The play Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill has been dogged by controversy since its original performance in Britain. The ten-minute play was written during Israel's ferocious war on the Gaza Strip in January. In order to tell a narrative of Israel's occupation of Palestine, Churchill uses the device of adult Jews debating how they would tell their children of unfolding events.

The play is highly critical of Israel's atrocities over the decades. References are made to home demolitions, theft of water, destruction of olive groves, checkpoints, Israeli-only roads, the illegal settlements and massacres. Interleaved are arguments commonly peddled by Zionists to justify said events: "Tell her, tell her they set off bombs in cafés", "Tell her we need the wall to keep us safe", "Tell her the Hamas fighters have been killed", "Tell her they want to drive us into the sea".

The play culminates with a lengthy outburst that represents the invasion of Gaza. Full of invective, it epitomises the dehumanisation of Palestinians needed for Israel to justify its war crimes.

Not unsurprisingly this play has been slandered with accusations of anti-Semitism from its inception, including outlandish claims that Seven Jewish Children reinvents the mediaeval "blood libel", the myth of Jews relishing the shedding of non-Jewish blood.

The scheduling of a public reading of the play by Australians for Palestine provoked a hysterical furore. Jeremy Jones of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council denounced the play as anti-Semitic while admitting that he had not even read it. Jewish actor Miriam Margolyes had her appearance at a Jewish Care residence cancelled amidst claims that her appearance in the play "could cause pain to Holocaust survivors". On the night of the reading, 35 Zionists organised a protest to derail the performance, and attempted to storm the venue.

Accusations of anti-Semitism have long been used as a way of silencing critics of Israel's apartheid. As Margolyes states, the claims of anti-Semitism were "bollocks". But in this case the controversy and media attention served only to fuel interest in the play. More than two hours before the scheduled start, there were queues of people waiting to get in. The line stretched around a city block, the venue packed out rapidly. Ultimately enough people arrived so that the play could have been shown five times over; 700 people had to be turned away.

The success of this play shows that many people reject the idea that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, which is good news for those attempting to build solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.