Vancouver’s PuSh Festival announced on Jan. 11 that it was not going ahead with a planned showing of The Runner after objections from a Palestinian presenter at the festival.

A work by Canadian playwright Christopher Morris about a member of the Israeli rescue operation ZAKA who saves the life of a Palestinian woman, it had been slated to appear at PuSh later this month along with, among other works, Dear Laila, an interactive installation by Basel Zaraa, a Palestinian artist living in the United Kingdom.

Zaraa, however, has now said he is unwilling to have his work presented in the same venue as a play that does not represent “the fundamental context of Israel’s occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.”

In a joint statement with Morris and the organizers of PuSh, Zaraa said, “As Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues I cannot agree for Dear Laila to be shown alongside The Runner, a play which reinforces dehumanizing narratives about Palestinians.

“Palestinians appear in The Runner almost exclusively as perpetrators of violence. While the Israeli characters are vividly portrayed, the Palestinian characters don’t even have names, and barely speak.”

This is the second time this month that presentations of The Runner have been cancelled. On Jan. 2, Victoria’s Belfry Theatre chose not to show the play, which it had scheduled for March. The decision followed protests by a pro-Palestinian group on Dec. 22 that led to the exterior of the theatre being defaced with anti-Israel stickers and graffiti reading “Free Palestine.”

Prior to this week’s statement from PuSh, there had been every indication that The Runner would be performed as scheduled, in spite of the uproar from within some circles in the community against a play seen from the perspective of an Israeli character.

In the wake of the Belfry’s decision, organizers of the PuSh festival said they had intended to show The Runner with the hope it could “bring us together and inspire us to have complex and nuanced conversations; to challenge ourselves and each other not only to think differently, but to feel differently.”

At the time, their decision had been applauded by several members of the theatrical community, including critic J. Kelly Nestruck of the Globe and Mail, who wrote on Jan. 4, “Of course, people are free to protest—even against a play, even if they are wrong about it. But those who run artistic organizations should stand up for their programming and their artists, even when world circumstances change.”

The reversal this week by PuSh has upset leaders of the Vancouver Jewish community who are disappointed by what they see as the festival backing away from important Canadian values, such as freedom of speech and artistic expression, particularly during a period of strong societal divisions.

“Canadian Jews have had to have many complex and nuanced conversations with friends, family, and those curious about how the Oct.7 terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas have affected the local community,” said Nico Slobinsky, the vice-president of the Pacific Region for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

“At a time when antisemitism and hate crimes have risen significantly, we would have welcomed the opportunity to use art as a gateway to foster conversation and an exchange of perspectives. Rather than giving both communities space to engage in dialogue, the festival has chosen one community over another.”

In his reaction to the PuSh cancellation, Morris said, “It’s unsettling when Canadian theatres cannot be a space for the public to engage in a dynamic exchange of ideas. I believe theatre must be a place where contrasting perspectives are programmed and celebrated.”

Describing his play as a fictional story about an Israeli man who saves the life of a young Palestinian woman and is ostracized by his peers for doing so, Morris said, “It is an award-winning, one-person play, told from the singular perspective of a man who confronts his community’s fear and their dehumanization of others. Criticized by his own people, his empathy never wavers. For me, The Runner is a nuanced play about the need to see the humanity of others.”

Morris praised Dear Laila in his remarks, as an “extraordinary, important work” and said he sympathized with the decision confronted by the festival to withdraw The Runner and is supportive of its desire to present artistic endeavors from a Palestinian standpoint.

“If removing The Runner is the only way Canadians can hear Basel’s crucial voice, then there is value in stepping aside. I am deeply saddened by humankind’s capacity to wage war. We’re living in troubled times and the impact of the war in Gaza and Israel is profoundly felt in Canada,” Morris said.

PuSh representatives, Gabrielle Martin, director of programming, and Keltie Forsyth, director of operations, said that, for the past two weeks they have held meetings with various members of the Vancouver community. 

During these consultations, they heard from voices whose opinions ranged from calling for the cancellation of The Runner because it perpetuates oppression of the Palestinian people to those asking for it to be presented as it provides an empathetic and humanist perspective. There were also some who viewed the play as intentionally harmful Israeli propaganda.

“As a festival, we respect Basel’s perspective. We will honour the artist whose work reflects their lived experience and cancel the presentations of The Runner by (Morris), whose work is rooted in years of research but who has no religious or cultural ties to the region,” Martin and Forsyth said in the joint statement.

The organizers of the festival, which began in 2003, said they had a deep respect for Morris’s artistry and would honour their financial commitment to his company, Human Cargo.

While condemning all antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks, PuSh maintained that both Israel and Hamas can and should be criticized without fear of censure.

Nonetheless, PuSh said, “We believe it is a necessary choice to prioritize the work of an artist whose perspective is grossly underrepresented in Canadian theatre and performance culture.”

Dear Laila, according to Zaraa, tells the story of his family’s “ongoing trauma and struggle as Palestinians exiled by Israel, starting with the massacre in our village of Tantura in Palestine.”

In response to a question about how this week’s decision may affect future selection of Israeli or Jewish-related works at the festival, Martin, PuSh’s director of programming said, “As a festival, we are not closing the door on shows by Israelis, Jewish-themed works or those involving Jewish characters.”

As for the future of The Runner, a media representative for Morris told The CJN there are currently discussions underway with other theatres but, at this point, no presentations have been confirmed.