Shown in subtitled Arabic and Hebrew, with a mostly Arab cast, the sitcom is the first in Israel to deal with the predicament of the country's Arab minority, which has long complained of discrimination. There are some 1.4 million Arab citizens in Israel, about one-fifth of the population, most of them descendants of Palestinians who stayed behind during the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948.
Ratings for the first three shows, broadcast Saturday nights on Channel Two, one of Israel's two main commercial channels, were high, with an average of about half a million Jewish and Arab viewers.
The series was written by Sayed Kashua, 32, a popular Israeli Arab columnist and author who writes in Hebrew on the identity crisis of Arabs in the Jewish state. His first two novels were best sellers, translated into several languages.
Satire is Kashua's main tool in the sitcom, ironically titled "Arab Work," an Israeli slur used to describe shoddy workmanship. The show, where the characters speak an Arabic peppered with Hebrew idioms, lampoons stereotypes of Israel's Arabs but also their attempts to blend in with their Jewish surroundings.
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