[Update Dec 19th 6:00pm: The Belfry Theatre responded to this petition and email appeals from community members with a disappointing statement and deferral to the new year. Keep signing and sharing until the play is removed!]

As residents, artists and cultural workers of Victoria B.C. we have cherished the Belfry Theatre as a cornerstone of arts and culture in our community. We are signing this petition with great concern about the March 2024 production of The Runner by Christopher Morris.

It is shocking to see the Belfry decide to host The Runner, a story of Israeli settlers in a dehumanizing exercise of whether Palestinian and Arab life is of value. We are currently witness to the ongoing genocide in Palestine that has killed 20,000+ people including 7,800+ children, and we struggle to understand why the Belfry would choose to center the voices of the oppressors instead of the oppressed. 

We demand that the Belfry Theatre remove The Runner from your 2024 lineup. This play features the violent and racist rhetoric of Zionism from an exclusively Israeli perspective: 

“And there’s only three ways for this to go for the Arabs around here: those who want to accept our rule can accept, the ones who want to leave can leave, and those who want to fight can fight, but we’ll defeat them. Every encounter between a soldier and enemy must end with an unequivocal decision.”

It is unacceptable that this story is being told while Palestinians are being killed and displaced by the Israeli Defense Forces in plain sight for the world to see. Hosting The Runner is in direct conflict with the Belfry Theatre’s own goal “to offer a safe space where [IBPoC] can gather, share, support one another, and help to chart a more inclusive future.” In fact, the Belfry hosting such a production is in direct contrast to the calls to action from numerous artists and cultural workers in Canada. 

Over 4000 arts organizations, artists and academics in Canada voiced their strong support for Palestine in the face of over 75 years of Israeli apartheid, settler colonialism, military occupation, and ethnic cleansing. Inspired by resistance against apartheid in South Africa, there are very clear calls from Artists for Palestine - Canada for artists and arts organizations to engage in a cultural boycott of Israel as a form of nonviolent protest against the Israeli apartheid and occupation regime.

Just last week, on December 13th, Israeli forces raided the internationally renowned Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp in the illegally occupied West Bank, ransacking the building, and assaulted and kidnapped three of the renowned playhouse's staff members. The raid and arrests follow Israeli forces' killing of three members of Freedom Theatre in recent weeks: 17-year-old Yamen Jarrar, 26-year-old Jehad Naghniyeh, and 30-year-old Mohammed Matahen. In June, occupation forces killed youth theater participants Sadeel Naghnaghia, age 15, and Mahmoud Al-Sadi, who was 17 years old. In the last few weeks in Gaza, an unprecedented number of writers, poets, theatremakers and journalists have been killed, including Dr. Refaat Alareer, who was deliberately targeted and murdered. Israel continues to target and destroy buildings of cultural heritage, a war crime under international law. 

It is shameful for our community in Victoria, B.C. to host a production of The Runner while the world, including the United Nations General Assembly, the Government of Canada, and the City of Victoria call for a ceasefire. We expect that the Belfry Theatre will act on this demand from your community members and patrons by removing The Runner from your production lineup. 

We encourage staff at the Belfry to read and align themselves with the Cultural Boycott of Israel as called for by Artists for Palestine - Canada. They write, “Artists have long played a critical role in resistance movements and struggles for social justice. They are often the first to speak out against injustice, and sometimes the last that are able to do so under conditions of intense repression.” We urge the Belfry Theatre to stand in solidarity with Palestinian artists, institutions and cultural workers to highlight and showcase the vast diversity of Palestinian cultural work, including film, art and theatre.