They’re involved, however indirectly, in every single political thing that’s happened since the Ottomans. Each country had its oppressor—the British in Palestine, the French in Lebanon. The Westerners drew the maps. They’re the reason the streets in Beirut have French names; they’re the ones who set up a parliamentary structure that distributed power unfairly. They’re the reason Palestinians arrived here in the thousands in ’48, then again in ’67. I want you all to remember that as we rehearse: The biggest war criminals are always offstage. They’re continents away.”
