MIDEAST: Israelis Stage an Investigation Act

• by Jillian Kestler-D’Amours (jerusalem)
• Friday, September 02, 2011
• Inter Press Service

According to those close to the theatre, however, the Israeli authorities’ actions hint at a purpose other than solving the ongoing murder investigation: impeding the work of the theatre itself.

'It just seems like tactics to damage us. I think if it’s not their main goal, it’s a definite bonus that they are encouraging,' says Jacob Gough, the acting general manager of the Freedom Theatre.

'An investigation into murder should be done in certain ways, not kidnapping people, torturing them and trying to make them confess. That’s (the Israeli authorities) trying to do a quick fix or something darker, something more sinister. People should have rights. In criminal investigations you’re meant to be innocent until proven guilty, but Israel treats Palestinians as guilty until proven innocent,' Gough told IPS.

Juliano Mer-Khamis, an Israeli citizen born to a Palestinian-Israeli father and Jewish-Israeli mother, was shot and killed in April of this year while he sat in his car near the Freedom Theatre in Jenin’s refugee camp. A well-known actor, Mer-Khamis co-founded the theatre in 2006 as a way to empower Palestinian youth in the camp to express themselves creatively through art.

In the past few months, the Israeli authorities have arrested various members of the Freedom Theatre, including a 20-year-old lead actor, broken windows and equipment, conducted night raids involving the shooting of live ammunition, and intimidated and ransacked the homes of individuals affiliated with the theatre.

Chairperson of The Freedom Theatre board Bilal Saadi and the theatre’s head technician Adnan Naghnaghiye were arrested Jul. 27. According to Gough, both men were subjected to 16-hour interrogations, sleep deprivation and inhumane treatment in prison, were denied access to a lawyer, and were pressured by Israeli authorities to confess to the murder.

'The court ordered their release. In the court documents, it states that there is absolutely no evidence, nothing whatsoever, to link them to the murder,' Gough said, adding that all the people affiliated with the theatre gave statements to the Palestinian Authority (PA) immediately after Juliano’s murder, and have cooperated in the investigation.

'What are they going to do? They’re going to go through every one of us until they run out of people? There’s no evidence to link anyone from the theatre to (Juliano’s) murder,' Gough said. 'There’s a psychological effect of people wondering if they’re going to be the next one taken. But nothing is going to be worse than losing Juliano. Having people arrested does affect us, but it’s not going to stop us.'

The PA has jurisdiction over the Jenin refugee camp, a 0.42 square-kilometre area in the north of the occupied West Bank that is home to over 16,000 registered Palestinian refugees, almost half of them under the age of 18. The PA began a criminal investigation immediately after Juliano Mer-Khamis was killed last April.

According to Abeer Baker, a lawyer representing the Mer-Khamis family, while the PA investigation is still ongoing, it has uncovered very few details so far. The Israeli investigation, which also began soon after Mer-Khamis’ killing, is also ongoing and is being conducted jointly by the Israeli army, police and Shabak (Shin Bet) security agency.

'I can’t see why the Shabak is involved because it’s a murder case; it’s not something that endangers the security of Israel. Jul was killed by somebody who has nothing to do with the security of Israel. It is something personal here,' Baker told IPS, adding that the interrogation methods used by the Shabak have left the Mer-Khamis family concerned that a false confession will be coerced from someone.

'We know how the Shabak investigates and we oppose the whole idea of taking people from their homes and preventing them from seeing a lawyer and isolating them. It’s not something we agree with, even if these people are suspects. The minute you deprive the person of his own rights, he might confess to doing something he didn’t do. We, as a family, will not believe that confession. We will have suspicions of everything that was taken by lack of due process,' she said.

Baker explained that she and the Mer-Khamis family condemn the Israeli authorities’ attacks on the Freedom Theatre. Still, she said that the focus must return to finding out who murdered Juliano and that Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp must cooperate in order to bring the killer to justice.

'Since the Jenin camp denounced the murder from the first minute, I think there is nothing wrong with asking the people to please cooperate and let us know who killed Jul,' Baker told IPS.

'We will work on that, to bring the focus back to who killed Juliano. Jul, a person who gave us his soul, was killed as one of us, as Palestinians, and we should be accountable for that and put whoever is responsible for this in prison.'

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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