The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, a well-liked image of peace and hope within the occupied West Bank, 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 skin wall.
The Israeli navy raid on the theatre passed off on the evening of December 12 and the early hours of December 13. Its two administrators have been arrested that evening and the following morning. One of them, Ahmed Tobasi, was launched after 14 hours, however the different, Mostafa Sheta, stays in detention. He is believed to have been taken to the Megiddo navy jail in northern Israel, Tobasi stated.
This just isn’t the primary time the neighborhood landmark has come below assault.
The theatre has stood as an emblem 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. With her theatre, she hoped to supply youngsters an area for therapeutic and to empower ladies via the theatre and humanities.
The first 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 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 lifeless by a masked attacker in Jenin in 2011 on the age of 52. His killing was by no means solved.
Since the beginning of Israel’s warfare on Gaza on October 7, tensions have mounted within the West Bank 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 regularly fired photographs at anybody stepping exterior their properties.
About 58 Palestinians, together with youngsters, have been killed throughout 15 navy incursions on the camp and town.
‘No questions – they just took me’
During all this, the Freedom Theatre saved going – till Tuesday evening final week. It notably supplied an area for kids to heal from trauma via 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. During that point, 500 Palestinians have been arrested and 100 proceed to be detained, stated 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 youngsters who participated within the Stone Theatre’s actions.
Last 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 instructed 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 stated. “They did not tell me if I was wanted for any crime. No questions asked. They just took me.”
Tobasi had lately returned to the occupied West Bank 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 warfare on Gaza on October 7 and, he stated, 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 good friend from the theatre, Ismael Hussam Ibrahim, who was arrested on December 12 and launched on December 13.
Ibrahim stated Israeli troopers compelled their approach into his dwelling, handcuffed and blindfolded him, and seized his laptop computer. One of the 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 elevate 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 instructed Al Jazeera.
No secure 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 secure place. 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 instructed Al Jazeera. “The occupying army stormed the theatre and destroyed the offices.”
Odeh was not contained in the theatre when the raid passed off, however for her, what occurred to the theatre has underlined the very actual hazard Palestinians within the West Bank live in and the truth that there isn’t a escape.
“Perhaps words do not express my feelings and thoughts. We are in a very miserable and difficult situation,” she stated. “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 stated he hopes artists all over the world will unite to help the theatre. For now, regardless of the dangers and the psychological exhaustion, Tobani, Odeh and lots of the different employees have promised to proceed the actions for kids in any approach they’ll.
Everyone ought to have a secure place to precise themselves, Odeh stated, “even though it seems in Jenin, there isn’t one.”
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