Imagining and Reflecting Israel/Palestine in Naomi Wallace's A State of Innocence.

This article analyzes Naomi Wallace's play *A State of Innocence* (ASOI), which attempts to offer a hopeful, utopian theatrical alternative to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by depicting an intimate, surreal encounter between a Palestinian woman and an Israeli soldier in a dream-like version of the destroyed Rafah Zoo in Gaza. While grounded in factual events and political realities, the play employs elements of fantasy to transcend animosity and evoke empathy, aligning with Jill Dolan's concept of the "utopian performative," which envisions moments of hope and connection beyond present conflict. However, the article argues that Wallace's portrayal, centered on venerating the Palestinian woman's compassion and forgiveness, inadvertently aligns with Israeli-Zionist narratives by emphasizing the soldier's innocence and downplaying Palestinian resistance, thus complicating the play's political stance. This tension illustrates how mimetic art can both engage with and be constrained by ideological frameworks, revealing the challenges of representing such a fraught conflict through theatre.