TEL AVIV // "Mira's got a problem," said Achinoam Nini of her colleague during a rehearsal for next month's Eurovision Song Contest. The two women are representing Israel at the unashamedly kitsch, long-running music competition to be held in Moscow. Nini was referring to a technical hitch on stage - but the two stars have encountered much more serious problems offstage since agreeing to perform at Eurovision 2009.
Mira Awad is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, one of the 20 per cent sector of society that remained inside the Jewish state after its creation in 1948. And, coming hot on the heels of Israel's deadly assault on Gaza in December and January - in which about 1,400 people, many of them civilians, were killed - the fact that a Palestinian woman is representing Israel on an international stage has met with scathing disapproval.
"Your participation in Eurovision is participation in the Israeli propaganda machine," denounced an open letter fired off by Arab-Israeli artists and writers days after the two singers were chosen to represent Israel. Israel, the signatories argued, was "trying to create the appearance of Jewish-Arab 'coexistence' under which it carries out the daily massacre of Palestinian civilians". Sections of the left wing implored Awad, an established actress and singer, to renege on her decision, while the Israeli right-wing has also been vociferous in its objections to the duo, who will perform in English, Arabic and Hebrew at Eurovision - a rare airing for the Arabic language at the event.
"The problem is that we fell in between the hammer and the nail," said Awad, 33, the daughter of an Arab physician from the Galilee region of northern Israel. The two performers are old friends and musical collaborators of some eight years, with a solid history of campaigning against the Israeli occupation. Nini, known by her stage name Noa, is an award-winning, internationally recognised singer with a musical career spanning some 18 years. She has refused to perform in the occupied West Bank and has reportedly cancelled concerts because of bomb threats from the extreme right.
Neither woman was surprised by the hostilities from the left wing. "I understood where they were coming from," said Awad. "They felt that we would be used as fig leaves to beautify the situation here in Israel in front of the international community, although we couldn't do that even if we wanted to." The critics have got it all wrong, she said. "I was disappointed that a lot of the big objectors were people who knew me and Achinoam very well and didn't have the faith to know that we are not fig leaves for anything. Nobody can dictate anything to us. Nobody can tell us what to do, what to write, what to sing or how to present our ideas. We are very strong individuals."
Indeed, Nini's long-term musical partner, Gil Dor, jokes that he has dubbed the pair "Europinion" on account of their outspoken views. It is not the first time Israel's representation has stirred controversy. Eleven years ago an Israeli transsexual known as Dana International won the contest. Since the decision to take the Palestinian-Jewish duo to Moscow for Eurovision was announced, the two have faced down a media furore in part by using the publicity as a chance to air politics.
"The bottom line is that the rise of extremism on both sides is detrimental to our region," said Nini, 39, a Jewish-Israeli of Yemeni descent. "Whoever believes that there is another way has a responsibility to raise that voice. At some point we are going to have to answer to our children: why didn't we do anything to stop all of this? Wasn't there always a chance to stop the violence? We are singers so we sing, we try to reach people's hearts with that message."
The pair does not deny that the timing of events, so close to Israel's three-week assault on Gaza, caused them pause for thought. "We had numerous conversations, e-mails, long talks about politics, history, philosophy, everything, and sometime we didn't agree," said Awad. "But the respect you have for somebody else is to respect where they are coming from and take it as it is and not be offended by it or cut the relationship because of it."
Awad said that, rather than cause their friendship to crumble, the war brought the two closer together. "[Nini] listens to my narrative and even if my narrative has something painful for her, something that might raise question marks against all kinds of facts in her life, she will hear it until the end and she will accept it." For Awad, this is the message she wants to take to Eurovision - of "different people who are very separate but can bridge all of that just by accepting the existence and the whole history of the human being in front of them".
Applying the personal to the political sphere, she said: "That's what we're talking about for this region. You don't have to be in love with your neighbour, but you just need not to kill them. You need to form a formula where you can live side by side with them in a normal way." Such sentiments do not quell the objections of some Palestinian-Israelis who remain aghast that, despite Israel's brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories and the glaring racial inequities within the borders of the Jewish state, a Palestinian is about to represent Israel.
"I think [Awad] is doing it because she is naive," said Ala Hlehel, an Arab-Israeli playwright. "She believes it will encourage peace and coexistence, but a Jewish and Arab singer in Moscow won't solve the terrible situation inside Israel." Hlehel argues that Awad's appearance does nothing to advance the political cause on the ground. "To say 'I want peace' and 'I'm against discrimination' on TV is easy, a child of 10 could say that. She needs to start dealing with the real matters on the ground - the racism, the apartheid, the terrible wall Israel has built on Palestinian land, the fact that it is a semi-fascist state. Let us see her talk about these matters."
Hlehel acknowledges that being an Arab-Israeli artist carries problematic baggage over issues of politics, identity and cultural integrity. "We are very mixed-up and confused, but there are red lines that we should not cross," he said. "One of those is not to represent Israel, a bloody state that occupies and kills my people on a daily basis." The controversy stirs at wider issues within Israeli society over the cultural and media representation of its Palestinian citizens. Recently a number of Arab-Israelis have become more visible in Israeli media and entertainment sectors. Young Arab-Israeli actors such as Saleh Bakri, who appeared in the internationally acclaimed film The Band's Visit, and Youssef Sweid, fast becoming a regular on Israeli prime-time TV, have also charmed their way into teen magazines "hottest 100" lists of Israeli men.
Awad is known within Israel, alongside the popular Arab-Israeli actress Clara Khoury, for appearing in the TV drama, Arab Labour. Now commissioned for a second series, the black comedy propelled the lives of a fictional Arab-Israeli family onto mainstream Israeli TV. The show mined the absurdities that are manifest in the daily experiences of a Palestinian family trying to fit in to a prejudicial Israeli society, but faced criticisms for trading in patronising stereotypes.
"It's part of the tax you pay for being an Arab citizen in Israel," said Sayed Kashua, the show's creator. "I wouldn't write about the occupation, but it is there between the lines - in the racism and the funny stories about sometime trying to fit. If there was a goal for me, it's to put the Arab language in Israeli mainstream living rooms." Arab Labour is the first prime-time Israeli TV series in which most of the dialogue is spoken in Arabic, officially one of the national languages of the Jewish state. But some commentators say that for all the visible success of Arab-Israeli actors, there are always compromises.
"Those involved in Israeli culture do not know anything about Arabic culture and they are not interested in knowing," said Hanna abu Hanna, an Arab-Israeli poet and writer. "They don't care and they look down on our culture from above. The whole atmosphere in Israel is of animosity and a kind of arrogance." * The National