Playing with Antagonists: The Politics of Humor in Israeli‐Palestinian Market Encounters

Abstract

This article identifies playful antagonism as a defining mode of rare Israeli-Palestinian encounters in Israeli settlement businesses. It is based on ethnographic work primarily in an Israeli settlement supermarket where the lowest-paid workers are mostly occupied Palestinians. This playful antagonism characterizes heated Israeli-Palestinian political exchanges as well as Palestinian workers' mockery of their settler bosses and customers, through gestures and jokes alike. These practices navigate an incongruity between the high-stakes antagonisms of Israeli settler-colonization

Exit, Voice, Loyalty … or Deliberate Obstruction? Non-Collective Everyday Resistance under Oppression.

“…1 A large body of literature is dedicated to its study, with an emphasis on resistance targeting "horizontal oppression" in day-to-day interactions with fellow citizens (e.g. Popkin 1979;Scott 1985Scott , 1990Abu-Lughod 1990) as opposed to "vertical oppression" exercised by political regimes and their representatives or followers (e.g., Wedeen 1999Wedeen , 2019Siegman 2020). 2 This literature has identified numerous non-collective resistance efforts, including feigned ignorance, evasion, or sabotage ("weapons of the weak," see Scott 1985), or the illegal acquisition of basic life necessities, such as land for shelter, informal jobs, or public space ("quiet encroachment", see Bayat 2000).…”

“…However, research has shown that they do engage in resistance, including non-collective efforts. Humor and playful antagonism are known everyday examples of such behavior (e.g., Siegman 2020). Associated with amusement, this type of resistance is often tolerated and poses lowered risks for the individuals who engage in it (Wedeen 1999; Sorensen 2008).…”

“…However, the following analysis shows that rather than quietly tolerating their situation, individuals may consider the costs of voice and exit too high, and resist their regimes through the exercise of signaling, persevering, eschewing, and coping. These efforts add to known transgressive practices of individuals under oppression (Wedeen 1999; Scott 1990; Siegman 2020).…”

Emplacing capital

“…Some of the most striking recent examples of late capitalism's staggering profits and levels of exploitation come not from production but from firms that mediate capital along transnational commodity chains—megaretailers, monopolistic e‐commerce platforms, corporate mass marketing companies, financial institutions, and tools of financialization (Harvey 2018; Ho 2009; Maurer 2012; Mazzarella 2003; Siegman 2020). Indeed, anxieties around immaterial labor (Hardt and Negri 2001) abound in the contemporary era; what is the work of platforms, intermediaries, marketing, financial services, capital circulation, and commodity exchange?…”

Tear gas in orbit

“…44When it comes to Palestine studies in particular, scholars have demonstrated how humor can function as a way to refuse (Bhungalia, 2020; Kanaana, 1990) and navigate (Siegman, 2020) Israel's “infrastructure of control” (Gordon, 2008, p. 23), laughter becoming the fault line between insider and outsider, colonized and colonizer (Lionis, 2016, p. 4).…”