Comic relief: the ethical intervention of 'Avodah 'Aravit (Arab Labor) in political discourses of Israel–Palestine

Abstract

When it comes to Western discourses of Israel–Palestine, the value and efficacy of satire as a vehicle for both critique and reconciliation are often underappreciated and rarely employed. Canadians and Americans, in particular, treat the ongoing geopolitical conflict almost exclusively in the serious terms of security, a discursive paradigm that consistently positions Arab Israelis and Palestinians as security threats. By contrast, Israeli mainstream media accommodates vibrant satirical counter-discourse critical of the Israeli state that is entirely absent in North America. In this article, I argue that due to the closeness of the countries' political and economic ties with Israel, it is essential that Canadian and American public discourses move beyond framing Israeli–Palestinian relations exclusively in terms of security. This article, therefore, aims to intervene in these discourses by arguing that satire, and comedy in particular, can engage Israeli–Palestinian relations more ethically than the dominant security paradigm. To begin this intervention, the paper conducts a close reading of 'Avodah 'Aravit, an Israeli television sitcom about Arabs living in Israel, demonstrating the show's simultaneous nation-building function and criticism of Israeli state policies through satire and comedy.