“Even if I cannot live in it, my soul will reawaken if there is a Palestine state.”
The Israeli war on Palestine – the occupation, the genocide – did not start on October 7, 2023. When 38-year-old Sonia comes to visit her sister for a holiday in the West Bank, her old friends ask her about the last time she was in Palestine. Here, the passage of time is not marked in years but as proximity to the two Intifadas. When childhood memories are recalled, it’s not unusual to remember names that have died, gone missing, or fled Palestine. Thus begins Isabella Hammad’s novel, Enter Ghost.
Sonia’s family has moved to London while her sister, Haneen, has chosen to come back “home” to teach, the only catch – she teaches at a Tel Aviv university and has an Israeli passport for ease of movement. When Sonia casually gazes at Haneen’s bookshelf, she is surprised by the number of Hebrew books on it, and even more surprised to realise her sister reads in Hebrew not just for work, but also for pleasure. Haneen is aware of the hypocritical nature of her existence but being Palestinian leaves you with little choice – even when there’s not a full-blown carnage being carried out by Israel, Haneen still has to play by their rules if she wants to teach and live in Palestine.
The stage is set
Sonia’s arrival is a blessing in disguise for the sisters’ childhood friend Mariam, who along with being a theatre director, is unafraid to be an upright Palestinian Muslim. The troupe is staging Hamlet in Arabic and they’re in desperate need of a Gertrude. Sonia, who is an actor in London, might just be the right fit. As she reluctantly agrees to practice with the troupe, she realises staging a play in Palestine is far more than just being good at your job.
As tensions mount between the actors and the Israeli state, Sonia learns about the previous projects that were scrapped by Israel either for being “seditious” or by pulling away funds for the same reason. The difficulty for the troupe to get approvals, funds, costumes and lighting, a stage is interspersed with the struggle to stay alive. The news from Palestine is dystopian – settlers arrested for killing a native are released in a matter of days, the term “Palestine” is declared illegal on some days, the murders of Palestinians are a regular part of the international news cycles, natives are arrested as a “preventive measure”, and so on.
In Palestine, all land is territory – enemy territory, occupied territory, unknown territory. When Sonia and Haneen go for Friday prayers or protests in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, or elsewhere, they make sure to cover their faces with keffiyehs and are mentally prepared for Israeli assault. As they drive around the West Bank, Sonia spots a shooting crew and remembers that it was illegal to film Israeli soldiers on occupied land. Journalism, once considered a crime in Palestine, has given us some of the bravest journalists who have not only been the voice of their people but sparked a global movement of citizens holding their government responsible for the ongoing genocide.
Life under occupation is cruel and strange, still, there are glimpses of what “normalcy” might look like. Sonia goes on dates with a cast member; Palestinians hang out at coffee shops, market squares, and beach promenades; parents struggle to raise their children. Mariam observes candidly how traffic jams are a “big side effect” of occupation – humour finds roots even in the most desolate situations. Sonia who was briefly married to an Englishman had told him about Palestine and the fight for liberation, only to have him say it was “fascinating” followed by a desire to “visit” Gaza. The failures of the West are glaring – unrest that is stoked and financed by it is treated as an exotic misadventure instead of a very real destruction of a land and its people.
Lights on, lights off
“Haneen once compared Palestine to an exposed part of an electronic network, where someone has cut the rubber coating with a knife to show the wires and currents underneath…This place reveled something about the whole world.”
The nature of Israeli warfare has changed too. It’s all electronic now. Digital surveillance, planting of moles are easily done and sponsored. As the day of the premiere draws close, the troupe is faced with curious obstacles – the actor playing Hamlet drops out, the stage is stolen, suspicions are rife among the cast. The Israeli control is “total”. The news of the Hamlet production spreads like wildfire and one news headline reads: “Something rotten in the state of Israel: Palestinian production of Hamlet causes international stir”. The result? The Israeli army turning up at the premiere with guns in hand! “Theatre in Palestine is not what it was”, rues Faris, a senior actor.
In Enter Ghost, the metaphor of Hamlet is not to be taken lightly. During a discussion, Mariam points out that unlike actors in England who are burdened with the legacy of other iconic actors who have played the character, those in Palestine are “haunted” by things they haven’t put to word yet. The very idea for staging Hamlet – in Arabic, in Palestine – is to “not bow down to some grand idea of a far-off English Shakespeare.” In West Bank, Hamlet is a “martyr” and the play is a stand-in for national liberation. Taking it one step further, Gertrude is made in the image of Palestine – she has forgotten her loyalty and is traitorous like those who have sold off their lands to the Jews. “It’s not just that we have been oppressed, it’s also we have betrayed ourselves, our brothers,” says Mariam.
Enter Ghost reflects on the crucial role art plays in the liberation of the oppressed. As Mariam and her troupe get ready to put up a play against all odds, it becomes clear that Western democracy and liberalism are an elaborate farce. Palestine has been discarded as cheap goods and has become a surrogate war zone for Western superpowers who want to flex money and muscle, at no cost to their own citizens. In this reality, demystifying Shakespeare and Western cultural imports is a necessary and peaceful way to assert one’s identity and stake a claim in the larger cultural, historical, and political structures of the world.
In the Global South, and especially Palestine, creating art is often a matter of life and death. Tables will turn and oppressive structures will be overthrown – and it will not do well for the boastful, self-proclaimed White saviours of the West to forget that.
Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad, Jonathan Cape.
