9 - Pursuing Equality

Summary

Chapter 9 depicts the community, socialization and narratives of Arab/Palestinian Israeli children of Uhm Al-Fahm. This large ethnopolitically Arab city in Israel is viewed by Jewish Israelis as the seat of Palestinian nationalism; and by Palestinians as home to ’48 Arabs who did not resist the Zionists but are culturally and politically key to pursuing justice for Palestinians. From the inside, locals see inequity of resources, and police as monitoring and targeting them. Fahmouwee children’s interactions revolved largely around other Arab/Palestinian Israelis. The majority did not position themselves as the victim, unlike the Palestinian and Jewish Israeli children; and defined themselves as a third sub-state identity, “Arab Muslim Fahmouwees.” Despite their awareness of “fighting,” these children also painted a picture of normalcy. Though their everyday conflict zone experiences also encoded them to erase their shared others in Sesame Street, theirs was a relatively more nuanced interpretation, suggesting that Arab/Palestinian Israeli children are uniquely open to the possibility of being moved by the series’ aims. Still, they also normalized and reproduced the violence, reinserting themselves into the status of state minority through their identity negotiations and protest play patterns. For them too, conflict resolution is achieved by “converting Jews to Islam.”