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Comments (0)Two actors from Israel’s national theater said they will not perform at a Jewish West Bank cultural center.
Haaretz reported Wednesday that the Habima Theater is one of the Israeli theater companies that will stage a show at a new theater in the Jewish West Bank city of Ariel following the theater’s opening on Nov. 8. Following the announcement, two Habima actors, Yousef Sweid and Rami Heuberger, said they would not entertain in the Jewish settlements.
“I would be glad to perform in settlements in several shows that have messages I’d like to deliver in many communities. But settlers and settlements are not something that entertains me, and I don’t want to entertain them,” Sweid told Israel’s Channel 1.
“If I am asked, I believe I would have a problem with performing there. As a stage actor it is a very, very problematic issue, and I think that so long as settlements are a controversial issue that will be discussed in any (peace) negotiations , I should not be there,” Heuberger, who is not currently performing in any show scheduled to be performed in Ariel, told Haaretz.
Be’er Sheva Theater and the Cameri Theater area also scheduled to stage productions in Ariel.
Palestinians Torch Cars in Silwan
Palestinians set cars on fire and threw stones at Israeli police and firemen in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.
The violence, which began early Thursday morning, came after Jewish Israelis tried to reach a spring with religious significance by crossing through a mosque courtyard, local Palestinian residents told reporters. Jewish sources say no one entered the mosque and that the violence started on Wednesday night, Haaretz reported.
Four cars and two motorcycles were burned, as well as trees, dumpsters and a guard post.
The city of Jerusalem recently announced plans to raze 22 illegal Palestinian homes in Silwan’s al-Bustan neighborhood to make way for the construction of an archeological park, while allowing 66 other illegal homes to obtain retroactive building permits, a plan to which the Palestinians object.
Jerusalem Trains Could Have Segregated Cars
The head of the company developing Jerusalem’s light rail system said there could be gender-segregated cars on the trains.
The men- or women-only cars would be to accommodate Jerusalem’s Haredi Orthodox community.
“The train was built to serve everyone,” CityPass CEO Yair Naveh said during a news conference Monday. “I think it is required to create alternatives for everyone, and that option exists because of the train’s division into cars. It is not a problem to declare every third or fourth car a mehadrin [kosher] car.”
Naveh’s declaration raised the hackles of officials in the transportation industry and in the Jerusalem municipality, as well as among opponents of segregated public transportation.
“Naveh was appointed to run a project – that doesn’t mean that he can tell people where to sit and where not to sit, nor does it mean that he knows anything about values and democracy,” said Jerusalem city council member Rachel Azariya, who opposes the gender-separated bus lines currently running in the city.
The train is scheduled to begin operation in April 2011.