#9 Transforming Culture: Palestine/Israel

Is it possible to “create the power” even under the most horrendous circumstances?

With the bombs continuing to fall, day after day, Performing the World 2024 is proud to include two courageous organizations in Palestine and Israel that are continuing to build power in the face of unceasing violence.

Saturday Sept 28 | 12:15 – 1:45 pm EDT (UTC-4)

Presenters: Ahmed Tobasi, Mustafa Sheta

The Freedom Theatre was founded in 2006 in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank of occupied Palestine by Julino Mer Khamis. It has produced 25 socially engaged plays, reached more than 50 communities in Palestine and toured 15 countries, reaching more than 100,000 people. It has trained scores of actors, stage managers, theatre technicians and filmmakers who are now running what has become one of Palestine’s largest cultural centers.

In 2011 Khamis was assassinated by what the theatre calls “an unknown enemy of culture and freedom.” Since then, despite arrests of theatre members and destruction of its original building by the Israeli military, The Freedom Theatre has continued its work of generating power through performance and art.

Sunday Sept 29 | 2:00 – 3:30 pm EDT (UTC-4)

Presenters: Arab Aramin, Smadar Elhanan

As the war in Gaza drags on, the Parents Circle-Families Forum (PCFF), a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of over 700 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the 75-year-long conflict, continues its painful but necessary work of creating dialogue amid war. Join Palestinian Arab Aramin, whose sister was killed by a rubber bullet shot by the Israel Border Police in 2007, and Israeli Smadar Elhanan, whose sister died in a suicide bombing in 1997, as they demonstrate how PCFF works on reconciliation and partnership, central to which is working on understanding the shared humanity of grief.