On behalf of The Freedom Theatre, Mustafa Sheta, the General Secretary, would like to share a statement about the recent tragic events in Gaza and today’s commemoration of the 70th Nakba.
Today, our heart is with the people in Gaza, and with Palestinians everywhere who are refugees all over the world because of the diaspora. We stand with them and their rights, and we will keep working for the right to return and to write history in a just way.
What happened yesterday in Gaza is a massacre. We are now talking about almost 60 deaths and around 1800 injured. It’s not just those who died or were injured, but we are talking about families being affected, about mothers who lost their children. We cannot imagine that these numbers of victims happened within just a few hours. We feel sad and angry. We don’t want to accept this situation.
Our question to all people around the world is about humanity. Do you just stand with certain people, or are you humane? If you just care about some people, and you ignore others, what does that say about your humanity, when not all human life is valued equally?
We stand with all people who suffer under any kind of oppression. We, as Palestinian people, are a model, because we have been under occupation for a long time. We have been fighting for our freedom for a long time now, for over 70 years, and we will continue. Our question to the international community is, what is your choice?
As The Freedom Theatre, we will continue our work. Often, we ask ourselves the important question of how to continue in our current situation. Why continue with our theatre? First of all, we believe we are a part of the resistance against any occupation. We also stand against the silence of our own political parties. We as Palestinians must come together and evaluate the situation and how we can take the next step. It is exactly because of that, we believe it is necessary to keep telling the story of Nakba.
We continue, because we believe in our work. Today, we will stage a play as part of Nakba Day. In the play, we talk about the Palestinian narrative, about how we should unify our stories. We also emphasise the need to use facts, when we want to write history in a just way. We need to grow up and wake up, in order to work on our liberation. A liberation not just from the occupation and of our minds but a liberation for all human beings, suffering from oppression. A liberation starting with valuing all human life as equal.
Our show “Untitled. 70th Nakba?!” will premiere today, 5pm in Jenin Refugee Camp.