Popular Israeli TV sitcom “Arab Labor” highlights lives of Arab-Israelis

Cast of Israeli hit sitcom "Arab Labor"

Arab- Israeli journalist, Sayed Kashua, works at the Israeli newspaper Haaretz writing a weekly column about Arab and Palestinian issues, but he is better known as the writer of a sitcom that has become very popular on Israeli TV called “Arab Labor” or “Avoda Aravit” in Hebrew, which is a derogatory term describing shoddy or second rate work. The series is popular with its mostly Jewish audience, which finds it irreverent and funny. The series' main character is Amjad Alian, an Israeli-Arab journalist living and working in Jerusalem, who tries to fit into mainstream Jewish society, often with comic results. Mr. Kashua resorts to some unflattering stereotypes on both sides for the sake of comedy, but he is also a master of subtle nuance in dealing with both Arab and Jewish society. The show has a prime time slot in Israeli TV even though 70 percent of the dialogue of “Avoda Aravit” in Arabic with Hebrew subtitles.

 “Avoda Aravit” reflects a society still grappling with fundamental issues of identity and belonging in a Jewish state. The series is highly controversial in Israel's Arab community and has engendered criticism in the mainstream Israeli press over its treatment of delicate issues of discrimination, religion and coexistence. In the left leaning newspaper Haaretz, journalist Alon Idan asks, “What’s so Funny?” and criticizes Kashua for presenting painful truths that are tamed by the sitcom's script and extensive use of slapstick comedy. He states that the sitcom hatches a kind of deal with the Jewish viewer, promising not to present anything too disturbing, even though the plots now and then fleetingly touch upon potentially explosive subjects. Many among the 1.4 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, 20 percent of the population, say it borders on insulting. The Arabic press reviews have been “deadly — the critics are attacking everything I’ve done,” Mr. Kashua said. The lavish praise by most Hebrew-language critics has not helped.

One of the problems is that Israel, still largely relates to its Arab minority as “a fifth column or a demographic problem” says Kashua. While Israel’s Arab citizens are guaranteed full equality under the state’s 1948 Declaration of Independence, and they even participate in Parliament, discrepancies in budget and land allocations have resulted in wide gaps between many of the state’s Arabs and Jews. The Intifadas and increased violence have also sparked increased suspicion of all Arabs, without discriminating between moderate Arabs and radical extreme ones. Donna Rosenthal describes this reality in Israel by telling a story about a secular Arab doctor, part of an expanding Muslim bilingual and bicultural middle class, living and working in Haifa side by side with Israelis. The Arab doctor was a respected staff member of an Israeli hospital, but when he traveled with a group of Jewish doctors to a conference outside the country – he was humiliated to be the only individual singled out for a special security screening because of his name and looks (Rosenthal, 258). This moderate Israeli Arab doctor supports the creation of a Palestinian state, but feels that Israel is his home and that Jews and Arabs have to think seriously about “what kind of future it will be because we’re all going to be sharing it.”(Rosenthal, 262) He is a proponent of peaceful coexistence but not all Arab Israelis subscribe to that belief, nor do all Jewish Israelis.

The article from the New York Times praises Kashua for successfully launching a TV series in Israel, but the writer presents a negative view of Israel when he described Kashua’s upbringing and the dominance of Israelis over Arabs –seeming to say that no matter what Kashua did, the Israelis would always hold him in low regard. The article from Haaretz criticizes Kashua for sugar-coating difficult and painful issues with comedy and slapstick. This journalist sees the need within Israel to confront these problems, not laugh about them. That is easier said than done. The truth is that with his sitcom, “Avoda Aravit”, Kashua has managed to barge through cultural barriers and bring an Arab point of view into the mainstream of Israeli entertainment.  It is his way of trying to address the undercurrents of unease and maybe diffuse the growing polarization among both Israelis and Arabs in Israel.