My clown is in an Israeli prison, again!

Mohammad Abu Sakha (Antar) Credit: Palestinian Circus School

In the lead-up to the most recent Israeli military onslaught on the Jenin Refugee Camp in the north of the West Bank, Israeli intelligence was at its all-time best. Aware that Israel had decided to undertake wanton destruction of the Jenin Refugee Camp, yet again, Israeli security teams were on the lookout for the most dangerous Palestinians.

It was a Friday, June 9, 2023. As has become the norm these days, dozens of Israeli soldiers were staked out on the main road in the Palestinian village of Huwwara, stopping and searching Palestinian cars on a whim. This road, Route 60, is the main artery for anyone traveling from Ramallah in the central West Bank to the north of the West Bank, to the cities of Nablus and Jenin, among others. Earlier this year, Huwwara, you may recall, was the location of the pogroms carried out by hundreds of Israeli settlers (protected by Israeli soldiers) that wreaked havoc and death on the Palestinian community there.

It is through the Huwwara checkpoint that thousands of Palestinians must pass every day, especially during the weekend when many who work and stay in Ramallah during the week, return to visit their families up north for the weekend.

It was at that checkpoint and in broad daylight that Israeli soldiers made their catch.

He was driving his private car. He approached the checkpoint when ordered to by the soldiers. Like most vehicles crossing at that time, it was waved down to stop. As soldiers collected his identification card, it caught their attention. They ordered him to exit the car. He was handcuffed, blindfolded, and whisked away in a military jeep. That is the last we have seen of him.

Who was this strategic threat to the mighty state of Israel, that nuclear-armed regional military super-power, that Israel made disappear?

It was a clown, literally! Not any clown, but our clown; the Palestinian Circus School’s clown. 

The person arrested, or more accurately, kidnapped, by the Israeli military was my dear friend, Muhammad Abu Sakha. He was on his way home to visit his family in Jenin, as he does almost every two weeks since he works in Ramallah as the Palestinian Circus School’s Social Programs Coordinator.

Mohammad Abu Sakha is better known as Antar, his clown’s name. He can be seen here in this series of videos where he is teaching kids circus arts.

His last piece of work before disappearing was creating a circus performance with ten children with disabilities. The plan was to perform it several times during this summer. Now these ten children anxiously wait for his release, along with all the children (and adults) who were planning to attend the performances.

Mohammad Abu Sakha (Antar) teaching children circus arts. Credit: Palestinian Circus School

Mohammad is not the first to be arrested without charge. Israel calls it Administrative Detention and the latest figure is that 1,133, including 12 children, are being held in Israeli prisons today. This is the highest number since the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank started in 1967. My 76-year-old Palestinian-American cousin, Jamal Niser, was the eldest among them before being released a few weeks ago, after 8 months of detention, his second bout of this madness, but told he cannot leave the West Bank unless he agrees in writing to never return.

This is also not the first time Mohammad has spent months of his life in administrative detention, away from the love of his life, the children — his students — to whom he teaches circus arts.. In 2017, under the same conditions, being pulled out of a vehicle while on a visit home to Jenin, he spent 21 months locked up. When he was released after his first detention, his circus school colleagues took a minibus to pick him up. They recorded the trip and reception. The chant they are singing is one we all sing (it rhymes in Arabic): “Abu Sakha, we love him, anyone is crazy if they don’t love him.”

Today, the Palestinian Circus School must answer to his students and their parents who ask, “Where is Antar?”, their trainer.

I hope the state of Israel feels more secure, now that it has captured a clown.

I’d be tempted to say that I hope Israeli mothers and fathers are resting better knowing Palestinian children will not be smiling, but that would not be fair. I prefer to stick with my conviction that the majority of Israeli mothers and fathers are blind to what their state is actually doing in their name to Palestinians. The indoctrination of Jewish communities everywhere has become part of the problem.

Mohammad Abu Sakha (Antar) Credit: Palestinian Circus School

What can you do to help free Mohammad Abu Sakha? His sentence of administrative detention, and the length of time he will spend behind bars this time, is expected to be announced in the next few days. Let’s not let this happen without protest.

The traditional actions would be to send a message to a set of Israeli officials, “judges”, military administrators, and the like, to call for his release and the release of all who are being held without charge in administrative detention. However, such actions have brought little relief to others in the past.

Instead, I suggest three actions:

1. Call your nearest Israeli embassy or consulate and demand that Palestine’s clown, Mohammad Abu Sakha, be immediately released and permitted to make children laugh again.

2. Call your political representatives and acknowledge their impotence in ending the 56-year Israeli military occupation, and ask if, alternatively, they have any wherewithal to use their good offices to call for Palestine’s clown to be released. This is especially relevant for Americans, whose government underwrites Israeli occupation to the tune of $4 billion annually.

3. Make a generous donation in honor of clown Mohammad Abu Sakha, a.k.a. Antar, to the Palestinian Circus School.

Join the effort to achieve Freedom for Mohammad Abu Sakha and all administrative detainees.

Meanwhile, we hope Mohammad is at least jailed alongside the 12 Palestinian children being held as administrative detainees, since we are confident that he will bring smiles to their faces, even in detention. These smiles are what Mohammad lives for.

~ Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American business consultant and frequent independent political commentator from Ramallah/Al-Bireh in Occupied Palestine. He is a General Assembly member at the Palestinian Circus School and blogs at ePalestine.ps. @SamBahour