ABSTRACT
Texts in the Hebrew theatre from the beginning of the twentieth century to the 1990s reflect an extra-theatrical reality of cultural tensions as well as attempts to reach a dialogue between Jews and Arabs. As we saw (in Chapter One), in the early days of settlement certain Jewish writers and playwrights were drawn towards Arab culture as an authentic expression of life in Israel. Since the establishment of the State of Israel they have been both fascinated by the strangeness of ‘Jewishizing’ the Arab and also had reservations regarding it. In the last twenty years in particular, the double culture of the Arab minority in Israel has been depicted in Israeli literature, drama, theatre, cinema and television. Jewish Israeli writers and playwrights are engrossed by the paradox inherent in the attempt to bring the stranger closer to the culture of the Jewish majority. 1 This is perhaps an echo of the difficulty that was faced by the ‘new’ Hebrew literature and culture, between its ‘Jewishness’ and the influences of other cultures — a dilemma that is realized in the image of the Jew uprooted from his own former culture who has failed to attain a status in the non-Jewish culture. 2 Hebrew literature and drama of recent years reveals the dilemma of the Jew in the Arab double culture. The Arab is presented in literature, on stage and on screen as one who ‘wants to assimilate yet struggles for his own identity’. 3
