Palestinian militant swaps guns for theatre
Published 14 February, 2008, 06:32
Once a militant, participating in armed attacks and bombings, today Zakariya Zubeidi has laid down his arms for a very different occupation. The former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades set up a theatre group in a Palestinian refugee camp that aims to help children overcome the impact of war.
For years the Israeli government wanted Zakariya Zubeidi dead or alive. They accused him of organising roadside shootings and suicide bombings.
More than once he narrowly escaped their bullet, rising through the ranks to become in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin. But behind the tough exterior was a dreamer who as a child imagined a different future for him and his friends.
“You can give children weapons but they don't know how to express themselves. Theatre is another way to give children something to live for. I have put down my weapons for now and I'm using the theatre as a way to express myself – through it I can explain why I used to use weapons or why I once thought of blowing myself up,” the former militant leader said.
These ideas aren't far from the minds of the 16,000 people who live in the refugee camp. Most of them are unemployed and feel the full brunt of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Children here grow up on stories of martyrs – Palestinian suicide bombers who blew themselves up inside Israel. In a place where there is precious little to dream of, for some – it's the only dream they have.
“Here in Jenin they go back to zero. They have nothing. Especially with the boys, they think about nothing, they just thinking about dying, how I can die. I ask them what is their dream? They say dying,” Nabeel Alrae, a drama teacher, said.
But for the first time, there is something to live for Zakariya has set the camp's only theatre.
“I used to throw stones at the soldiers on the streets but now i imagine the soldiers are in front of me in the theatre and I'm throwing stones at them from the stage,” Kamal Awwad, an aspiring actor, said.
