Howard Brenton. Photo: Eamonn McCabe.

In the Guardian yesterday, British dramatist Howard Brenton urged readers to “stand up for the West Bank’s Freedom Theatre.” Brenton wrote:

The Freedom Theatre began as a community project for young people of both sexes. It has expanded into an arts project for the West Bank that also entertains an enthusiastic adult audience; it has started an acting school, and recently launched a film school to train young people for the growing Palestinian film industry. It is a small pool of enlightenment and joy in a dark place.

Israel: many of us defended your National Theatre’s right to perform recently at the Globe in London. From the same argument, stop your attacks on the Freedom Theatre and release its artists from your prisons.

I wrote about the Freedom Theatre’s troubles on 7 June.