JERUSALEM: The Palestinian Authority and Israeli military authorities should both end abuses against members of the West Bank-based Freedom Theater, Human Rights Watch said today. The Palestinian Authority (PA) arrested the theater company's co-founder, Zakaria Zubeidi, in May 2012, held him incommunicado, and allegedly tortured him. It arrested his defense lawyer in July. Israeli authorities arrested the company's artistic director, Nabil al-Ra'ee, in June, held him incommunicado, and allegedly subjected him to physical and psychological ill-treatment that might have amounted to torture, Human Rights Watch said. Zubeidi's lawyer and al-Ra'ee were recently released, but all three men still face charges. Al-Ra'ee's next military court hearing is scheduled for July 29. “Israel and the Palestinian Authority are trampling on the rights of Freedom Theater's staff," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “A theater should be able to offer critical and provocative work without fearing that its staff will be arrested and abused." The arbitrary arrests and detentions should cease, and allegations of mistreatment should be investigated, Human Rights Watch said. The theater's director and co-founder, Juliano Mer-Khamis, an Israeli citizen and activist, was killed in April 2011. Since the killing, Israeli occupation forces have repeatedly raided the theater and beaten and arbitrarily arrested employees. Israeli authorities have said that they suspect theater staff of involvement in Mer-Khamis's killing, but have not charged anyone with the crime. The PA appears to be abusing the theater's staff because of the company's criticisms of the PA's rule. The productions of the Freedom Theater, based in Jenin, have criticized the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and abuses by both Israel and the PA in the territory. Some staff and acting students are former members of Palestinian armed groups who renounced violence in favor of nonviolent opposition to Israeli and PA policies. Palestinian Authority Abuses Palestinian police arrested Zubeidi, the theater's co-founder, on May 13 amid a wave of about 150 arrests after unidentified people fired bullets at the home of the Palestinian governor of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, on May 2. Zubeidi's brother, Abed Zubeidi, told Human Rights Watch that police had arrested and abused Zubeidi at the Jenin police station after he responded to a police request to help with an unrelated investigation. “Zakaria said they tied his hands behind his back and pushed him down a flight of stairs," Abed Zubeidi said. Police transferred Zakaria Zubeidi to Jericho later that day, where he has been held in a military Preventive Security detention facility. The PA prosecutor denied Zubeidi access to his lawyer for more than 15 days, his brother told Human Rights Watch. Then, except during judicial hearings, he was able to meet with his lawyer, Farid Hawwash, only once, briefly, when Zubeidi signed documents granting Hawwash power of attorney in his case, Hawwash said. Officials at the detention facility repeatedly denied access to Zubeidi's family and have since allowed him to receive visitors once in early July and again on July 19, family and theater staff told Human Rights Watch. Zubeidi told his family and colleagues that officials at the Preventive Security detention facility had kept him in solitary confinement during his first 50 days there. During Zubeidi's interrogation, officials forced him to drink water from a toilet, he said. The jailers repeatedly tied his arms together and raised them in a painful elevated position for two days at a time, requiring him to stand and preventing him from sleeping. They also tied him to an iron door outside in the heat of the day. Abed Zubeidi also said that his brother has been denied access to newspapers, television, or other information sources. The officials demanded that Zubeidi tell them the whereabouts of “50 guns" that members of Palestinian armed groups had held during the second Palestinian popular uprising, or intifada. Zubeidi told them that Israeli forces had confiscated the guns years ago, his family and theater staff said. Human Rights Watch was not able to verify the allegations but has previously documented the torture and ill-treatment of detainees at the Preventive Security facility in Jericho, where Zubeidi is being held. The Independent Commission for Human Rights, a Palestinian human rights ombudsman, has submitted scores of affidavits to the PA regarding the alleged torture of people detained in the Jenin-centered mass arrests since May. Palestinian civilian courts repeatedly extended Zubeidi's detention without charge for 15-day periods. On June 26, the prosecutor informed his lawyer that his case had been transferred from the civilian to the military judiciary for further investigation, and he was denied access to his lawyer, as well as several family members and theater colleagues who had driven to Jericho to attend a hearing. After Zubeidi's lawyer challenged the military's jurisdiction, on July 7, Zubeidi's case was transferred back to the civilian judiciary, where he has been charged with “assisting an attempted murder," his lawyer said. On July 12, Preventive Security officials arrested Hawwash, Zubeidi's lawyer, at his home in Jenin, after he criticized the security agency in a hearing earlier that day in Jericho. “I said that the Preventive Security was acting like a mafia and telling the prosecution what to do," Hawwash told Human Rights Watch. “So the prosecutor charged me with insulting the prosecution and insulting Preventive Security." Hawwash and his brother separately told Human Rights Watch that the security forces did not show them a warrant for the arrest. The prosecutor's office denied Hawwash access to his lawyer until a court hearing on July 15 and did not allow him to call his family until July 16, family members said. Hawwash told Human Rights Watch that he was detained alone in an unhygienic cell but that he was not otherwise mistreated. He was released on bail of 1,000 Jordanian dinars (US$1,400) on July 18. The case against him is ongoing.
