Six Plays of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Jamil Khoury is a playwright, essayist, and the founding artistic director of Chicago’s Silk Road Rising, a non-profit theatre and media arts company that tells stories through Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses. Michael Malek Najjar is an associate professor of theatre arts at the University of Oregon. He lives in Eugene, Oregon. Corey Pond is the associate producer for Silk Road Rising in Chicago, Illinois.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction (in three parts) by Jamil Khoury; Corey Pond; and Michael Malek NajjarThe Admission: A Play in Fourteen Scenes—Motti LernerEssay: Motti Lerner’s The Admission: Accounting and Atoning for the Past (Michael Malek Najjar)Playwright Statement: Facing the Trauma of 1948PlayscriptScenes from 70* Years — Hannah KhalilEssay: Hannah Khalil’s Scenes from 70* Years: Snapshots from a Seemingly Endless Occupation (Michael Malek Najjar)Playwright Statement: Humanizing the “Other”PlayscriptTennis in Nablus — Ismail KhalidiEssay: Ismail Khalidi’s Tennis in Nablus: Mining History for the Origins of the Conflict (Michael Malek Najjar)Playwright Statement: Writing Palestine’s Invisible HistoryPlayscriptUrge for Going: Trilogy Version — Mona MansourEssay: Mona Mansour’s Urge for Going: Dramatizing “Permanent Impermanence” (Michael Malek Najjar)Playwright Statement: The Unspeakable Loss of DisplacementPlayscriptThe Victims: Or What Do You Want Me todeleteAbout It? — Ken KaissarEssay: Ken Kaissar’s The Victims: Sympathy for the Suffering (Michael Malek Najjar)Playwright Statement: Who Are the Victims?PlayscriptThe Zionists —  Zohar ­Tirosh-PolkEssay: Zohar ­Tirosh-Polk’s The Zionists: Tracking Generational Trauma (Michael Malek Najjar)Playwright Statement: The Zionists—A ReckoningPlayscriptAfterword by Jamil Khoury and Michael Malek NajjarChapter Notes