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Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour experiment in USA begins

February 9th, 2008Ray Hanania (Palestine/USA)

(Chicago) — Well, I’m off this morning on a 10-day tour of selected campuses in the United States for the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour to see if the experiment works in the US as well as it has in Israel and Palestine.

The reality is that Israelis and Palestinians in Israel and Palestine are not as extremist as Israelis and Palestinians are in the US … I think the reason is because Israelis and Palestinians in the US live in a form of subliminal guilt. They live inluxury while their people back in the Middle East live the real conflict. So, I get more pushback from Arabs and Jews in the United States because I “crossed the line” and dared to appear with an “Israeli” — it’s called the taboo that also exists among many Jewish Americans and Israelis, too. But, the difference is it is more so here in the US than in Israel and Palestine.

The shows are sponsored by MASA/Israel Journeys. They organize trips for Americans Jewish students to spend asemester in Israel (I wish the Arabs were smart enough to organize similar programs as effectively). I’m not against Israel or Israelis, but I am against some Israeli policies, as I am also against some Palestinian and Arab policies.

Here’s the tour information and the campuses, in case you are in the area.

The media coverage has been massive and I can’t keep up with it but you can see some of the reports including the Los Angeles Times story and NPR at www.IPComedyTour.com. The tour ends at the three day conference at Limmud LA in Coast Mesa where we perform two evening shows!

Here’s the schedule. I’ll post during the trip.

Ray Hanania
(PS … I also started a new expanded live radio talkshow in Chicago on WCEV 1450 AM Tuesday and Thursday from 4 to 6 PM … www.RadioChicagoland.com) as well as building the new “Point to Point: Online TV Interviews with no boundaries” at www.ArabAmericanTVOnline.com)

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Feb. 9 – 18, 2008 Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour College Tour
Hosted by MASA/Israel Journey

Feb. 9, SAT: University of Wisconsin, Madison: Overture Center for the Arts, 8 PM
Feb. 10, SUN: University of Chicago, Chicago:(View Poster?): PM Reynolds Club, Third Floor Theater, 6 PM
Feb. 11, MON: University of Iowa, Iowa City: Englert Theatre, 7 PM
Feb. 12, TUES: Ohio State University, Columbus: Wexner Jewish Student Center, 7:30 PM
Feb. 13, WED: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: Michigan League Underground, 8 PM
Feb. 14, THURS: Washington University at St. Louis, Missouri: Brown Hall, 7 PM
Feb. 15-17, FRI-SUN: Limmud LA Conference Costa Mesa, California: Hilton Hotel, Orange County/Costa Mesa

END

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10 Responses to “Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour experiment in USA begins”

  1. #1 Eliesheva (Israel/USA) - February 9th, 2008 at 10:37 am

    Best of luck!! Wish i could be there to laugh along.

  2. #2 Ray Hanania - February 9th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    Hey Elie, you are hear in spirit! :)

    Ray

  3. #3 Nissim Dahan (Israel/USA) - February 9th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

    Making people laugh is a good way to bring people together, Ray, and to make them see that behind the seriousness of it all, there is something funny just begging for our attention.

    Thank you for doing this.

  4. #4 Shlomi Nahumson - February 9th, 2008 at 10:38 pm

    Thanks!!
    The performance in Madison was hilarious! We couldn’t stop laughing!
    Good luck with the rest of the tour, hope to get to see you guys again :)

    Toda, Shukran, Thanks!

  5. #5 R E Konrad - February 10th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

    Too bad you’re not comming to UT at Knoxville. We could meet and shake hands. Good luck on your tour.

  6. #6 Ray Hanania (Palestine/USA) - February 11th, 2008 at 8:10 am

    We’ll be working with more Jewish American groups and also with some moderate Arab American student groups to get more exposure. It was sure fun to meet the students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and last night at the University of Chicago (I posted something on that appearance and also on the effor tby some extremist Arab and Palestinian groups to prevent me from circulating information about our tour through their lists … they actually refused to distribute my notices to their lists — even though they send me their crap on their lists …)

    But, despite the extremists, there are so many more people out there lookinf ro hope and this show besaides giving people loads of laughter on all sides, gives people hope that there is a way to climb past the extremists

    Ray

  7. #7 Ray Hanania (Palestine/USA) - February 11th, 2008 at 8:12 am

    PS Shlomi … Ihave to say your efforts and the efforts of Hillel and MASA and the Middle East Studies Association to organize the event was so great. You reached out to everyone at the University of Madison and you deserve credit and respect for doing what many other groups (sadly in my own community) will not do. That by itself is courageous and admirable.

    Thank you so much and best regards
    Ray Hanania

  8. #8 Gila (Israel) - February 11th, 2008 at 10:58 pm

    I (unfortunately) missed your show when you were here (Israel). Suffice it to say that I heard it was fantastic and now I am bummed. Any plans to come back here in the near future for a repeat tour?

  9. #9 Shlomi Nahumson - February 13th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

    “He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress”. Anwar Sadat.

  10. #10 Islamify.com - February 23rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour experiment in USA begins…

    Entry is a little misleading…tour is still going on…check it out if its in your area…….

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