Arab Literary Travels

Natalie Bernstien: Introduction Page

My goal for the final project is to examine relationship between the Israel Palestine conflict and its spatial repercussions. Since the beginning of the Zionist movement, this land has become a center of conflict in world politics. World leaders from several nation states have attempted to foster peace and stability in the region, and 68 years after the creation of the Israeli state, conflict seems relentless. One issue I believe many of these world leaders do not understand is the danger of the binary; of course, any person has the freedom to describe themselves as Pro-Israel or Pro-Palestine, but I believe there is much more nuance in these terms, and to not explore these complexities is to oversimplify the conflict.

I believe that Sayed Kashua, a Palestinian writer raised in Israel, represents these complexities through his humor writing. What can we learn about Israeli society – a society whose ‘social order’ is ‘threatened’ by Palestinians and other minority populations – when Arab Labor – written by a Palestinian man – is one of the most critically acclaimed television shows in Israel? Kashua represents a population of Palestinians living within Israel proper that experienced constant discrimination and racism on a daily basis. After Israel invaded Gaza in the summer of 2014, Kashua did not feel safe raising his family within Israel any longer.  Through this project, I hope to explore this decision and his experience growing up in Israel by means of the physical locations he lived in and his television show, Arab Labor.

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