Palestinian-American Comedian Takes Show on Identity to Beirut
Palestinian-American comedian Jennifer Jajeh speaks with Al-Monitor's Antoun Issa about the accomplishments of her "I Heart Hamas" tour and the quest for belonging that took her to the front lines of the world's most enduring conflict.
After five years on the road, Jennifer Jajeh’s widely publicized one-woman “I Heart Hamas” comedy tour is drawing to a close. That she chose Beirut — her only leg in the Arab world — as one of her final stops is fitting for a journey that has taken the Palestinian-American across the United States and that will end in London next month. Despite admitting that an Arab audience was “not my target audience,” Jajeh was keen to avoid “preaching to the choir” to a Beirut crowd that was “obviously very aware of the issues.” Jajeh presented a comical, and at times depressing, transformation of her Palestinian identity from being a member of a migrant community with set stereotypes in the US, to that of a people under occupation during the Second Intifada (2000-2001).
Excerpts from the interview follow:
