Palestinian Authority Arab residents in Gaza were stunned to see the ruling Hamas terrorist organization allow the biting new comedy, “Umbilical Cord,” to reach the stage at the Al-Shawa Cultural Center.
The play, which ran three nights this week, is the first outcry against all the factions of the Palestinian Authority, as well as its top government officials.
Of especial interest is the fact that Hamas has not yet shut it down, despite its striking criticism of the terror group's administration of Gaza. “I was afraid it would be prevented from being shown,” director Hazem Abu Hamid told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It's an escape valve for what people say in secret.”
The play makes the point that Hamas, which is generously patronized by Iran, and Fatah, which is backed by the United States, have paralyzed the PA with their rivalry and their hatred.
The point is poignantly made when a character representing Hamas boasts of having liberated the Gaza region from Israel, which expelled all Jews from their homes and unilaterally disengaged from the entire area in August 2005. When Hamas, which seeks to annihilate Israel, won the PA elections less than a year later, Israel imposed a partial blockade on the crossings into the region, heavily controlling what goes in and out between Israel and Gaza. After years of increasing rocket attacks against southern Israeli civilians, Israel finally conducted a three-week counter-terrorism operation last year, Operation Cast Lead, from which the region is still recovering.
“Gaza is under siege and every day the [Israeli] tanks enter,” a character tells the Hamas representative. “The steadfastness against the blockade comes from our martyred children.”
"But we bring you money in exchange for your martyred children,” a Fatah official answers.
“**** the money,” retorts the actress playing a woman whose son was killed in an Israeli military operation. “Take my life and give me back my son. This is a dog's life, with no electricity, no flour, no jobs.”
Another character cracks a bitter joke about the PA economy: “We have two health ministries but no electricity, no flour and no cement,” he says.
Four men dressed in suits and carrying briefcases all labeled “politics” represent the main PA factions, which are referred to as “The Great Ones” throughout the play. Each is identified with a different colored cord – hence the title, “Umbilical Cord” – green for Hamas, yellow for Fatah, black for Islamic Jihad and red for the smaller, leftist factions.
Iyad Abu Shariya called it “a scream in the face of the officials,” saying “people are sick and tired of the way they do business.” Shariya, who heads the independent non-governmental cultural group that produced the play with the assistance of local donor angels and a Swiss development fund, added, “We wanted to force them to hear what we think about this awful situation.”
So far response to the play has been overwhelming, with some 1,500 Gazans flooding into the Cultural Center each night of the performance. No one knows if – or more likely, when – the play will be shut down.