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WORLD> Middle East
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Rare TV satire mocks Palestinian politicians
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-10 17:26 RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestine TV was once the boring channel that viewers skipped over while searching for entertainment. But this time, the state-run station has picked a winner -- an irreverent comedy show that mocks and often bites the hand that feeds it: the government. "Homeland on a Thread" satirizes inept Palestinian politicians, police bullies and Muslim extremists. It's Palestine TV's first ever attempt at political satire, an art form that remains rare in the Arab world.
The 30-minute program's popularity is a sign that audiences are thirsting for more openness, said Manal Awad, one of three comedians featured in the skits broadcast every evening for the duration of the Muslim month of Ramadan. "The group is trying to break the three red lines of Palestinian society -- politics, sex and religion," said Awad. "We want to send a clear message to audiences: we need to say things as they are in reality, not avoid them." Palestinians have much tragedy to mine for black humor. In the West Bank, they live under Israeli military occupation, with the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas running most day-to-day affairs. In Gaza, they're confined to a narrow coastal strip by an Israeli-Egyptian border blockade and live under the rule of the Islamic militant Hamas which controlled the territory in 2007. In a recent skit, an actor portraying Abbas chaired his Fatah party's seventh convention -- the sixth was just held in August, after two decades of delay. But in the skit, the seventh convention is 500 years in the future, and the president is actually Abbas the 13th -- mocking the tendency of Arab leaders to pass on their jobs to their heirs.
Of course, it pays to be careful. TV executives acknowledged they asked Abbas' permission before running the episode. It was the only skit featuring Abbas. Other Palestinian politicians have also been skewered, including senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. In one episode, a Palestinian negotiator is shown giving his pants to Israeli officials who agree to take down an Israeli military checkpoint in return, the paltry reward for years of peace talks. Erekat is not identified by name, but viewers recognize him when the actor portraying him uses some of Erekat's catch phrases in the dialogue. In a third segment, a young man tried to take his girlfriend to a quiet place to talk. But the young couple gets caught in a maze of Palestinian checkpoints manned by different branches of the security forces, including police, firefighters and paratroopers. Palestinians don't have paratroopers, let alone an air force, and the scene skewered the Palestinian Authority's many grandly named security branches who often harass residents. Palestinian media don't use ratings but the show's popularity is demonstrated by its prime-time slot, and the buzz it has created. Palestinians throughout the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem say they watch it with their families. |
