Bilingualism and the Televisual Architecture of Linguistic (dis-) Encounters in the Israeli Television Show Arab Labor - Nahuel Ribke, 2022

Published by Reblogs - Credits in Posts, April 13th, 2022

Television & New Media

Bilingualism and the Televisual Architecture of Linguistic (dis-) Encounters in the Israeli Television Show Arab Labor

Nahuel Ribke

First Published March 14, 2022 Research Article

https://doi.org/10.1177/15274764221084285

Abstract

Considered the first fully Hebrew-Arabic bilingual television show on Israeli prime time television, Arab Labor (2007–2013) attracted the attention of critics and scholars for its sharp satire and criticism of the daily dilemmas and discrimination faced by Israeli Arab citizens. Although its success among audiences and critics opened the door for other bilingual television shows spoken in Hebrew and Arabic, it also caused frustration for the series’ creator due the limits imposed by commercial television operating in an antagonistic socio-political context. While previous studies on the show have focused on its main narrative conflicts and themes, the present study proposes to examine the televisual spatio-temporal, linguistic and dramatic structures that foster the encounters and conflicts between the two languages spoken in the series.

Keywords a

bilingual television, TV series, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sitcom, Hebrew-Arabic, Arab Labor

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References

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	Butler, Jeremy G , 2012. Television: Critical Methods and Applications. New York, NY: Routledge. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
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	Bourdon, Jerome, Ribke, Nahuel. 2016. "Ratings, the State and Globalization: The Politics of Television Audience Measurement in Israel." Media Culture & Society 38 (2): 159–74. Google Scholar \| SAGE Journals\|
	Casillas, Dolores I., Ferrada, Juan S., Hinojos, Sara V.. 2018. "The Accent on Modern Family: Listening to Representations of the Latina Vocal Body." Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 43 (1): 61–88. Google Scholar\|
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	Druks, Judit . 2020. "Passing as. . . in Arab Labor by Sayed Kashua on Israeli TV." Third Text 34 (2): 311–22. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Goren, Shiri . 2020. "Arab Labor, Jewish Humor: Memory, Identity, and Creative Resistance on Israeli Prime-Time Television." Jewish Social Studies 25 (2): 107–26. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Hamers, Josiane F, Blanc, Michel H. A. 2004. Bilinguality and Bilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar\|
	Hawker, Nancy . 2018. "The Mirage of ‘Arabrew’: Ideologies for Understanding Arabic-Hebrew Contact." Language in Society 47 (2): 219–44. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Henkin-Roitfarb, Roni . 2011. "Hebrew and Arabic in Asymmetric Contact in Israel." Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 7 (1): 61–100. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Hill, Jane H. 1993. "Hasta La Vista, Baby: Anglo Spanish in the American Southwest." Critique of Anthropology 13 (2): 145–76. Google Scholar \| SAGE Journals\|
	Hochberg, G. 2010. "To Be or Not to Be an Israeli Arab: Sayed Kashua and the Prospect of Minority Speech-Acts." Comparative Literature 62 (1): 68–88. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Izicovich, Gili . 2010. "Arab Labor is Back on Screen." Haaretz, July 14. Google Scholar\|
	Jamal, Amal, Lavie, Noa. 2020. "Subaltern Agency in the Cultural Industries: Palestinian Creative Labor in the Israeli Series Fauda." Journal of International Communication 14: 2403–21. Google Scholar\|
	Kashti, Or . 2015. "Education Ministry Excluded a Book About a Romance Between Arab and Jew Because it May Encourage Assimilation." Haaretz, December 30. Google Scholar\|
	Kosman, Marcelle . 2015. "Comic Relief: The Ethical Intervention of ‘Avodah’ Aravit (Arab Labor) in Political Discourses of Israel–Palestine." Comedy Studies 6 (1): 18–35. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Mittell, Jason . 2015. Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. New York, NY: New York University Press. Google Scholar\|
	Melgarejo, Victoria, Bucholtz, Mary. 2020. "‘Oh, I Don’t Even Know How to Say This in Spanish’: The Linguistic Representation of Latinxs in: Jane the Virgin." Spanish in Context 17: 488–510. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Mendelson-Maoz, Adia, Steir-Livny, Liat. 2011. "Blurring the Border Where the Arab Begins and Where the Arab Ends: Hybridity in Israeli Television –Arab Labour, the First Arab-Israeli Sitcom." Misgerot Media 6: 31–59. [Hebrew]. Google Scholar\|
	Merry, Stephanie . 2015. "How Netflix is Tricking American Audiences into Embracing Subtitles." Washington Post, September 1. Google Scholar\|
	Molina-Guzmán, Isabel . 2018. Latinas and Latinos on TV: Colorblind Comedy in the Post-Racial Network Era. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Nuriel, Yehuda . 2015. "There is No Place for Non-Jews in this Country." Yediot Aharonot (7 Nights Supplement), May 29. Google Scholar\|
	Poplack, Shana . 1980. "Sometimes I’ll Start a Sentence in Spanish y Termino En Espanol: Toward a Typology of Code-Switching." Linguistics 18: 581–618. Google Scholar \| Crossref \| ISI\|
	Popper-Giveon, A, Liberman, I, Keshet, Y. 2014. "Workforce Ethnic Diversity and Culturally Competent Health Care: The Case of Arab Physicians in Israel." Ethnicity and Health 19 (6): 645–58. Google Scholar \| Crossref \| Medline\|
	Ram, URI . 2009. "Ways of Forgetting: Israel and the Obliterated Memory of the Palestinian Nakba." Journal of Historical Sociology 22 (3): 366–95. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Reich, Gilad . 2007. "The Arabs are Building the Structures." Haaretz, November 26. Google Scholar\|
	Ribke, Nahuel . 2019. "Fauda Television Series and the Turning of Asymmetrical Conflict Into Television Entertainment." Media Culture & Society 41 (8): 1245–60. Google Scholar \| SAGE Journals\|
	Ribke, Nahuel . 2020. "Latin American Television Series on Netflix, Local Audiences, and the Global Search for the ‘Authentic-Exotic’." In Transnational Latin American Television. Genres Formats and Adaptations, edited by Ribke, Nahuel , 102–18. London: Routledge. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Saldaña, Johnny . 2015. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. London: SAGE. Google Scholar\|
	Schantz, Ned . 2003. "Telephonic Film." Film Quarterly 56 (4): 23–35. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Steinmatz, Moshe . 2015. "Education Ministry: a Book About a Romance Between a Jewish Woman and an Arab was Barred." Walla, December 30. https://news.walla.co.il/item/2920636 (accessed July 19, 2021). Google Scholar\|
	Steir-Livny, Liat, Mendelson-Maoz, Adia. 2013. "From the Margins to Prime Time: Israeli Arabs on Israeli Television the Case of Sayed Kashua’s Arab Labour." Israeli Journal for Humor Research 4: 78–94. Google Scholar\|
	Ten-Brink, Yaron . 2007. "Come on, Peace." Yediot Aharonot, November 25. Google Scholar\|
	Topach, Ben . 2013. "Salim, The Man." Time Out, August 22. https://timeout.co.il/%D7%92%D7%91%D7%A8-%D7%A2%D7%9D-%D7%A1%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D/ (accessed October 6, 2021). Google Scholar\|
	Zaatera, Raga . 2007. "Sayd Kick." NRG, November 11. https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/47/ART1/662/356.html (accessed October 6, 2021). Google Scholar\|
	Zoavi, Rayd . 2007. "Arabs against Arab Labor." Haaretz, December 20. Google Scholar\|

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Television & New Media

ISSN: 1527-4764
Online ISSN: 1552-8316

	Auerbach, Carl, Silverstein, Louise B.. 2003. Qualitative Data: An Introduction to Coding and Analysis. New York, NY: New York University Press. Google Scholar\|
	Butler, Jeremy G , 2012. Television: Critical Methods and Applications. New York, NY: Routledge. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Bergson, Henri . 1987. "Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic." In The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor, edited by Morreall, John , 117–26. New York, NY: State University of New York Press. Google Scholar\|
	Beseghi, Micòl . 2019. "The Representation and Translation of Identities in Multilingual TV Series: Jane the Virgin, a Case in Point." Monografías de Traducción e Interpretación 4: 145–72. Google Scholar\|
	Blom, Jan Petter, Gumperz, John J.. 1972. "Social Meanings in Linguistic Structures: Codeswitching in Northern Norway." In Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communication, edited by Gumperz, John, Hymes, Dell, 407–34. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Google Scholar\|
	Bourdon, Jerome, Ribke, Nahuel. 2016. "Ratings, the State and Globalization: The Politics of Television Audience Measurement in Israel." Media Culture & Society 38 (2): 159–74. Google Scholar \| SAGE Journals\|
	Casillas, Dolores I., Ferrada, Juan S., Hinojos, Sara V.. 2018. "The Accent on Modern Family: Listening to Representations of the Latina Vocal Body." Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 43 (1): 61–88. Google Scholar\|
	Chow, Pei-Sze . 2016. "Traversing the Øresund: The Transnational Urban Region in Bron/Broen, Global Cinematic Cities." In edited by Andersson, Johan, Webb, Lawrence, 36–58. London: Wallflower Press. Google Scholar\|
	Druks, Judit . 2020. "Passing as. . . in Arab Labor by Sayed Kashua on Israeli TV." Third Text 34 (2): 311–22. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Goren, Shiri . 2020. "Arab Labor, Jewish Humor: Memory, Identity, and Creative Resistance on Israeli Prime-Time Television." Jewish Social Studies 25 (2): 107–26. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Hamers, Josiane F, Blanc, Michel H. A. 2004. Bilinguality and Bilingualism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar\|
	Hawker, Nancy . 2018. "The Mirage of ‘Arabrew’: Ideologies for Understanding Arabic-Hebrew Contact." Language in Society 47 (2): 219–44. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Henkin-Roitfarb, Roni . 2011. "Hebrew and Arabic in Asymmetric Contact in Israel." Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 7 (1): 61–100. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Hill, Jane H. 1993. "Hasta La Vista, Baby: Anglo Spanish in the American Southwest." Critique of Anthropology 13 (2): 145–76. Google Scholar \| SAGE Journals\|
	Hochberg, G. 2010. "To Be or Not to Be an Israeli Arab: Sayed Kashua and the Prospect of Minority Speech-Acts." Comparative Literature 62 (1): 68–88. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Izicovich, Gili . 2010. "Arab Labor is Back on Screen." Haaretz, July 14. Google Scholar\|
	Jamal, Amal, Lavie, Noa. 2020. "Subaltern Agency in the Cultural Industries: Palestinian Creative Labor in the Israeli Series Fauda." Journal of International Communication 14: 2403–21. Google Scholar\|
	Kashti, Or . 2015. "Education Ministry Excluded a Book About a Romance Between Arab and Jew Because it May Encourage Assimilation." Haaretz, December 30. Google Scholar\|
	Kosman, Marcelle . 2015. "Comic Relief: The Ethical Intervention of ‘Avodah’ Aravit (Arab Labor) in Political Discourses of Israel–Palestine." Comedy Studies 6 (1): 18–35. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Mittell, Jason . 2015. Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. New York, NY: New York University Press. Google Scholar\|
	Melgarejo, Victoria, Bucholtz, Mary. 2020. "‘Oh, I Don’t Even Know How to Say This in Spanish’: The Linguistic Representation of Latinxs in: Jane the Virgin." Spanish in Context 17: 488–510. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Mendelson-Maoz, Adia, Steir-Livny, Liat. 2011. "Blurring the Border Where the Arab Begins and Where the Arab Ends: Hybridity in Israeli Television –Arab Labour, the First Arab-Israeli Sitcom." Misgerot Media 6: 31–59. [Hebrew]. Google Scholar\|
	Merry, Stephanie . 2015. "How Netflix is Tricking American Audiences into Embracing Subtitles." Washington Post, September 1. Google Scholar\|
	Molina-Guzmán, Isabel . 2018. Latinas and Latinos on TV: Colorblind Comedy in the Post-Racial Network Era. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Nuriel, Yehuda . 2015. "There is No Place for Non-Jews in this Country." Yediot Aharonot (7 Nights Supplement), May 29. Google Scholar\|
	Poplack, Shana . 1980. "Sometimes I’ll Start a Sentence in Spanish y Termino En Espanol: Toward a Typology of Code-Switching." Linguistics 18: 581–618. Google Scholar \| Crossref \| ISI\|
	Popper-Giveon, A, Liberman, I, Keshet, Y. 2014. "Workforce Ethnic Diversity and Culturally Competent Health Care: The Case of Arab Physicians in Israel." Ethnicity and Health 19 (6): 645–58. Google Scholar \| Crossref \| Medline\|
	Ram, URI . 2009. "Ways of Forgetting: Israel and the Obliterated Memory of the Palestinian Nakba." Journal of Historical Sociology 22 (3): 366–95. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Reich, Gilad . 2007. "The Arabs are Building the Structures." Haaretz, November 26. Google Scholar\|
	Ribke, Nahuel . 2019. "Fauda Television Series and the Turning of Asymmetrical Conflict Into Television Entertainment." Media Culture & Society 41 (8): 1245–60. Google Scholar \| SAGE Journals\|
	Ribke, Nahuel . 2020. "Latin American Television Series on Netflix, Local Audiences, and the Global Search for the ‘Authentic-Exotic’." In Transnational Latin American Television. Genres Formats and Adaptations, edited by Ribke, Nahuel , 102–18. London: Routledge. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Saldaña, Johnny . 2015. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. London: SAGE. Google Scholar\|
	Schantz, Ned . 2003. "Telephonic Film." Film Quarterly 56 (4): 23–35. Google Scholar \| Crossref\|
	Steinmatz, Moshe . 2015. "Education Ministry: a Book About a Romance Between a Jewish Woman and an Arab was Barred." Walla, December 30. https://news.walla.co.il/item/2920636 (accessed July 19, 2021). Google Scholar\|
	Steir-Livny, Liat, Mendelson-Maoz, Adia. 2013. "From the Margins to Prime Time: Israeli Arabs on Israeli Television the Case of Sayed Kashua’s Arab Labour." Israeli Journal for Humor Research 4: 78–94. Google Scholar\|
	Ten-Brink, Yaron . 2007. "Come on, Peace." Yediot Aharonot, November 25. Google Scholar\|
	Topach, Ben . 2013. "Salim, The Man." Time Out, August 22. https://timeout.co.il/%D7%92%D7%91%D7%A8-%D7%A2%D7%9D-%D7%A1%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D/ (accessed October 6, 2021). Google Scholar\|
	Zaatera, Raga . 2007. "Sayd Kick." NRG, November 11. https://www.makorrishon.co.il/nrg/online/47/ART1/662/356.html (accessed October 6, 2021). Google Scholar\|
	Zoavi, Rayd . 2007. "Arabs against Arab Labor." Haaretz, December 20. Google Scholar\|