These photos accompany an article in today's New York Times on David Mamet's new CBS series, "The Unit." The article does not call attention to, or comment on, the fact that Mamet is wearing a kufiya. It does mention that Mamet's left-wing political views are well known.
The David Mamet Society informs us that Mamet was offered a special tribute at the Jerusalem Film Festival in July, 2001, and that he "toured Jerusalem with Mayor Ehud Olmert [currently Israel's PM], visiting the sites of numerous suicide bombings."
In a column written for The Guardian in January, 2003, Mamet predicted the rise of Israelis as villains or monsters in film of the next few years. He begins the essay by extolling the film, Exodus, in which Israelis appear as epic and beautiful heroes, and goes on to assert that the turnabout whereby Israelis emerge as villains "is fair play and it is merely the Jews' turn in the barrel."
So now, the enigmatic Mamet is wearing the kufiya...
Earlier kufiyaspottings: One, two, three, four, five, six.
Tags: Palestine, Israel, Mamet
Postscript, July 10, 2011:
From Christopher Hitchens' review of David Mamet's new book, The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture (New York Times Book Review, June 19, 2011). The book marks Mamet's lurch to the right. Hitchens finds it dull and irritating. But Mamet does say: "the Israelis would like to live in peace within their borders; the Arabs would like to kill them all." If Mamet's donning of a kufiya in 2006 was an enigma, today, no doubt, he would consider that fashion accessory to have been a deluded mistake.
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