Palestinian performers withdraw from National Multicultural Festival over controversy surrounding play about Gaza
Controversy has erupted just as the National Multicultural Festival kicks off in Canberra.
A group of Palestinian performers say festival organisers told them they had to remove the parts of their play about Gaza for being political.
The Australian Palestinian group, Tales of a Homeland, was set to make its debut at the festival in Canberra today with a play called Gaza Press about frontline workers currently serving in the conflict in Gaza.
The group has now pulled out of the festival, and will not perform.
Co-director Jana Fayyad told ABC Radio Canberra the group's proposal to put on the play at the festival was submitted and accepted in early January, and was made up of both a script and an explanation of the story.
"We made it very clear that it was set in Gaza," Ms Fayyad said.
"We made sure that we sent them the proposal because we wanted to confirm with the festival before we made our arrangements.
"[Then later] we were contacted by two of the festival organisers who called us into a meeting and said that they were concerned about our play, and they wanted us to remove the parts about Gaza and stick to the dabkeh, which is our traditional Palestinian dance [that was included in the play]."
Ms Fayyad said in that meeting she and her co-director pushed back and told the organisers they would not change the play as it was a representation of Palestinian culture.
She said after a week, another meeting was called with a senior representative, who again said they would have to remove parts about Gaza from the play.
Government says proposed performance was changed from original application
ACT Communities Services Directorate executive group manager Anita Perkins told ABC Radio Canberra the grant application from the Palestinian delegation was "for the Tales of a Homeland presentation, which is a folk dance".
"Our understanding is the original application that we received for Tales of a Homeland had been updated to now be called Gaza Press, and it did incorporate more elements about the conflict that is being experienced at the moment," Ms Perkins said.
"The team was proposing to put on a different performance from what they applied for, so we wanted to work through with them that it would be appropriate given it was something different than we have been advertising.
"We expressed some concern that the content might be distressing to some of our visitors for the festival, we reiterated the intent of the festival, and the performers assured us that the performance would meet the aims and objective of the festival."
Ms Fayyad said the play "absolutely" fit the description of a celebration of Palestinian culture, and was not political.
"We never once mentioned any reference to any political parties or any political stances in our plays, and we actually mentioned that Gaza Press play is apolitical, we don't even mention the word 'Israel'," she said.
"It quite literally shows the lives of healthcare workers, and journalists, and Palestinians in Gaza — and, for us, this is a part of our culture because it's our daily lifestyle, because this is what we've been experiencing for 75 years so it is ingrained in our culture.
"It is completely unprofessional and appalling for a National Multicultural Festival to be defining how we portray our culture and how we define our culture."
After telling the festival organisers again that they would not remove the parts in their play about Gaza, Ms Fayyad said the group's scheduled performance was moved from a stage at the heart of the festival to one on its very edge.
"On Monday, they were insisting we had to remove Gaza from our play, but once we released the media release [on Friday morning] and it blew up on social media … they sent an email a few hours after [and] basically said 'oh your performance is still booked for tomorrow and you are permitted to do your full performance' … [but] at the new location," she said.
"So this was obviously them trying to avoid the backlash that they have seen online.
"They backtracked on what they told us in the meetings to avoid the humiliation of them marginalising an entire culture."
Government says festival organisers weren't lobbied
Ms Perkins said at "no time" did the festival organisers tell the group they could not perform.
She also said that none of the festival organisers had been lobbied by external groups to change or move the Palestinian performance, and no complaints had been received about the proposed performance to prompt concern.
In a statement, an ACT government spokesperson said they were disappointed Tales of a Homeland had decided not to perform at the festival, but pointed out the National Multicultural Festival was an apolitical event.
"The National Multicultural Festival acknowledges that around the world there are many people currently experiencing the devastating impact of conflict," the spokesperson said.
"The festival, however, is an apolitical event focused on the respectful preservation and promotion of multicultural traditions and celebrations.
"Following advice that the performance of Tales of a Homeland would be changed to focus on the impacts of the war in Gaza, performers assured the festival organisers that their performance met the values and objectives of the festival."
They said there had been no further discussions about the content of the play.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-17/canberra-palestinian-play-multicutural-festival-gaza/103479120
posted by Satish Sharma at
09:29
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