At its worst, Birthright aggressively encourages its audience to turn inward and stop worrying about the genocide. In a pivotal monologue toward the play’s conclusion, the character Alona – who over the course of the story decides to move to Israel, becoming a settler – describes how due to the violence of October 7, she feels no compassion for the victims of Israel’s genocidal aggression: “I know there’s thousands of kids in Gaza who are just as scared or worse, and I wish I did, but I just don’t have the space for them in my heart right now, not after what they did.” This rejection of basic human compassion on ethnonationalist grounds (Alona only has “space” in her heart for other Israelis) receives no rebuttal.
… A survey of the current theater landscape suggests that Birthright is not a standalone work of theatrical propaganda, but functions (knowingly or not) as part of a broader Zionist attempt to resuscitate Israel’s public image through arts and culture.
… Theater’s normalization formula seems clear: rather than engage with Palestinian voices, erase them altogether and flood the zone with a new variant of family drama wherein genocide is acknowledged (“politics erupt”), but its supporters are humanized while arguments against Israel’s crimes are portrayed as obstacles interfering with Jewish family and community. In fact, creating theater along these lines is essentially the mission statement of the Y6K Project, the arts incubator that commissioned and developed both Birthright and The Zionists.
