Israeli Comic Uses Humor to Oppose Occupation & Genocide
“Coexistence, My Ass” a documentary on Noam Shuster Eliassi
HAVANA TIMES – Coexistence, My Ass! is a new documentary opening Wednesday in New York highlighting Noam Shuster Eliassi, an Israeli comedian and peace activist. Shuster Eliassi hopes for justice and equality for Palestinians and “to make present the elephant in the room” that a lot of artists in Israel “prefer to ignore.” We also speak with director Amber Fares, who says the film — like others dealing with the topic of Palestine — is struggling to find distribution in the United States but has six screenings already set up, including an opening at the IFC Center in New York City.
Transcript
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
We end today’s show with a new documentary, opening tonight in New York at the IFC, about the Israeli comedian and peace activist Noam Shuster Eliassi. This is the trailer.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: Who is this tall lady? Is she Iranian? Is she Jewish? Is she Arab? Should I be boycotting this show?
TV ANCHOR 1: Noam Shuster.
TV ANCHOR 2: Noam Shuster.
TV ANCHOR 3: Noam Shuster.
TV ANCHOR 4: Shalom, Noam.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: Whoo! Mazel tov!
My parents said, “Let’s not raise our kids to be normal Israelis. Let’s move to the only place in the country where Jews and Palestinians live together by choice.”
NOAM’S MOTHER: Dreaming of peace. Dreaming.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: My best friend Ranin, she’s a Palestinian. She looks like Gigi Hadid. I look like Ahmadinejad next to her.
Palestinians know the things that I’m saying.
ANNOUNCER: Palestine Comedy Festival.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: The oppressed doesn’t come from an ignorant perspective. Never.
I’m only staying for seven minutes, not 70 years.
The Jewish audience is where we have to … work.
HARVARD PRESENTER: Noam Shuster Eliassi.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: It’s not a good time to be leftist in Israel. Not fun. It’s like not even — I just read the news. You’re [bleep].
UNIDENTIFIED: [translated] Without coexistence, I’ll be killed! Without coexistence, Arabs won’t be able to exist here!
INSTAGRAM REEL: In 24 hours, a thousand people were killed in Gaza Strip.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: [translated] I’m not here to unify. My goal is to voice resistance to this insane show of force that has swept everyone up so blindly.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the trailer for the new film. This is Israeli comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: My mother is Iranian Jewish. My father is Romanian Jewish. They’ve been together since high school, so they basically grew up together. And they grew up to become the thing that Israelis love to hate the most: woke progressive leftists. They believe in the radical idea that Israelis and Palestinians deserve the same, equal human rights. Crazy. So radical. When I was 7 years old, they said, “Let’s not raise our kids to be normal Israelis. Let’s move to the only place in the country where Jews and Palestinians live together by choice.” Like on purpose.
This is where the inspiration comes from, Jews and Arabs living together.
NOAM’S MOTHER: Dreaming of peace. Dreaming.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the clip from Coexistence, My Ass!, a new documentary about Israeli comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi. She was in her one-person show there. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression.
We’re joined by Noam now in Tel Aviv, and here in New York by the film’s director, the Canadian Lebanese director Amber Fares.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Why did you do this film, Amber?
AMBER FARES: You know, Noam and I are old friends. Actually, I met her years ago when I was living in Ramallah, filming my first documentary. And when she came to the U.S. and was developing her one-woman show, I just saw it as an opportunity to sort of — you know, to tackle this topic in a completely different way, from a completely different perspective.
AMY GOODMAN: And I want to go to another clip of the film. Again, this is from Noam’s one-woman show [inaudible] Palestinian Comedy Festival in Sheikh Jarrah.
ANNOUNCER: Hello, hello! Hello, hello, hello! Good evening. Masa’ alkhayri! We’re very happy to be here tonight for the 1,001 Laughs Palestine Comedy Festival. Tonight, I have a surprise for you. A surprise. One of our comedians tonight is one of our Jewish brothers and sisters. Please help me welcome to the stage, Noam Shuster Eliassi!
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: I’m only staying for seven minutes, not 70 years. By the way, this is Amer’s joke. I stole it. It’s mine now. God promised it to me.
AMY GOODMAN: Noam Shuster Eliassi joins us live in Tel Aviv. As we speak to you, they say that the ceasefire is maintained, at least according to President Trump, and yet well over, it may be, 104 people killed, about a third of them children, in Gaza by Israeli strikes, announced by the prime minister of Israel, by Netanyahu. Your response, and the significance of this film and what you’re trying to do, Noam?
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: Thank you, Amy. First of all, thank you so much for having us. I’m a huge fan. Not every day I get to be on Democracy Now! from the land of democracy maybe later someday.
And, you know, what we have seen today, it’s no exception. I’m sitting here in a studio in Tel Aviv, and right outside there is the Tel Aviv Fashion Week, where people are just walking around in fashionable outfits and are — the detachment from reality and what is happening just around the corner from us. It has been like this from before October 2023, and it remains today. Just the magnitude of things are just — it’s just so much. It’s just so much more heavy, just sitting here and then opening my phone and seeing that Israel has killed more and more dozens of children today.
And I think that my comedy has always been political. I’ve been very, very lucky to have Amber document this process, and the rest of the amazing filmmakers that are behind this film, to document this process of trying to make present the elephant in the room that most comedians in Israel, or, I would say, maybe a lot of artists also, prefer to ignore. And I wanted in this — through this film, and also my one-woman show that I called “Coexistence, My Ass!” to unpack and to talk about, you know, the peace industry that I grew up in, that lacks the political action, that lacks the individual political choices that make us demonstrate what the alternative is, where there is lack of leadership and nobody to really look up to.
I really, really believe in artists, and I believe in individuals who are making brave choices to show on the ground and to set an example of what does it mean to end occupation, to end the genocide, to be active and to be vocal in a time where comedians are making genocide jokes on stage. And also in the U.S., comedians are helping get Trump elected. In this rise of fascism, I really, really believe that we have a huge role to play.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Noam, your film states that coexistence is no longer possible. If that’s the case, what is the future as you see it?
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: It’s not a matter of coexistence not being possible. I think it’s a matter of coexistence — coexistence as itself, it’s a nonissue. Coexistence is a decoration. It will be a side effect when we have real equality, when we have real justice. It’s not about measuring right now if coexistence will never be possible. It’s about just putting this word “coexistence,” that is, you know, just like Trump is able to make peace, that’s — it’s nothing, it’s meaningless — and put in the front of the stage — and I believe this is what this film is doing — what does it — you know, what does coexistence really mean? How can we talk about coexistence when we are actively erasing the existence of Palestinians every day? And so, I want to demonstrate what it means to be vocal in order to set an alternative and to push against that. And so, it’s not a matter of going against coexistence. Nobody is against coexistence. But it will be a wonderful side effect when — when we achieve justice and equality.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask Amber Fares, the director, if you’ve gotten distribution in this country of your film in the United States.
AMBER FARES: Yeah, no, we have not had distribution. So, like so many other films that are on this topic right now that also don’t have distribution, including No Other Land last year that won — that won the Oscar. So, we are — we’re having to self-distribute this film in the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: And the response, Noam, to your — to your comedy or your political commentary, you can call it, among Palestinians and Israelis?
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: The responses have been amazing, really, really amazing. We’ve been in many, many different countries, in front of many different audiences. In Poland, we are huge. I have — I mean, in Poland, just, really, hundreds of young people were lining up after the film to tell me, you know, how much it’s hard for them to criticize Israel because of the past, but now, when they see me and they hear me, it gives them vocabulary. And then they also want to tell me how all their grandfathers were in the resistance to the Nazis. And I’m like, “Guys, it doesn’t add up that all your grandparents were in the resistance to the Nazis.” But it brings out from people, really, their personal stories.
And also, I want to say something really, really important.
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, 20 seconds.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: I hope this film — yeah, this film gives people a vocabulary and an inspiration for better actions and better conversations. And most importantly, you don’t need to hear these things from an Israeli. Palestinians are the most reliable sources, just like we heard from the journalist from Gaza, Muhammad, a few moments ago. And so, I really hope that people walk out —
AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there.
NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI: — laughing, crying and acting.
AMY GOODMAN: I thank you so much, Israeli comedian and activist Noam Eliassi. And I also want to thank Amber Fares. IFC is where the film is.