hat tip to Gaza Human Rights, where one can read all about Churchill’s play.
Churchill’s ten-minute play is riveting and provocative, unlike the acclaimed “Waltz with Bashir” by Ari Folman and David Polonsky, a childish cartoon that paints pouts on Israeli soldiers as they ruminate, decades later, oh bother, why can’t they remember where they were, what they witnessed, or when they killed during the Sabra-Shatila massacre? Christian Phalangists are blamed entirely and cast as uncivilised, irrational animals; the Israeli “grunts” are naive, unwitting so innocent bystanders who’ve an irreproachable love of country.
Tom Engelhardt excerpts, “What ‘Waltz with Bashir’ can teach us about Gaza” by Gary Kamiya, describes it, “The single best piece on Waltz with Bashir and its relevance to the recent invasion of Gaza.”
Of course, Israel’s moral culpability for the 1982 massacre [in Sabra and Shatila] is not the same as its moral responsibility for the civilians killed in the current war. But there are painful similarities. Sooner or later the patriotic war fervor will fade, and Israelis will realize that their leaders sent them to kill hundreds of innocent people for nothing. And perhaps in 2036, some haunted filmmaker will release ‘Waltz With Hamas.’
So, not only should the debate on Israeli complicity in Sabra-Shatila be tossed into the dustbin, one should be comforted that, “perhaps in 2036” some Israeli might be “haunted” enough to make another cartoon?
Caryl Churchill is not so willing to let rabid dogs lie.
Updated @1335 on 19 February 2009:
This review is “The single best piece on Waltz with Bashir and its relevance to the recent invasion of Gaza” that I’ve read to date.