The play started with short discordant piano notes, drifting over scattered rubble, half-charred shoes, and a single upright leather suitcase at the corner of the dim stage. It set a somber mood, and the singed ground from which the actor told his story grew to mean and represent more as “I Shall Not Hate” progressed.
There is a difference between enjoying a work of art and respecting it. “I Shall Not Hate” causes pain and forces the audience to confront the truth about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and not turn away. It pulls no punches and demands change, but still calls for peace. Pulling the story down to the level of a family’s struggles narrows the focus and transforms the clinical statistics of the conflict to something that hurts and the audience can recognize.
The play was artfully and simply done. There was a man, rubble, a suitcase, and a model home. Gassan Abbas performed the entirety of the monologue detailing Dr. Abuelaish’s life with no supporting actors. Abbas was the only person who ever set foot on stage, and the entire story was told in Arabic with the English translation projected onto the back of the room. The story easily crosses the language barrier, and audience members who have never known a word of Arabic can easily understand the emotion behind Abbas’ performance.
“I Shall Not Hate,” performed by the Mosaic Theater from Washington, D.C. is the adaptation of the memoirs of Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. It follows the rise of Abuelaish from his beginnings in a Palestinian refugee camp located in Gaza to a respected obstetrician who was invited to work at hospitals in Israel and study at Yale. Throughout his life, Abuelaish is determined to peacefully coexist with both Israel and Palestine, despite prejudice and violence from both sides. The play itself was commissioned by an Israeli theater company and toured through locations where Israeli and Palestinian audiences were going to attend. When the play was prematurely removed from showing in Israel, the company sold it to the Mosaic Theater.
The play culminated during the 2009 Gaza conflict, where Abuelaish and his family underwent a devastating loss. The audience experienced some of the most powerful words in the entire play: “Who do you want me to hate?” Should Abuelaish hate the military that destroyed his home? Should he hate the children he delivered in Israel? Standing in the rubble and scattered shoes, Abuelaish makes the choice that he shall not hate those who hurt him and his family.
Mosaic Theater left room for discussion at the end of the play, which concluded in one of the most significant parts of the event. The audience members, some of whom were from Palestine themselves, were able to respond to the message they heard on stage and ask questions. It gave sorely needed time to process the story of Dr. Abuelaish.
“I Shall Not Hate” calls for a new conversation which acknowledges the gray areas of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and this play is part of starting this movement. Without conversation, the conflict will never move forward, and there will be more stories like Abuelaish’s.
