June 9, 2012

ISRAELIS ARREST PALESTINIAN THEATER’S ARTISTIC DIRECTOR  

by Felice Gelman, Phil Weiss on June 6, 2012 

Updated, by Felice Gelman, who is on the Jenin Freedom Theatre’s board:  

Last night, Israeli armed forces raided the home of Nabil Al Raee, the artistic director of The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, arresting him and terrifying his three year old daughter Mina. The Freedom Theatre manager, Jonatan Stanczak asked the soldiers why they were detaining Al Raee. They refused to say. “The only answer you get is a gun in your face,” Stanczak said. According to Al Arabiya, the Israelis confirmed the incident, saying that Raee, “was arrested overnight in Jenin on suspicion of illegal activity.”

This marks the 6th time in the last 12 months that Israeli forces have arrested a member of the staff or board of The Freedom Theatre. In addition, Palestinian security forces, vaunted for their “cooperation” and “coordination” with Israeli security, have twice arrested Freedom Theatre co-founder Zakaria Zubeidi. At this moment, Zubeidi has been held without charge in a Jericho prison for the last three weeks. [More]