Palestinian artists refused visas for Glasgow Celtic Connections show
Bethlehem Calling, which is based on the diaries of Palestinian schoolgirls, is due to be staged at the city’s Tramway on Saturday, January 25 as part of the winter arts jamboree.
Organisers have condemned the decision as “frustratingly harsh” in the week where major steps were taken to resolve the conflict in the Middle East with a ceasefire agreement.
The multi-disciplinary production, a music, theatre and film collaboration between artists from Scotland, Ireland and Palestine, features music composed by former Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson, and a performance from the Palestinian Arab Orthodox Scout Pipers of Beit Jala. Scots musician Lewis Cook, from the band of Free Love, Chizu Anucha, and Firas Khnaisser are also due to appear at the event, scheduled to be directed by Palestinian director Raeda Ghazaleh.
The 40-strong performance is based on stories from diaries written by teenage girls attending the Terra Sancta School for Girls in the West Bank during the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising of 2000-2005, as well as those at the school during the current conflict.
The diaries reflect the harsh realities of life as a teenager in a war zone, talking about everyday subjects such as favourite pop bands alongside accounts of homes being bombed and family members being killed.
Now key members of the show’s entourage will now be missing from the show scheduled for January 25, although producers are insisting the performance will still go ahead despite the decision to block entry to some of the Palestinian collaborators reports our sister title The Herald.
A joint statement issued by the company’s creative team said: “We learned this week that two Palestinian performers who were to take part in Bethlehem Calling at Tramway on 25 January have had their UK visa applications rejected.
“While the show will very much go on as planned, our view is that these visa decisions are frustratingly harsh given that this is an important and timely cultural exchange supported by both our national arts funding body, Creative Scotland, and one of Scotland’s most prestigious and high profile arts festivals, Celtic Connections.
“Bethlehem Calling is bringing together a diverse and talented group of theatre-makers and musicians from Palestine and Scotland, at a time when it feels more important than ever to support Palestinian artists and amplify their voices and stories.
“We will be thinking of those who can’t be with us as we stage a show that describes the extraordinary resilience and creativity of young people growing up in a war zone.”
Theatre maker Zoe Hunter, whose connection to the Palestinian school girls diary project spans 20 years, said: “These diaries are a witness testimony. Soldiers were coming in and taking over these girls homes, families were forced upstairs into one part of the house. Some write about family members being killed, a 12 year old girl being shot in the head five times in a car because soldiers claimed they thought she was a militant.
“In the middle of this horror, these teenage girls are talking about what boy bands they like, who they fancy and all the things teenage girls talk about.”
“That teenage vitality is there, but there’s this resilience too. They just want a normal life, they just want peace. That was their story 20 years ago, and 20 years on it’s still their story. But the hope and resilience are being chipped away at. The diaries they got from the school in November, made me realise these children can no longer see their future.
“They still had a sense in the past that there might be another way, but now hey can’t see their own future. And that needs to be understood here and all across the world. By ignoring their existence we are taking that future from them.”
She added: “A lot of arts organisations, particularly theatres have been afraid to do anything about Palestine for fear of being accused of being too overtly political. That saddens me deeply. But the music industry was doing fundraisers and concerts, and being supportive. Telling the Palestinian people. ‘We are here for you’ and that was the beginning of the idea of taking what we did in 2005, which had a big impact, and bringing it together with musicians.
“It’s a big gig, mashed up with a theatre piece.”
Ben Harrison of Grid Iron theatre added: “Someone from Palestine once said to me ‘your lack of democracy is our biggest problem.’ I’ve been mind-boggled at the lack of courage on behalf of many arts organisations particularly the theatre across the UK.
“The Palestinian men in the pipe band are seven young men playing bagpipes and playing their courage and defiance through that. Not throwing stones or any other cliches about Palestinian men. There are points in the production which could be titled hope, despair and defiance. That’s what it’s about.”
The Home Office did not respond to a request for comment.
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