The Habima Theatre, the National Theatre of Israel, has
no moral qualms about performing in the illegal settlement colonies on stolen
Palestinian lands.

These colonies and their extremist residents have a
tragic daily and long-term impact on Palestinian lives with their rabid theft of
land, water, livelihood and homes that consequently have impoverished
Palestinian families…

You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth
sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live.

OCHA reported that the weekly average racist attacks
resulting in Palestinian casualties and property damage has increased by 40% in
2011. Settler terrorism with its ‘strange apparent cruelty’ is sanctioned by the
Israeli state with the assistance of the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Following Palestine’s bid for its right to membership in
the UN, in September 2011, Israel flagrantly announced plans to build 50,000
homes in Palestinian East Jerusalem in violation of international
law.

Habima has stated that “As a theater, this play allows
us to attack the hatred of Jews and fear of strangers,” Indisputably all racism
is contemptible and must be addressed and eliminated.

Still, Habima should be barred even though the court
scene (Act 4 Sc 1) is damning of Israel when interpreted from a perspective of
the Shylockian rapaciousness for Palestinian land, although, in the process of
theft, unlike Shylock, Israel doesn’t hesitate to draw Palestinian blood
including the blood of 352 children in Operation Cast Lead .

Also in the festival, the Palestinian Ashtar Theatre
(Ramallah and Jerusalem) is presenting the politically controversial Richard II.
The drama could bear analogy to the Nakba: the permanent exile of Mowbray, the
usurping of the weak King Richard ( British Mandate) by the Machiavellian
Bollingbroke who doomed England to decades of bloody civil
war.

The Ashtar theatre is famous for The Gaza Mono-Logues in
which 31 “Youth from Gaza Tell their Personal Stories about War and Siege.” It
was ‘performed simultaneously on October 17th 2010 by over 1500 youngsters in
more than 50 cities in 36 countries all over the world.’

The project is the inspiration of the Artistic Director,
Ms Iman Aoun, and is referred to as a Phoenix of life and truth rising from the
ashes of the 2008/9 Gaza war in which innocent civilians were mercilessly
trapped in the world’s most densely populated open prison with no escape by
land, air or sea,

Gaza’s fish ran away…but people were not able to.
Fateema Atallah, Born 1996

During the 22 days of Israel’s brutal high-tech military
assault, including the illegal use of phosphorus bombs on defenseless civilians,
1417 Palestinians including 352 children were killed. At least 5380 were wounded
and maimed including 1872 children. About 100,000 people lost their homes. For
young Gazans, these war crime facts remain mind, soul and
life-shattering:

• Yesterday I was sitting in school and I heard the
sound of planes. I got really scared, I wanted to run away from school. I felt I
was going to die because I remembered the war. The scenes of war won’t leave my
mind. Reem Afana , Born 1996

• Before the war I used to feel that Gaza was my second
mother. Its ground was the warm chest I could lay on, and its sky was my
dreams… without limits. The sea would wash away my worries. But today I feel
it’s an exile, I stopped feeling its the city of my dreams. Ahmad El Ruzzi, Born
1993

• In the future if I grow up, and in Gaza it’s an
achievement to grow up because death is standing on your doorstep, I want to be
a children’s caretaker and defend their rights.. Yasmeen Katbeh, Born
1996

Three years on, Israel’s quality of mercy is still
inhumanely strained by its Zionist apartheid policies and collective punishment
of Palestinians. It is….

A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch
uncapable of
pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy.

Cancelling Habima’s performance would be an ethical
stand of condemnation and a valuable awareness raising of the crimes against
humanity perpetrated by the state of Israel.

Western governments, as High Contracting Parties to the
Fourth Geneva Convention, have dishonorably relinquished their legal obligations
to secure a Palestinian state and protect the human rights of the indigenous
Palestinian people and that is why the Palestinians have called on all of to
join the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement as a non-violent means of
bringing justice and peace to both Palestine and Israel.

The Globe has a BDSt example close at hand. It has a
partnership with the Deutsche Bank which in 2010 divested from the Israeli
company, Elbit Systems when it was determined that Elbit significantly
participates in operating the illegal Apartheid Wall and protecting the illegal
West Bank colonies.

Cultural boycotts do have a far-reaching influence and
can inspire moral action, can be a vanguard for justice, can save
lives,

To do a great right, do a little wrong,
And curb this
cruel Israel of its will.

and, in this case, The Globe can offer Habima a
principled choice to join the movement to boycott the illegal colonies or remain
in Israel during the Shakespeare Globe to Globe Festival.

- Dr. Vacy Vlazna is Coordinator of Justice for
Palestine Matters: www.palestinematters.com. She was Human Rights Advisor to the GAM team in the second
round of the Acheh peace talks, Helsinki, February 2005 and was coordinator of
the East Timor Justice Lobby as well as serving in East Timor with UNAMET and
UNTAET from 1999-2001. She contributed this article to
PalestineChronicle.com.