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 army raid on the theatre happened on the evening of December 12 and the early hours of December 13. Its two administrators have been arrested that evening and the subsequent 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 army jail in northern Israel, Tobasi mentioned.
This isn’t the primary time the neighborhood landmark has come underneath 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 youngsters. Together with her theatre, she hoped to supply youngsters an area for therapeutic and to empower girls by way 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 web site in Jenin, and it doubled as a neighborhood centre.
Not everybody was a fan, nonetheless. In 2009, an unidentified individual threw two Molotov cocktails on the theatre whereas it was empty. Juliano was shot dead 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 struggle 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 continuously fired pictures at anybody stepping outdoors their properties.
About 58 Palestinians, together with youngsters, have been killed throughout 15 army incursions on the camp and town.
‘No questions – they just took me’
Throughout all this, the Freedom Theatre kept going – till Tuesday evening final week. It significantly supplied an area for kids to heal from trauma by way 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 have been arrested and 100 proceed to be detained, mentioned Tobasi, who himself was held in poor circumstances.
“How can we continue existing this way?” 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, nonetheless, Israeli forces broke down the entrance door of his dwelling in Jenin and arrested him alongside along with his brother.
He advised 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 did not tell me why they were there,” he mentioned. “They did not tell me if I was wanted for any crime. No questions asked. They just took me.”
Tobasi had not too long ago 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 struggle on Gaza on October 7 and, he mentioned, he felt the urge to return again to his folks 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 mentioned Israeli troopers pressured their method into his dwelling, handcuffed and blindfolded him, and seized his laptop computer. One of many troopers requested him in regards to the whereabouts of Tobasi, however he mentioned nothing.
Ibrahim, 25, mentioned 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 pictures with me. I felt humiliated,” he advised Al Jazeera.
No protected house
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. Certainly one of them is Ranin Odeh, 32, the kid and youth programme coordinator, who leads actions for traumatised youngsters on the theatre
“I’m not well,” she advised Al Jazeera. “The occupying army stormed the theatre and destroyed the offices.”
Odeh was not contained in the theatre when the raid happened, 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.
“Perhaps words do not express my feelings and thoughts. We are in a very miserable and difficult situation,” she mentioned. “Every place in the city of Jenin is a target. There is no safe place.”
Tobani is spending most of his time clearing up the mess on the theatre now. “For me, the way they arrest us and treat us is very humiliating. You hate yourself, you hate humanity, you hate the world.”
He mentioned he hopes artists around the globe will unite to assist 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 method they will.
Everybody ought to have a protected place to specific themselves, Odeh mentioned, “even though it seems in Jenin, there isn’t one.”
