‘No safe place’: Jenin’s Freedom Theatre raided, daubed with Star of David
Al Jazeera
Landmark that provided healing for traumatised children in the West Bank has been ransacked, directors arrested.
The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, a popular symbol of peace and hope in the occupied West Bank, has been raided, vandalised and painted with Israeli religious and political symbols.
In a film screening room inside the theatre, the Star of David has been daubed on the wall with spray paint while graffiti also depicting the Star of David and a menorah (a Hanukkah candle holder) has been scrawled on the outside wall.
The Israeli military raid on the theatre took place on the night of December 12 and the early hours of December 13. Its two directors were arrested that night and the next morning. One of them, Ahmed Tobasi, was released after 14 hours, but the other, Mostafa Sheta, remains in detention. He is believed to have been taken to the Megiddo military prison in northern Israel, Tobasi said.
This is not the first time the community landmark has come under attack.
The theatre has stood as a symbol of hope for residents of Jenin ever since it was first founded as the Stone Theatre in 1987 after the first Intifada by Arna Mer-Khamis, an Israeli peace activist who died in 1995.
