Communist Party of Australia

Acclaimed British actress Miriam Margolyes (Harry Potter, Romeo and Juliet) and Australia’s own highly-regarded Max Gillies will be starring in Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children - a play for Gaza on May 18, 6.30 pm at the State Library of Victoria. While writing the play during the three-week attack on Gaza, Churchill said, “Israel has done lots of terrible things in the past, but what happened in Gaza seemed particularly extreme. It’s only a small play, 10 minutes long, but it’s a way of looking at what’s happened.”

Ms Margolyes, delighted to be asked to star in the play, said: “The play, written by one of the world’s best writers, very simply shows how the Israelis allowed their high ideals to be corrupted so that they are mirroring the wrongs committed against them by their brutality against the Palestinians.”

This year marks 61 years of Nakba, the dispossession of Palestinians from their homeland. Australians For Palestine and Women For Palestine hope the play will generate further awareness and understanding amongst Australians about the continuous occupation and attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza since Israel’s three week offensive ended in January this year is rapidly deteriorating and Ms Margolyes said we ought to remember that “We are all people, and we should recognise the humanity in each of us and show respect for the other.”

Remembering another time, Ms Margolyes said “As much as the terrible events of the Holocaust has clouded all our lives, it must never be used as an excuse for Israelis to shower bombs on innocent people.”

During the war on Gaza more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 5,500 injured with two-thirds of them being civilians. Amongst the victims were more than 300 children while thousands who survived are still suffering trauma from loss of family, limbs and innocence.

The play, says Ms Margolyes, “is heart-rending and brave; if it makes one Jew think again about the strategies of the Israeli government, it will be worth doing.”

Next article — Raul Molina - breaking the silence about Guatemala

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