Alrowwad Theatre Group French Tour, June 2011

For two weeks beginning on Wednesday, 15 June, 2011, I was the mini-bus driver, translator (English-French) and roadie for a Palestinian theater group from the Alrowwad Cultural Center in the Aida Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem. This is the center which I had visited in 2007 to do some photography workshops and help set up a darkroom. They toured France for two weeks, then spent time in Paris, ending their European stay in Luxembourg on July 7.  The company included: the playright, director and actor Abdelfattah (Abed) Abusrour; the actors Canaan Abusrour (11 years old), Hala Alyamani, Issa Abusrour, Mahmoud Abusrour, Ribal Alkurdi, Bassam Hasaniyeh, Tarek Aljawabra, and the technicians Murad Abusrour (lights & video) and Ahmad Alajarma (sound).

At the time I wrote a daily journal in text and photos, titled “On the Road with Alrowwad,” which you can find under the Recent News section at the bottom left of any of my website pages.

If there is any hope for peace in the Middle East, it is thanks to people like this who struggle non-violently against the daily violence of their existence, and who wish no evil to anyone.  They deserve all the support we can give them.  They can be found at: http://www.alrowwad-acts.ps/.  There are also two support sites, The Friends of Alrowwad in the US: http://alrowwadusa.org/home/ and Les Amis d’Alrowwad in France: http://www.amis-alrowwad.org/index.php.