TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Show goes on at Palestinian theatres overcoming obstacles
With Israeli forces raiding Jenin repeatedly in recent months, the Freedom Theatre's ability to provide residents with respite is under growing strain.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Palestinian theatre director Mustafa Sheta, general manager of the 'Freedom Theatre' at the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, gives a tour of the premises on December 12, 2022. (AFP/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
P
ast the sandbags and anti-tank obstacles in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, theatre director Mustafa Sheta ponders the fate of Palestinian thespians.
"We are under a very abnormal situation," Sheta told AFP at the camp's Freedom Theatre.
The streets were silent that December day as residents had called a public strike to protest Israeli forces killing a 16-year-old Palestinian girl in Jenin hours earlier.
With Israeli forces raiding Jenin repeatedly in recent months, engaging in gunfights with Palestinian militants, the Freedom Theatre's ability to provide residents with respite is under growing strain.
In 2011, the theatre's well-known Israeli-Palestinian director Juliano Mer-Khamis was gunned down in Jenin's refugee camp, in an attack that remains unsolved.
Other Palestinian cultural institutions across the West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem or Israel also face many obstacles.
"It's not like you have a clear plan in your schedule... you need to prepare for different scenarios," said Sheta, 42.
