The invisible little victims : seven Jewish children : a play for Gaza and the Arab-Israeli conflict

Abstract EN

Caryl Churchill wrote her short play Seven Jewish Children : A Play for Gaza as a protest on the massacres committed by Israeli army against armless men, women, and children in Gaza district in 2009.

In short poetic lines she features Israeli parents arguing about how to instruct their children on current issues in Israeli history including the Holocaust, 1948 war, the Intifada, and massacre of Gaza.

The parents' alleged intention is to protect their children from the danger of "knowing too much", while in fact, they are seeking to hide their ugly truth from their little ones ; the truth of the conflict with the Palestinian Arand how they try to "wipe them out".

Those Jewish little children (girls) are victims to the mainstream Israeli ideology of "Eliminationism" that justifies the killing and destruction of others for the sake of their own self- preservation.

They are as much victims as the little Palestinian children who are deprived from their freedom and their right in leading a decent life.

Churchill gives a courageous example of facing injustice and misleading information that are shown to the public in media.

She supports the right Palestinian cause and calls the world to see facts as they are, therefore she seeks an active participation of the audience in the making of the meaning of drama following Hans Thies Lehmann's theory of post-dramatic theatre that emphasizes the role of the spectators' "response-ability".