ABSTRACT
Creating an image of the ‘Other’ in a renewed culture, through defining its shape in the different arts, is a process in which the beginning will determine its continuation, and which is influenced to no small extent by the extra-theatrical reality. The consolidation of the image attests to attempts within culture and art both to confront the problem and, principally, to understand it. In the new Hebrew culture that evolved in Palestine together with the realisation of the Zionist dream — mainly during the first decades of the 20th century — this ‘Other’, whether as an enemy or as a figure possessing positive elements with which it was possible to identify, was the Arab. In the culture of the period of settlement (art, dance, literature and drama, cinema and theatre) a discursive pattern was created in which Arab images were not only used to justify the Zionist enterprise, but also provided a source for the characteristics of the new Hebrews, by demonstrating both contrasting and similar traits.
