Al Midan Theater (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: مسرح الميدان) is the

Arabic-speaking Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic, including ...

theater in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

History

The theater was founded in 1994 by group of Arab Israeli Palestinian Theatre Artists like Yousef Abu Wardeh, Fouad Awad and others, and received the full support of the

i Minister of Education

Shulamit Aloni Shulamit Aloni (; 27 December 1927 – 24 January 2014) was an Israeli politician. She founded the Ratz (political party), Ratz party, was leader of the Meretz party, Leader of the Opposition (Israel), Leader of the Opposition from 1988 to 1990, ...

during

Israeli Prime Minister The prime minister of Israel (, Hebrew abbreviation: ; , ''Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma'') is the head of government and chief executive of the State of Israel. Israel is a parliamentary republic with a president as the head of state. The presiden ...

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...

's government and with the assistant of then Haifa mayor

Amram Mitzna Amram Mitzna (; born 20 February 1945) is an Israeli politician and former general in the IDF. He is a former mayor of Haifa (1993–2003) and Yeruham (2005–2010) and led the Labor Party from 2002 to 2003. In 2012 he joined Hatnuah. Youth, e ...

, through the Council for Culture and Art in Haifa, by chairman Isaac Rubin and

Ouriel Zohar Ouriel Zohar (born 1952), is an Israeli and French theater director, playwright, poet and translator from French to Hebrew. Professor at the Department of Humanities & Arts at the Technion University, created the Technion theater in 1986. Has be ...

who then chaired the Council's theater committee. At the beginning it was named "The Arab-Israeli theater", but after a few years it was renamed to its current name. The theater serves as the artistic community of Arabs in Israel. Productions of the theater run throughout the country. The theater consists two halls, one hall with 292 seats, and the second with 112 seats. The second hall is named after theater director Mazen Ghattas who died in 2005. In its early years the theater wandered between

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

and Haifa and eventually received a professional hall, 300 seats, at Migdal HaNeviim in Haifa. The theater runs plays only in the Arabic language, and employs fresh new Arab actors graduating from Israeli

drama school A drama school, stage school, or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or Academic department, department at a college or university, or a free-standing institution (such as the drama section at the Juilliard School) that ...

s, along with well known first-class actors of Israel's Arab artists. The initial budget with the opening of the theater was four million

Shekel A shekel or sheqel (; , , plural , ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams (0.35 ozt)—and became currency in ancient Tyre, Carthage and Hasmonean Judea. Name The wo ...

, funded from the budget of the Israeli Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Haifa. Over the years, the share of budget from the Ministry of Culture had decreased, and the share of the municipality has increased. In March 2011, the theater announced it was in danger of closure, following a cumulative deficit due to the non-transfer of budget promised by former Culture Ministry Director Yoav Rosen.

"A Parallel Time" controversy

During 2014, the theater started running the play "A Parallel Time" based on the life of an Arab citizen of Israel, Walid Daqqa. Daqqa was a prisoner serving a life sentence, who was convicted of being part of the group that abducted and killed

Israeli soldier The Israeli Ground Forces () are the ground forces of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The commander is the General Officer Commanding with the rank of major general, the ''Mazi'', subordinate to the Chief of General Staff. An order from Defen ...

Moshe Tamam. Following a protest by bereaved families, local public figures and others, Haifa Municipality decided to freeze the funding for the theater and to establish a committee to examine further steps. Since the show started running, about 900 students in Junior year and Twelfth grade had watched the show. Education Minister

Naftali Bennett Naftali Bennett (, ; born 25 March 1972) is an Israeli politician and businessman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, and as the alternate prime minister from 1 July to 8 November 2022. Bennett was t ...

convened the National Cultural Cart Committee to examine the cancellation of further show orders. On June 8, 2015 the Culture Committee unanimously decided not to remove the show from the National Cultural Cart funding, however, the minister used his authority to order its removal and the show had been removed from the Culture Cart.

References

{{Arab citizens of Israel footer, uncollapsed Arab Israeli culture in Haifa Culture of Palestine (region) Buildings and structures in Haifa Theatres in Israel