August 5, 2024
Artists

Israeli soldiers ransack West Bank theatre, beat and detain artists


The Israeli military’s reign of terror directed against the Palestinian population—including its leading cultural and intellectual figures—continues unabated. The beating and shooting of journalists, the assassination of poets, the murder of painters and writers in air strikes—this is one distinctive feature of the hideous face of the Netanyahu-Biden genocide in Gaza, accompanied as well by renewed brutality and murder in the occupied West Bank.

On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a raid against the Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, destroying as much of the theatre’s equipment as the IDF thugs could get their hands on and arresting three of its leading artists.

Freedom Theatre in Jenin [Photo: Adnan Torokman, the Freedom Theatre]

According to a statement by the theatre, on the morning of December 13, “the Israeli army began attacking and ransacking the Freedom Theatre. They shot from inside the theatre, destroying the offices and knocking down a wall.”

Zoe Lafferty, the theatre’s associate director, described the attack to the Middle East Eye as a form of “cultural genocide.” The IDF “took the new computer we bought to run our shows from,” Lafferty said. “It wasn’t expensive but it is a huge amount of money for the Freedom Theatre. We needed to use it for the next eight years.”

The theatre’s statement explained that the army “then went to the homes of [artistic director] Ahmed Tobasi and [producer and manager] Mustafa Sheta, blindfolded, handcuffed and took them away. That evening the army went to the home of [recently graduated acting student] Jamal Abu Joas and severely beat him and then took him.”

The theatre added that “We can confirm that Tobasi has been released. He is suffering from leg and back pain where the Israeli army beat him. We will update his condition as soon as possible.”

IDF destruction of Freedom Theatre [Photo Credit—Adnan Torokman, the Freedom Theatre]

The Middle East Eye commented that before detaining him, “Israeli forces made Tobasi take off his jacket and lie in the street in the rain.” They then broke into his home, destroying “everything they could, even taking plants and throwing them on the ground,” the theatre added.



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