4 weeks ago
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A Jewish child was made to feel unwelcome at a theatre school in Brighton and has decided to give up their place due to the anti-Israel content of its performances and activities.
The child had been attending ThirdSpace, a theatre school based in East Sussex for children and young people, for five years, but increasingly felt the club had become an intimidating and hostile environment for him.
According to the child, students were encouraged to leave class for a “School Strike for Palestine”, recite the “Gaza Monologues”, and perform shows inspired by Hamas paragliders and antisemitic poets.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), an Israel advocacy group, reported the drama school to the Regulator of Community Interest Companies (CIC), alerting the watchdog to “political campaigning” going on in the organisation.
On 21 November 2023, ThirdSpace encouraged students to join a “School Strike for Palestine”, organised by the group “Parents 4 Palestine”, which a drama teacher at the school is a part of.
It was only six weeks after October 7, and the Jewish student had been personally affected by the massacre. A number of his extended friends and family had been murdered, including at the Nova festival.
On 24 November, the walk-out went ahead, with students chanting “from the river to the sea” and copies of the far-left paper Socialist Appeal, with the headline “Intifada Now”, were handed out to children.
A drama teacher from ThirdSpace was acting as a steward at the demonstration, which attracted 60 children. Speeches were heard from anti-Israel activists including Tony Greenstein, who was expelled from the Labour Party in 2018 after allegations of antisemitism.
ThirdSpace posted on Instagram following the event, saying that they were impressed by the young people who staged the anti-racist strike which was “led by three young performers from ThirdSpace”.
In the same November, the Jewish student was invited to perform in a reading of The Gaza Monologues, a collection of "testimonies" written by ASHTAR, a Palestinian theatre group, in 2010. The monologues highlight “the fears, hopes, and resilience of Gazans” in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 war on the Gaza Strip.
The event was held to raise money for Medical Aid for Palestinians. When the Jewish child’s mother wrote to the theatre to ask if they could consider also raising money for a joint Palestinian / Israel peace charity and pointed out that several of their extended family and friends had been murdered by Hamas in Israel, the suggestion was not taken up.
At ThirdSpace’s Christmas show, the Jewish child felt uncomfortable due to the anti-Israel nature of the other performances.
While he performed a monologue he had written himself, another student read out the poem “Don’t mention the Children” by Jewish author Michael Rosen, often quoted by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and a different student recited a poem from the “Gaza Monologues”.
ThirdSpace plans on hosting a show in Brighton this December, on the theme of “kites taking us through times of war”, which was inspired by a poem called “If I must die” by the poet, Refaat Alareer, who was killed in Gaza on 6 December 2023.
Alareer had a history of making antisemitic comments. After learning that an Israeli baby had reportedly been found dead in an oven on 7 October, at the hands of Hamas, he posted on X/Twitter: “With or without baking powder?”
In July 2021, he wrote: “just realised you are a Zio. Zios are heartless brainless pieces of shit who conspired with the nazis against the jews. What else do we expect from zios? Nothin.”
According to UKLFI, the theme of kites has an obvious reference to Gaza. “Palestinian kites, with burning material attached to them, have previously been used as a weapon, to send over the Israeli border to cause a huge amount of damage to Israeli agricultural land,” the group said.
“The theme of kites has an obvious reference to Gaza. Palestinian kites, with burning material attached to them, have previously been used as a weapon, to send over the Israeli border to cause a huge amount of damage to Israeli agricultural land.”
Despite altering his teacher to the antisemitism of Alareer, the show is still scheduled to go ahead, and will be entitled “Let It Be a Tale”, the final line of Alareer’s “If I Must Die” poem.
UKLFI has accused the drama school of fostering an intimidating environment for Jews, thereby violating the Equalities Act 2010, and has written to the CIC Regulator requesting it be investigated.
ThirdSpace told the Jewish Chronicle: “In light of a complaint of unlawful discrimination and harassment from UKLFI ThirdSpace Theatre has sought legal advice from a KC who specialises in equality and discrimination law.
“That advice has confirmed that the Company has not breached any provision of the Equality Act 2010, and the allegations made against it by UKLFI are without merit. ThirdSpace Theatre will not be making any further comment on this matter.”
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