WATCH: Kissing video follows ministry's nixing of Arab-Jewish love story

"We will continue to believe that people are first human beings, before the religion or nationality that was either chosen by them or their ancestors," TimeOut editors write.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: JANUARY 7, 2016 21:14
Jews and Arabs kiss
Following the Education Ministry decision to remove a love story between an Israeli and a Palestinian from the national high school curriculum, a Tel Aviv magazine's editorial comment on the affair took an original form: a video of Arabs and Jews kissing each other.
TimeOut Tel Aviv said it made the video following the ministry's decision on the author Dorit Rabinyan's novel Borderlife and in the wake of racism against Arabs that surfaced after an Arab suspect killed three people in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv last week.  
"We will continue to believe that people are first human beings, before the religion or nationality that was either chosen by them or their ancestors," the TimeOut editors wrote.
"Love is sometimes viewed as superficial, but this is a mistake, there is no feeling more complex and complicating. In a complex society, it is important for us to complicate in the best way that we know how," the editors added.   
 
Six Jewish-Arab couples, gay and straight, male and female, and some who never met took part in the video.
Stav Wexler of Tel Aviv 23, who kissed her former work colleague and friend Kase Tibi, said that the video experience was both embarrassing and interesting for her. She also had harsh words on the state of politics in Israel.
"The political situation is shit in Israel. If only life were beautiful and there were more lovers and less haters," she told TimeOut.
"The other is me," Tibi, 30, and also of Tel Aviv, told the magazine. 
Another participant in the video, Shir Sternberg, a 29-year-old Jerusalemite who now lives in Tel Aviv slammed Education Minister Naftali Bennett. 
"Naftali Bennett is not normal, I will assimilate with whomever I choose," she said. 
Twenty-five year old Bassem Hazan from Tel Aviv shared a short message following his participation in the clip.
"Being human is a revolutionary thing. I recommend trying it."
   
"Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies," stated the final caption in the video in Hebrew, Arabic and English.