By Maryam Qarehgozlou
The once vibrant and lively venue of the Freedom Theater in Jenin now bears the painful marks of brutal vandalism by the occupation forces. The walls are marred with bullet holes and the rooms are strewn with broken chairs and debris after a series of raids in recent weeks.
During the three-day raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, which concluded last Thursday (December 14), Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians and rounded up hundreds of Palestinians.
On the intervening night of December 12 and December 13, the Israeli military carried out another raid on the Freedom Theater, a popular symbol of peace and hope in the occupied West Bank.
Photos shared by the Freedom Theater show how Israeli forces ransacked the theater and spray-painted the Star of David and a menorah (a Hanukkah candle holder) on the outer wall.
Inside the cinema screening room, the wall and the screen were also scrawled with the Star of David.
The military raid on the internationally renowned Palestinian cultural center came amid Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip, which has already killed more than 20,000 people.
Since the regime launched its deadly campaign in the coastal Gaza Strip on October 7, arbitrary military raids have also increased in the occupied West Bank, with more than 300 people killed.
More than 3,000 others, mostly children, have also been abducted in the occupied West Bank since the events of October 7 on trumped-up charges, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society and the Commission of Detainees Affairs, an independent body that keeps a tally of prisoners in Israeli jails.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a recent update that 2023 has been the “deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank” since it began recording casualties in the occupied territories in 2005.
Freedom Theater continues to be targeted
In recent weeks, the Israel regime’s random and reckless raids and arrests in Jenin have resulted in the killing of three members of Freedom Theatre: 17-year-old Yamen Jarrar, 26-year-old Jehad Naghniyeh, and 30-year-old Mohammed Matahen.
“For decades, Palestinian artists have been arbitrarily detained by the Israeli regime, sometimes for years,” the Freedom Theater said in a statement on Thursday.
“In the last few weeks in Gaza, an unprecedented number of writers, poets, theater makers and journalists have been killed,” the statement added.
The theater authorities said the regime “continues to target and destroy buildings of cultural heritage, a war crime under international law,” referring to a surge in raids since October 7.
During the latest raid on the theater house, the Israeli military shot from inside, destroying the offices and knocking down a wall of the building that houses the theater.
The statement further noted that Ahmed Tobasi, the theater’s artistic director, Mustafa Sheta, the theater’s general manager, and Jamal Abu Joas, a recent graduate of the Freedom Theatre Performing Arts School, were detained following last week’s raid.
Rasha Sheta, Mustafa Sheta’s wife, was quoted as saying by Freedom Theater that he was taken by the regime forces from his house in Jenin and remains in their custody.
“He was handcuffed and taken in front of our children with no mercy or any consideration to our feelings. My children spent their night crying. We felt so scared without him being around with us,” she said.
“We feel very sad for him being away, especially since we don’t know why he was arrested.”
Sheta is believed to have been taken to the Megiddo military prison north of occupied territories, MAYDAY, artist-led citizen journalism from inside Jenin Refugee Camp said in an update on Sheta’s detainment on Monday.
“It is believed that Mustafa will have a “trial” on Wednesday or Thursday, in an Israeli court by the Israeli occupying army,” MAYDAY said, adding that “there is no justice or judicial process and military orders always take precedence over Israeli and international laws.”
MAYDAY predicted that Mustafa will be held for six months in administrative detention, meaning that he will be imprisoned without trial or charge, under allegations that he plans to commit a future offense.
According to Freedom Theater, Abu Joas, who was severely beaten upon his arrest, remains in Israeli detention, without any charges.
Tobasi, released after 24 hours, told Democracy Now on December 15 that Israeli soldiers broke all the computers in the theater, blindfolded him and threw him in the mud by a jeep. He said he was afraid they were going to run him over.
In the video interview, Tobasi, sitting in his ravaged office said “everything is destroyed” in the theater.
“This is a theater. It’s not a military base. It’s not a terrorist house. There are no guns. There are books, pictures, cameras, music, instruments. All of it been destroyed,” he said.
Tobasi added that the recent attack on the theater was part of an effort to destroy Palestinian culture and thus dehumanize them.
Israel attempts “to dehumanize Palestinians, show us we are savage, we are animals, and we are not normal human beings. But by using theater and art, we again bring the humanity and the right picture with the Palestinians, that we are artists, we are human beings,” he said.
Freedom Theater’s journey of artistic defiance
Freedom Theater in Jenin was first set up as the Stone Theatre following the first Intifada (uprising) in 1987 by Arna Mer-Khamis, a Jewish teacher and peace activist, who died in 1995.
The theater was destroyed in 2002 by Israeli regime forces during the Second Intifada. In 2006, Arna’s son Juliano Mer-Khamis co-founded the Freedom Theater on a new site in Jenin.
“Since we opened our doors in 2006, we have made theater and visual art available to every young person in Jenin refugee camp,” the theater’s website reads.
“Our work has made Jenin refugee camp known in Palestine and internationally for innovative, thought-provoking theater and media productions. We have created a generation of artists and leaders who one day will be at the forefront of the Palestinian liberation movement.”
The iconic cultural institution has been attacked several times over the years.
Juliano Mer-Khamis was the General Director of the theater until 2011 when he was brutally assassinated by a masked assailant who was never identified.
More recently in June, occupation forces killed young theater participant 15-year-old Sadeel Naghnaghia and 17-year-old Mahmoud Al-Sadi, which drew sharp condemnation.
Two weeks later, in July, as part of a three-day raid by the Israeli military, the theater was shelled and extensively damaged. The theater’s chief technician Adnan Torkoman was arrested and held for four days by the Israeli army. His home was also damaged.
Freedom Theatre’s Chair of the Board Bilal Al-Sadi has been languishing behind bars under the notorious “administrative detention” policy of the regime since September 2022.
International calls growing
International calls for the release of Palestinian theater group workers are growing, with many decrying the destruction of cultural sites in the West Bank and Gaza.
More than 1,000 British playwrights, actors and directors have signed an open letter demanding the immediate release of The Freedom Theater’s Mustafa Sheta and Jamal Abu Joas.
Signatories include leading playwright Caryl Churchill and prominent director Dominic Cooke.
“The Freedom theater is a beacon of hope and resilience in the face of inconceivable adversity. Our friends and contemporaries at the Freedom Theatre deserve the right to carry out their work without fear of violence or persecution,” the letter read.
Artists in France, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, Germany and Belgium have also rallied in support.
“[We are] celebrating our resistance with art and theater and culture. And that’s what makes Israelis crazy. That’s why they come every time to Freedom Theatre, to destroy it and to try to close it. That’s why they arrest us. They do not want to see us alive,” Tobasi said.
“We have to use any way that we can resist. And for us, theater is a fantastic language, an amazing tool that everyone in this world can understand. And for us, this is the way, to resist through theater.”
