Recent news
Meeting with Father Brian
Steve Tiller Feb 25th
Had a great meeting with the inspirational Brian Ralph at St Barnabas, Bethnal Green. Brian organises trips to Israel and Palestine with groups from far afield but also from his local community. Father Brian was just about to take a group from Tower Hamlets, Bethnal Green to the West Bank. Father Brian also has contacts with St Ethelburgas in the City. This was the church that was very badly damaged in 1993 as a result of the IRA Bishopsgate bombing that did huge damage to the NatWest building as was....
We are currently talking with Father Brian about a collaboration to perform Two Schmucks, possibly at St Barnabas's or at St Ethelburgas, but involving groups and individuals he has worked with.
Meeting with Ben Yeger
Steve Tiller Sept 7th
Couldn't make the film Ben was hosting at Amnesty in Shoreditch but we spoke after and, as Jonathan couldn't make it that evening, all three met a day later at Saponara in Islington; ironically, one of the original venues for the three dinners that kick-started the show. Ben is a founder member of Combattants for Peace. He was an IDF soldier, the son of a kibbutzim and now the organisation brings former combattants from both sides together to promote dialogue and understanding. He was telling us about taking his own father 'over the wall' just recently (this is one of their core activities). And also about trying to get permission for former Palestinian fighters to attend a ceremony at Yad Vashem on Holocaust Memoria Day - which would have been a bit of a first. Sadly, the Israeli authorities wouldn't authorise it. Because they were former 'terrorists'. Duh. Ben was saying that, apart from YNet, a fairly lilberal TV station, none of the Israeli press wanted to pick up on the story. Duh x2. But Ben, we hope to be our MC when we hit the West of England later in the year. The picture of him, by the way, is at a TED talk he gave fairly recently
Two Smucks - The Autumn/Winter Tour
Steve Tiller Sept 7th
The tour plans are coming along well. Not wanting to give a hostage to fortune or pre-empt anything, but we seem to be cooking on gas now. It wouldn't be giving too much away to say that in November and December, on certain weekends, Steve and Jonathan will be gigging at points west of London, a couple of hours by train north of London, and in fair old London town itself. Particularly happy to have made contact with Rosemary Hollis again, who runs the Olive Tree Programme at City University. Rosemary and I first met when she organised a photographic exhibition Beware the Cost of War in Shoreditch in 2009. Hosted by Jon Snow, there was a panel discussion on the night of the private view and it was very raw, coming not long after the invasion and bombing of Gaza - sandwiched between Obama's election and him assuming office. Rosemary's students undergo a similar process of confronting painful and mind altering situations on their course since she balances Israeli students in London with West Bank Palestinians, Gazans and Israeli Arabs. Which is why we feel her involvement with Two Schmucks the event is to be most welcome.
5 Broken Cameras
Steve Tiller Feb 25th
Although it didn't win the Oscar last night for best Documentary, (losing out to another very good entry), 5 Broken Cameras has garnered loads of critical acclaim and drawn more of the world's attention to what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza.
Interestingly, the film-maker Emad Burnat and his family were stopped by US customs from entering the country and only got in after the intervention of Michael Moore and lawyers acting for the Oscars ceremony. After all, he had an invitation from the Awards in his pocket. Why shouldn't he?
Within The Eye of the Storm
Steve Tiller Feb 26th
As protests grow in the West Bank over the death of a Palestinian inside an Israeli prison, we speak to a pair of Israeli and Palestinian fathers who’ve responded to personal tragedies with activism for peace. Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan united after the killings of their daughters — Aramin’s at the hands of an Israeli officer and Elhanan’s in a Palestinian suicide bombing. Once dedicated fighters for their respective causes, they have since renounced violence and become leading voices for peace. Their stories are told in the new documentary film, "Within the Eye of the Storm."