory back to normal.



Jenin has strengthened me. It helped me forget my troubles, but until this hit me. What happened to Nati taught me a lesson. I live now for my son. The rest is not important.”

(Yediot Aharonot, most wide newspaper, May 31, 2002)



(MUSIC OUT)



WOMAN

And poor, dumb Kurdie Bear, blind and foolish tool of power manipulation,

had not your son, so innocent and sweet, been injured, knocked off his feet,

what other excuse to keep you distracted from these bitter times,

these bitter crimes so many like you repeat.



(MUSIC UP)



NARRATOR

The contagion of despair

the contagion of hate,

the sickness of scapegoating

gloating victorious over bloodied, fallen innocents.

What pretense we practice.



WOMAN

Have we not yet learned of the cruelty

of personal pain. repressed and unhealed

congealed in youth, grown, full blown in adulthood?.

What good the lessons of experience

when practiced not, in favor of the rotten

urge to kill, destroy, dishonor, displace

humble home for liebestraum?

For zealots? Zealots disgracing God

in whose name they steal and maim

and claim more lives of innocents.



(CONT)

Their insanity masked by vanity:

Caligula, Torquemada, Hitler, Stalin, 21

Idi Amin, the sonofabitch Milosovic, Hussein, Pol Pot

and now we got the gangs of Sharon, Hamas, tough Arafat,

The White House pretenders,

how long must we, the multitudinous good, surrender.

When do we cry Enough, Enough of that!?



(MUSIC OUT)



SOUND: Guns firing, people running, shouting



NARRATOR

West Bank, June 21, 2002,



SOLDIER

You people of Bethlehem, Kalkiya, Jenin, Tulkarm and surrounding villages you are confined to your home until our military missions are completed.



NARRATOR

June 21, 2002:



MAN

My name isAbbas abu Dahad, a clothing store owner. I, went next door to the Al Quds bakery to buy sesame rolls in case I got stuck by the curfew.



NARRATOR

June 21, 2002, Beitunia,



MAN

I am Adnan Mahoud, a teacher. I defied the curfew to get my daughter 18 year old Randa, to her matriculation exams without which she could not get her high school.diploma.



WOMAN

Such suicide terrorists, yes, Mr. Dankner?



SOUND OUT



(MUSIC UP)



NARRATOR

The issue is not who is right, who is wrong

what people have a right to the land.

The issue is children, mothers innocent fathers

being blown apart, whole peoples dying

in their heart. The issue is both peoples

have to right to live in their own nation,

no more tribulation, but in peaceful safety, 22

(CONT)

in harmony with their neighbor and the world.



MAN

Why, why, why!?

Why America do you support Sharon

knowing his brutal cruelty?

For a beachhead in the middle east

A grip on friendly soil, to keep a watch on oil?

Would not a clime of gentler tone

a more secure tranquility, serve the beast

of greed; at least so many lives spared?.

Act as if you cared, or does not the game

of money politics contain this ability?



WOMAN

And what of your pawns, EU, Quartet, UN?

Perhaps not pawns, forgive my blast, but then

cast this way it seems, caught like deer

in U.S. power beams. Where are you, at last?

When do you do more than talk, talk, talk,

while people cannot walk or take the bus without losing life and limb,

or harvest their olive trees, or sneak out for food or medicine,

and the chance of staying alive is very slim,

to return home no longer there, but instead piles of rubble?

Is it too much trouble, world?



MAN

You intervened in Herzegovine and Kosovo

to stop the flow of blood and ethnic cleansing.

Worried about war contagion on your European soil?

Well, after all, it’s just the middle east, a desert

of Arabs and Jews, less worthy than even Slavs,

Let them boil in their own poisonous brews..

We haves - have more important things to do.





NARRATOR

A little touch of elitist/racist flu, have we there?

You’d better care, or haven’t you noticed the fumes of hate

wafting over, gathering an explosive cloud,

needing but a final spark to rend your oblivious state,

your streets with loud and bloody insurrection,

Come out from behind your diplomatic armors,

your smug self deception, and smell the corpses.



(MUSIC TRANSITION: SNARE DRUMS, SAD VIOLINS UP) 23



WOMAN

To December, 2002 some 2000 Palestinian civilians have been killed by the IDF and 750 Israeli civilians have been killed by militant forces and suicide bombings.



LIGHTS OUT



END ACT II











































































23A



ACT III - DESPAIR

NARRATOR (VO)

“Put no one to open shame, misuse not thy power against anyone; who can tell whether thou wilt not some day be powerless thyself” Asher Ben Yechiel, of the Rabbinic Age.



LIGHTS UP



(LA Times, Jan 19, 2003 Ed-)

LYNN COHEN

“ I love Israel, But...before I came to Nablus I spent a few days in Tel Aviv. I found myself veering away from passing busses, always thinking twice, deciding against breakfast in a pleasant outdoor café. I felt gratitude, even reverence, for the security guards who unsmilingly opened my purse at the entrances of Dizengoff Center. To be in Israel these days is to be always afraid and furious. Furious about having to be afraid....but as a country born to address a gargantuan wrong (the Holocaust) Israel has an overwhelming responsibility to behave righteously. After spending a month in the West Bank refugee camp of Balata near Nablus, I can’t see much that is righteous in Israel’s actions. Life in the camp is exhausting. I took a cab from Ramallah back to Balata with Awad, a floor contractor. The trip which should take but an hour took six.

Stopped at checkpoints, driving around back roads, finally walking the last mile... Awad takes me to his home to meet his family. His three young children throw themselves at him, grabbing at his legs, “Daddy’s home. Alive! Not arrested!”



Everyone has a story of what the Israeli’s have done. Halima, a mother of 10 says that

when the soldiers searched her home they took her life savings, 1,000 shekels, $207.00,

she had been saving in hopes of sending at least one of her children to university.



The soldiers aren’t happy to be here. But, they say they are trying to stop people who are a danger to Israel... But the measures being taken - building fences, digging trenches, bulldozing and blowing up houses, destroying groves and farms, firing tanks and rifles

into crowds, arresting people without charge, conducting “targeted killings” - only fuel

Palestinian despair. ...Despair easily turns into rage, and when it does there is no fence

high enough for the kind of security Israel longs for - and deserves.”



(MUSIC UP)



NARRATOR

Bulletin, 12/17/02, Women arrested in rain all night in Asira A‑Shamalia



WOMAN

We got used to having checkpoints and soldiers all around the village. Now there are check points inside the village. Soldiers are all around harassing people. Breaking car



(CONT)

windows and stealing radios. Shooting at tires.. Even the children understand that they have to be careful not to give the soldiers any excuse to use more power. 24



(CONT)

Nobody can go in or out of the village. Even pupils from other villages, they can not go back home now. In the past, once in a while cars from other villages could sneak in with fresh vegetables. Now it's impossible. Anyone who tries to leave the village is being arrested.



Yesterday morning the army arrested a group of about 60 people, mostly women that

tried to walk to Nablus to their work as teachers and nurses (there is an agreement

between the PNA and the Israeli army that teachers and nurses can go to work). The

group is being held from yesterday morning (Monday) until now (Tuesday morning)

under the trees in cold and rain without cover, food or even a possibility to go to the

toilet. Other people from the village brought yesterday food and blankets and tried to

negotiate with the soldiers to allow them to give the stuff to the arrested group.



SOLDIER

Anyone who gets near the prisoners will be shot!



WOMAN (CONT)

Now, the leaders of the village are calling in the mosque' speakers to everybody, to

bring food and blankets and to walk together to the place where the group is arrested

to try to join them so the whole village – man, women and children will be arrested

together.



The PNA representatives are trying now for hours to negotiate with the army and as of

now , Tuesday at 11:00, no success" I am phoning from Asira. Tuesday, Dec. 17, .



NARRATOR

Islam, Arab leaders where are you

with heart, and in your hand, food,

clothing, blankets, medicine

for brothers, sisters in Palestine?

Of course not with more guns and killing,

but with love, care, are you not willing?

The dollars you give to PLO

flow not down to grass roots below.

Interruption by corruption?

Afraid of Sharon’s anger, or White House censure?

Good God, what are you in the eyes of Allah,

with backs turned as mothers, fathers, children suffer?



MUSIC OUT)





(SNARES UP)

25





NARRATOR

Eight months, high and low lights, in the life of Palestinians and Jews:

(CONT)

Between Mar and Nov, 52 Israeli civilians, men, women, children killed by militant attacks and suicide bombers: during Passover, in their settlements, on city streets. 104 Palestinian civilians, m en, women and children killed. By IDF, using rifles, tanks, 63 of whom innocent bystanders or as human shields during extra judicial killing of militants, e.g Saleh Shehada, Amjad Abdel Hadi, Hamas leaders,. an F-16 fighter bombed a civilian neighborhood, in Gaza, in which another Hamas leader was hiding. In addition to the militant terrorist,16 innocent civilians, including 9 children, were killed..



It is reported on July 28th, Air force Maj.Gen Halutz told the F-16 pilot who bombed the Gaza civilian neighborhood ,



GEN. HALUTZ

Your execution was perfect. You did exactly what you were told to do. The protestors are bleeding hearts, they should be put on trial as traitors.”



VARIOUS VOICES

June 19, announcement, Israeli Government, we will capture more Palestinian territory

after each terror attack.



July 21, Israel holds back tax money they collect for the PLO.



Aug 7, Gush Shalom sends letters to high ranking officers warning their actions may be

in violation of international war crime protocols. Communicates with Israeli Supreme Court as well. Sharon’s government acts to suppress and slander Gush Shalom, labeling them as traitors.

.

Aug 7, Air Force pilot and hero, Yiglal Shohat, calls on air force pilots to refuse to obey orders

to bombard civilian neighborhoods. Speaks at a human rights meeting. Media refused to

cover event. Kol Israel, state radio, refused to take a paid ad informing soldiers of

their duty to refuse illegal orders.



Aug 9, Knesset, bill prepared to ban land sales to Israeli/Arab citizens. Att. Gen Rubenstein opposes the bill, says it violates Israeli Declaration of Independence, and would lower even further International opinion of Israel.



Aug 9, Israeli prison Neve Tartza, women political prisoners protest sewerage back up, beaten, sprayed with tear gas.



Aug 13, Collective punishment reported, demolishing houses of relatives of suspected militants.





26



(CONT)

Example: house of 10 people, including 5 children and a disabled adult

demolished for an act on Mar 17 by Ansma Shakhshir. Same evening 4 other houses

demolished. ISM witnesses report.



Aug 13, Israeli Military court approves expulsion of relatives of suspected

(CONT)

terrorists from homes in West Bank to Gaza. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups oppose call to stop attacks against Israel.



Aug 19, Israeli Court bans use of “human shields” by IDF. Example IDF forced 19 year old Nidal abu Muksein to wear a bullet proof vest and knock on door of suspected Hamas militant, Nasser Feraz. In the following reign of bullets Nidal was also killed. Example,

40 year old Kamal Tawabli and 14 year old son forced to stand and let their shoulders be used as gun rests as IDF soldiers fired on Palestinians. Army said use of “human shields”

It saves lives.



Aug 24, Magdi Nasar deported to Jordan for working in Israel without a permit although he was

a Palestinian resident as proved by his lawyer, Shamai Leibowitz, held in prison 150 days. Finally Judge Drori made state atty Chani Odek admit she knew Nasar was a Palestinian all along and withheld evidence from the court.



Aug 30, IDF soldiers replace use of rubber bullets, which also kill, with lethal fire to shoot

suspected militants who appeared among civilian demonstrators

.

Aug 30 IDF use bulldozers to demolish hundreds of homes of civilians at Rafah and Khan Yunis

camps, as well as many homes of alleged relatives of militants. IDF says demolition is

a deterrent. (No one has yet noticed a lessening of militant attacks and suicide bombings.)



NARRATOR

Ethnic Cleansing, called “transfer,”Sharon Style:



(SNARES OUT, MUSIC UP)



WOMAN

Oct 19, Village of Heirbat Yanun, Sobih Family and six other families forced to abandon the village. Masked Israeli Itamar settlers came at night with dogs and horses, stole sheep, hurled stones through windows, beating men with rifles, knocked out the village electric generator. Water tower tipped over and emptied. The residents of Yanun were known to be peaceful and not connected with the killing of 5 and wounding of 8 by a Palestinian terrorist in the settlement of Itamar. The village is isolated but watched over by two outposts built by the settlers. Ahmad Sobih lost an eye from a settler beating.





ANOTHER WOMAN

The settlers and the army are destroying our farms, we cannot get food, medicine, kids

27

(CONT)

cannot get to school. We have to leave our villages and go into the cities to be closer to resources. The settlers take over more and more land. None are stopped or arrested as soldiers stand by.



NARRATOR

Settler outposts overlooking the village of Khirbet Yunun,

like guard towers looming at Dachau,

(CONT)

tell me then, what difference tween then and now.

Though no walls stretched between the towers,

No gaseous showers?

Just checkpoints, tanks and rifle butts.

Wild eyed Cossacks disguised as Jews

crazed with greed and dreams of God

spewing curses and guts

where peaceful olive pickers trod

and dream only of raising children in peace.



MAN

But there is no surcease, only death awaits

here in the rubble that was their homes

or in the thick plumes of hopeless camps

where dreams only of heaven’s gates

can dull the pain of darkening lamps

the short and ebbing hours of life.

These monsters with beards cannot be Jews,

No, not people of the law, of “Thou shalt not”

of Torah, Talmud, of Sages who begot

Compassion. Love and care and fair

equality. Proclaiming, first ever to humankind,

kindness, mitzvah and high morality.



WOMAN

No, these Sharonistas, these pretenders

these benders of the word of Yahweh,

slay the name of Jews and Zion and Israel

No world, think not of them as Jews

nor of real Israel as hell

but as slaves to vengeful misery,

the knell of hate and fear

Like Cossacks to their own ancestry

Like Nazis to their own heredity

Like Inquisitors to their own consanguinity.

28





ANOTHER WOMAN

Real Jew, real Israel, lovers of peace

who rush to protect, to help, to heal

to feed the children of the carnage

their fathers and mothers, defying police

and army and ministers of state.

Refusing to hate their cousins in faith,

Who rail against the injustice and pain

(CONT)

Who nightly release tears, they anguish

at the stain the few have brought to their Holy land

who from the fears these sow, grip power in

their (unholy) bloodied hand.



NARRATOR

Know the real Jew, the real Israel, Oh world

hear their voices their brave compassion unfurled

for all to see, to learn to know. Come to their side

for they are human, they know fatigue, despair

in the mounting daily mutual murder fair

the champions of hate minister.

Where are you, World, come Oh World

abide with real Jews and Palestinians,

turn the tide of killing, of oppressive greed

in this time, this grievous time of human need.



AMIRA

(Amira Hass)

Each Friday night and Saturday

The Settler Orthodox who call themselves Jews

walk thru the Wadi from settlement Kiryat Arba,

a kilometer or so. The “Worshipers Way”

they call it, seldom made the news

But today...

Even before today the walk through the Worshipers Way

into old Hebron, to the Tomb of the Patriarchs,

sacred to Palestinians and Jews,

Was not a day in the park - for Palestinians of the Wadi

Dare not they show their face in window or door,

The Kiryat Orthodox with curses and stones

and soldiers at their side, scare innocents,



(CONT)

in their fragile homes, into corners, on the floor

. Each Friday night and Saturday, along the Worshipers way.

Since the Arba, the Sharonista spear, was built years ago,

29

The Kiryat Orthodox teaching even their children to curse and throw,

stones and sticks at the homes, the minds, bodies and bones

of the Palestinians huddled inside, terrified

of the Kiryat Orthodox with soldiers at their side.



But today...



An ambush by Islamic Jihad militants

Killed twelve soldiers and settlers, wounding fifteen.

In the groves of the Wadi along the Worshipers way.

The innocent Palestinians only thought they had seen

how mean the settlers and soldiers could be.

In the home of Hamad Jaber and his son Najib,

Alone, the family had gone a visiting, thank God,

Out of the home, alone, Hamad and Najib

Drug into the street by soldiers to look down

at a man lying dead at their feet,

a man shot dead wearing gloves and mask

Hamad put to the task,



SOLDIER AND HAMAD

“Who is this” the soldiers demanded

“I don’t know” Hamad replied

“He was here in the house”- the soldier did not ask.

“No” Hamad sighed “He was not in our home”

“We do not know him. We were alone.”



AMIRA

Eyes and hands bound, Hamad and Najib, put into a jeep,

without a peep, driven miles away to unfamiliar hills

even as they left they heard the bulldozer’s motor roar.

Left off, they knew not where, left to track back home,

sometimes Hamad, 71, carried on Najib’s back.

From past 7 at night to 9am they trudged and stumbled

Eager for rest at home. There, like theft, no window, no wall, no door

was left. No home, only rubble and stubble. Other houses

that of another son, bulldozed down

The rest of the family returned to rummage through the nothing left.

Suheila, 61, found her wooden leg, the real one shot and lost in ‘48,

this one, now a foot broken by rage and hate.



I am Amira Hass, I was there,



More bulldozers tear up olive trees in the grove,

trees guilty of terrorism? Not likely, just to make them move,

the Palestinian villagers, with no olives, no income to sustain

their lives lived generations there. Not so subtle expulsion, to explain 30

(CONT)

the drain of Palestinians from their land. From old Hebron,

already fled, their homes lay bare, a neighborhood dead.

You see, long planned “territorial contiguity”

from Kiryat Arba to the Tomb,

homes, shops, gardens must go to make room.

Planned you see.



(Remember nazification of Jewish homes).



Saturday after noon, a call to settlers to rally.

Experience tells villagers soon attacks will follow.

Like shock troops, children sent out to further stone

the homes left standing, branding villagers as scum.

They run wildly. A sad and sickening sight, such Settler might

Then police appear, closing in, mingling in the crowd

still letting the children smash windows and cars

“Why do you allow this” I ask, and from the crowd

a woman cries out “bitch, she called the police”

“Thanks for reporting to us” an officer grins out.

The crowd all around me squeeze and shout

blame and names at me, my jacket ripped,

my glasses snatched from my face,

a woman started to hit, a grey beard tried to calm her down.



In Sabra, Russian, American and French, curses screeched.

out at me, the stench of rage and hate fumed in my nose.

30 meters away soldiers, police stood watching, they chose

to do nothing, though for my life I beseeched. I felt such fear.

And then Muki Hadar appeared, from channel one, Israeli TV

Tall and contained his frame seemed to douse the flame

of rage in the frenzied mob, they released me,

released me, thankfully to reach an army jeep.

Then a soldier handed me a bag, my glasses broken.

He said a child gave it to him for “that woman”

nothing else was spoken.



Until midnight Kiryat Arba youth remained,

some girls painted “Yam Yisrael hai”

The people of Israel lives, and stained “vengeance”

on shopkeepers doors there. What of the lives

of the innocent villagers? Does anyone care?



(MUSIC OUT)



Amira Hass, Ha’artez, reporting Nov 20, 2002

31

(Inspired by Uri Avnery:, Gush Shalom)



‘Indict the Oslo Criminals”

shout the zealots of the right

The Nazis shouted

“Indict the November Criminals”

Herr Goebbels’ voice has a hand in treachery

Repeat the lie loudly over and over

It becomes the truth that leads to butchery.



And now in fair Israel, the unjust Pretender Jews holding sway

Pick up the Nazi cant to do away

with the makers of peace, the lovers of life,

the knife of lies and hate on the lips of Jews?!

No, these few who seize power on tides of fear

are not Jews, but the spawn of anger and hate

Not these, these Sharonistas, Arafatians,

these bin Ladenistas, Saddamians, these Ashcroftians,

these Chanians and their puppet,,

these twisters of young minds to beat and snarl,

to self explode and assassinate

These are not Jews, nor Arabs, nor Islamis, nor Christians,

nor anything that holds dear

the sanctity of life, the grommets of love

that binds the sail of humanity,

human kindness and familiarity



(MUSIC OUT)



NARRATOR (TAPE VO)

Hillel said “ be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving thy fellow creatures.”



(RADIO BEEPS UP AND OUT)



AMER

This is Amer Abdelhadi, Radio Tariq Al Mahabbeh, Nablus, The West Bank, Oct 1, 2002

We are under Continuous curfew since July 20

Lifted a few hours every two weeks.

Social, economic, cultural and human life is disrupted.

And freedom corrupted beyond forbearance

Many killed, militants of course, but also children, parents,

scores wounded, homes demolished, Nablus completely encased,

even the history of our ancient Nablus town erased.



(SNARES UP) 32

(CONT)

Food and medicine running out, water cut off,

electric generators destroyed. People are toyed with

like unfeeling dolls, Children terrorized, school halls

empty and closed, political progress stunted.

People hunted and treated like dogs.

All of you out there in the world

You are our last and only hope for intervention .



We at the station are trying to carry out our journalistic mission.

In the midst of this hell.



(SNARES OUT)



Tariq radio is a legitimate, licensed station, PA made this clear to Israeli officials.

It is beneficial to the innocent population. They can’t do without this station.

.

We can reach only Nablus now, to the rest of Palestine our voice is dead..

Since June The IDF stormed in destroying radio equipment. and supplies.

Old standby equipment is used instead

Our losses exceed over 150,000 US, which is huge to us here in the West Bank.

For deployment of occupation forces and lack of funds, who do we thank?



(MUSIC UP)



(CONT)

The station is needed not just for news

but as a life line to the populace

what back roads to be used

to get the injured to the hospitals, to get food or water,

or to get papers processed, obsessed with simple survival.



We also inform the grievers of our lost dead

how to get the funeral sites, to evade the soldiers, scared and misled.

Who should be deprived of ritual rites and tears of goodbye?



Most schools are occupied by IDF forces

transformed to armed posts.

We at the radio now use our time and little funds to broadcast

the names of students and their grades. Also their class lessons..

Students and parents call to thank us.



We contact doctors and paramedics for those in dire need ..

People held hostage by IDF call us to plead for help.

For one, Mr. Nidal Shafiee , Aug 4th, called to inform

97 people, relatives and friends, locked in the Freightik building

without water, electricity or baby food and milk, all in great harm. 33

The station reached relief committees, Palestinians and Jews

with the news, who thankfully brought supplies,

Having to haggle with the IDF to let them get through.



Our programs provide comfort and counseling to children

suffering terrible anxieties and trauma,

the scars of occupation and constant army patrols,

the ceaseless drama of oppression.



No one has money. We started out commercially

with the goal of promoting social justice and human rights,

Since the outbreak of the intifada and the reoccupation by the IDF

we can’t raise funds, we have nothing left.

We can’t pay regular salaries to our staff, or cover

the costs of adequate phone or internet.



We call on all of you to help us keep going, at least to get

such help to the thousands of innocents, trapped and embattled

and to vigorously advocate for peace and just settlement.



Please help us, right now we need $5,000 just to cover expenses we cannot do without.

Please try, help us to help the innocent people here in Nablus.

(CONT)

Who should doubt

We deserve no less than any other people of the world., to live freely and peacefully.

.

Amer Abdelhadi, Radio Tariq 97.7 FM, Nablus Under Seige.



WOMAN

Between October and December, 2002,

another 87 slaughtered, innocent Arab and Jew.



MAN

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!



(MUSIC OUT)

MAN (Continued)

Are you human, are you jackals, lions?

Gnashing, slashing, ripping, tearing,

leaving wasted bones and blood,

rotting on the ground, air filled with the stink of death?

I think, therefore I am, don’t hold your breath.

Fit for animals in the wild; humans acting like animals

So, then...where are the humans? By fear beguiled?

The innate fear of non-survival, animal,

convivial with mayhem and murder

Not human these. 34

“Mommy?” “Daddy” hear the child’s murmur?”

Descartes, If think, not I, therefore not, am I?

And if I am not, then human not?

Thus free to kill, it’s clear,

human will regressed to animal fear.



(MUSIC UP)



WOMAN & ENSEMBLE

What would you do with peace, Ariel, Militants, Yasser?

Would you really miss the cries and moans of children , fathers and mothers

remnants of the massacre?

Would you really miss the addiction of war and its delusion of victory through might?

Or perhaps the ambition to write your names in history?

Ariel, the conqueror of an abandoned and despairing people, hero of a greater Israel

(Like the mad dream of a recent madman’s story)

Or Yasser, flinger of Jews into the sea, killer of Israel, warrior star.

Miss these would you, mighty Herod, great Nebuchadnezzar?

Or perhaps, to compensate, the joy of walking safely

among those same children, fathers and mothers smiling happily

would suffice you; would entice you, more sweetly than the sour smugness

of the martinet? The rosy gratitude of Semitic throngs begetting

kisses and flowers on cheeks and arms for the courage and compassion

to turn away from harm, hate, vengeance, odious ambition

to make peace, gladness in the lands of the holy?

What sainted names, those, written in the history books, by golly.



(MUSIC TRANSITION TO A SLOW SNARES WITH LONG INTERVALS)



(Janet Aviad, June 26, 2002, LA Times)



NARRATOR

Janet Aviad, one of the founders of Peace Now?





JANET

I am.



NARRATOR

What are the chances of peace?



JANET

Each Saturday I am outside Mr. Sharon’s house

demonstrating for peace. The crowd is small.

After thirty months of debilitating warfare, of suicide bombings,

of political stagnation and crippled economics,

this is understandable. 35





(Lines in Parens to be spoken by Chorus Voices)

(Understandable, all)



NARRATOR

What then?



JANET

I believe in peace and normal relations with

the Palestinians. But now even I question

our future and evolving character of the Jewish State.

This is a wrench in my gut and it eats at my soul.



(Where are we going, in what direction?)



JANET

I came from America, a Zionist with hopes

of helping to build a state that would be tolerant,

secure and democratic.

(Not belligerent, not autocratic)

But today I see a scared, hardened nation

awash in hatreds, space for dissent diminishing,

(Against all we hold sacred)

We have turned the clock back on the Oslo Accords,

(Make grievous note in history’s records)

My son, Mikie, once agreed with my views,

he has just returned from a tour of military duty

Occupying Bethlehem. He has turned bitter.

(As have so many Jews)

We lied to ourselves, he says, we in the peace camp

ignored the extremists in Palestine, and

how quickly they were amassing guns and

escalating anti-Jewish hatreds

(Hatred returned. in the tortured land).



MIKIE

I don’t want to use Palestinians as targets

or as shields, but if some of them get hurt

while we are doing what we are doing

trying to stamp out terrorism

(By giving back terrorism?)

then that is how it has to be.

(I see)



JANET

His attitude has been shaped by the suicide bombings, 36

(CONT)

and by the fear and anger that has gripped the nation.





NARRATOR

(Isn’t this exactly what both Sharon and the militants

want to achieve, justifying a killing situation?)



MIKIE

“I just feel that they are a bunch of barbarians.”

(Cancer of hate; souls to carrion)



JANET

I know he’s angry,. I’m angry, but I don’t have the

desire not to see. It’s not ‘peace now’ It’s border now,

Stop the occupation, build a fence, now.

They’re there, we’re here.

The Silvermans say of their three children

who have left Israel “we used to think of yeridah, leaving

Israel, as a no-no, something to be ashamed of

Now, everyone talks about their kids leaving,

(Leaving behind a people grieving)

they are grateful their kids are safe and doing

better elsewhere.

(And Palestinian kids, stuck there)



As hopeless as Mikie feels

he still questions everything.



MIKIE

“Why do the polls

show support for the undemocratic measures

such as limiting civil rights of Israeli-Arab citizens.?

(The pit of fear, hatred’s denizens)

And even the expulsion of Arabs? Why are extremists,

the right, a minority of Jewish settlers, the

ultra-orthodox allowed to shape and propel

the national agenda?

(The extremist road to hell)



JANET

Mikie is thinking

of taking his own son, 18 months old,

and leaving. He is worried about the kinds of things

that are being taught now in Israeli schools.

(By fearing, grieving, angry fools)

He jokes, he’ll send his kid to Catholic school. 37

(CONT)

When he was serving in Bethlehem,

he and his troops received a care package from sixth-graders.

In it was a clearly written sign “death to the Arabs.” He thinks

it was written by a teacher because of the advanced style of

lettering.

(School is for bettering, not a place for treachering)

We want to raise our children in a good way,

to see them do well. To work and have enough

money for a family.

(To sing, and grow and play)

None of these things are

available in Israel now, and it doesn’t seem to be so

in the near future.

All our expectations have an about face in the last two years.

The weight of it leaves no hope, no exit.

(Fair Israel on a slippery slope)

Silverman says “You fight the depression

that comes from the fear and death, but you have to fight

the depression that comes from having to get used to it,

(Like a part of your breath)

for the rest of your life, because this is the way

we are going to live our lives. I think this going

to be it for the next hundred years.



AMY

When I was new to Jerusalem, a woman got me to the

hospital to have my baby.. It was the day Rabin was assassinated.

When she heard the news, “he was the only one” she said,

this is the worst news.” The next day I saw teenagers

sitting on the ground lighting candles, writing poems.

Now those children “called children of the candles”

fight in Jenin and occupy the West Bank. Israeli

youth still believe in a place called Israel. But, Israel is

now a walking nightmare.

What of the Palestinian youth? The same thing.

They no longer think of having the hope of a normal life.

They live under curfew, sometimes 24 hours a day. Their

schools are often shut as are their universities. They

are taught to love martyrdom, because it is at least

a path one can choose.

Amy Wilentz, I wrote for the LA Times,July 31st, 2002.



(SNARES OUT TRANSITION TO COMIC SOUND)



MAN

“Help! Readers living by the sea are requested to cut this note, translate 38

it into English, put into a bottle, throw it into the sea and hope for the best:

This message reaches you from men, women and children stranded

on an isolated piece of land in the middle east. We are decent people,

but we are at the mercy of a particularly stupid group of leaders,

generals, colonels, clergy and other thugs. These bad people insist

that God himself directed them to fight endlessly over a few useless

pieces of real estate. They are forcing us to participate in their

war games, finance and sometimes take active part in them. If

you find this note please take it to your leaders. We still have

food and water, but only a few drops are left in the

supplies of sanity. PFLN , The popular front for the liberation

of normal people.” I am B.Michael Yediot Aharanot



(July 9th, 2002, LA Times)



REBECCA

The young people of Israel are desperate and depressed.

“We are all so sad,” one girl said. This was the night of the Passover

suicide bombing in Jerusalem. In a year or two these young

people will be serving in the army.

Israeli politicians have a grave

obligation to these children. They must figure out a way

to ensure that there is a future to be lived in Israel

for this generation. If they don’t figure that out, if

they don’t turn away from total and eternal war

towards some new kind of peace, and soon there may be no

future generation in Israel to continue their bloody

and fruitless occupation for them.

Rebecca Trounson, LA Times June 20, 2002, reporting



NARRATOR

Saeb Erekat, Senior Palestinian Cabinet minister and leader

in the peace camp:



EREKAT

What has been destroyed in this Israeli campaign

is people like me.. You can rebuild a school or water sewage network,

but how do you rebuild hope in the minds of the people?

I am so associated now with the failed Oslo agreement

that many people want me to go home.”

Who believes us any more, we middle class liberals?



NARRATOR

Political analyst Khalil Shikaki.



KHALIL

Many Palestinian organizations have called a halt 39

(CONT)

to joint projects with Israelis. My friend Akram Atall

project coordinator for the West bank will tell you.



AKRAM

Some activists want to continue their work,

but Palestinians now define you as a traitor

if you work with Israelis. The hostility

is so great that even my children cheered

when they heard of attack inside Israel...

We don’t want them to grow up this way..



NARRATOR

Congratulations, Sharon and Arafat, you have achieved mutual hate,

the condition of carnage your mad dreams perpetuate.



The Abu Labans, near Bethlehem, have marched with

Left wing Israelis since 1991. Saleh abu Laban served as a

advisor to the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace conference.

They went to peace rallies with Israelis, had dialogue in the home,

they envisioned two states, Israel and Palestine side by side.

In the wake of the Israeli occupation and military behavior and curfews

the Abu Labans are angry and feel betrayed, even by Israelis on the left,



WOMAN

Israel and the United states criticize our refusal of

the offer at camp David in July , 2002, but Jerusalem was not solved,

the refuge issue was not solved, we had no control over our borders,

the underground water and skies over Palestine would not belong to us.





NARRATOR

Aug 12, 2002, LA Times



New survey of Palestinian attitudes, By Nader Said, Birzeit University:



NADER

The last 22 months of violence and extremism have erased

any gains made before the current intifada, and have radicalized the society.

Deepening poverty and the failings of the PA have helped pushed people

towards Islamic militancy. Support for democracy has dropped 20 % since

the last polling in the late 1990s. Support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad has increased.

The researchers traveled to 75 towns and villages.

Two long years of extreme hopelessness has had an impact especially on the young,

they see that the intifada is not empowering them. Daily killing goes on.



40

(MUSIC UP: SAD) LIGHTS OUT



END ACT III



ACT IV - VOICES AND HEROES



NARRATOR (VO - TAPE)

Hillel said “ If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself

what am I? And if not now, when?



TAPE OUT. MUSIC UP



LIGHTS UP



(From Gush Shalom, Aug 20, 2002):



URI YA’ACOBI (YOUNG MALE)

In an another two days I am not going to enlist.

I will go to the induction Center in Tel Hashomer

with all the other conscription candidates. Unlike the others I will

refuse to enlist. Most certainly I will be sent to prison

I will meet there two fellow signatories of “the letter of

Highschool pupils” - Yoni Yechezkel and Dror Boimel..



When we hear news in the foreign media, we don’t hear the whole truth.

The sad truth is that the tanks are not limited to rampaging in the streets,

the military actions are not limited to delaying ambulances

and pregnant women at the roadblocks or just insensitivity

to Palestinian civilians. Our soldiers find themselves in difficult situations,

part of it by mistake, but they do kill children and old people who are not

connected to any act of terrorism. They destroy houses of whole families,

and perpetuate other acts for which terrorism is the excuse.

I don’t know whether the Palestinians want to remain poor forever

and discriminated against. I know that they don’t want to live in a war situation

and to see the continuous bloodshed. I know that it is

not them who forced us to occupy them, not

them who turn us into occupiers. We do that nicely

all by ourselves, without their help. I am not proud of my people.



SHARON

Please, young man. You are too young to remember what Israel has gone through,

what Jews have gone through for decades, centuries even. The militants want

to destroy Israel. For you, for your future, we must defend our country.



URI YA’ACOBI

I am not proud of my country. I am not proud of the acts

done in the name of my security.. Proud I am that I listen

(CONT)

to the voice of my conscience, and I will be glad when there will be more people

listening to theirs, and not to what says the commander.” 41

(CONT)

I am Uri Ya’acobi, High School Student



YASSER

He knows what is right and what is wrong. There should be more like him.



NARRATOR

On both sides, Yasser, he is as much against you as he is against Ariel.



JOHNATHAN

I am refusing to join the army on grounds of pacifism.

Because of my own beliefs my own country is going to imprison me,

in defiance of international law, basic moral values and fundamental rights.

I will go to prison proudly, knowing that this

is the least I can do to improve my country, and

the cause of pacifism.” I am Jonathan Be-Artzi, High school student.



SHARON

We cannot allow anyone who wants to refuse to serve in the army. That would starve

our forces, our ability to defend ourselves.





NARRATOR

Are you saying that your methods are not as popular as you’d like them to be?



NAOM

On Thursday, 16 January, I began a hunger strike, protesting the occupation of

the Palestinian people, the detention of conscientious objectors in military prison, our

recurrent sentences and the turning of the State of Israel into a fascist state

before our eyes.

I hereby call upon all young people facing conscription or already

conscripted: use your power of judgment. Do not forget for a single moment that the army takes away from you, at the moment of mobilization, your power of judgment. Consequently, you must consider in advance what are the lines you shall never be willing to cross, because once you are inside, everything gets blurred up. I am Noam Bahat, Prisoner No. 7165951, Sunday, 19 January 2003"

.

WOMAN

Sunday, 19 January, 2003 Objectors Hillel Goral and Noam Bahat, both among the signatories of the Letter of the Seniors 2002 ( are on the fifth day of their hunger strike in prison



NARRATOR

Are you listening Ariel, Yasser,

Are you listening across the sea, Mr. Bush

Are you listening, young people of the world?

Are you listening in your halls of alabaster 42

(CONT)

In your ruling mansions, rich and lush?

Are you listening, you rightest militants and politicians

to the hearts of young Jews of courage and conscience?

How many more babies and loved ones

are you willing to feed into the killing machine?

Are you listening to these Israelis, Uri and Yoni, Naom just teens?



WOMAN

Dear Uri, Yoni Ben-Artzi, Naom, Hillel and comrades,

We are proud of you, but of your people, be not unproud,,

they are hurt by grief and ruled by fear, anger, and loud

exploiters; enemies of love and peace, who sit, perhaps a little longer,

in high places. But stronger is your song.

sung again and again stranger to stranger, friend to friend

Once heard, each voice by voice will build a throng

across the land, across the line, rebuilding hope and homeland,

theirs and thine.



MUSIC OUT

SHARON

You think you are doing them good? You are filling their heads with

idealism. How will that save them when they are drowning if the

Palestinians push us into the sea?



SAMIA

Israelis and Palestinians are destined to live side by side.

The Israelis are not going to transfer us anywhere, and

we are not going to throw them into the sea

I am Samia Khoury, a long time activist from Biet Hanina near Jerusalem.

We are hurt, we are angry, but both Israeli and Palestinians are

victims of this occupation and we should not be quiet. It is our voices,

the peace voices that should be heard The sooner we resolve this the more lives will be spared.”



SHARON

Tell that to Hamas, Mrs., tell that to Islamic Jihad and Al Acqsa.



YASSER

What you did to my headquarters with tanks, Ariel, the peace camp is

(CONT)

doing to you with morality.



WOMAN

You have no right to talk of morality, Yasser Arafat. You and Ariel

Sharon are cut from the same cloth of stubbornness and false pride. 43



NARRATOR

Bulletin, Aug 7, 2002



WOMAN

Gush Shalom has sent letters to military officers warning them that some of their

actions can be violations of international law and the Geneva convention to which

Israel is a signatory. Gush Shalom’s activities fall within worthy civic action and the norms of a democracy. The government and mainstream media is acting to suppress Gush Shalom and silence its voice through slander, vilification, accusations of treason.



MAN

Repeat a lie over and over it becomes the truth - Joseph Goebbels.



NARRATOR

Israel, America too, awake

Your sweet democracy slips away

in the grip of desperate, belligerent minds

in the morning you’ll awake

your precious liberties,

centuries fought for, died for

stolen away.



SOUND: crowd of protestors



REPORTER

Aug 8, 2002, in front of the Israeli Defense Ministry. A fence has been built since the protestors were here last. Why are you here, today?



MAN

We are protesting the bombing in Gaza which not only killed a Hamas

leader but also 16 civilians, 9 of whom were children - the bombing, an hour after

militant leader declared the intention of cease fire, nipped in the bud what seemed to be the best chance to stop the killing in a long time.



REPORTER

What message are you trying to give the officials?



MAN

Our signs speak for us.



ENSEMBLE

“Killing follows killing,” assassinations cause terror,” Killing Palestinian

children is terror, too,” “The economy is collapsing,” There is no military solution,”

We mourn the Israeli and Palestinian children, “Two peoples, two states, one future.”



WOMAN

Some gay and lesbian activists are also here, and we say... 44

(CONT)

(Shouting)

we will not sleep with your soldiers.



Ensemble laughter



NARRATOR

Aug 9, 2002, (From Gush Shalom)



ENSEMBLE

We are volunteers of the International Solidarity Movement, arrested and await deportation for the crime of speaking out against injustice and grave violations of international law. We are

(In turn)

Anne-Cecele Alligne, France; Benoit Granet, France; Pierre Coulon, France; Phillipe Armaug, France; Saquima Armaug-Khimoum, France; Adam Shapiro, Brooklyn New York (don’t laugh - well, alright); Charles Williams, Vermont.



YASSER

You are brave, your help is welcome.



SHARON

You Arafat, who have murdered your own colleagues, no help will be

enough to save you.



WOMAN

And resistance is growing against you, Ariel Sharon. From Yesh Gvul, Aug 9, 2002, 8 more conscientious objectors, so called “Refusniks” were jailed at Military Prison 6, Athlit: Lt. O.T. Sgt Shuki Sadeh; Lt. Udi Elifantz; Sgt Ran Ron; Maj. Rami Kaplan; Sgt. Shacham Remach; Sgt. Uri Fein; Maj. Parsai.



MUSIC UP

(Nablus, Saturday Aug 24th, 2002)





WOMAN

We are the Arabs and Jews of Ta’ayush

Bring baby and other food stuffs, flour and medicine

to the hungry civilians trapped by 2 month long curfew,

in a demonstration against the curfew.



(Aug 24, 2002, Anata, East Jerusalem)



MEN

Jews and Palestinians will rebuild the home

of Salim Shawamreh, demolished three times by IDF

We will rebuild at least 20 more homes.. 45

(CONT)

We are “The Right To A Home and a Homeland”

We are Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Jeff Halper, Michael Weiner, Fred Schlomka



(Aug 24, 2002)



WOMAN

Sulha Peace Caravan, rebuilding trust, person to person, village to village

for reconciliation and peace, between Jews and Palestinians. Our Last meeting Aug 21, Galilee.



(Aug 30, 2002, From Yesh Gvul)



MAN

More refuseniks imprisoned: for refusal to serve in the occupied territories; !st Sgt. Aviad Reutgrund; 1st Sgt. L.Y; Lt. Yaniv Itskovitz; 1st Sgt. Yuval Ron; Staff Sgt. Ophir Bedusa; Sgt R’oi Berlin.



(Aug 30, 2002)



WOMAN

We are Tandi, a Democratic Women, Jewish/Arab movement, initiating a School Bag Campaign to donate school bags and their contents to children in the occupied territories whose parents cannot provide for them.



(Aug 30, 2002)



ADAM

I am Adam Keller, Gush Shalom. Four hundred people, organized by Ta’ayush, (Arab-Jewish Partnership), came to Nablus to demonstrate against the curfew there, continuous now for 64 days, and to bring baby formula, milk and flour, we had three trucks loaded with such provisions.



SOUND: Marching crowd.



MAN (Loudly)

Remember, we are a non-violent demonstration, if the army tries to stop us, do not respond to provocations,”



ADAM

Eight buses and the trucks started out on the Trans-Samaria Road, a wide highway used by settlers and forbidden to Palestinians. The Army is waiting there at the Tapuach junction. Our negotiating team go out to meet the officers. A compromise is reached to let several hundred Palestinians through barriers and checkpoints to meet us here, but the Colonel in charge has to approve, he’ll be here in an hour. After a long wait, :



46

WOMAN

That’s it, we will set out on foot.



ADAM

We pick up the tins of food stuffs and our signs:



ENSEMBLE VOICES

“ 60 days curfew, 60 days without food or medicine,” “Security and peace for both peoples.”



ADAM

We start up a gentle hill, down a sharper incline and we find the Nablus road. The road

block is far behind, but pursuit is expected. We distribute slices of onion an antidote to tear gas. But there is no pursuit. We enter the town of Hawarah, just south of Nablus. There at the city limits the army has moved to set up a new roadblock. We halt, let the people behind catch up, we link arms and walk forward chanting



ENSEMBLE

“Peace yes - Occupation no!. (Repeat)



ADAM

Suddenly we are past the roadblock and inside the city. which is also under the curfew and the streets are empty.. We come to the main street. The army does not shoot. As we go along, Palestinian residents come out, and growing in numbers to join the march. Ahead there is shouting. Soldiers have broke into the middle of the march and grabbed a Palestinian curfew breaker, they try to drag him off.



ENSEMBLE

“Leave him alone.” (Repeat)





ADAM

We hold fast. The soldiers give up but the scene is repeated further up over and over .with the same result. Then the soldiers grab one of the Israelis and rush him into a police car.. Hundreds of us sit down all round the car, blocking its way. Ten minutes later the car door opens and a bearded youth from Tel Aviv is released



ENSEMBLE

(Cheers, softly at first and growing louder)

“Yaskut Al-Ikhtilal, Yaskut, yaskut, yaskut”, Down with the Occupation, down, down, down.”



ADAM

Battle cry of the Palestinian demonstrators since 1967 and “Free, free Palestine.” Coming up is a block of hundreds of Hawarah townspeople, youths and older people, with the town mayor and other notables marching in front. The Israeli demonstrators

47





(CONT)

form a rear guard, linking arms around the newcomers to protect them from the army and police..



SOUND: Crowd, cheering, marching, then armored vehicles.



ADAM

The two demonstrations merge, joyfully, among them we find several volunteers from the ISM there to deliver humanitarian relief and were arrested to await deportation. We gather in front of the steps of a grocery store, Israeli and Palestinian leaders of the demonstration make speeches through megaphones. A whole column of Armored Personnel Carriers arrive. We shout to the soldiers driving the huge vehicles and manning guns,



ENSEMBLE

“Soldiers go home, go home..”



ADAM

The soldiers look aside as if to not notice. The demonstration continues. For a moment an alternative reality is created in the dusty street of a Palestinian town - an island where the daily oppression of the curfew was held back.



SOUND OUT. MUSIC UP



(Aug 30, 2002)



GILA

I Gila Svirsky call on you. Come join us, the Women In Black, for a peace demonstration, Friday, in Jerusalem, Women, men, everyone come all dressed in black.



(Aug 30, 2002)



DRIVER:

I must drive my cab otherwise there is no money for food or medicine. My wife has sold all her jewelry. My children do not comprehend the curfew, they know I must go out and work, plus the people - my passengers - need transport to hospital or relatives. I am careful, I try to find out where the soldiers are and avoid them”



AMER

But isn’t it too dangerous, your children may loose their father?”



DRIVER

My life’s in God’s hands, I hope for the sake of my children that I live to support them, but I am not doing that sitting at home. Yes, it is dangerous and stressful, but some of those passengers are in real need and I need the income. 48

(CONT)

It is a two way street. My cousin was killed while at home with his children from a sniper’s bullet. He was not on any wanted list and still he got it. You should see the shock on his children’s faces. They had to sit for days, with his dead body until it started stinking before they finally got him buried. The Israelis want to break us and push us until we starve, but we won’t give them the pleasure.”



AMER

This is one of the stories about only one tiny sector in the city of Nablus, which is sitting under strict curfew for 67 days. The world is watching but has done little.

Amer Abdelhadi reporting from radio Tariq Al Mahabbeh, fm 97.7 Oct 4, 2002 Nablus under siege.



JACK

Dear Amer, I wish I could have sent you more than the $50 donation to help keep the station running. I have a question, that has been troubling me, where are the other Arab and Muslim states with humanitarian aid to the Palestinians? .



AMER

Dear Jack, First, thank you very much for the help in saving the station from closure. Second, you hit on a burning nerve. The Muslim and Arab countries do contribute to the Palestinian Authority, but we don’t notice it, two reasons:

1) All the support goes to the authority to cover expenses like salaries, infrastructure, hospitals, ambulances, trips for officials and sick people.

. 2) The amount of funds received is only from the public sector to our public sector. Since Sept 11, people have been less enthusiastic about helping Palestinians financially than before in case they are questioned by the FBI or whoever, at least this is the answer I get from my American friends.

3) If you are talking about Arab leaders and their lack of help for Palestinians, this is why I said you hit on the nerve. All Arab leaders have been either appointed with the blessings of the USA or have become followers of US policies. They have been

(CONT)

blackmailed and bribed in so many different ways. They can’t turn their back on Americans.

We Palestinians may not agree with everything Arafat does but we do not want another leader who may be Arafat-Carazay - a leader appointed or blessed by Americans. I believe in democracy, this is why I would not agree with any appointment made by anyone except Palestinians. I appreciate the help from the world, but I wouldn’t accept just anyone with American credentials.



Sharon knows this, all Arab leaders know this. Problem is, if anyone wants to do anything about it, it would mean violence everywhere. People are so sick of American policies in our region.



(MUSIC UP - SOFT)



49

AMER

Oct 5, 2002

Dear Jack, Thanks for your concern, I am feeling much better today although the curfew is back, very tight. Sometimes the curfew gets the best out of me. I ran out of excuses, and get so frustrated, I can’t write or do anything. This is what happened yesterday

Amer.



JACK

Amer, please remember this always: “I was born and still am too worthwhile, too right, too strong for your campaign of despair and oppression. You will never pull me down into your pit. Never.” The good and righteous will prevail. We always have. It is, however, pitiful for oppressive minds to constantly make us work so hard at living.



AMER

Oct 6, 2002

Dear Jack, This is what I have been saying to myself but something ticked yesterday. I am not frustrated with the Israeli army. They are like that. They have always been and always will be an offensive force. I got really frustrated from the neutral actions and reactions of the world. I am frustrated at what the US is prepared to do just to protect an offensive government. I am frustrated at the Arab nations (not leaders) for not marching their streets requesting their government to do something. I am frustrated at how misleading Israeli propaganda is.

Yesterday the Israeli jeeps were roaming the streets of Nablus at 5am making fun out of people saying “are you still asleep. Wake up, it is nice and shiny, but don’t go anywhere because we will shoot you, it is a curfew.”

Why isn’t anyone stopping them? I don’t really believe the army behavior is not reported to superiors. Although I do not believe in violence, but yesterday I felt like running after the soldiers and hurting them for the disappointment look I saw on my children’s faces after informing them they will not go to school. Yes, I usually hold my temper, but

(CONT)

sometimes, I just can’t handle it. This is when I do not write.

Regards, Amer Abdelhadi.



MUSIC OUT

SOUND: Crowds.



(Oct 19, 2002).



WOMAN

This morning 200 peace activists from Gush Shalom, Peace Now. Ta’ayush, and the Women’s Coalition for Peace - went to several West Bank locations to protect by their presence Palestinians from settler harassment during the olive harvest. It is with olives that a majority of villagers make enough money to feed their families and send their children to school.



SOUND OUT

MUSIC UP 50



(Oct 28, 2002 )



MAN

Four new refuseniks have been imprisoned, Avi Ende, Niv Goldkin, A.,T, (do not wish to be named,) Haggai Mattar, a founder of Shministim , the high school refuseniks,

The 15 in prison now include: Dror Boimel, his 3rd term in prison,

Yoni Ben-Artzi, 4th term,

Uri Ya’acobi, 4th term, Yoni Yechezkel, 3rd term

and Yuval Daphny, Danny Greenwald, Yuval Endurn, Avner Avar, Ig’al Unik, Idan Eisner.



WOMAN

From Peretz Kidron

To date (Jan1, 2003) 190 soldiers have been jailed for refusing to take part in the actions

of the IOF.



NARRATOR

Ariel and Leaders,.

Have you lost your humanity, your heart, your mind, your Jewish soul?

You act like parents who hurt their children, then bury their guilt

by blaming and hurting them more. Become whole.

Release the refusniks. Be humane to those across the line,

Call on the world to help stop the terrorists and suicide bombers..

Are you not human? There is no more time.

You have a choice: battle the curses of your own conscience,

(CONT)

or bathe in the warmth of redemption, clean, clear, sublime.



MUSIC OUT

(Oct 28 From Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom),



AVNERY

Olive trees, since biblical times the symbol of this country, has been the sustenance for

Canaanites, Israelites, Arabs for generations.



SOUND: Crowd yelling, shooting.



MUSIC UP



AVNERY

Last Saturday 260 Israelis, called by the various peace groups, came out to protect the olive pickers at various villages. I came to the village of Havarah. Around dozens of trees Israelis and

Palestinians started to work. Time was short. We worked feverishly working our way up the hill, opposite the settlers of Yitzhar, well known for their fanaticism. They came out, fired guns, threatened the pickers. The army came, greeted the 51

(CONT)

settlers with affection and ordered the pickers to leave the area. We did not leave, we protected the pickers, but we were slowly moved back down the hill. Before dark the sheets in which the olives were carried were gathered and folded. People lifted the sacks on their shoulders or onto their donkeys, and started the descent from the steep slopes, terrace by terrace..

Happy people were we at last. Happy because we did not flee from the settlers, Israelis were happy because we combined a demonstration of support with useful acts. Palestinians were happy because they saved at least part of the harvest. In the end an emotional farewell as hundreds of Palestinians waved goodbye to the departing Israelis, from the village square, from alleys and windows - a whole village. The happy ending to a day’s work.



SOUND OUT. MUSIC UP

(Nov 12, 2002 From Uri Avnery)



AVNERY

Dear Amram Mitzna,

Israel has no future without peace. There is a partner to peace, the majority of Palestinian people want peace. Peace means a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem the capital of two states, evacuation of all settlers from Palestinian territory and settlement activity must stop at once. The money used for economic growth and social services. Immediate cease-fire, IDF fully withdrawn from all the territories. Peace negotiations must be resumed, the final agreement to be achieved within a year.

You must promise that if the right wins the Labor Party will not join a “National Unity”

(CONT)

government. The Labor Party will become a fighting opposition, attractive to all those disappointed by the right. It will be poised to re-conquer power. The opportunity will

come when the public is fed up with the methods of brute power and oppression,



Sincerely, Uri Avnery



WOMAN

Real Jews are never Nazi-like, they are Jews always.

These are people of the book, of Torah and Talmud, children of the sages,

heroes, like today’s, filling pages and pages of good deeds done

How can war against terrorists and despots be won?

Think, Ariel, and especially you Bush, so in a rush for war.



Lift up the people among whom the terrorists hide and whom the despot rules,

put self-interest aside, feed their hunger, heal their wounds, rebuild their schools

and hospitals, and homes, their streets and stores, their administration, make them equal

in regard and sovereignty.. Can this be done? Did we not in Germany, Japan? Are we not

in other states, East Europe, some day in far Afghanistan?

Do this, the terrorists and despots whomever, wherever they be

will have no place to hide, no one to rule But to redeem or die, their fate

Each nation so lifted, their own terrorists and despots, they themselves eradicate. 52



MUSIC UP



(Nov 12, 2002)



MAN

Five civilians, two of them children, were killed randomly in the Kibbutz Metzner.by a

terrorist.



SHARON

There, you see? You talk so much how Palestinians suffer, and believe me we are sorry for the pain of civilians. But what of the innocent Israeli’s maimed and killed? Where is their voice?



MAN

We grieve. Our grief is as painful to us as any. Our grief is not just for our loved ones. Our grief is for all Israel, and for innocent Palestinians against whom you, Arafat and the militants

have set your mad rage, your hate, fear and ambition. It is at your feet, all of you who piss on peace, that the bodies of our beloved ones lie in bloody heaps. Witness, the attack was a heavy blow to talks in Cairo between Palestinian factions with a goal of ending such attacks, and.the new Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has already pledged

(CONT)

“dire retaliations.’



WOMAN

This place, our lovely kibbutz Metzner, is known for its commitment to peace. Everyday life goes on with good relations with the neighboring Arab villages, even after 1967 with the village of Meiser and Kapan, located in the West Bank side.



MAN

This raises the issue of a wall built to keep out terrorists. Kibbutz Metzner has taken serious issue with the land and olive groves to be confiscated behind the wall. Even in this darkest hour Metzner has offered to give up some its land for a patrol road if needed.



SOUND: Bulldozers, crowd agitation.



WOMAN

Bulldozers came to uproot the olive trees.



ENSEMBLE

“Uprooting trees is sowing hatred. “For man is the tree of field.”. “Why are you doing this” asked a bulldozer driver. “We must protest against injustice even if we cannot stop it., are you not feeling uncomfortable uprooting trees. “ ”I am, I’m a religious man, I know that verse. The contractor cheated me he said I was going to move rocks, but what can I do, It’s my job. If I don’t do it, somebody else will.”.

53

WOMAN

The bulldozers take up the whole trees leaving the possibility of the trees being replanted. Later we saw that friendly driver veer his bulldozer over and actively helped dig holes for replanting the trees in a new location.



SOUND OUT. MUSIC UP

(Nov 13,2002)



YEHUDA

I am Yehuda Stolov. For the first time in two years we, the Interfaith Encounter Association and a Palestinian group - the Nablus Youth federation, came together. Men, women, secular and religious, Jews, Christians. Muslims and even one visiting Native American.. We talked, listened, exchanged, learned; we listened and respected each other’s prayers.

On Friday night we taught each other our songs. During this we received news about the clashes in Nablus. After the participants from Nablus called to make sure their families were safe, we continued to conclude

the conference. At the end we made a commitment to continue the process and to meet in January. We said farewell with handshakes and hugs.

(Nov 22, 2002)



WOMAN

Caoimhe (“Quiva”) Butterfly an Irish volunteer human shield worker, who stays in Jenin for months, was shot as she placed herself between stone throwing kids and the Israeli tanks that were shooting. She was taken to the Jenin hospital. Israeli soldiers detained her for several hours until she was released. She was shot again.



(Nov 22, 2002).



CHERLOW

I am Rabbi Cherlow, I lead the Zevulun Hammer Hesder Yeshiva in Petah Tikva.

In recent weeks we have seen the publications of a large number of piskei halakha - religious sayings - that are hard to swallow, and the media giving them wide publicity continues to debase the Torah among the Israeli public. The silent majority of Israeli rabbis has an obligation to speak out in protest.



Let’s put into order what I believe is the absolute position of the majority of Rabbis in Israel:

It is absolutely forbidden to steal another person’s produce - whether that person is a Jew or Arab. He who does so sins against human ethics and the Torah commandment not to steal. - this is a desecration of God’s name - a hilul hashem. If there is a security issue, it is the duty for the army, not the settlers. One who picks another’s olives is simply a robber.



The role of the rabbi is always to support a person who has been wronged by the establishment, not the other way around. Truth must be revealed. We are

commanded to 54



(CONT)

do away with evil and not protect the evil doer, even if he is in a high and important position.



JACK

Dear Amer, I received the grievous news about your father, Jan 7th. From my deepest heart I am sorry for your loss. I know the pain of personal loss. My mother was universally loved for her

work with the poor. People like her and your father live forever. Please give my love and care to all your family. I hope you have those around you who can share tears with you. Nature has gifted us with this phenomenon so that we can rise from the mourning and continue strong and hopeful.

I will stay close, Jack.



LIGHTS OUT



END ACT IV

























































55

ACT V - HOPE



NARRATOR (TAPE VO)

“Dare not rejoice when thine enemy comes to the ground, but give him food when he hungers. Be on thy guard lest thou give pain ever to the widow and the orphan, and beware lest thou ever set thyself up to be both witness and judge against another.”

Eliezer Ben Isaac 10 century sage.



(MUSIC UP)



LIGHTS UP



CHRIS

For those people on the front lines the terror of battle makes slipping into barbarity easier. The enemies is dehumanized he becomes fair game. But love has its own power to resist in our own nature what we must resist, to affirm what we must affirm.” Chris Hedges, war writer



(LA Times, Oct 14, 2002) :



HOLLY

US forces must comply with the principles and laws of war, but the Dept. of Defense does not oblige the US to prevent abuses by its partners, allies, agents, the result, for example in Afghanistan, was an atrocity. Northern Alliance commanders packed the surrendered Taliban members into closed container trucks in which hundreds died of suffocation.

Thousands were crammed into prison cells designed to hold one tenth the number. Deaths from dysentery and exposure was common. The governments of the world must not, cannot continue to look the other way, no matter what the justification.

This odious neglect of human obligation by the world in the mid-east must stop.

It is fascistic when a powerful entity treats a less powerful one the way Mr.Sharon’s tactics ( and purpose of taking over the whole land) is treating the Palestinians. Yes, Hamas et al must be stopped and so must Mr. Sharon’s brutal strategy.”

I am Holly J. Burkhaller, US policy director of Physicians For Humanity

SHARON

Just a moment, we are not fascists! We are trying to do good things. We are trying to bring peace. We are the ones being Attacked.



MAN

Is that why Ha’artez reports that you called a meeting of your senior officials to consider the risk of you and your people being brought to trial on war crime charges, and even



(CONT)

ordered the Justice Ministry to name a special team to assess that risk, to be led by your National Security Council Chief, Ephraim Halevy?

56

SHARON

The UN has never been our friend. They would love to bring us down. They go too far in a trend to grant cross borders judicial powers.



HOLLY

You mean for crimes like killing civilians and torture?



SHARON

You are wrong. We feel terrible when innocent people get hurt while we try to root out the terrorists.



MAN

Some people don’t seem to agree with you. You know, of course, that a group of survivors and relatives of the victims of the Sabra and Chatilla massacres filed suit against you in a Belgium court.



SHARON

That is their business.



MAN

I see, so you are so unconcerned that right after that you canceled a planned visit to Belgium.





SHARON

I don’t have to talk to you.

.

YASSER

You see, that is how Mr. Sharon makes you irrelevant. That is what he has tried to do to me, to undermine the PLO authority so he has a free hand in the territories. He is not a kind man.



(LA Times, Sunday July 21, 2002)



SARA RIGLER

And you, Mr. Arafat, are you a kind man? Were your raids into Israel kind? Are your suicide bombers kind, too?

YASSER

I have no control over the militants. Who are you to question?

SARA

I am Sara Rigler, a writer and volunteer assisting victims of the suicide bombing and their families. You should see their bodies, both of you, their faces, you should hear the moans. Some say things will get better...but these “they’ll never be OK, their lives are ruined.”



YASSER

I can’t tell you how sorry I am.

57

NARRATOR

You are sorry, Ariel is sorry, both is your fashion.

And still Sara sees the gory results of such compassion.

Who cannot understand this despair,

who would not feel the same being there?



MUSIC UP



NARRATOR (CONT)

Yet I know in part, the cause of such transference,

experience of suffering is a tie between us.

Yet a tighter knot must be love and hope, even joy

that the girl or boy, woman or man, hurting in our arms,

is fully human still, no matter what will

recovery achieve or not, the gifts and charms,

the miracle of life, what we call human,

still fully there, no shrapnel bit can rip,

nor shatter that spirit, no matter else

that unjust chard may strip away.

Though sorry be, you may.



WOMAN

What have you left us to give these torn innocents?

Only but our own strength and hope to be free.

What should that being, bleeding, in our eyes see?

The doom of hopelessness, death of wholeness,

somehow less vital, beautiful, of good usefulness,

different in body though that comes to be?

No, let the sweet being, bleeding, see in our eyes

first compassion, then hope of life, love and equality,

the certainty of inner strength and gift of healing,

feeling our strength, hope, our love and joy,

transferring back, deep synaptic spirit to employ

the power of miraculous life,

the truth of healing love, confident, revealing.



ANOTHER WOMAN

What gift, Ariel, Yasser, have you given,

Isolation, distrust, all these years driven?

Breeding despair, erecting walls against connection,

fertile ground for oppressive fears, oppression’s gears

killing affection even among strangers. How affection

between strangers, e’en those who bring dangers to our door?

I implore you, look at children untaught with hate,

how they play and congregate, though their tongue and skin,

be different as night and day, they act as kin,

for nature knows sweetest survival is served 58

(CONT)

when natural fun and love’s allowed to win.



MUSIC OUT

SOUND: Living room chatter



(June 13, 2002 Arab and Jewish Living room dialogue)



LIBBY AND LEN

I am Libby. I am Lenny

How many Living Room Dialogue meetings ( growing house to house

campus to campus, city to city), great and gritty? .

124 by now, ten years told,

the blame has lifted, we are gifted with human affection,

understanding, human alliance, in defiance of hate and war,

We started, 30 men and women, young and old,

Holocaust survivors and 20th generation Palestinians,

Listening, learning, turning enemies into friends, boldly building

bridges for peace.

The words of Einstein have increased our purpose and resolve,

“We cannot solve today’s problems with the same kind of thinking that produced them.”

We are working to reduce them.



SOUND SEGUE TO CHILDREN’S VOICES.. MUSIC UP



WOMAN

I noticed Palestinian children were going to school without books or packs. I put out a call for books. The next day at my doorstep were fifteen large sacks of books. We formed teams to take them into the territories. Then I saw the children were undernourished, many hurt and ill. The book brigade became the food and medicine brigade. I decided the children should be brought to the hospital I worked in. The doctors treated the children without caring who or what they were. They were humans in need of help. The hospital staff at first showed resentment and hostility. But even they, witnessing the care and love by the doctors and the volunteers, began to warm up to the Palestinians, moved by the

(CONT)

smiles and tears and love by the children. The kids missed their parents, they said, so we brought their parents the hospital to be there and help with their children. The causes and hostilities of the war were seen for what they were, pitiful efforts by men of hateful wills and selfish agendas. The terrible emotions gave way to the deeper feelings of care, compassion and love.



SOUND OUT. MUSIC OUT



( Dec 11, 2002)







MAN

Yesh Gvul in association with Member Of Knesset Mossi Raz has won a temporary respite for Palestinian families in Hebron whose homes have been marked for confiscation and demolition. In response to our petition Supreme Court Judge Eliyahu Matza issued an interim junction to halt the demolitions. A hearing before three Supreme Court Justices will be held next week.



WOMAN

Destruction of an entire historical neighborhood was instigated by demands of the settlers in Hebron, they want a clear path from their settlement at Kiryat Arba to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in old Hebron, scared to both Jews and Moslems. It is where Abraham is believed to be buried.



MAN

What right do the settlers have to do that? By what right Sharon, are the settlers there on Palestinian territory in the first place.?



SHARON

We have to control the territories. The terrorists hide everywhere among the people.



WOMAN

Control the land with settlements? You mean when everything is nice and quiet the settlers will come back into Israeli borders? Do you think people like to be controlled? Like sheep?



ANOTHER WOMAN

You drive more people to go to the side of the terrorists with your control and settlements.



MAN

When you say “control the territories,” don’t you mean usurp the territories? That’s why the settlements are there, they are your army of thieves.



SHARON

How dare you to aim blame at me! Talk to Arafat.



YASSER

I am irrelevant, Ariel, you said so yourself. Besides, haven’t you killed my power?.



MAN

God willing we who love peace will stop you both. Yesh Gvul will continue protests and legal actions in an order to save the historical homes and block other moves to “ethnic cleanse” the city.



(Oct 4, 2002, In Ha’aretzMoshe Reinfeld and Moshe Gorali)



MUSIC UP: SLOW SNARES 60



LT. ZONSHEINE

The High Court of Justice deferred Wednesday the decision on a petition by me. Lt.Zonsheine and seven other officers, who served time in jail for refusing to serve in the West Bank and Gaza. We argue that “The Israeli occupation has over the last two years become a mechanism of collective punishment of the civilian population. The occupation is illegal and for this reason it is no longer possible to distinguish between a legal order and an illegal order,”



SHARON

You people do not know what you are doing. We need a strong army to fight the militants, the terrorists and the innocent kids they turn into suicide bombers.



LT. ZONSHEINE

What kind of army can you have when you threaten and punish conscientious objectors? An army controlled by fear? The fear turns into scapegoating and hurting the innocent. Besides it is a violation of Israeli law and morality!



NARRATOR

And the law of humanity. The moral Arabs and Jews

of course, at last, defend their homes and loved ones

and also the innocent, tormented before their eyes.

The world should know this and be wise

to love such Jews and Arabs, and the prize

of peace that such love begets. Woe to the world to let

the cancer of killing grow. You, oh world, must stir

from your dumb show, raise your voice and powers.

Stop the Cossacks who sit in Jerusalem, in the outpost towers

in the secret holes of Hamas, Jihad and Al-Acqsa

or fear the tomorrow of your daughters and sons.

.



MAN

Did you read the Los Angeles Times editorial, Aug 20, 2002? It said All the world knows what need to be done. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Gulf states should help train security forces to arrest terrorists before they can act, and Israel should withdraw from the territories. Of course, and Israel must also join with their Arab neighbors to stop the terrorists, not use terrorism as an excuse to continue oppressing the innocent Palestinians.



(MUSIC UP)



ANOTHER WOMAN

On May 11th we had mass demonstration of 60 to 100 thousand Israelis. Though it happened like this but once, it effected different positions by Labor and recognition by Sharon. Now we will again, the voice of the people is rising, their numbers are growing in protest. Their courage is quickening. Remember the growing protest stopped the sickening Viet Nam war.



MUSIC SEGUE TO KLEZMER STYLE)

61

(Nov 14, 2002 The Other Israel)



WOMAN & ENSEMBLE

A Palestinian gunman killed five of us here Kibbutz Metzer, including a mother and her two children. But we have long struggled to keep good relations with our Arab neighbors across the line. So who comes to mourn with us at the funeral of our innocent loved ones? Our Arab neighbors, of course. They are innocent also. And now even with grief in our hearts we protest the building of the government’s wall - if at all - at the expense of Palestinian farmland. Build it on the Green Line, or if a security road is needed, build it here on Metzer’s land. You public figures and you others gathered here at this funeral, witness what we say and what we, here at Metzer know will bring peace and fairness. Even our Kibbutz leader says “ The Occupation is the cause of Terrorism.”



(Bulletin Nov 14, 2002, Jayyous, West Bank)



SOUND: Crowd. Scuffling



MUSIC: SEGUE TO: Palestinian themes



MAN & ENSEMBLE

150 of us, Palestinian farmers, Israelis and international activists here, we will not let you drive your jeeps and bulldozers to destroy Jayyous’s olive groves and agricultural land. We defy your curfew. See those four ISM volunteers chain themselves to trees scheduled to be up rooted?



NARRATOR

There was a stand off there at Jayyous, and then Sharon’s forces withdrew.





WOMAN

They were going to clear 6-8 kilometers of farm land on the Palestinian side, to make room for the wall planned to be built. This is 80% of Jayyous’ agricultural land.



NARRATOR

The 150 heroic people broke into song and marched through the town singing the Palestinian national anthem and “we shall overcome.”



MUSIC OUT

SOUND: Crowd chaos



NARRATOR

Nov 14, 2002



MAN

Throughout the West Bank settlers are burning, destroying and stealing the olive harvest. The Palestinian villagers need these, more than ever, to stay alive.



ENSEMBLE

(Laughter at the *right moments) 62

(CONT)

European Ministries, even the White House learned of this. A great embarrassment to Israel, yes, Sharon? So great, you sent Chief of Staff Major-General Moshe Ta’alon to investigate. * Ya’alon ordered the settlers to desist, telling his top brass that olive plundering is a moral corruption.* At Itamar and Tapuach settlements Ya’alon slammed the behavior of the settlers. The harvesting throughout the West Bank has been allowed to continue.



NARRATOR

Jan 10, 2003



MUSIC UP



WOMAN

We have a victory today. The Supreme Court in Jerusalem today announced its decision to reinstate into the electoral process the major Arab political parties and leaders., who had been banned by the Central Election Committee. Bless the efforts by concerned Arab and Jewish citizens and groups who made their voices heard in meetings, petitions and activist activities.



MAN

We’ll have a Solidarity Demonstration and tree planting with Palestinian farmers in the Hebron area co-sponsored by Bat Shalom, Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, Rabbis For Human Rights, Ta’ayush, The Palestine Land Defense Committee, Gush Shalom Transportation set for Jan 10, 2003.



NICOLE

We can make a difference. We walk together, Ariel and Yasser. We, Jews, Arabs and others join together and walk silently in one powerful line. As your violence escalates in the middle-east our spirits decline. We, as humans, can break the pattern by strengthening our humanity. The walk is a wake up call for those of us who feel powerless to change the reality of the violence, we now have a way! As we walk our smiles heal ancient wounds. Is there an antidote to violence. We think there is. We meet tomorrow at 10AM at the Hashnayim Park and end at Gan Meir at 2PM. There is power in numbers. You count. The time is now.

Thank you, Nicole Cohen-Addad



SOUND: Happy crowd

ELI

Ta’ay Peace Activists and ISM members are accompanying Khirbet Yanun villagers who had to flee because of ongoing settler violence, and who are now returning in increasing numbers to their homes. We are in need of volunteers to keep our presence in the village. Each shift is 24 hours. During the day we help with olive harvest. . Each and every one of you is needed.. I am Eli of Ta’ayush



SOUND OUT. MUSIC : Palestinian, segue to Jewish themes.



MAN

Ariel, your darling, brave settlers of Maon are throwing stones and beating the children

63

(CONT)

of the cave dwellers of South Hebron when they take the direct path leading to their schools. The children must now walk at least 7 kilometers each way to school and back to avoid the violence of the settlers.



SHARON

I do not condone this behavior. Our war is not against children.



MAN

Why are children being killed everywhere, accident or not. Why do you condone the behavior of your soldiers?



YASSER

This is a fair question.



SHARON

You are the last person to talk of killing.



WOMAN

This part of the campaign to make Palestinians leave their home and land. From Oct 26 there will be a joint Palestinian-Jewish convoy to escort the children on the direct route to school - a path the children of this community have walked long before the settlements were built there. Come, join us. We are Anat Rosenwaks and Aviad Albert



SOUND: Huge demonstration



YARIV

At 26/10 at 19 hours there will be a mass anti-government, anti-settlements march in Jerusalem, years since the assassination of Yitzak Rabin. The march is organized by Peace Now and the Peace Coalition. I am Yariv Oppenheimer, Peace Now.



SOUND: Smaller crowds



DAVID

We will have peace walks from 29/10 to 4/11 through Wadi Area. Arabs and Jews walking in a line quietly a few hours each day, through our beautiful country passing Jewish and Palestinian towns and villages, expressing our communion with the land of all our peoples. In the evening there will be discussions, music, dialogues between Arabs and Jews, and teaching on spiritual peacemaking. We are warmly invited by the people of the Wadi and we sleep over in Palestinian and Jewish homes. Hundreds of people have warmed up to these spontaneous acts of solidarity with our fellow humans. Participants and people along the routes have felt encouraged and supported and feel a return to hope. Break out of anxiety, apathy and despair. Walk with us.” I am David Lisbona



MUSIC UP (SAD, SOFT, PERSIAN)



64



DAHLIA

I am Dahlia Sachs. The Oct 26 internationally coordinated Day Of Mass Action to stop the war on Iraq. The protest will be held in Haifa in front of the offices of the US 6th Fleet., organized by the still-forming Committee Against the War on Iraq.. PS. On Jan 11th, 10 to 20 thousand marched in Los Angeles against Mr. Bush’s war on Iraq followed by huge rallies in San Francisco and Washington D.C. Feb. 15, ten million in 300 cities marched against the war.



BUSH

The size of the demonstrations doesn’t matter. I am protecting the security of the United States and our friends. They must understand that. With or without the UN, we will disarm Saddam Hussein, he is the greatest threat to world peace. .



NARRATOR

Jan 14, 2003 From Daily News Staff Writer, Greg Gittrich,



KRISTINA

I am Kristina Olsen, a nurse form Massachusetts. My sister was aboard one of the highjacked jets that exploded into the World Trade Center. We four are relatives of victims. Suffering is universal, it connects us, and we’ve bonded together in that suffering. I am here with Colleen, Terry and Fikra’a, sitting on the steps of the wrecked al-Amiriyah shelter, where Iraq says 403 civilians - including 52 children - burned to death Feb 13, 1991.





COLLEEN

We found immediately an understanding of what we have gone through, which is something that you do not always find in America. Colleen Kelly



KRISTINA

We belong to Peaceful Tomorrow, an anti-war group founded by families of the Sept.11th victims. We are here meeting with the Iraqi families, but we are equally concerned for service people around the world who would be involved with any kind of military operation. Terry?



TERRY (FEMALE)

Americans don’t realize how much they have in common with the Iraqi people. My job is to return and tell my story..



KRISTINA

My heart has been ripped open and healing has taken place within me today. Fikra’a here, lost her parents and a sister in this shelter bombing.



FIKRA’A

They asked us what we wanted and we said we wanted peace, but if Bush attacks us, we are ready to offer more victims.



( MUSIC OUT)



65

NARRATOR

I thought to myself “how can anyone wage war with such a peace population around.” What stops us?. Only the old habits of fear and isolation. We are fully human having all the power, uniqueness and worth we were born with. We promise not ever again to settle for crumbs or lies, nor for any message contrary to our inherent humanity..



(MUSIC UP)

ENSEMBLE

One at a Time.

I am a father

I am a mother

I am a sister

I am a brother

Take turns:

Palestinian, Israeli, Arab, Jew.



ALL:

Same as you.



WOMAN

We wish not to open wounds,

(CONT)

Yet how can we not?

We are the same.

MAN

Not in place, tongue, perhaps God, nor name,

But we are the same.



WOMAN

In flesh, feelings, despair, pain.



ALL

We are the same.



WOMAN

You too have loved ones slain,

We grieve with you, we are the same.



MAN

Slain by age, by cancer, the mad man’s stray bullet,

by drunken car, crashing plane, by despair,



ALL

We are the same.



MAN

We wish not to open wounds, 66

(CONT)

Yet how can we not, we’re all the same.

Perhaps for some, the illusioned luxury of time has numbed the pain.

One son, one daughter, a mother , a father,

A loved one gone.



WOMAN

Two or three, untimely gone.

Then time, days, years wash on.

Think a hundred sons, daughters, mothers, fathers,

Each week, almost everyday, sometimes merely hours,

Another loved one ripped away.

Think loved ones, hundreds, each face and name

Bleeding lay, in pain, maimed or dead

By tanks or undetected bomb, screws, nails,

Unsuspecting Jews, Arabs, again Jews , more Arab wails,

No longer eyes, sweet mouth, limbs, head.

In pieces blown apart, no piece a name,

Pieces of blood, gristle, washed down the drain.



MAN

We wish not to open wounds,

how can we not, we are the same.



WOMAN

You and I , we know the feel of loss,

The ripped out heart, glazed over eyes

That cannot see, refuse to see; dazed minds that cannot think,

Refuse to think, but blink away the now for the moment past,

Lungs and guts on fire with grief, sometimes guilt, souls aghast.

Despair the day, the life, the joy,

Ears not hearing, not even care.



MAN

No time, false doctor, to dull the pain,

Yours, ours, we’re all the same.

Here, each loved one killed, yours rekilled again.

You cannot lay your head down to rest

Until able, all the rest.

No nest is safe from terror and death

No home, no homeland, but within a breath

of loss and unbearable pain.

Neighbor or half world away

We are all the same.



WOMAN

Stand with us, we need you, 67

(CONT)

We are all the same,

Cry out with us, we need you



ALL

We are all the same



MAN

Tears and terror tramp across borders, rush across seas.

And time will not freeze the pain,

Stand with us, nations, innocent Arab and Jew,

You need our peace, we need you

we are all the same.



(MUSIC SEGUE TO SNARES)



WOMAN

We need you, you need our peace

(CONT)

We are all the same



MAN

We need you, you need our peace,

We are all the same



WOMAN

We need you, you need our peace

We are all the same.



ALL

We need you, you need our peace

We are all the same.



PAUSE



ALL

We are all the same.



LIGHTS FADE OUT







68









EPILOGUE



LIGHTS UP



NARRATOR

So, Yasser, Ariel, what do you think now?



ARIEL

We have the right to defend ourselves with all possible means.



YASSER

And we the right to defend ourselves against the oppressors.



LIGHTS DIM

NARRATOR (TAPE VO)

Hillel saw a skull floating on the surface of the water, he said to it “Because thou drownest others, they have drowned thee; and at the last they that drowned thee shall themselves be drowned.”



From LA Times article by Megan Stack, Jan. 28, 2003)



MAN

You there soldier, please what is your name?



LIGHTS FULL UP



EITAM CEGLA

I am Eitan Cegla.



MAN

You have been assigned to stand guard here at Tel Aviv bus station? You look very young.



EITAM

I am 26.



MAN

Still in good shape. Very good. What do you think about the elections?



EITAM

I think we’ve lost hope. We don’t see the solution. I don’t see anyone who can help us. Israel didn’t use to be like this. But now people think peace is impossible.



MAN

Hemi Shalev, a political analyst for Maariv. seems to agree with you. He writes:“Israelis have never

been so indifferent to their election campaign. They feel fate is not in their hands, and so they go to

the polls with a sense of indifference. What we are seeing right now is the effect of two years of living in constant fear of terror. The people have become desperate and that leads to apathy.” 69



WOMAN

Wait, there is hope! I have a report from peretz kidron, Jan 28, 2003. An IDF

intelligence officer disrupted a planned air strike, after a double suicide bombing near Tel Aviv central bus station that killed 23 persons. He said he disrupted the operation “To prevent harm to innocent Palestinians” and argued that the orders he received were “flagrantly illegal.” The IDF officer was removed from his post and transferred to administrative duties, not punished more because the information he had “could cause damage to the country” according to military sources. Ha’aretz reports that the Lieutenants’s actions was applauded by many of his colleagues in the prestigious intelligence unit.



PAUSE. LIGHTS DIM.



SPOT STAYS ON JACK



JACK

The mutual killing goes on weekly, often daily; the terrorism attacks and bombing, the occupation cruelty and oppression continues, getting worse.. This presentation could go on as long as the carnage does. The cost is great to all of us in painful or in subtle ways. A just peace could end it all, and we all, civilians, politicians, soldiers, militants could go home and get some rest, and back to better days. Why not?



LIGHTS DIM DOWN AND OUT.



LIGHTS UP - CURTAIN CALLS.



END









































70

(OPTIONAL)


NARRATOR

Dear Beate, Adam, Gush Shalom and all dreamers of peace

I had a dream last night
You'll think me mad, absurd,
But from somewhere I got the word,
From sweet heaven or flaming hell, I cannot tell.
My hand trembles as I reach for the button to "send,"
The risk is so great, you may not want to hear from me again.
I cannot help it, just know
Ever and always I am, in truth, a friend.
:

I dreamed last night of Israelistine,

(Call it ‘Palrael’ to me ‘ine’ is a better rhyme)

a land that was one, then two, now one again.

How, in a land where war was king,
now, peace does reign?

NARRATOR AND WOMAN

Oh, Israelistine,



WOMAN

As bright as the brightest star does shine.
Two peoples in one land,

of Jew and Palestinian, does now begin,
carved out by the hand of God.

MAN

How do they live,
how do they forgive
the blood and hate and tears
that raged on and on and on
for years?

NARRATOR

Are they not human, have they no minds
to think, and come away from the brink, of destruction?
When both are construction
of the self same, only God.







71



(CONT)

Two different kinds,
yet one upon the sod, the Holy Sod,
cousins in holiness, from the high to the lowliness.
From the sea to the river
fashioned by the same Forgiver.

WOMAN

HE can forgive, why not they? And live
as equals in all things: in Government,
in Access and Chance
to Enhance her and his lot,
each Free to choose what plot
for Home and Family.



MAN
Equal seats in parliament and posts
to maintain parity, and peace between the Hosts.
Then each People from them
Elect to fill the seats, and send to Jerusalem
Together to perfect the laws
Fair to both Entreats.



WOMAN

And at the very top, he or she most Loved by all, elected
for a certain time to lead.
All matters perfected
in the course of time. Sublime
in the struggle for Harmony.

NARRATOR

How can this come to be, you plead,
this impossibility,
when still with hate and fear and blood, they bleed?
May I demonstrate, in truth,

and dare to educate
how each soul may ventilate
their hates, angers, fears, curses and tears
to let the drainage wash away the pain
as all others listen; Oh see how their skin and eyes glisten,
as humanness comes back again.
This is how nature makes us

and takes us to new heights of enlightenment.







WOMAN
So natural this healing will
still the bitterest of hearts,
and let new days make new starts
in the Land of Milk and Honey.
That old land divine, that land sublime,

NARRATOR

that new Land of Israelistine."



SNARES OUT

AS LIGHTS FADE OUT



NARRATOR (TAPE VO)

Hillel said “Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving thy fellow creature.”