Press Release by The Freedom Theatre, June 6, 2012
At approximately 03:15 am this morning the Israeli army entered the home of Nabil Al-Raee, Artistic Director of The Freedom Theatre, and took him to an unknown location.
Nabil’s wife, Micaela Miranda explains what happened: “The dog started barking so I went outside and saw soldiers jumping over the gate and come into the yard of the house. They asked for my husband and I asked what for, that it’s my right to know and it’s my house. The soldiers replied that they were not going to tell me. They then took Nabil, brought him to an army jeep and drove off. We are very worried because we don’t know where they took him and why.”
Jonatan Stanczak, Managing Director of The Freedom Theatre: “I live on the floor above Nabil and when I heard what was happening I tried to go down to talk to the soldiers because I speak Hebrew. The house was surrounded by masked Israeli soldiers and three of them immediately pointed their weapons at me and pushed me back into the house.”
Attempts were immediately made to contact the District Coordination Office of the Israeli army but to no avail.
More than half the employees of The Freedom Theatre were recently called to interrogations by the Israeli army, including Nabil Al-Raee. All came to the appointments as scheduled and answered to their best of their knowledge the given questions even though they were intimidated and even threatened.
Jonatan Stanczak continues: “I don’t understand why they do this after they know they could simply have made a phone call to Nabil and he would have come to answer any questions or concerns that they might have. Since this has happened so many times in the past, I can’t interpret it as anything else than an ongoing harassment of the employees of The Freedom Theatre and their families by the Israeli army.”
At this point it is unclear if any other members of The Freedom Theatre have been taken during the night. Several of them have not responded to phone calls.
For further information Jonatan Stanczak, the managing director of The Freedom Theatre can be reached on [email protected] and +972(0)599017654
Micaela Miranda can be reached on [email protected] and +972(0)597016230.
