The story of "I can"

Can any of us really imagine what it’s like to a child in Gaza right now? To have lived through months of intensive, incessant bombing? To have had close friends and family members killed? To be constantly worried about when you’re next going to be able to eat or drink?

The logical result of this, of course, is that you grow up with deep hatred in your heart and that you want to seek vengeance.

But you could also grow up wanting to make art about your situation. as a step towards healing yourself and your community, and so that others around the world may know your story.

Basim chose the second way. This is his story.

Basim is 9 years old in the picture above. He’s the one sitting in the wheelchair. It was 2014 and he had just had his home destroyed (you can see what remains of it in the background) in Israel’s brutal summer bombardment of Gaza which killed 551 children. Basim survived. He was brought out of the rubble with a broken leg.

At the time many of us who have always stood up for Palestinian rights thought that these kind of atrocities would be unrepeatable, and that that they would force the world to take action. How wrong we were.

Fast forward four years to 2018 when Basim is 13 and studying at an UNRWA school in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. His English teacher, Imad Wahba invites him to participate in a project to create a play as an entry for the Hands Up Project’s remote theatre competition. The challenge was to make a five minute play that could be performed to camera in one take, with no special effects added or any editing whatsover.

Basim jumped at the chance and ending up playing the main character. You can see the result below.

‘I can’ went on to be one of the winners that year, and it was published in our second collection of plays by young people in Palestine - ‘Welcome to Earth’

As their prize, Basim and his co actors, Mahmoud and Abid, and their teacher, Imad travelled with me to the West bank on their first ever trip out of Gaza. They re-perfomed their play as traditional (not remote) theatre in front of hundreds of young people from local schools at the Russian Centre theatre in Bethlehem, and also at a school in Arrob refugee camp near Hebron (pictured below)

Now it’s 2024 and Basim is 19 years old. His home has been destroyed by bombing again, he’s been displaced, and he’s currently living in a tent in Rafah. He recently managed to return to his house to inspect the damage and whilst there managed to retrieve his copy of ‘Welcome to Earth’ and the trophy that we gave him from the rubble (see below)

Despite everything that he’s been through, Basim hasn’t given up. In fact he’s more determined than ever to make theatre. He’s managed to trace the original cast members of ‘I can’ - Abid and Mahmoud, and is currently working on rehearsing a new performance with them from their tents in Rafah, to reflect the current catastrophe that everyone in Gaza is experiencing. You can see a compilation of some of the short videos Basim sent us of this below.

Basim we salute you! We ‘re so proud of everything you’re doing and will do anything we can to support you.