Tag: Raids

Jenin: The Other Gaza

17 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jenin

On Wednesday, December 13, I received a message from a fellow actress of the Freedom Theatre informing me that the occupation forces had arrested without charge Mustafa Sheta, theatre director and general manager, Ahmed Tobasi, artistic director, as well as Jamal Abu Joas, acting coach. The arrests took place in a military raid carried out by the occupation forces in the city of Jenin, with their main target being the refugee camp where the headquarters of the Freedom Theatre is located.

Mustafa Sheta was arrested at his home in the city of Jenin, where they handcuffed him and took him, mercilessly, in front of his children. They sat the whole family in the living room and when they identified Mustafa they asked him, “Have you done anything?” To which Mustafa replied, “I have not done anything.” Still, the occupation forces took him away and to this day nothing is known about him.

Mustafa Sheta, Freedom Theater Director, arrested and still imprisoned by IOF. Credit: The Freedom Theatre

On the night of December 12, 2023, Tobasi heard soldiers knocking on neighbors’ doors. He got dressed, put on a winter jacket and got ready because he was worried about them coming to his home.

The next morning, shortly after 9 a.m., the Israelis began attacking and looting the Freedom Theatre. They fired from inside the theatre, destroying the offices and knocking down a wall. Tobasi’s house is directly across from the Freedom Theatre.

Around 11:30 a.m., still fully dressed and still hearing disturbances, he came out and said, “Why are you making all this noise? You are terrorizing children.”

The Israeli army took Tobasi and beat him. They made him take off his jacket and threw him on the ground in the street, in the cold and rain.

Shouting at Tobasi that he should stay there, the army entered his house and broke everything. They smashed his computer screen, his iPad, and destroyed everything they could, even taking the plants and throwing them on the ground.

After breaking everything in the house, the Israeli army took a towel from the house and blindfolded Tobasi. They then went to look for Mohammed, Tobasi’s brother.

Occupation forces handcuffed them both and took them away. They did not have enough clothing for the cold and winter weather.

Jamal Abu Joas has also been captured by the Israeli army.

Jamal recently graduated from the Freedom Theatre School of Performing Arts, where he is now an acting coach and also a freelance photographer.

The army invaded his house, and searched and took everything, including Jamal’s phone and camera. The soldiers have beaten him brutally.

On Thursday afternoon we decided to go to the city of Jenin in support and solidarity for my colleagues and friends from the Freedom Theatre and to document what had happened.

We arrived around two in the afternoon in the city of Jenin, and all the shops were closed. Some boys helped us get closer to the entrance of the refugee camp. Between the sounds of detonations of live ammunition and the smell of teargas we advanced, but only halfway. On the way we had to stop, there was an ambulance and a barricade that blocked the way.

Further up, at the entrance to the refugee camp, there was a convoy of the Israeli army. Journalists were gathered on the edge of the street at the entrance of a hospital and residential house. We waited for about 10 minutes; the sound of the live fire grew louder. But then the occupation forces withdrew and we were able to enter.

We entered through a side street towards the central square of the camp. From the first moment we could see the level of destruction that had been undertaken. The streets were completely destroyed, the doors of the houses broken, the shops destroyed, the water was running all over the place. What were once streets were now muddy fields because the army had also broken the pipes to destroy the water infrastructure. The level of destruction was incalculable.

We arrived at the central square which was unrecognizable. Wherever one turned there was graffiti of the Star of David painted on walls.

All the surroundings were damaged. We joined with local community members trying to clean a little and see how they could repair what the occupation forces had destroyed. We continued walking towards the theatre. My eyes could not recognize where I was. This place that I walked so many times could not be connected with my memories. The firefighters were putting out a fire in a house that still seemed to be burning We could feel the heat coming off as we passed by.

When we arrived outside the theatre, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The place that I saw so full of life the last time I was there was covered by a spectral silence. The warehouse, the theatre room, the offices, everything had been destroyed. They threw everything everywhere. They broke everything: books, pictures, doors, computers, screens, glass. And again, the Star of David was everywhere one looked. They did this as an exercise in intimidation, cruelty and power. This was not only an attack on life but also an attack on freedom. The occupation forces want to end any type of resistance.

I went out to the parking lot again and see a man outside the theatre room. When he turns to me, it takes me a moment to recognize him. He is Tobasi. They have released him. I hug him tightly. I feel relieved to see him again. He asks me how I am. “Confused,” I respond, “I think it’s absurd for me to ask you.” But he nevertheless responded, “Alhamdulillah.”

It is evident that they have hurt him, that they tortured him, that they beat him. It is difficult for him to walk. We entered the office at a slow but steady pace. “They destroyed everything,” he says. When we are in one of the offices outside we hear the noise of a car engine, he turns around and asks me, “Is it a jeep?” No, it’s just a car, but we have to leave. We offer to help clean, but he says, “Later, now it’s not safe. They can come back at any time.

Already on the street outside the theatre, we say goodbye. I told him to write to me, that I will return. He said, “Yes, but in a couple of days, now it is not safe.” I told him that I am here for him, for Mustafa and for the Freedom Theatre. I initially came to do an artistic residency with them, which was cut short by the events that arose after October 7. “Take care of yourself, be careful, stay safe,” he said.

IOF damaged the inside of the Freedom Theatre. Credit: ISM

We continued walking deeper into the camp, reaffirming with our eyes the horror and devastation.

We reached the roundabout where the great monument of the map of Palestine was located, which was knocked down. We advanced a little further and the children around us run and shout at us “Jeish Jeish,” the occupation forces had returned. Explosions were heard and the sound of the siren announcing a new incursion. We didn’t have much time to stop and think of what to do, to either take refuge in the theatre or continue to try to reach the service station to Ramallah. We decided to continue. A Palestinian in a car offered us a ride to the service station; walking wasn’t safe. We tried to insist on giving him money but he more insistently refused. At the service station we said goodbye.

The service advanced towards Ramallah, leaving behind the unprecedented devastation. My memories want to find a place in this reality. It is like trying to put together a puzzle from which several pieces have been stolen.

The next morning Tobasi gives an interview in which he says the attack on the refugee camp has been the most devastating, the most violent since 2002, referring to the second intifada. Jenin is now in some ways the other Gaza.

University rooms destroyed in early morning raid by Israeli forces

5th of March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, Ramallah team | East Jerusalem, occupied Palestine

In the early hours of Tuesday, 5th April, around 3am, an armed group of Israeli soldiers stormed the campus of Al Quds university in the area of Abu Dis, part of East Jerusalem. The soldiers terrorised security guards on duty and forcefully entered four rooms belonging to student political parties and confiscated equipment while completely destroying the rest of the rooms.

Destroyed items from the Tuesday morning raid gathered outside the rooms

During the early hours of the morning the only people present at the university campus were the campus security, they were rounded up and locked together in a room, they were given no reason from the soldiers as to why they were being locked in a room nor as to why the soldiers were entering the campus grounds. The soldiers proceeded to forcefully enter four rooms belonging to various political parties run by students of the university, cutting the locks and smashing their way in, completely destroying the doors. This is the fourth time in 2016 alone that soldiers have entered the campus, destroying and confiscating material while giving no reason for their actions.

One of the computers destroyed in the raid — One of the computers amongst other items destroyed in the raid

The rooms entered belong to varying student bodies who’s students work within the university and the local community. Among the varied groups they advocate student rights, create activities within the campus and surrounding neighbourhoods, hold discussions on the state of the middle east, volunteer within the community, offer services for students, hold workshops and meetings about young prisoners and host an array of solidarity activities for the Palestinian community.

Students cleaning up debris from Tuesday's raid — Students cleaning up debris from Tuesday’s raid

During the raid the army took personal computers, laptops and cameras belonging to the Islamic party. Around one hundred and seventy flags were confiscated from the union party room and all of their stationary equipment for creative activities. Whatever was not taken was destroyed during the raid by the occupying forces.

The activities room for the ladies Islamic movement which works mainly with disadvantaged youths and students had the majority of their belongings destroyed, posters ripped from walls and electronic equipment confiscated.

The area of Abu Dis were the university is located was around thirty thousand hectares prior to 2002 and is now around four thousand hectares with 75% of the area now falling under area C and 25% under area B. This malicious land grab by the Israeli government has left students facing huge difficulties with their education. Many students within the faculty of medicine can’t reach Jerusalem where the main hospital for training is located and have been forced to go elsewhere for their practical while the media faculty faces new difficulties also. Since the beginning of what most would call the third intifada, checkpoints leading into the city of Ramallah, where the media students must go to complete their practical work have become extremely tightened and students are often denied access to the area or face long waits to enter.

The annexation wall surrounding the university

On the 2nd November, 2015, Israeli forces entered the campus around 4pm and began firing on students using tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and even using live ammunition. Over two hundred students were injured and required medical care while two students were seriously injured, with access to Jerusalem hospital unavailable the students were forced to travel over an hour to the city of Ramallah for treatment.

With the student elections to take place on April 19th, this attack falls into Israel’s wider policy of targeting political activity within student campuses and bodies as a means of repressing resistance to the occupation.

Four students of the university have been killed by Israeli forces since November, 2015.

Al-Kadoorie: the only university in the world with a military training zone inside its campus

November 18th 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Huwara Team | Tulkarm, occupied Palestine

On the 17th of November, in a meeting in the University of Al Kadoorie, in the city of Tulkarm, the institution’s Director of Public Relations, Mr. Azmi Saleh, and a group of students described the recent human rights violations that the Israeli army has carried out against the Palestinian students of the University.

Mr. Amzi Saleh, Director of Public Relations, University of Al Khadoorie. — Mr. Azmi Saleh, Director of Public Relations, University of Al Kadoorie.

Since the beginning of October, the Israeli army has perpetrated raids into the University while students attend lectures and exams. Mohammed, one of the students who was present, explained:

“Everyday they enter the campus firing their guns in the air and throwing tear gas canisters. We go out to see what is happening. Then they start shooting at us. We can’t stand this anymore, to see our friends and classmates getting shot and imprisoned.”

Approximately 350 students have been injured since the beginning of October, meaning injured students are being sent to the hospital on a daily basis. Likewise, twelve students have been in jail for six months. There is no knowledge about when they will be released.

This desk shows blood stains of an injured student who needed urgent first aid treatment on site, while the hospitals was too crowded to receive more injured students. — This desk shows blood stains of an injured student who needed urgent first aid treatment on site, in a time when the hospital was too crowded to receive more injured students.

In addition, the Israeli army has given no official explanation as to why they are committing these crimes. The administration staff has tried to communicate with authorities in the army to know why they are doing this and try to persuade them to stop, but the Israeli army does not respond to their complaints.

The students of Al Kadoorie University expressed their fear and suffering, asking for the international community to do all that they possibly can to help stop these human rights violations.

The students are so afraid of going to the University, that these actions are clearly preventing them from continuing their studies.

During the past decades, the Israeli occupation forces have stolen more than 200 dunums of land from Al Kadoorie University. In an area where there used to be functioning greenhouses that belonged to the Applied Research Centre of the Faculty of Agriculture, the Israeli army installed a military training field, keeping it for 21 years. The Apartheid wall, which sits right behind this training field, sets the boundary between the West Bank and the State of Israel, leaving the University premises at the very edge of the West Bank.

One of the four greenhouses that used to operate in the Research Centre of teh Faculty of Agriculture: today sits empty inside the illegal Israeli military training field. — One of the four greenhouses that used to operate in the Applied Research Centre of the Faculty of Agriculture: today sits empty inside the illegal Israeli military training field.

Behind the illegal military training field lies the Apartheid Wall that sets the final bounday between the West Bank, and the University's premises, and the State of Israel. — Behind the illegal military training field lies the Apartheid Wall and a military watchtower that sets the final boundary between the West Bank, the University’s premises, and the State of Israel.

Two days ago, after weeks of enduring these raids, the University decided to bring a bulldozer to tear down the facilities of the army’s military training field, which is where the soldiers begin their operations. The Israeli forces confiscated the bulldozer and detained the Vice President for over half an hour, with the threat of taking him to prison.

It is important to note that the students of Al Kadoorie regularly participate in peaceful demonstrations against the Apartheid wall that sits next to their campus and the Israeli industrial zone whose factories emit air pollutants that they suspect contain hazardous chemicals. Students complain that there are times that these fumes hurt their skin. Even though the reasons why the students protest are legitimate, during its military raids the Israeli army demands that they stop demonstrating.