“The theater’s job is to peel away stereotypes. We don’t know the story of Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, we only know its end. We have no idea what it’s like living 80 kilometers from Tel Aviv,” says Shay Pitowski, director of the play I Shall Not Hate currently being staged by Habima.
The play is based on the autobiography of Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, the Gaza doctor whose three daughters were killed by a stray shell fired by the IDF during Operation Cast Lead [2009]. Abu al-Aish, known as “the doctor from Gaza,” worked for years as a gynecologist in Israel. Seconds after the shell hit his house he called journalist Shlomi Eldar at Israel’s Channel 10 news studio. Eldar hit the speaker button on his cell phone and broadcast live the agony of the man whose three daughters lay dead on the floor in front of his eyes. His cries of anguish, in Hebrew, resonated in Israel and around the world. Twenty-four hours later a cease-fire was reached and the operation was brought to an end.
