Sayed Kashua's Native Summary

Sayed Kashua’s collection of newspaper columns, Native, tells the story of Kashua’s life living in a divided Israel as an Arab. The Arab-Israeli conflict occurring in Israel has created unmasked tension between the Arabs and Jews who are sharing the land. This has created a culture of each group wanting to garner support and sympathy for their “side” of the conflict. As an Arab writing to a Hebrew audience, one might assume Kashua uses his newspaper column to promote the Arab side. While Kashua does partake in telling stories pertaining to the conflict, such as stories of the discrimination he faces as an Arab, his stories appear to be of real-life experiences without any built-in Arab propaganda. Although a superficial reading of Sayed Kashua’s Native may have readers believe Kashua is pursuing a political agenda of gaining sympathy for Arabs in the Arab-Israeli conflict, a deeper reading reveals that there is no political agenda within Kashua’s writing and that it is the apolitical nature of his writing that allows readers to voluntarily sympathize with Arabs.
The stories Kashua shares throughout his column are not politically-driven, but day-to-day accounts of his life. …show more content…
Throughout his columns, Kashua includes stories that play to Jewish reader’s emotions by making them feel respected or appreciated from an Arab’s point of view. For example, Kashua includes his wish to send his daughter to a Jewish school. Superficially it might seem that this is solely because the schools are better and more secular; however, on a deeper level, Kashua feels that he has had better opportunities and is better respected because of his Hebrew schooling growing up and he is thankful for this aspect of his upbringing. Kashua’s explanation of his wish to send his daughter to a Jewish school makes Jewish readers feel respected and makes them more open to listening to his