Avoda Aravit - Sitcom Addresses Tough Topics

CNN's Ben Wedeman reports on a ground-breaking sitcom that uses hard-edged humor

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Palestine
• Israeli-Arabs
• Israel
• Avoda
• Aravit

[ShmorgelBorgel]

I never denied that Arab citizens of Israel encounter discrimination, and I support a just, two-state solution, and equal opportunity for the members of the Arab minority in Israel. But there is a reason why Arabs are subjected to additional scrutiny at airports, and the reason is fair. And yes, Jewish terrorism exists also, and the Shin Bet monitors Jewish radical groups. (They failed in their duty in the case of Yigal Amir.)

[ShmorgelBorgel]

If you had a clue-- you would realize that the whole point of this show is that it gave a platform to Israeli Arab writers and actors to discuss the fact that there is such a thing as discrimination against the Arab sector in Israel. None of my comments dismissed that reality. However, I was pointing out the irony of the fact that while some unjust discrimination exists, some of it is fair. And the Israeli society that Mira Awad disdains gives her a platform to air her complaints.

[mohinav]

@ShmorgelBorgel LOL! Now I feel better, not being alone :)כשהם שואלים אותי בבן גוריון 'מה עשית באנגליה כל כך הרבה זמן?' אני אומר : שהיתי!!! :)))

[ShmorgelBorgel]

"Now I live in LONDON !!!!!! And it's coool! NO TEUDAT ZEHUT!!!!"

There is a National ID Card in Britain, but it's not yet compulsory for all citizens to carry it--although many other EU countries, like Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic require citizens to carry ID at all times and show to the police if asked. In any case, I'd be really careful of the Metropolitan Police in London, don't forget what they did to that poor Brazilian guy on the Tube after 7/7/05.

[ShmorgelBorgel]

Traveling to and from Israeli maybe a dozen times between 2000--2003, having a WASPY-sounding last name, not wearing a kippa or tsitsit, and speaking an American-accented Hebrew--I didnt fit the profile of an American Jew who visited Israel at that time, and for that reason I made Israeli security nervous.I think they believed I was a left-wing radical/anarchist type (perhaps by the way I dressed), although I am very far from a Rachel Corrie admirer--I'd always be questioned at great length.

[ShmorgelBorgel]

Now, even though I have one grandmother who was born in the Yishuv HaYashan and came from a Mizrahi background, like I say, I am fair-skinned and my last name sounds English. Nevertheless, since childhood, I speak a fair Hebrew albeit with an American accent--so sometimes I would answer in Hebrew at secuirty, when I was asked "le eizo kehila ata shayyakh" I would answer "La kehila ha yehudit!". They were never satisfied with that answer--I would often be searched more etc.

[ShmorgelBorgel]

My paternal great grandfather changed his surname 100 years ago, and I'm light-skinned, Ashkenazi, with a non-Jewish surname. Before making aliyah I often traveled to Israel on a US passport in the early 2000s, after the 2nd Intfadeh started and when tourism was way down. Security was very suspicious. I was almost always interrogated and questioned closely about why I was traveling to Israel, which synagogue do I go to (as I am hiloni, I said none), who were my parents..etc.

[ShmorgelBorgel]

Romania, for instance, has a large ethnic Hungarian minority. They are entitled to cultural and civic rights as Romanian citizens who belong to the ethnic Hungarian minority--but they are not entitled to demand that Romania abandon its national identity as a Romanian state and they don't advocate terror to achieve that aim. Likewise, the Arab sector in Israel should be reconciled to living as a national/ethnic/linguistic/cul­tural minority in a Jewish state and can still demand its rights.

[ShmorgelBorgel]

"But we create a fertile ground for it by humiliating, explotating and discreminating people whom we call 'sector' or 'minority'"

Many other nation-states contain national and ethnic minorities. In most cases, those minorities are reconciled to being part of an ethnic minority sector and don't demand that the state or the majority of the population abandon their ethnic/national identity.

[mohinav]

@ShmorgelBorgel Terrorism happens just like McDonalds happens and CoCa Cola happens and Ebay happens - it's a buisness. But we create a fertile ground for it by humiliating, explotating and discreminating people whom we call 'sector' or 'minority'

[mohinav]

My name is not Awad, my name is Yehuda, but I look like Arab and have 'mizrahi' accent. When I go to airport everyone is questioned for 1-2 minutes, I am questioned for an hour minimum. When I go from Beer Sheva to Jerusalem I am checked, questioned, searched for at least seven times. When I fly El Al (I no longer do it now) i am asked all the details including about my great great parents. Now I live in LONDON !!!!!! And it's coool! NO TEUDAT ZEHUT!!!!!!

[ImamSoffian]

wow... That statement coming from a jew, really change my perception towards you guys... peace man... if all the people are like you, there would be peace in the world instead of just unexplainable warfare...

peace man...