The Swedish-funded Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank largely destroyed by Israel, staff taken

[Celerity]

https://www.svd.se/a/wAqEdo/frihetsteatern-i-jenin-till-stora-delar-forstord



translated:

On Wednesday, the Swedish Friends Association received the news that the Freedom Theatre in Jenin's refugee camp has been largely destroyed and that its management has been taken by Israeli military forces. Three young members of the theatre have been killed in recent weeks, according to information on the theatre's social media (X and Facebook) accounts. Parts of the premises will now instead be used by the Israeli military as a communications center.

Since its inception in 2006, the Freedom Theatre has been supported by leading Swedish theatre artists and financed by Swedish governmental aid. The Freedom Theatre has been an important gathering place, especially for children and young people from the refugee camp and also has been an important part of the Palestinian cultural resistance to the occupation. Friends of the Freedom Theatre is a Swedish association with the aim of supporting the theatre financially, informing about its activities and arranging exchanges and collaborations. Now the alarm is being raised that there is an extensive Israeli military operation in the Jenin refugee camp, one that has been described as worse than the year 2002, when nearly 50 Palestinians were killed and large parts of the refugee camp were left in ruins.

Abed Zbeidi, who sits on the theatre's board, tells Friends of the Freedom Theatre that it is not possible to get in or out of the refugee camp. Ranin Odeh, who is a theatre educator and usually works with children and women in the theatre, describes how the military entered her apartment and smashed furnishings and used their windows to shoot at people outside.

Odeh says that she and her family were accused of being Hamas sympathizers and when they denied this they were told that "you are all Hamas and you will all meet the same fate". According to the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, who writes for Haaretz newspaper, roads, sewers and many buildings are now demolished in the Jenin refugee camp. Levy says the devastation in Jenin's refugee camp increasingly resembles that in Gaza.

snip


Svenska Dagbladet (The Swedish Daily News), abbreviated SvD, is a major (one of our 4 national daily newspapers) newspaper published here in Stockholm.

Today (December 18th) is its 139th anniversary.

[Basic LA]

1. No doubt taken for enhanced interrogation.

As with all rounded-up males, like the ones we've seen stripped, cuffed, & kneeling in rows.

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. IDF. Israel Defense Forces.

Someone please explain to me what this was in "defense" of. I'm open to being educated.