The New York Times · 3 July 1989

CP-1989-049

Israel Bans Arab's Play As Racist and Inciteful

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, July 2 (Reuters) — Israeli authorities said today that they had banned a play written by an Israeli Arab because it was racist and would incite anti-Israeli protests. But the playwright, Riad Masarwy of Nazareth, said his work, “The Ninth Wave,” was censored because “the Government could not deal with the political situation that exists today.”

The play is about a bridegroom who is killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank moments before his marriage, he said. As the bride dances around his body, relatives tell of what they call Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian people since Israeli independence in 1948.

“The play has a racist message that is anti-Jewish, anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli in the most crude way,” said the secretary of the Israeli film and theater censorship board, Sonia David. “It is liable in the existing circumstances to cause a worsening of riots. From the beginning to the end, the play is very inciteful.” Mr.

Masarwy said he would continue with rehearsals for the play, which was to open in Nazareth on Sept. 4. “I do not hurt the feelings of anyone,” he said. “I bring facts from the past and from the present. Apparently the authorities cannot handle these facts.”

He said the play had been co-produced with a Belgian theater group and involved five Belgian actors as well as five Arab actors. It was to have been performed in French and Arabic.

How this transcription was made

Not stated over the article, but the house advertisement filling the lower right of the clipping reads 'SPORTS NEWS EVERY DAY / The New York Times' in the paper's own blackletter nameplate, so the host paper is on the cut. — No masthead or printed date. The dateline reads 'JERUSALEM, July 2 (Reuters)' and the authorities acted 'today', so a July 3 paper fits Maria's label. The year is not printed; the reference to 'the existing circumstances' and 'riots' fits the intifada, and the play was to open Sept. 4. — Maria's slide label puts this clipping first ('New York Times July 3 1989 * another version of censorship') but it is the second image. Her censorship note belongs to this one — though the Jan 5 1986 clipping beside it carries censorship material too. — The whole article. The paper sets 'inciteful' in the headline and again inside the censorship board secretary's quotation; it is not a standard English word and it is kept as printed. The house advertisement at lower right is not part of the article.

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