Coexistence, My Ass!

Portrait of Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi. Once a figurehead for peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, her stance shifted as the Israeli authorities grew increasingly radical. Both very funny and very urgent insight into the mindset of an activist comedian whom some now regard as an enemy of the state.

Noam Shuster-Eliassi was once a figurehead for peaceful coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis. As the daughter of a Jewish-Iranian mother and Jewish-Romanian father, she grew up in Israel’s ‘Oasis of Peace’, where Palestinians and Israelis lived on friendly terms side by side. She appeared on television as a child, shook hands with Hillary Clinton, Jane Fonda and the Dalai Lama, and was invited to speak by the United Nations.

But as Israeli authorities began to pursue an increasingly radical course, her stance also started to shift. How could there ever be peaceful coexistence if one group used such violence to oppress the other? The most devastating blow – when Shuster realized the pursuit of coexistence was little more than a cruel joke – was yet to come. Now in her thirties, this fluent speaker of Hebrew and Arabic developed an acerbic one-woman comedy show while studying at Harvard University. Her satirical performance forms a common thread running throughout the film, offering insight into the mindset of an activist comedian whom some now regard as an enemy of the state.