Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumWhy don't you believe Palestinians?': the Israeli comedian putting the conflict on stage
Last edited Fri Nov 7, 2025, 03:20 PM - Edit history (1)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/nov/07/israeli-comedian-putting-genocide-on-stageWhy dont you believe Palestinians?: the Israeli comedian putting the conflict on stage
In documentary Coexistence, My Ass!, Noam Shuster Eliassi uses humor and honesty to turn a one-woman show into something politically radical
Adrian Horton
Fri 7 Nov 2025 05.01 EST
In the late 2010s, Noam Shuster Eliassi was working at the United Nations, the latest step in a lifelong effort to build peace between Israelis and Palestinians, when she had an epiphany. In Ukraine, a Jewish comedian named Volodymyr Zelenskyy had made the improbable leap from sitcom about accidentally becoming president to actually becoming president. Perhaps, if she were to take her political career seriously, she should start writing jokes.
It worked. As an Israeli Jew fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and English, Shuster Eliassi could nimbly weave between different audiences, and what started as short comedic videos on social media soon became an invitation from Harvard to develop a full-on stand-up routine skewering the idea of coexistence as its often used in the Israeli-Palestinian context. The show would riff on her upbringing in one of the only joint Israeli-Palestinian communities in the country, threading a fine needle with self-deprecating humor and an activists edge. The aim, she told the Guardian, was to unpack the idea of coexistence, and say, like, this is how I grew up, there are so many funny kumbayah moments, and I propose something else.
more trailer at link
NNadir
(36,956 posts)I hate this war because it's exactly like all other wars: Nobody is right and everybody is wrong.
Lithos
(26,595 posts)The I/P forum requires that the title of the article match the title of the post.
Best,
Lithos
I/P Forum Moderator
!!
jfz9580m
(16,159 posts)I did see Zelenskys show on my streaming video service but somehow..
It was the same deal with Mo Amer. I watched his interview on Jon Stewart. He seems pretty cool. I started his show, but then somehow it seemed oddly anachronistic given the last year. I also watched a few episodes of an Israeli comedy show Hashoter Hatov. It was not too bad and it is quite old so less incongruous. But somehow I couldnt continue with any of the three.
This is not really related to the rest of the thread. Its just an anecdote.
I havent really been following I-P except that it was horrifying. Its especially dark that its fuel for neo Nazis that the IDF responded this way to the Oct 7 attack.
I have decided that I have so many issues with the peacetime activities of humans that war is too much to add on. Anyway its not as if allied groups dont follow that. I am sticking with green and animal issues personally.
But I felt bad that I had not donated as much to Palestinian relief as I should. Thats usually my
way of being part of the human family, which is make at least a token donation if I cant do much.
But I found it so hard to donate to Palestine. It kept getting flagged as suspicious activity and I dont thinks its so much that its pro or anti Palestine as my shitty credit card company doing sleazy shit as ethical hacking or some kind of social engineering.
They recently tagged a Dair donation as well. I should see if I can still make donations to The Black Agenda Report. Maybe it was a coincidence, but while all my contributions are in this inane reality radical left (absurd..I just dislike stale rot and I am not dogmatic. I only like specific people - yeah they are all on the left. But they are still rare. And I live in a communist state where I outright dislike the ruling party for all that I am on the left) at least they are not giving me grief over my animal rights and green contributions yet.
Its not my bank so much as my credit card. They have always had a sleazy vibe and I have this feeling they have some underhanded ties to this super creepy movement called Effective Altruism that keeps trying to pile on to animal rights. The last time I was at one of their offices this girl came up and asked me about Malaria Nets out of the blue.
I know thats a hobby horse with those creepy effective altruists. I should cancel my credit card and get a different one. It was just a meaningless interaction. But one of a kind that I dislike especially. I found it hard to make even one donation to Palestine thanks to their constant flagging of it as suspicious activity. Somehow I feel that tracks ideologically with how effective altruists think. They are creeps. I can see them selling creepy shit as gaming or ethical hacking.
That sounds paranoid but these days there are inappropriate enough things out there which should be reported..