Today I had the terrible job of reporting on the murder of Juliano Mer Khamis.

Juliano was an Arab-Israeli actor and director who spent the past five years offering the youth of Jenin an alternative reality. He founded and ran the Freedom Theatre, a drama school and community theatre in the middle of the Jenin refugee camp, where any child could become a part of plays, films, and art which they otherwise would never have known.

His mother Arna, an Israeli Jew, lived in Jenin throughout her life and in the 80s erected a similar venue called the Stone Theatre; it was built during the First Intifada and perished during the Second. Juliano produced a documentary about her work called Arna's Children. But I believe that Arna's son surpassed even her great efforts in developing the Freedom Theatre and placing art into the hands of children who've known only violence. That was no romantic ambition; it was a struggle, as the story of Yussef makes clear:





Today a masked man walked up to Juliano as he was leaving his home and left him with five bullets in his chest. One of Juliano's colleagues watched him die and was injured from the fire herself.