"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 it's 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 activist's edge."
"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."
Noam Shuster Eliassi transitioned from United Nations work to comedy after an epiphany inspired by Volodymyr Zelenskyy's path from sitcom actor to president. She produced short multilingual videos that led to an invitation from Harvard to develop a stand-up routine challenging conventional ideas of coexistence. The routine draws on her upbringing in a rare joint Israeli-Palestinian community, combining self-deprecating humor with activism. Performances included anecdotes about asking Palestinian neighbors for kebabs and her Jewish mother's meddling. During a Montreal performance filmed for a documentary, she shifted from discussing occupation to naming genocide as the prevailing moral crisis. The documentary Coexistence, My Ass! is directed by Amber Fares.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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