One morning in early September 2023, Mustafa Sheta, a Palestinian writer and general manager of the Freedom Theatre, spoke to The Irish Times in the theatre’s empty auditorium in the West Bank city of Jenin. He explained the importance of cultural resistance to Israeli occupation and his frustration with the Palestinian movement’s lack of success in securing statehood and the Palestinian Authority’s growing authoritarianism.
Three months later, on December 12, the theater was raided by Israeli soldiers at night and its offices ransacked. Hours later, Sheta was arrested at his home in Jenin in front of his wife and four children, ages 7 to 15. The same day, the theater’s artistic director Ahmed Tobashi and recent theater graduate Jamal Abu Joas were arrested. The two were released a few days later, but Tobashi spoke about his beatings by the Israeli soldiers who detained him. “They treated us like animals,” he is quoted as saying in a Freedom Theater X post. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment on the arrests.
However, Sheta was not released. On December 22, his lawyer was allowed a brief meeting with him, during which Sheta said Israeli soldiers had interrogated him about his political affiliations and activities. On December 31, an Israeli closed military court ordered Sheta to be held in administrative detention for four months, a long-standing practice that allows the Israeli military to detain people indefinitely without charge or trial, on grounds that were not disclosed to either the defendant or his lawyers, for “national security reasons.”
In April, Sheta’s detention was extended for another four months without any reason being given, his wife, Ranin Sheta, said by phone from Jenin. “Mustafa’s case is similar to many others in the West Bank,” she said. “We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Everything can change in an instant.”
According to Palestinian prisoners’ groups, Sheta is one of more than 9,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 14 writers, who have been detained by Israeli forces since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7. Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israeli authorities have suspended visits between prisoners and their families as well as humanitarian visits by the International Red Cross.
Sheta is being held in Israel’s Megiddo prison, where Amnesty International says the practice of detaining Palestinian prisoners in Israel amounts to forced deportation and violates international humanitarian law. Sheta’s wife, Ranin, fears that Sheta’s detention may be extended again and wants to secure a lawyer to represent Sheta at his military tribunal hearing in August.
Legal fees are expensive; “some lawyers are taking advantage of the situation,” she said. Two court visits with Sheta in prison cost 1,500 shekels (375 euros), close to the minimum wage in the West Bank (about 470 euros). Through her lawyer, Sheta conveyed the message to Ranin that prison conditions were difficult and that Freedom Theater should continue its activities. The IDF declined to comment on Sheta’s detention.
In addition to his work as a theatre manager, Sheta writes about life under military occupation and the regular Israeli raids on Jenin. Mina Sabet of PEN International, an NGO promoting freedom of expression and literature, claims that Sheta was targeted because of “his cultural work and writings that expose the truth about decades of apartheid and the systematic persecution of Palestinians living under occupation.”
“Writers and other cultural figures are increasingly being targeted in an attempt to erase Palestinian stories and culture,” Tabet told The Irish Times. A total of 17 Palestinian writers are currently in Israeli custody, eight of whom are under administrative detention, according to PEN. Israel currently ranks behind China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam in PEN’s Freedom to Write Index, which tracks the detention and imprisonment of writers. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the increased detention of Palestinian writers and the allegations of Israel cracking down on free speech.
(Jenin Freedom Theatre: Staging a vital form of Palestinian resistance)
Palestinian citizens in Israel and Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem also face crackdowns on free speech and imprisonment under Israel’s anti-terrorism law, which criminalizes speech-related offenses such as expressing sympathy for or inciting terrorism. In November, the Israeli government amended the law to criminalize “the consumption of terrorist publications.”
Adalah, a Palestinian-run Israeli human rights organisation and legal centre, said this effectively criminalises “thoughts and feelings” and represents a “widespread and coordinated” effort between “government agencies, Israeli institutions and far-right groups” to target Palestinians in Israel and “those who dare voice their views in opposition to the army’s retaliatory attacks on Gaza”.
According to Israeli police responses to a freedom of information request filed by Adalah, more than 400 people, the majority of them Palestinians, have been arrested in Israel and East Jerusalem for speech-related offenses under this law since October 7. Palestinian citizens and East Jerusalem residents have received prison sentences of up to 18 months for social media posts and messages deemed “sympathetic to terrorist organizations,” according to Adalah court monitoring.
Due to emergency regulations introduced by the Israeli parliament in November, scheduled pre-trial hearings for Palestinian security forces prisoners are being held primarily over video calls. Miriam Azem, communications and international aid associate at Adalah, said the lack of in-person hearings and the cancellation of visits from family and NGOs have reduced opportunities for prisoners to disclose abuses in prison.
Adalah has documented cases where prisoners appear to have been threatened or beaten by prison officials during online hearings. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the alleged mistreatment and deteriorating conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention facilities.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Association, 18 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since October 7. Azem said Adalah’s clients say they are being beaten in Israeli prisons, suffer from lack of sleep, and experience a reduction in both the quality and quantity of their food. “Not only are they losing a lot of weight, but prisoners are being given food that is dirty or uncooked,” she said. “One of my clients said the food is not even suitable for animals.”
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