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 spiritual 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 army 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 subsequent morning. One in every 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 army jail in northern Israel, Tobasi stated.
This isn’t the primary time the neighborhood landmark has come below 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. Along with her theatre, she hoped to supply kids an area for therapeutic and to empower ladies by means of the theatre and humanities.
The primary constructing housing the theatre was destroyed in 2002 by Israeli forces in the course of 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 neighborhood centre.
Not everybody was a fan, nevertheless. In 2009, an unidentified particular person threw two Molotov cocktails on the theatre whereas it was empty. Juliano was shot lifeless by a masked attacker in Jenin in 2011 on the age of 52. His killing was by no means solved.
Because the begin of Israel’s conflict on Gaza on October 7, tensions have mounted within the West Financial institution with common and infrequently brutal raids carried out by Israeli forces and strict curfews positioned on Palestinian residents. Armed settlers and troopers have blocked roads with trenches and regularly fired photographs at anybody stepping outdoors their properties.
About 58 Palestinians, together with kids, have been killed throughout 15 army incursions on the camp and town.
‘No questions – they only took me’
Throughout all this, the Freedom Theatre stored going – till Tuesday night time final week. It significantly supplied an area for kids to heal from trauma by means of actions led by the theatre’s staff.
The theatre raid was a part of a army 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 circumstances.
“How can we proceed current this fashion?” 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 toddler. He was a part of the primary group of kids who participated within the Stone Theatre’s actions.
Final Wednesday about 11am, nevertheless, Israeli forces broke down the entrance door of his residence in Jenin and arrested him alongside along 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 dust 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 just lately returned to the occupied West Financial institution from France, the place he was on tour with a theatre firm. His household despatched him photographs and movies of the continual raids that started after the beginning of the conflict 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 good friend 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 residence, 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 capable of increase his blindfold, and he noticed Sheta, additionally blindfolded and handcuffed, sitting within the chilly and dust near him.
“They took footage with me. I felt humiliated,” he informed Al Jazeera.
No protected area
The raid and ransacking of the Jenin Theatre have come as an enormous blow to the neighborhood and the individuals who work there who considered it as a protected place. One in every 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 reside 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 scenario,” she stated. “Each place within the metropolis of Jenin is a goal. There isn’t a protected 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 may be very humiliating. You hate your self, you hate humanity, you hate the world.”
He stated he hopes artists world wide will unite to help the theatre. For now, regardless of the dangers and the psychological exhaustion, Tobani, Odeh and most of the different employees have promised to proceed the actions for kids in any means they’ll.
Everybody ought to have a protected place to precise themselves, Odeh stated, “though it appears in Jenin, there isn’t one.”
