SITCOM>> POLITICS • Palestine
.jpg "The comedy show says what people cannot")
An Islamist judge who is a latent homosexual. A negotiator who emerges from peace talks stripped to his boxers. A president who worries about his Israelissued checkpoint pass. Palestinians are enjoying a new take on politics through satire. The sitcom Watan ala Watar debuted on Palestine TV during Ramzan in September and has become a smash hit. The title—homeland on a string—refers to the precarious state of the Palestinian national project, which has been split for two years between rival regimes: Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority (PA), headquartered in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Based on stand-up comedy by writer-actor Imad Farajeen, the show explores the Gaza- Ramallah divide. “If you make people laugh at difficult topics, you force them to look at things with a different point of view,” actor Manal Awad told the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera. Palestinian cultural critic Mohammed-el-Hamid said, “The show is not harmful to the regime. It’s reflecting what people think. The satire is saying what people cannot say, and that’s important.”
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