American television, like American culture in general, has a special relationship with Israel. Time after time, in one series or another, a sentence in Hebrew, a character who graduated from the Mossad, or a casual joke about “peace in the Middle East” appears. Several series even devoted episodes to visiting Israel – from “Transparent”, “The Simpsons” and “South Park” through the episode on the plane to the discovery of “Broad City” to the “wonderful Mrs. Maisel” who is expected to visit the country next season. “Cigarettes from Egypt”, the second episode in the third and new season of the “Rami” series, does something a little different. The hero does get on a flight to Israel accompanied by a Jewish friend and meets Hebrew speakers with a distinct Israeli accent, but the main thing here is not Rami’s encounter with Israel – but with Palestine.
Rami Hassan, played by the comedian and one of the creators of the series Rami Yosef, is a member of an Egyptian family who grew up and lives in New Jersey. His mother is played by Yam Abbas, a Palestinian actress who was born in Nazareth and became an international star (including an iconic role in “Heirs”). Her character in the series is also that of a Palestinian refugee, but it seems that this element of her son’s identity was not really significant in his self-definition – at least until he found himself on a business trip to Israel. His uncle on his mother’s side, Nasim, also accompanies him on the trip, excited about the visit to his homeland but detained for security questioning upon landing even though he arrived in Israel on a private plane.
To see the “Israeli episode” in any series as Israelis is often to look for mistakes, broken Hebrew or inaccuracies. Here, too, questions of this kind can be asked – let’s say, in which section of the taxi that Rami stops in Jerusalem is black – but the truth is that the point of view that “Rami” chose for herself somewhat takes the sting out of pettiness or “what did they get wrong” discussions. It’s not exactly a brilliant episode, but it does have one brilliance and that’s its angle. The hero is not presented here as a man of values who immediately identifies with the weak or is relegated to the role of the victim with his entanglements, on the contrary. As the episode progresses Rami finds himself deeper and deeper on the privileged side of the equation.
While uncle Nasim spends long hours with a friendly but dedicated Israeli researcher named Noam, Rami easily enters Israel with the Jewish Jubal by his side. In a business meeting with an investor named Ayala, she claims that it is difficult for her to trust a Muslim colleague, and demands that he draw a picture of the Prophet Muhammad to prove to her that he is worthy of her trust. This cheeky request turns out, of course, to be a joke on her part, but the kind of joke that lasts long enough to make it clear that there is also quite a bit of truth in it. On the way she introduces her mother to him as “the only one in her family to survive the Holocaust”, a fact to which he responds with the unfortunate choice of words Congratulations.
After Yuval explains that Israel gives guns to 18-year-olds and tries to sell him peace in the Middle East around the analogy between kosher and halal meat (“We kill our animals the same”), Rami decides to jump to East Jerusalem to meet someone from Tinder, including trying to bypass the line at the checkpoint with The American passport. Needless to say, the residents of the area are not really impressed by him – children laugh at the Egyptian he speaks, an elderly man he tries to communicate with reacts with ignorance and his date, Rosha, rejects him because their kiss felt “like kissing a cousin”. The endearing phrase “But I passed a barrier for you!” Not helping, neither was digging into his problems with sex and intimacy just after she told him about her struggles with the barriers. And the icing on the cake – his exaggerated astonishment at the fact that her iPhone still connects to the old, wide type charger.
Maybe not everything is accurate, but it’s pretty accurate. Rami and Yuval. “Rami”. Screenshot
On the way back from the date, Rami gets into trouble with the kids he met earlier and loses his jacket on the way, in the pockets of which he also left his passport and other important items. If until now the difference between him and the locals amounted to emotional distance and mutual disdain, here things go up a notch. He begs an Israeli soldier to allow him to pass through the checkpoint even without presenting an ID card, and accidentally causes the soldier to raid a child’s house to get his belongings back. The drama here is not only the raid, but the quick and automatic marking of the children as being behind a terrorist act. When the soldier returns with Rami’s passport, he also brings him another coat instead of his jacket, which was torn in all the commotion – a complete military coat with a small Israeli flag.
If all of this sounds like something you’ve already heard, in one form or another, you’re probably somewhat familiar with Israeli cinema. You may have even seen some student films. And actually, maybe you are just up-to-date on local current events. One could even argue that by Israeli standards this is not a particularly poignant story, it even feels a bit basic. Oh, the occupation corrupts? Come on Sherlock. A boy who is accused of terrorism after taking a jacket from a tourist is nothing compared to the things you see in decades of existence in this conflicted area, or even in the last year or two. So maybe it’s not a very big story for us, or even for American keyboard leftists who shared some colorful infographic to support the people of Gaza, but it’s a big story for Rami.
As mentioned, this is a self-centered guy, lacking in tact and also quite insecure, whose world view is quite shaken by the whole situation. When her head throws a statement at him about how “Western Muslims are so Uptight”, it is nothing less than a shock to the foundations of his self-concept. Now try to think what involvement in a raid on a Palestinian home could do to him. When he tries to shift the blame to the Israeli doe, she compares the box of cigarettes she bought in Cairo, with gruesome pictures that warn of the dangers of smoking, to boxes from Israel and the US: “We work so hard to hide what is really happening.” She makes it difficult and asks if he is proud to live in America , and to his answer “sometimes” she replies “sometimes I’m proud to live here. Finally a place for the Jews. But sometimes I don’t believe in Zionism. I don’t believe in any country.”
Ayala is not an easy character to like and is far from being a character that Israelis would be proud of. She doesn’t have Rami’s naive clumsiness, which allows him to come off as cute even when he says “congratulations” to a Holocaust survivor, so when she does something inappropriate there’s no doubt that it’s on purpose. However, their conversation makes it clear that she and Rami have more in common than Rami and her boss, or Rami and the boy he was arrested for. Rami doesn’t write himself as her enemy, but someone who, just like her, is dealing with guilt over his own privileges, but ultimately isn’t really threatened by the status quo. He will return to his home on the east coast of America by the end of the episode. She will continue to live her life in relative peace, as long as she doesn’t accidentally get caught up in the scene of an attack. The fact that Rami now knows that there is a large and threatening separation fence is nothing more than an anecdote. No medal will be waiting for him when he returns home, only a profitable business agreement thanks to his new Israeli mine. Even if they both decide to dedicate their lives to raising awareness of the occupation, the world will continue to turn unchanged. In a world where every 3rd class influencer adds BLM to their Instagram bio and calls it activism, this chapter offers a statement that is a bit more meaningful – and certainly more nihilistic – than it seems.
The third season of “Rami” is uploaded in its entirety today (6.10) to yes’s VOD