Feature: Gazan "Romeo and Juliet" reflects Palestinian political deadlock

The Romeo and Juliet play was recently on stage in the Gaza Strip. However, the play was not a genuine reenactment of William Shakespeare's famous version, but rather, a tragic love story reflecting the current political circumstances in Palestine.

In the play, the families of two lovers, Yousef and Suha, are Palestinian refugees who left their village shortly before Israel was established in 1948 and have lived in a Gazan refugee camp since then.

Although they live in the same neighborhood, the two families were from completely different backgrounds.

Yousef's family belongs to the mainstream Fatah party while Suha's family is loyal to Hamas, which has been ruling Gaza since 2007.

The lovers' fathers would constantly argue whenever they meet.

Yousef is a fresh engineering graduate and Suha is studying medicine and wants to become a doctor like her father.

The two lovers first met during a workshop held in Gaza and started dating in secret.

However, when their fathers discovered they were dating, they became livid and demanded that the couple end their relationship at once.

When Yousef failed to see his father reconciling with Suha's family, he was overwhelmed by despair and ran away from Gaza to Egypt.

Unfortunately he later drowned in the Mediterranean sea whilst attempting to immigrate to Europe.

The play was reenacted onstage at the al-Misehal theater in western Gaza before an audience of 250 people.

In the play, the young lovers' fathers are archenemies and metaphorically represent the internal Palestinian divide ongoing since 2007.

"The idea behind staging this play to the Gazan public was to send a message to the parties, Fatah and Hamas, that two million Palestinians are sick of their endless feuds," said Ali Abu Yassin, the play's director.

The Palestinian internal split began when the Islamic Hamas movement violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, dismissing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces and Fatah Party.

Since then, Gaza has been under Hamas's control and the West Bank is ruled mainly by the Fatah Party.

Despite several mediation attempts in addition to deals and agreements reached by both parties, there is no apparent hope to end the divide in the near future.

Life has become unbearable for Gazans, grappling with a tight blockade imposed by Israel on the coastal enclave.

"The Romeo and Juliet play in Gaza focuses on hatred and blind love," said Aatef Abu Sif, the playwright. "The two families in the play represent the current Palestinian reality, with its nation divided into two separate territories and two separate societies."

Instead of a straightforward tragic romance story, Abu Sif added said, the play reminds the audience of the 1948 war when thousands of Palestinians became refugees and the 1967 war when Israel occupied both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Hana Hamad, a 23-year-old student who had watched the play, said she hopes that more symbolic plays will be shown in Gaza to help increase people's awareness of social and political life.

"This play accurately explains the reality of the dreadful situation in the Gaza Strip," Hamad said. Endit