Following Wednesday 27th July attack on The Freedom Theatre the detained persons, Adnan Naghnaghiye, head technician at the theatre and Bilal Saadi, chairperson of the association, were taken to the Jalame and Megiddo high security prisons inside Israel. Their lawyer has been denied the right to talk to or visit either of them. The reason given by the Israeli army is that the detained persons have “acted against the security of the region”. The Israeli security service have extended the interrogation period (period without access to a lawyer) to 4 August. Following this their lawyer Smadar Ben-Natan is going to petition the supreme court.
Jonatan Stanczak, one of the co-founders of The Freedom Theatre responds to the claims: “The reason behind the arrest is absurd and Kafkaesque. Although theatre and culture can be perceived by some as subversive, this kind of general accusation is nothing but nonsense”.
The army spokesperson has claimed that the Israeli army did not raid the theatre. Photo and film documentation confirms that the army raid resulted in the shattering of most of the windows of the theatre’s multimedia centre and office building. Witnesses also report harassment and threats to several theatre employees.
“Raiding densely populated Palestinian civilian areas in the middle of the night to carry out wanton arrests is common practice for the Israeli army, it is only that this time it befell people related to The Freedom Theatre” says Jacob Gough at The Freedom Theatre.
The Freedom Theatre demands that the Israeli authority immediately provide access to lawyers for our kidnapped friends and colleagues, and that they be immediately released and given due compensation.
Until this happens The Freedom Theatre urges all the friends and supporters of the theatre to contact their local Israeli representative office as well as their own Government’s foreign office forwarding these demands.
Jacob Gough, acting General manager at +972 (0)595348391, [email protected]
Jonatan Stanczak, co-founder of The Freedom Theatre at +46 (0)707908296 [email protected]
or the lawyer Smadar Ben‐Natan at +972 (0) 523589775