{"id":401168,"date":"2026-04-20T04:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T04:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/401168\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T04:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T04:52:10","slug":"the-palestinian-israeli-actor-tackling-middle-east-conflict-with-jokes-and-empathy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/401168\/","title":{"rendered":"The Palestinian-Israeli actor tackling Middle East conflict with jokes and empathy \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yousef Sweid is no stranger to slurs. When a kindergarten playmate called him a \u201cstinky Arab\u201d, five-year-old Yousef was as surprised by the noun as the adjective.<\/p>\n

Growing up in the northern Israeli<\/a> city of Haifa, Sweid had yet to realise how, to others, he was a complex and often contradictory set of labels, identities and expectations as a Palestinian-Israeli citizen. <\/p>\n

He has acquired new labels since: two Israeli-Jewish ex-wives and two heavily-hyphenated children who live with him in Berlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old is a well-known Israeli film, stage and television actor with roles in Game of Thrones, Unorthodox and the 2006 movie The Bubble.<\/p>\n

But at Berlin\u2019s Gorki Theatre, the audience is clearly appalled at how quickly the charismatic performer has them laughing at the heaviest of subjects \u2013 Israel, Zionism, even Hamas \u2013 with jokes that skewer the absurd tragedy of the Middle East conflict.<\/p>\n

Even the title of his one-man show \u2013 Between the River and the Sea \u2013 is a risky, tongue-in-cheek swipe at his adopted home. After the October 7th, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, Germany proscribed a very similar river-to-the-sea phrase as a slogan of Hamas.<\/p>\n

The edgy name has helped sell tickets to a show that is serious yet hilarious, heavy history with a light personal touch and, running through it all, a rich seam of extreme empathy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was blessed \u2013 or cursed \u2013 with an Arab family in a Jewish community with Palestinian identity in the Israeli state,\u201d says Sweid after the show. <\/p>\n

\"AtAt Berlin\u2019s Gorki Theatre, the audience is clearly appalled at how quickly the charismatic performer has them laughing at the heaviest of subjects. Photograph: Ute Langkafel, Galerie MAIFOTO <\/p>\n

\u201cMy life led me to that I have to understand both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

That lifelong habit exploded in his face after October 7th, as Sweid demonstrates in re-enacted phone conversations with old Israeli and Palestinian friends.<\/p>\n

Take Daniel, his friend of more than 40 years, who grew up in a kibbutz. He lost friends on October 7th, others were taken hostage and his mother was almost burned alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not humans, these are monsters,\u201d says Sweid, as Daniel, of the attackers.<\/p>\n

Sweid switches to Salma, a close Palestinian actor friend, whose neighbourhood was destroyed, her brothers abducted and two friends sexually abused by Israeli Defense Forces soldiers.<\/p>\n

Playing his Palestinian friends, Sweid attacks their distant, silent friend: him. \u201cYou saw what those monsters did,\u201d says one. Another: \u201cWhy don\u2019t you take a stand, why don\u2019t you just say what you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon the accusations are raining down on the conflicted Sweid. Friendships shatter and the phone stays silent. <\/p>\n

Even if you don\u2019t agree, we can agree to at least sit together for an hour<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Yousef Sweid<\/p>\n

After the show, Sweid describes the work \u2013 co-developed and written by his Austrian director and author Isabella Sedlak \u2013 as a form of therapy at a time of personal and professional crisis.<\/p>\n

Sweid says long conversations with Sedlaks, a close friend, liberated him from a feeling that \u2013 as a member of the diaspora \u2013 he had no right to speak out about the tragedy unfolding in his homeland.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually I am the one listening. I don\u2019t live there any more, I am not suffering like everyone there,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you have your own show, people have to listen and I see audiences from all sides \u2013 as well as Syrians, Iranians, Russians and Ukrainians \u2013 laughing and crying with me. Even if you don\u2019t agree, we can agree to at least sit together for an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sweid, the hopelessness he saw in his homeland\u2019s situation was a major motivation for leaving. And while horrified by the events of the last years, Sweid is not surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obvious that something was going to happen, something bad,\u201d says Sweid, blaming political extremists for driving people apart with violent rhetoric and, then, physical barriers.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Conductor Herbert von Karajan\u2019s Nazi past raises uncomfortable questions for artists todayOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen everyone sees the other side as monsters,\u201d he says , \u201cthen the job is done to allow the horrific stuff to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sweid asks challenging questions of all sides in the Middle East conflict- but also of his new homeland, Germany, as a staunch arms supplier to Israel.<\/p>\n

In one scene, when Sweid\u2019s lawyer is outraged at \u201cbabies being killed\u201d in Gaza, the actor asks her: \u201cIf you don\u2019t want babies to be killed, then why are you still selling them weapons?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ask him offstage about Germany\u2019s policy choices in the last years, Sweid says he is wary of making political pronouncements in interviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows Germany is in a sensitive place, I don\u2019t know what I think about it,\u201d he says. \u201cI do think criticism is important everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

And how does he view Ireland\u2019s staunch support of the Palestinian people? Again, he is careful of veering into politics but says he is wary of the popular colonisation narrative, saying \u201cit is a complicated conversation I don\u2019t want to have with you now\u201d. <\/p>\n

He then pivots, jokingly, into how the Irish and Palestinian people have a common enemy. \u201cIn the end you have to believe,\u201d he said, \u201cthat the English people are to blame for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play has since moved to London, after which Sweid says he hopes to perform his piece in Ireland and is open for production offers. For anyone who grew up with the Northern Ireland conflict and its long, post-conflict tale, Sweid\u2019s compelling performance makes old truths new again \u2013 and more necessary than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists have an obligation, in the end, not to solve the problem but, in the end, to offer a dream,\u201d he says. \u201cYou are a bit f**ked if you are just one-sided in dealing with humans. You have to understand why they hate, why they have their pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between the River and the Sea is running at London\u2019s Royal Court Theatre until May 9th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yousef Sweid is no stranger to slurs. When a kindergarten playmate called him a \u201cstinky Arab\u201d, five-year-old Yousef…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13299,146,85,46,33778,442],"class_list":{"0":"post-401168","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-israel-hamas-conflict","13":"tag-london"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}