Leading theatre figures including Mark Rylance, Caryl Churchill, Maxine
Peake and David Edgar have responded vigorously to a Daily Mail attack
on the widely-applauded Jenin Thetreas terrorists. They say:

‘Neither the Daily Mail nor the Board of Deputies has seen Freedom
Theatre’s play The Siege, yet both somehow feel qualified to suggest
that it is “promoting terrorism”. Not for the first time,
Palestinian voices are in danger of being drowned out by a vociferous
pro-Israel lobby that smears all Palestinians as terrorists and antisemites.
This lobby wants us to believe that theatre-goers in the UK cannot be
trusted to hear these voices and make their own judgements.’

They endorse the words of British playwright Howard Brenton, an honorary director of the
Freedom Theatre:

‘This is real political theatre, performed out of the both terrible
and inspiring experience of a struggle for freedom and justice. [The
Freedom Theatre] are living proof that telling stories and entertaining
audiences are powerful acts of resistance to oppression. Do go and see
them, they have news for us.’

Artists for Palestine UK news release