Juliano Mer Khamis
This is disturbing, an interview with Jenny Nyman, widow of Juliano Mer Khamis, right, the actor/director who was murdered outside his theater in Jenin last April. In Haaretz. The interviewer is Gili Izikovich:
“He was murdered because of the values of tradition and conservatism. It’s a traditional society. And I think there are some people who have a big interest in preserving the status quo – the very patriarchal, conservative status quo. And the theater was threatened. When we staged ‘Animal Farm’ they tried to burn it down, on two occasions. We always walked a very thin line, and we worked hard to get the community on board and to explain to them. We tried to show that it is a means of expression that can be useful to children, to learn how to stand up for themselves and to speak. The theater was becoming more and more successful, and I think somehow the success was what brought it down.”
Are you still active in it?
“Now I don’t have any connection, I can’t have any connection with the theater or with Jenin – so long as nobody’s cooperating with the investigation, or speaking out. There was no public outrage in Jenin against this act, no condemnation was voiced. People should have the courage to stand up in public and say this is wrong. If that were the situation, I wouldn’t have a problem to be in touch or to help them … But what I saw was people who bowed their heads even lower, [went] down on their knees, and said, ‘Okay, just don’t kill me. I will say what you want me to say, just don’t shoot me.’
“It’s like saying, it’s okay to kill somebody for their ideas, we’ll just modify the discourse a little bit if you let us carry on. For me, this is a very big disappointment. It feels like a failure. If you asked Jul [what he would feel] in a similar situation, he would say: ‘Screw them, we’ll close the doors and go work somewhere else where people want us.’
“One of his favorite expressions was, ‘It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.’ And that is what he did, and if they forced him down on his knees he would have left. So he died on his feet, but at least he wasn’t a hypocrite. And I’m not going to be either.
I have been wondering about Juliano’s wife in the aftermath of his murder. She pulled out of Jenin very quickly, and in this interview she states that she has ‘nothing to do’ with the theater anymore. I find this very suspicious. I’m not trying to minimize the grief of having a husband/father be murdered, but something here does not add up.
Does she not realize that the people of Jenin have been suffering ever since Juliano’s murder? That the Freedom Theater is raided almost on a weekly basis and that it’s members are being arrested?
I don’t believe for a second that “conservative extremists” killed Juliano. We know the IDF/Shabak. They would have instantly found the Palestinian(s) responsible for this crime. Why is the murderer still at large? Some very powerful people (hint: Israelis) do not want to find the murderer.
Arna’s children indeed. My heart aches for this children, but I’m glad they are growing up in Israel. I agree with the logic of that.
So it sounds like there was a very conservative Muslim environment and they rejected the liberal theatre very strongly? I thought there were some things suggesting Israeli involvement, but maybe not.
I heard that Palestine has been one of the more liberal or moderate Muslim regions, but also that the occupation and accompanying economic hardship and foreign military repression has psychologically pushed people to be more “conservative” or less tolerant so to speak.
Too bad, it sounds like the theatre was good and brave.
Somehow, I don’t think Juliano would feel that way.It takes a lot of courage to stand in front of people and say what she would like them to say.I feel sad that Juliano is dead and sadder still that his widow will have nothing to with Freedom Theatre and Jenin.
This is an important reminder that it is true that many on the left often overfocus on Israel. There’s a lot to do left in the muslim societies surrounding it.
Both areas need to undergo complete transformation, but pressure has to be even. If nobody talks about human rights abuses like these then they won’t feel the need to reform and reactionaries in Israel will – rightly – be able to claim that the left’s hypocrisy ends when Israel’s borders end(wherever they may be).