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A30 world news
Diabierna 10 September 2021

Theater kid turned militant stars in Israeli prison break

core members of the group, the West Bank, Gaza and east cision to take a break.”
only Zubeidi survived. Ju- Jerusalem, territories Israel
liano was gunned down in seized in the 1967 war. Israel arrested Zubeidi again
Jenin in 2011 under mysteri- in 2019. He was later charged
ous circumstances. In 2007, Zubeidi availed with taking part in two shoot-
himself of a general amnesty ing attacks against Israeli
In a 2006 interview with for militants from Abbas’ Fa- buses in the occupied West
the U.K.’s Sunday Times, tah party and joined the Free- Bank, in which no one was
Zubeidi traced his militan- dom Theater, which Juliano seriously wounded, and was
cy back to the death of his Mer-Khamis had founded said to have been planning a
mother, Samira, who was the previous year to continue third. Allegations dating back
killed by an Israeli sniper in his late mother’s legacy. to the intifada were added to
2002. His brother, Taha, was the charge sheet.
killed shortly thereafter, as “We want to take the Pales-
were friends and fellow fight- tinian cause to the people His brother said Zubeidi did
ers. The theater Mer-Khamis through theater,” Zubeidi not acknowledge the charges
started, which initially met told The Associated Press and was awaiting trial.
on the roof of Zubeidi’s fam- in 2008. But he never sur-
ily home, was demolished rendered his weapons to the He was held at Gilboa prison,
that year. Palestinian Authority, say- a maximum-security facility
ing even then that he did not in northern Israel just a few
Another Israeli woman, Tali trust the amnesty agreement miles (kilometers) away from
(AP) — For nearly two general who served in Israeli Fahima, also had an unlikely and feared for his life. Jenin. He shared a cell with
decades, Zakaria Zubeidi military intelligence during cameo in the drama. The five members of the Islamic
has been an object of fas- the uprising. “He’s a Forrest pro-Palestinian activist struck In 2011, Israeli media report- Jihad militant group from
cination for Israelis and Gump, sort of. He played all up a friendship with Zubeidi ed that Israel had revoked Jenin, four of whom were
Palestinians alike, who the roles.” during the intifada and met Zubeidi’s pardon without serving life sentences on ter-
have seen his progres- with him in Jenin. Israel ar- giving a reason. The Pal- rorism convictions.
sion from a child actor to Among Palestinians, Zubeidi rested her in 2004 and she estinian Authority arrested
a swaggering militant, to was just one of several prom- spent three years in prison him the following year after Early on Monday, each of
the scarred face of a West inent militants of that era, his for aiding a terrorist organi- a shooting outside the home them squeezed into a narrow
Bank theater promoting name having long ago faded zation. of Jenin’s governor. Zubeidi hole in the floor of their cell
“cultural resistance” to Is- from the headlines. Now, he was released months later af- and escaped through a tunnel
raeli occupation. and the other escapees are be- Israeli media speculated the ter a widely publicized hun- running beneath the prison
ing hailed as national heroes two were lovers — some- ger strike. walls. It’s unclear what role
Now he has emerged as one for staging the biggest break- thing they both denied. In an Zubeidi played in the escape,
of Israel’s most wanted fu- out from an Israeli prison in interview with Israel’s Chan- He has led a quieter life over but he is the most famous of
gitives after tunneling out decades. nel 10 in 2008, Fahima ac- the last decade, working on the six — and is once again
of a high-security prison on cused Zubeidi of collaborat- prisoner affairs for the same among Israel’s most wanted.
Monday with five other Pal- Zubeidi rose to prominence ing with Israel’s Shin Bet se- Palestinian Authority that
estinian militants. during the second intifada curity service after he secured had jailed him and studying Kuperwasser suspects that
as the leader of the Al-Aqsa permission to travel from political science at Birzeit if he remains at large long
Zubeidi, now in his mid-40s, Martyrs Brigade, an armed Jenin to the West Bank city of University in the West Bank. enough he’ll return to his old
comes from a generation of offshoot of the secular Fatah Ramallah for eye surgery. His relatives say he gave up ways — and not just the mili-
Palestinians who were chil- party, in the impoverished militant activities long ago. tancy.
dren during the first intifada, Jenin refugee camp in the oc- The intifada had begun to
or uprising against Israel, cupied West Bank. wind down in 2005 after the “As long as we are under oc- “It’s dangerous for him, but
which erupted in 1987. They election of President Mah- cupation, no Palestinian will I wouldn’t be surprised if he
lived through a brief period The camp, which is home to moud Abbas, who is commit- abandon the struggle against would look for an opportu-
of hope at the height of the Palestinian refugees from the ted to resolving the decades- the occupation,” Zubeidi’s nity to speak with somebody
peace process, only to take up 1948 war surrounding Isra- long conflict through negoti- brother, Yehia, told The As- to gain some more political
arms in the far more violent el’s creation, was the scene of ations with Israel. He seeks to sociated Press. “But there are clout from his success in es-
intifada that erupted in 2000, a major battle with the Israeli establish a Palestinian state in a lot of factors, like age, a de- caping prison.”
and which claimed the lives army in 2002. A mishandled
of Zubeidi’s mother, brother explosive left a peppering of
and several comrades. black scars on Zubeidi’s face,
and he spent years eluding Is-
But even among that cohort, raeli authorities.
few Palestinian militants had
closer ties to Israelis than Zu- A far younger Zubeidi ap-
beidi, who for many years pears in the archival footage
was an even bigger celebrity of “Arna’s Children,” a 2004
in Israel than in the Palestin- documentary about a chil-
ian territories. dren’s theater founded in the
Jenin refugee camp in the late
To Israelis, he is a notorious 1980s by Arna Mer-Khamis,
terrorist responsible for sui- an Israeli Jewish activist who
cide bombings and shooting married a Palestinian and
attacks that killed civilians. supported the Palestinian
He also is one of the few who cause.
regularly gave media inter-
views. The film, made by her son
Juliano, follows boys from
“In many ways, he’s the the Jenin refugee camp who
poster kid for Israelis of the joined the theater as children,
Palestinian terror campaign only to be drawn into the
of the second intifada,” said vortex of the second intifada
Yossi Kuperwasser, a retired as young men. Of the five