Habima Theater In Uproar Over Non-Anti-Zionist Work

Nowhere in the dialogue, setting, or characterization of the play can one find clear condemnation of Jewish sovereignty in the ancient Jewish homeland.

Tel Aviv, November 30 – Israel’s leading drama company found itself in the midst of cultural controversy this week after it announced that it is preparing a production of a play in the coming season that does not engage in denial of Israel’s legitimacy.

Habima released its schedule for the 2017-18 season yesterday, featuring one revival of a classic production and eleven new plays or adaptations, but one work has raised the ire of patrons and trustees alike: a June 2017 series of performances of a play that contains no implication, let alone outright assumption or assertion, that Israel must cease to exist as a Jewish state.

Arms Akimbo, an American play translated and adapted for the Israeli stage, portrays the story of an American expatriate living in Southeast Asia during the 1960’s. Its major shortcoming, contends Habima trustee Itba Halyahud, is that nowhere in the dialogue, setting, or characterization of the play can one find clear condemnation of Jewish sovereignty in the ancient Jewish homeland.

“As far as drama is concerned, I have no major objections,” he explained. “But I do not provide my time and money for this organization to violate certain moral principles, and I will not stand idly by while such basic values as anti-Zionism are trampled.”

Halyahud is leading a small but vocal group of fellow theater trustees, critics, and stage actors calling on the Habima administration to remove Arms Akimbo from its roster. The administration has yet to provide a formal response, but in a private conversation a producer told PreOccupied Territory that it would be unfair to judge the production sight unseen, since the scenery and other trappings not delineated in the script still leave significant room for anti-Zionist messages or subtexts.

“Let the show go on,” insisted the producer. “It’s just like people’s reservations about the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993. There was no guarantee that it would become little more than a fig leaf for continued violence against Jews, or even a mere vehicle for furthering the corruption and cronyism endemic to Palestinian political culture. We had to give it time, to wait and see that dysfunction emerge in its new context, and the skeptics were eventually proven wrong. I would advise our detractors to adopt the same attitude regarding Arms Akimbo. If this organization has demonstrated anything over the years, it is an aptitude for finding the most anti-Zionist possible angle on things. Show a little trust.”

Please support our work through Patreon.