about the play:

 

“You can’t document what happens in the military courts – you can’t take videos or pictures, no recordings at all. Much of what happens there stays in the dark – unless someone takes the official testimonies and makes them into a play.”

 

The United Nations calls him a defender of human rights – In Israel they call him a terrorist. Born and raised in the Palestinian city of Hebron, Issa Amro has lost count of the number of times the Israeli army has harassed and arrested him for protesting human rights abuses in occupied Palestine. In February 2016, he was detained and indicted on eighteen charges spanning six years—including incitement, organising protests against military and settler violence in Hebron, insulting a soldier and resisting arrest. In January 2021, he was convicted of six of these charges.

 

In this new documentary play, Einat Weizman draws on transcripts from Issa’s trial at the notorious Ofer military court where the conviction rate for Palestinians is a staggering 99.7%, and the judges and prosecutors are all on the side of the occupying powerstate. There are no juries in Israel’s military courts: the sentence has been passed before the trial has begun, and the prisoner knows how this will end before the guard has called his name.

 

 

However, the occupation is not the only front Issa is facing. Issa's story reveals all the factors and all the pressures that are exerted on those who try to fight for justice and liberation. Issa is also persecuted by the Palestinian Authority, the sub-contractors of the Israeli occupation and its executors.

 

The play portrays a multifaceted reality, as the playwright is on stage sharing the challenges she has had to face ever since she started working with Issa. She relays how she too came under heavy pressure even from civil society activists and organizations that support the struggle but seek to dictate its terms.

In this impossible reality, while Issa is trying to resist the brutal occupation he is living under, Einat realises that even representing this reality is all but impossible.