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Introduction 1 Martyrdom

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Introduction 1 Martyrdom Notes Introduction 1. Article 285 of the Syrian Penal Code criminalizes speech that “weakens national sentiment.” Human Rights Watch documented 104 convictions of this charge in Syria’s State Security Court based on proceedings between January 2007 and June 2008. 2. In 1921 Carl Schmitt (2013: 14) asserted that “Whoever rules over the state of exception therefore rules over the state, because he decides when this state should emerge and what means are necessary.” 3. In describing the government as a “regime” I am adopting an understanding of Syrian rule that emphasizes the state’s use of the party to establish control over the state apparatus, army, and all mass organizations combined with the use of the public sector to create a state-dependent bourgeoisie. These clients both depend on and influence the government. A concise analysis of the regime Hafiz al-Assad built can be found in Leverett (2005: 23–27). 4. While it falls outside of the scope of the book, playwrights had even begun to analyze the effects of neoliberal economic policy and spread of crony capitalism (The Last Supper, Ikhlasi 2004), tensions within the regime due to generational change (Two Variables in the Equation, Ikhlasi 2004), domestic violence (The Breeze, al-Thahabi 2008), prostitution (Tactics, Amayri unpub- lished, performed 2008), and premarital sex (Layla and the Wolf, al-Thabahi unpublished, performed 2008). 5. Interestingly, Qabbani emigrated to Cairo where he created a successful theatre after the destruction of his theatre in Damascus. 6. Popular support for the Palestinians put pressure on the newly installed Bashar al-Assad to soften long-standing Syrian criticism of the PLO, but the leader steadfastly refused to support the uprising. For analysis of Bashar al-Assad’s response to the Al-Aqsa Intifada see Ghadbian (2001). Information on the 2001 student strike is from a personal interview with al-Atrash, February 28, 2014. 1 Martyrdom 1. See for example Lesch (2012: 79–98); Maʻoz (1995: 79–111); Seale (1989: 104–141); and Lawson (1996: 20–51). 2. Muhammad al-Maghut interviewed by Edward Ziter, Damascus, May 20, 2004. Maghut gave the production date as 1973. However Al-Hayat dates the production as 1970 (May 28, 2013; accessed September 23, 2013): http:// alhayat.com/Details/517942 3. Lahham returned to the role in 1999 for the series The Return of Ghawar. 4. The production was filmed and broadcast on Syrian television. A bootleg ver- sion is widely available and has been uploaded to the Internet. All quotations are taken from this production. 240 Notes 241 5. The Syrian government apparently reversed this policy in 2011, when Palestinian demonstrators were allowed to approach and try to broach the border fence fronting the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. According to the New York Times, “Syria’s decision to allow the protest appeared to reflect a calculated strategy to divert attention from its own antigovernment uprising” (Kershner 2011). This protest received extensive coverage in the three state dailies: Al-Thawra, al-Baath, and Tishreen. 6. The Syrian state paper, al-Baath, referred to the drivers as “suicide bombers” eschewing its more typical language of “martyrdom operations” (Jaridat al- Baath 2012). 7. Rabih Mroué discusses such videos in his lecture/performance The Pixelated Revolution. For a transcript see Mroué (2013). 8. The government’s relentless lionization of the party is evident in a school cur- riculum that requires students to take course on “nationalism” at the primary and secondary levels – courses whose required texts are little more than hagi- ographies of the party. See for example: al-Tarbiyah al-wataniyah al-ishtirakiyah, al-thani al-thanawi, al-’ammwa-al-mihniwa-al-shar’i. Damascus: Ministry of Education, 1999; al-Tarbiyah al-qawmiyah al-ishtirakiyah, al-thalith al-thanawi, al-’ammwa-al-mihniwa-al-shar’i. Damascus: Ministry of Education, 1996. 2 War 1. In addition, ‘Ali ‘Uqla ‘Arsan’s The Palestinian Women (1971) and Muhammad al-Maghut’s The Jester (1973) deserve mention (the former is discussed in Chapter 3 and the latter in Chapter 4). The Palestinian Women depicts a group of Palestinians caught in the confusion of the 1948 War and then some eighteen years later in a refugee camp. As such, the play presents Palestinian disenfran- chisement as a precursor to a catastrophe that the audience does not witness but knows is about to occur; the 1967 War looms on the outer edge of the play. The Jester depicts a Syrian state that is indifferent to territorial loss despite the ubiquity of liberation rhetoric. In that irreverent play the Andalusian con- queror, Abd al Rahman I, has returned from the dead to reclaim Palestine, only to be detained at the Israeli border by Arab officials who extradite him to Spain for medieval war crimes in return for a shipment of Spanish onions. 2. In his 1927 article, “Fetishism,” Freud argued that, for the male child, the discov- ery that women lack a penis produces a deep fear of castration and that fetish objects placate such fear by acting as substitute penises (Freud 1950: 5:198–204). 3. Syrian radio announced the fall of Quneitra before fighting even began, prompting an exodus of surrounding villages and confusion among military ranks that, in their disorganization, were getting much of their information from the radio (Seale 1989: 140–141). 3 Palestinians 1. In linking Palestinian resistance to an imagined region-wide uprising in his 1978 preface, Wannus revives and refashions an idea of Arab unity that had all but dissipated. As early as the 1950s, organizations like the Arab National Movement (ANM) told recruits that, “The road to Tel Aviv passes through 242 Notes Damascus, Baghdad, Amman, and Cairo” (quoted in Sayigh 1997: 73). However, the ANM never agitated for popular uprisings and had become by the time of the play’s composition a pro-Nasser force. By 1978, Arab unity had been dealt a severe blow with Sadat’s 1977 peace initiative. 2. According to Alain Gresh (1985: 14) “‘Incidents’ on the border between Jordan and Israel rose from 97 in 1967 (after June) to 916 in 1968, 2,432 in 1969 and 1,887 (up to August) in 1970.” 3. I do not know if ‘Adwan was familiar with the August Wilson play Fences (1983), which ends when a character named Gabriel attempts to open the gates of heaven for his recently departed brother, first with a horn he carries throughout the play and then through dance. However, ‘Adwan read English and translated twenty-three books from English into Arabic. 4. This may be a reference to the 1984 Israeli bombing of a two-storey jail in the Bekka Valley, which killed twenty-five people when Israeli jets attacked a sus- pected Palestinian guerrilla base. The prison was operated by Fatah al-Intifada, a dissident faction within the PLO supported by Syria (UPI 1984: A1). 4 History and Heritage 1. As of 2013 five English-language PhD dissertations have been produced on Wannus: Nima (1993), Abdulla (1993), Al-Soulemann (2005), al-Alzeni (2006), and Alrefaai (2009). In addition, Eyad Houssami edited a collection of essays on Wannus’s legacy in the Arab Theatre (2012). There have been more than thirty Arabic language monographs on Wannus, as well as studies in French, German, and Italian. 2. The character is named mu’arrikh qadīm or literally “ancient historian.” However, “chronicler” is the best English approximation. The French transla- tion of the play for Actes Sud/Sinbad uses the French term “Le Chroniqueur” (1996b) 3. Several Syrians have repeated to me that the citadel housed political prisoners until 1996. However, Ross Burns (1994: 84) asserts that the citadel was last used as a prison in 1985. 5 Torture 1. The English-language expression “the wheels of justice” does not have a literal equivalent in Arabic. 2. My analysis is based on an unpublished and unpaginated manuscript provided by the authors. When commenting on performance choices I refer to the Moscow performance of August 28, 2011 posted on YouTube (slavafree 2011). Bibliography Aarts, Paul and Francesco Cavatorta. 2013. Civil Society in Syria and Iran: Activism in Authoritarian Contexts. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner. Abdulla, Abdulaziz Hafez. 1993. “Western Influences on the Theatre of the Syrian Playwright Sa’d Allah Wannus.” PhD thesis, University of Warwick. Abou Naddara. 2011a. “Corrective Movement.” Vimeo video, 1:24, posted by “Abou Naddara,” November 18. http://www.vimeo.com/32304908 (accessed July 11, 2012). Abou Naddara. 2011b. “End of Broadcast.” Vimeo video, 1:48, posted by “Abou Naddara,” October 21. http://www.vimeo.com/30889523 (accessed July 11, 2012). Abou Naddara. 2011c. “Rima.” Vimeo video, 1:30, posted by “Abou Naddara,” August 5. http://www.vimeo.com/27325040 (accessed July 11, 2012). Abou Naddara. 2012a. “I Will Cross Tomorrow.” Vimeo video, 3:53, posted by “Abou Naddara,” June 1. http://www.vimeo.com/43241736 (accessed July 11, 2012). Abou Naddara. 2012b. “They’re Playing.” Vimeo video, 1:07, posted by “Abou Naddara,” June 22. http://www.vimeo.com/44504596 (accessed July 11, 2012). Abou Naddara. 2012c. “Re: Questions for an Article.” E-mail to author, June 5. Abu Shanab, `Adil. 2005. Raid al-masrah al-ghinai al-`Arabi Ahmad Abu Khalil al-Qabbani. Dimashq: Dar al-Shumus lil-Dirasat wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi`. Abul-Hayja’, Nawwaf. 1980. “Something from the Theatre of Wannous,” in Critical Perspectives on Modern Arabic Literature, 1945–1980, ed. Issa Boullata. Washington DC: Three Continents Press, 352–353. Adsmasyaf. 2012. “Itisaam saaha al-muhafaza fi Dimashq wa sura lil shahid Esmail Heidar.” YouTube video, 0:28, posted by “adsmasyaf,” May 8. http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=jhiTtCD6F-M (accessed July 10, 2012).
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