Palestinian American Performer Heals with Humor

Palestinian American Performer Heals with Humor

Palestinian American Amer Zahr wants to heal people through humor.

In 2015 he started bringing other Arab American comedians² from the United States to perform across Palestinian cities including Nablus, Bethlehem and Ramallah.

Seven years later, Zahr's Palestine Comedy Festival is still going strong.

After the most recent performances in Jerusalem, he told the Reuters news agency, "Laughter is therapy...We need to show the world that Palestinians love to laugh, we love life, we love art."

Zahr and a group of seven other comedians performed at the city's Dar al-Tifel al-Arabi school. It was established by a Palestinian educator in 1948.

All the event's tickets were sold, said organizer Hani Kashou.

The jokes covered many subjects. Some jokes were about being questioned by Israeli border guards; some jokes were about Arabic language mistakes made by people growing up with Palestinian and American identities.

Bilal Sharmoug, who closed the show, had a joke about the reason he was big. Growing up, Sharmoug said, he mixed up the Arabic word for "bon appetite," which is sahtein, with sahnein, meaning "two plates".

Other jokes made fun of stereotypes⁴ of Arab traditions.

Comedian¹ Reema Jallaq, for example, talked about being a "shibsheb survivor⁵." This term refers to a method of punishing children by throwing slippers⁶ at them. When she heard the joke, Mei al-Bakri, age 14, said she laughed very hard.

"That was my favorite joke," she said as she stood beside her mother.

Seventy-year-old Nihaya Ghoul Awdallah is from Jerusalem. She said: "It was a great show...We thank them so much for bringing a beautiful smile to our faces and for allowing us to release our worries, our sadness and the difficult circumstances that we are in."

The comedy festival's first year included Egyptian American actor Ramy Youssef and Palestinian American comedian Mo Amer.

This year, all seven comedians were Palestinian.

Zahr divides his time between Nazareth and Dearborn, Michigan. He said: "We bring Palestinian and Arab Americans here to show that our people in America have not forgotten where we're from."

Zahr performed all five of this year's shows wearing a black T-shirt that had the word "press" on it. The shirt was a tribute to Palestinian American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. She was killed during an Israeli raid in the West Bank in May.

"If she was here, she'd be laughing too," he said. "Comedy comes from tragedy. The pain and the suffering are exactly why we do this festival."

Words in This Story

therapy – n. the treatment of physical or mental illnesses

stereotype³ – n. an often unfair belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic

slippers –n. (pl.) a light, soft shoe usually worn inside

circumstances – n. (pl.) the conditions in which someone lives; the way something happens : the specific details of an event

tribute – n. something that you say, give, or do to show respect or affection for someone

tragedy – n. a very bad event that causes great sadness and often involves someone's death

1 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

2 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

3 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

4 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

6 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。