“We are better than what they make us think of ourselves.”
This is what Alaa Abu Diab told me during our Zoom call, speaking about the way Palestinians are so often framed by the world. He is a stand-up comedian, but before anything else, he is meticulous and intentional about how he is seen and why.
“I want people to come to my show because I’m a smart and funny stand-up comedian,” he says. “I want to compete in this industry. I don’t want people to come only because I am Palestinian. I don’t want pity.”
For Abu Diab, comedy started as a space of therapy. It all started in 2018 on Facebook. He used to post his words and thoughts, until one day, they didn’t fit in a written form. He decided to film a video commenting on what a sheikh said about earth being horizontal, and the video went viral. He filmed two more videos, and when millions of people around the world viewed them, he found himself a stand-up comedian.
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