"Prisoners of Occupation" .. An Israeli director documenting the suffering of Palestinians in prisons

Mohammed Mohsen Wedd - Umm al-Fahm

Director Anat Weizmann moved with hundreds of supporters of the prisoners and the captive movement from the "cinematic" theater in the city of Umm al-Fahm in the Palestinian interior to the absences of the Israeli occupation prisons, through the theatrical work "Prisoners of Occupation" that lists scenes from the drama as the life stations of the captive movement and the chapters of the suffering of the security prisoners.

Inspired by the suffering of the families and the memory of the prisoners, theatrical scenes that take us to the lives of more than five thousand prisoners still behind the bars are embodied, and brings us back to the first battlefield of freedom and independence and the lives of the Palestinian people under occupation.

The play delves into the depth of the suffering of the prisoner and his family, and summarizes scenes of the suffering of the Palestinian people, whether they live from behind bars or those who remained at large hostage to the practice of the occupation, in a novel that relied on its contents on testimonies and testimonies of a group of prisoners freed from the Palestinian West Bank and the Palestinian interior.

The play director Anat Weizmann - who is an Israeli Jew but does not believe in Zionism - is accompanied by actors Kamel Al-Basha, Jalal Masarwa, Rabie Khoury and Bayan Antir from the basements of arrest and investigations to human memory.

Documentary scenes mimic the darkening of prisons and narrate the events of the play by the released captives and their families, who participated for more than two years alongside director Weizmann in the creative production of the play from the moment the texts were drafted until the direction.

Dark places
Through dialogue that was realistically mixed with politics and socialities, the idea of ​​director Weizmann is highlighted by highlighting the reality of the dark places that the Israeli establishment has long kept secret, and conveying the experience of families in Israeli prisons in an attempt to influence the Jews, who predominantly agree that the prisoners are "terrorist killers."

We have always lived through the lives of the prisoners and the captive movement through the literature, literature and news, Weizmann says, "The play of the prisoners of occupation came as the first artistic work in the country that simulates the lives of families in the prisons of the occupation, and to know the Israeli violations of human rights and breaches of international conventions regarding prisoners of war."

The Israeli director explained to Al Jazeera Net that through theatrical work, it is possible to influence the Israeli society, which by the majority sees the Palestinian people as an "enemy", and even those who call for coexistence and tolerance among them and promote a two-state solution, see the prisoners as "terrorists" and not militants, and therefore they are a red line from the point of view Israeli.

Fight the novel
On behalf of the opposition in the Israeli street and by the Minister of Culture, Miri Regev, and the prosecution faced by the Benjamin Netanyahu government, Weizmann says, "The captive movement is the essence of the issue of occupation and keeping quiet about it means hiding the occupation practices. The Israeli establishment means behind thwarting and blocking the theatrical show, fighting a novel." The Palestinian people are seeking to prevent the Jews from exposing the prisoners' account. "

The theatrical show "Prisoners of Occupation" will not stop in Umm al-Fahm, but will also continue, according to director Weizmann in Nazareth and Al-Kabri, to be shown in the coming days outside the country in Europe in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, while Weizman is eager to have the conditions and show the suffering of the prisoners on stage in Ramallah.

The play continues to take viewers to the painful events of the prisoner in the darkness of prisons, and the consequences and repercussions of the resistance to the occupation on the Palestinian people, and director Weizmann moves with the actor Jalal Masarwa who plays the role of the heroic handsome, with the viewers to the cellars of the investigation and the cells and the prisoners ’struggle with the self and the ongoing battle with the Israeli prison.

Ignorance of the truth
"The play reflects the reality of the prisoner and his family, with a mixture of emotional feelings mixed with sadness, sorrow and tears at times, and a smile at other times, but refuses to hide from it the depth of the prisoner's suffering, starting with investigations and torture, hunger strikes, isolation and solitary confinement, and family visits," said actor Jalal Masarweh.

He explained that the play embodies the life of every prisoner and every Palestinian family that suffers from the families ’fire, and the prisoner remains the hero in the stations and experience of life in the absence of prisons and the path of the Palestinian people in resisting the occupation, and reflects the ability of the Palestinian prisoner and besieged occupation to endure, challenge, patience and belief in achieving victory.

Masarweh admitted that the play, with its events, reality and testimonies, affected his artistic career, and even his awareness and his awareness of the reality of the prisoners ’lives, pointing out that everyone was looking at the issue of prisoners from a limited perspective and ignorance of the truth of what is happening in Israeli prisons.

He emphasized that the play placed the issue of the prisoner in the conscience of everyone who watches the show with his accounts and stations, to live an hour of time the suffering of the prisoners, their memories, and the value and sanctity of the issue of the prisoner movement as a fundamental essence of the Palestinian cause.

A new birth
During the theatrical performance, those accounts and testimonies of prisoners and their families refuse to move the feelings to the viewers, so the viewer who lived the scenario and the drama will stand helpless, and it will no longer be possible to conceal the feelings and his tears will be poured out in moments, so that the darkness of the stage will hide them from the public.

As a spectator, you can only communicate and interact with the accounts and testimonies of prisoners on the stage. They are mixed feelings and are entrenched in the battle of the novels with the Israeli occupation and its struggle to fuse Palestinian consciousness.

Tears pouring down the prisoners' experience and suffering are not only sadness, but joy and euphoria for the prisoner’s victory over the jailers in the battle of the empty bowels, and another due to the smuggling of sperm announcing a new birth of freedom.