REPORT: Hamas Play in Britain Exalting Palestinian Murderers Funded by UK Taxpayers

British groups furious with UK play glorifying murderous Hamas terrorists receiving massive promotional funding from Arts Council of England.

By Ari Yashar

 

UK taxpayers are footing the bill as the Arts Council of England pays 15,000 pounds ($22,700) for a UK tour of the play “The Siege,” which glorifies Hamas terrorists based solely on accounts of the terrorists themselves, reports the British Daily Mail.

Pro-Palestine rally in London (file) – Reuters

The play focuses on the Hamas terrorists who were besieged by the IDF in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002. The siege lasted 39 days, and ended with 13 of the leading terrorists being deported to European countries – their stories make up the basis of the play.

All of the besieged terrorists had reportedly conducted lethal terrorist attacks, with two of them even admitting their crimes to international media.

The leader of the group, Ibrahim Abayat, was deported to Spain and told the media how he and others shot to death an Israeli woman near Jerusalem in 2002, although he was involved in other attacks as well. Jihad Jaara, who was sent to Ireland, related how he abducted and murdered 71-year-old Avi Boaz, who had immigrated to Israel from the US.

The 13 ringleaders of the Hamas group were also linked to a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 2002 during the Second Intifada or Oslo War as it is alternately termed. No less than 11 Israelis were murdered in the attack.

And yet UK taxpayers are now to be paying for the stories of these terrorists to be whitewashed and presented on stage.

The play is to run on a ten-city UK tour beginning on May 13 in Manchester, and the British Council and EU have likewise funded performances in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

In response to the decision, the Board of Deputies of British Jews said, “we would be extremely concerned if British taxpayers were funding a play that promoted terrorism as positive and legitimate.”

Indicating how the play legitimizes the terrorists, the publicity for the play referred to them merely as “fighters,” without acknowledging the brutal murders they had committed. The Hamas terrorist organization has the genocide of all Jews written into its very charter.

The British co-director of the play, Zoe Laffery, revealed her bias by claiming Palestinian Arab terrorists attack Israeli citizens “not because they’re crazy religious fanatics (but) to defend their families.”

“To have to engage in whether Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Brigade are terrorists is the wrong question to ask,” she said, referring to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist group of Fatah, which along with Hamas fired rockets at Israeli civilian centers last summer.

 

View original Arutz Sheva publication at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/194945#.VUcyZpNbg8I