Top UK actors protest at Globe's invitation to Israeli theatre company

Globe Theatre

Leading British actors, directors and authors are challenging the Globe to Globe World Shakespeare Festival, part of the Cultural Olympiad, over its invitation to an Israeli theatre company which performs for settlers on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
 
In an open letter published in The Guardian yesterday, David Calder, Trevor Griffiths, Jonathan Miller, Mark Rylance, Emma Thompson, Mike Leigh,Miriam Margolyes and Harriet Walter, along with many others, say the Israeli National Theatre, Habima, “has a shameful record of involvement with illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
 
They call on Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, on London’s South Bank, to withdraw the invitation “so the festival is not complicit with human rights violations and the illegal colonisation of occupied land”.
 
Habima is scheduled to perform The Merchant of Venice in Hebrew at the Globe on May 28 and 29 as one of 37 Shakespeare plays in 37 world languages during the seven week festival.
 
The Guardian letter notes that a number of Israeli theatre professionals have declared that they will not take part in performances in “halls of culture” built in two large Israeli settlements. Habima, however, has pledged to continue doing so.
 
“I sign this letter in support of those artists within Israel who are resisting the requests to play in the illegal settlements,” said actor Mark Rylance. He drew a parallel with earlier campaigns supporting change in apartheid South Africa.
 
“Acting in the illegal settlements seems to me an act of provocation and disrespect. Surely peace will only be born when each person respects the other's boundaries,” Rylance said.
 
The Globe’s response to appeals from Israeli, Palestinian and British campaigners for Habima’s invitation to be withdrawn has been to insist that the World Shakespeare Festival must be inclusive and keep channels of cultural communication open.
 
David Calder, whose roles include Shylock with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Lear with the Globe Theatre Company, said that Habima “placed itself outside the general case of ‘bridge-making culture’ by being prepared to play before a segregated audience of illegal settlers in a theatre from which Palestinians themselves are barred”.
 
Calder said that leading Israeli company Habima are part of “a cultural fig leaf” for Israel’s daily brutality.
 
The full text of the letter follows:
 
We notice with dismay and regret that Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London has invited Israel's National Theatre, Habima, to perform The Merchant of Venice in its Globe to Globe festival this coming May.
 
The general manager of Habima has declared the invitation ‘an honourable accomplishment for the State of Israel’ (i). But Habima has a shameful record of involvement with illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory.
 
Last year, two large Israeli settlements established ‘halls of culture’ and asked Israeli theatre groups to perform there. A number of Israeli theatre professionals – actors, stage directors, playwrights – declared (ii) they would not take part.
 
Habima however accepted the invitation with alacrity, and promised the Israeli Minister of Culture that it would ‘deal with any problems hindering such performances’. By inviting Habima, Shakespeare’s Globe is undermining the conscientious Israeli actors and playwrights who have refused to break international law.
 
The Globe says it wants to ‘include’ the Hebrew language in its festival – we have no problem with that. ‘Inclusiveness’ is a core value of arts policy in Britain, and we support it. But by inviting Habima, the Globe is associating itself with policies of exclusion practised by the Israeli state and endorsed by its national theatre company. We ask the Globe to withdraw the invitation so the festival is not complicit with human rights violations and the illegal colonisation of occupied land.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
David Calder, actor
Caryl Churchill, playwright
Trevor Griffiths, playwright
Mike Leigh, filmmaker, dramatist
Roger Lloyd Pack, actor
Cherie Lunghi, actor
Miriam Margolyes OBE, actor
Kika Markham, actor
Jonathan Miller, director, author and broadcaster
Mark Rylance, actor
Emma Thompson, actor, screenwriter
Harriet Walter DBE, actor
Richard Wilson, actor, director
David Aukin, producer
Poppy Burton-Morgan, artistic director, Metta Theatre
Leo Butler, playwright
Niall Buggy, actor
Jonathan Chadwick, director
Michael Darlow, writer, director
Annie Firbank, actor
Paul Freeman, actor
Matyelok Gibbs, actor
Tony Graham, director
John Graham Davies, actor, writer
Janet Henfrey, actor
James Ivens, artistic director, Flood Theatre
Andrew Jarvis, actor, director, teacher
Neville Jason, actor
Ursula Jones, actor
Professor Adah Kay, academic, playwright
Sonja Linden, playwright, iceandfire theatre
Frances Rifkin, director
Alexei Sayle, comedian, writer
Farhana Sheikh, writer
Andy de la Tour, actor, director
Hilary Westlake, director
Susan Wooldridge, actor, writer