The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, a preferred image of peace and hope within the occupied West Financial institution, has been raided, vandalised and painted with Israeli non secular and political symbols.
In a movie screening room contained in the theatre, the Star of David has been daubed on the wall with spray paint whereas graffiti additionally depicting the Star of David and a menorah (a Hanukkah candle holder) has been scrawled on the surface wall.
The Israeli navy raid on the theatre came about on the night time of December 12 and the early hours of December 13. Its two administrators had been arrested that night time and the following morning. Certainly one of them, Ahmed Tobasi, was launched after 14 hours, however the different, Mostafa Sheta, stays in detention. He’s believed to have been taken to the Megiddo navy jail in northern Israel, Tobasi stated.
This isn’t the primary time the group landmark has come beneath assault.
The theatre has stood as a logo of hope for residents of Jenin ever because it was first based because the Stone Theatre in 1987 after the primary Intifada by Arna Mer-Khamis, an Israeli peace activist who died in 1995.
Mer-Khamis was a lifelong supporter of the rights of Palestinians, particularly kids. Together with her theatre, she hoped to supply kids an area for therapeutic and to empower girls by the theatre and humanities.
The primary constructing housing the theatre was destroyed in 2002 by Israeli forces through the second Intifada. In 2006, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Arna’s son by her Palestinian Christian husband, Saliba Khamis, reopened the theatre on a brand new website in Jenin, and it doubled as a group centre.
Not everybody was a fan, nonetheless. In 2009, an unidentified particular person threw two Molotov cocktails on the theatre whereas it was empty. Juliano was shot useless by a masked attacker in Jenin in 2011 on the age of 52. His killing was by no means solved.
For the reason that begin of Israel’s battle on Gaza on October 7, tensions have mounted within the West Financial institution with common and sometimes brutal raids carried out by Israeli forces and strict curfews positioned on Palestinian residents. Armed settlers and troopers have blocked roads with trenches and steadily fired pictures at anybody stepping outdoors their houses.
About 58 Palestinians, together with kids, have been killed throughout 15 navy incursions on the camp and town.
‘No questions – they simply took me’
Throughout all this, the Freedom Theatre saved going – till Tuesday night time final week. It significantly provided an area for kids to heal from trauma by actions led by the theatre’s staff.
The theatre raid was a part of a navy operation in Jenin by Israeli forces that started on December 12 and lasted for 3 days. Throughout that point, 500 Palestinians had been arrested and 100 proceed to be detained, stated Tobasi, who himself was held in poor situations.
“How can we proceed current this manner?” Tobasi, 39, requested. It was not the primary time he had been detained. He spent 4 years in Israeli prisons after he was captured throughout a 2002 siege of Jenin.
Born and raised within the Jenin refugee camp, Tobasi has been coming to the theatre since he was a baby. He was a part of the primary group of kids who participated within the Stone Theatre’s actions.
Final Wednesday about 11am, nonetheless, Israeli forces broke down the entrance door of his house in Jenin and arrested him alongside together with his brother.
He informed Al Jazeera how he was handcuffed and blindfolded earlier than troopers kicked him within the head and abdomen. He was then taken to the Al-Jalama checkpoint, north of Jenin, the place he was held within the chilly, rain and dirt for about 14 hours earlier than being launched.
“They didn’t inform me why they had been there,” he stated. “They didn’t inform me if I used to be wished for any crime. No questions requested. They simply took me.”
Tobasi had lately returned to the occupied West Financial institution from France, the place he was on tour with a theatre firm. His household despatched him images and movies of the continual raids that started after the beginning of the battle on Gaza on October 7 and, he stated, he felt the urge to come back again to his individuals and his theatre.
Since he was launched, he had had no information about Sheta, 43, till he spoke to a different buddy from the theatre, Ismael Hussam Ibrahim, who was arrested on December 12 and launched on December 13.
Ibrahim stated Israeli troopers pressured their means into his house, handcuffed and blindfolded him, and seized his laptop computer. One of many troopers requested him concerning the whereabouts of Tobasi, however he stated nothing.
Ibrahim, 25, stated he was taken to a different location the place he was in a position to increase his blindfold, and he noticed Sheta, additionally blindfolded and handcuffed, sitting within the chilly and dirt near him.
“They took footage with me. I felt humiliated,” he informed Al Jazeera.
No secure house
The raid and ransacking of the Jenin Theatre have come as an enormous blow to the group and the individuals who work there who considered it as a secure place. Certainly one of them is Ranin Odeh, 32, the kid and youth programme coordinator, who leads actions for traumatised kids on the theatre
“I’m not properly,” she informed Al Jazeera. “The occupying military stormed the theatre and destroyed the workplaces.”
Odeh was not contained in the theatre when the raid came about, however for her, what occurred to the theatre has underlined the very actual hazard Palestinians within the West Financial institution live in and the truth that there is no such thing as a escape.
“Maybe phrases don’t specific my emotions and ideas. We’re in a really depressing and tough state of affairs,” she stated. “Each place within the metropolis of Jenin is a goal. There isn’t any secure place.”
Tobani is spending most of his time clearing up the mess on the theatre now. “For me, the best way they arrest us and deal with us could be very humiliating. You hate your self, you hate humanity, you hate the world.”
He stated he hopes artists world wide will unite to assist the theatre. For now, regardless of the dangers and the psychological exhaustion, Tobani, Odeh and lots of the different workers have promised to proceed the actions for kids in any means they will.
Everybody ought to have a secure place to specific themselves, Odeh stated, “despite the fact that it appears in Jenin, there isn’t one.”
