The Jewish Character in The Rape

Some playwrights have thrown light on the central Arab challenge, the Arab–Israeli conflict. But, they differ in their portrayal of the Jewish character due to their different levels of struggle with Israel. Whereas some of them consider all Jews enemies and take a hostile attitude toward all Jewish people, others take a positive attitude towards the Jews but a negative one toward the Zionists on the ground that Judaism is not the same as Zionism. Generally speaking, the Arabic writings about the Jews are heavily influenced by the European literature, which shows the Jewish character as a man whom we can see in the Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. In this play we find Shylock, a major Jewish character, ready to do anything for the sake of making money without experiencing any feeling of guilt. Other playwrights, such as Saad Allah Wannous, chose a critical level of the conflict, namely the intifada of the Palestinian people, which took place in 1989. The intifada united the Palestinian people in one front against the Zionist enemy to attain freedom and liberation, having failed in the military confrontation. They contend that the present situation in the Arab–Israeli conflict encourages the Zionist greed, and helps the hostile intentions the American imperialism, which is a supporter of Israel. These playwrights state that peace treaties with Israel and the U.S. are vague, and augur wars and bloodshed.