Bilingualism and the Televisual Architecture of Linguistic (dis-) Encounters in the Israeli Television Show Arab Labor

Abstract

Considered the first fully Hebrew-Arabic bilingual television show on Israeli prime time television, Arab Labor (2007–2013) attracted the attention of critics and scholars for its sharp satire and criticism of the daily dilemmas and discrimination faced by Israeli Arab citizens. Although its success among audiences and critics opened the door for other bilingual television shows spoken in Hebrew and Arabic, it also caused frustration for the series’ creator due the limits imposed by commercial television operating in an antagonistic socio-political context. While previous studies on the show have focused on its main narrative conflicts and themes, the present study proposes to examine the televisual spatio-temporal, linguistic and dramatic structures that foster the encounters and conflicts between the two languages spoken in the series.