Feat clips from Democracy Now! Interview with 4hmed Tob@si, Jen\in Freedom Theater’s Artistic and Creative Director who was recently beaten and detained in front of his children by Isr@eli soldiers after they destroyed the theater




The Freedom Theater
The people of Jen\in and Jen\n camp
There is no words, actually, no words

The Freedom Theater is a cultural, artistic place
Everything is destroyed
And you see all this mess
And I don’t know why
Because this is theater
It’s not a military base
It’s not a terrorist house

All of this has been destroyed
The whole theater

And then they just broke the door to my house
Please, there is children here
We are a whole family here

And you can do whatever you want
There is no need for violence
There is no need

Quickly they put the guns on me
They put me down and they start to beat me
They broke all the house
They broke everything

The children were screaming crying
Under the guns
Children screaming crying
Under the guns

And they throw me in the mud
It was raining they throw me beside the street
Where all the jeeps
The army go around me
And I don’t understand what is going on
Are they gonna drive on me
Are they gonna kill me
I don’t understand what is going on because I was blindfolded

It was a torture somehow
A psychological, mental torture
Waiting the moment
When they gonna shoot you
Are they gonna drive on you?
Are they gonna smash you?

And you just waiting the moment
When they gonna shoot you
Are they gonna drive on you?
Are they gonna smash you?

That’s the way that we live our lives.

And for me, I am wondering how long this gonna happen again and again and again
Be destroyed, we build it again, we fix it again
Be destroyed, we build it again, we fix it again

That we cannot wait for another promise
And we have to fight
Not just for P@les+inians
For the humanity
For each country still under colon\zation or under occup@tion
P@les+inians
For the humanity

They arrest us as artists
As people who do theater
For the humanity

The Freedom Theater
Is a cultural, artistic place
Where we have children, young people
Girls, boys, women
Who come here to practice
To find a place where they can express themselves
Imagine there is a better life

Still the Isr@el\s come and they’re telling us
No you cannot dream
You cannot dream

That your destiny as a P@les+inian
Is to grow up, to be poor
To grow up and die under brutal, crazy violent occupation

They arrest us as artists
As people who do theater
They destroy everything that shows
There is culture
There is art

I am asking all the artists in this world
Its gonna be a cultural, artistic \ntifada
We’re asking also all the friends all around the world
You have to unite
And we have to fight not just for P@les+inians
We have to fight for the humanity
For each community and each country still under colonization or under occupation

Without all this hate
Without all this violence

It’s gonna be a cultural, artistic \ntifada