Letter of the Week

From The Guardian, Mon 7 Mar 2011

Antisemitism debate

In Trials of the Diaspora, I argue that Caryl Churchill's play Seven Jewish Children is antisemitic. Churchill (Letters, 4 March) denies this characterisation, writing that I rely on the line "tell her there's dead babies, did she see babies?".

I had in mind the following lines, among others.

"Tell her we killed the babies by mistake / Don't tell her anything about the army."
"Tell her I look at one of their children covered in blood and what do I feel? Tell her all I feel is happy it's not her."
"Tell her I wouldn't care if we wiped them out."
"Tell her I don't care if the world hates us, tell her we're better haters, tell her we're chosen people."

In this play, Jews confess to lying to their own children and killing Palestinian children. They also confess to something close to a project of genocide. And they freely acknowledge the source of their misanthropy to be Judaism itself.

None of this seems to bother Churchill – nor, indeed, the Guardian. As she correctly notes, the play is available on your website.

Anthony Julius
London