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Make love not war: Israeli adult Web site promotes reconciliation in new way
By Jon Kalish, The Forward
Tags: Jewish World 
Parpar1.com shows amateur pornography only featuring Israeli Arabs and Jews.

There is one place in the Middle East where Arabs and Jews seem to be getting along quite well. It's the Israeli Web site Parpar1.com, where amateur pornography features Arabs and Jews at each other's throats - but only for erotic purposes.

Founded by two Tel Aviv computer professionals, the Web site has been serving up such X-rated fare as "Kosher Lesbians," "The Rabbi's Daughter" and "Sex Party in Jerusalem" since 2001. Parpar1 has hundreds of hours of video porn featuring amateur performers. It is a pay service that can be accessed on the Web or via mobile phone.

Co-owner Avi Levy said that in addition to Israel, cell phones can get the adult content in England, Spain and Italy. Romania will soon follow. Levy says Parpar1 videos will be available on cable television in Canada eventually.
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Despite an introductory video that proclaims "Make Love, Not War," the 42-year-old computer programmer-turned-porn entrepreneur says his porn site is clearly a commercial endeavor with no political overtones.

"I'm not a politician. I'm here to make money," Levy said. Levy and his partner, a Web developer named Shay Malol, were convinced that the way to succeed in their new business was to offer something special in the world of porn. And they decided that the niche they would stake out would be hardcore pornography featuring homegrown Israelis, both Jews and Arabs.

"We don't think the Arab is less than the Jew," Levy said.

None of the "performers" in Parpar1's sex films was born outside the Holy Land.

"Many Russians here call me, but I don't hire them," Levy said, referring to a recent wave of immigrants to Israel.

The Web site shoots videos every week, sometimes in hotel rooms or a rented villa, sometimes in natural settings such as a beach or a forest. The site advertises for performers both online and in Israeli newspapers. So far, around 70 to 80 young Israeli women have agreed to be filmed, according to Levy. And hundreds of men have been involved in the productions.

Many of the amateur sex performers are college students, but Levy insisted that "all kinds of people" participate in his hardcore videos, including married women who bring their husbands to the set. "For them, it is an adventure to do it," he said.

Parpar is Hebrew for "butterfly," but over the years it has been used as a slang term to describe a swinger. When it is used as a verb, as in "to act as a butterfly," it means "to sleep around."

With Web sites offering pictures and videos in every imaginable sexual category and in such national groupings as British, Brazilian, Czech, Filipino, Korean and Mexican, Levy and Malol's strategy of creating an Israeli niche is not as farfetched as it might seem. Sherri Shaulis, editor of Adult Video News Online Magazine, which monitors the Internet sex industry, had not heard of Parpar1, but she said she was not surprised that such a site exists.

"The [porn] industry is getting very, very niche-specific these days," Shaulis said. "It only makes sense that as the market becomes more saturated, you're going to have people break it down even further."

Although Levy said there are Arab men in other places who film themselves having sex with their wives and upload the video to the Internet, he believes that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where there is a commercial porn business operating openly.

It doesn't operate totally openly, though. Customers who are billed for access to Parpar1's X-rated Web site will see an item on their bank statement attributed to 'fuel supplies.'

Jon Kalish is a Manhattan-based radio reporter and podcast producer.
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  1.   I LOVE IT! :) 3 Arabs on 1 jew 16:28  |  MAKE LOVE NOT WAR! 19/05/08
  2.   Glad to see haaretz promoting the Israeli porn industry 16:31  |  Dror 19/05/08
  3.   How come "Haaretz" journos not in the fry,too limp? 16:47  |  Absolute Sweden 19/05/08
  4.   I like it. But, where is the gay male porn section? 16:48  |  *BEN JABO 19/05/08
  5.   par par1 16:48  |  azad 19/05/08
  6.   Depravity, dementia, desperation, destitution, destruction 16:53  |  Dror 19/05/08
  7.   totally disgusting 16:59  |  dan 19/05/08
  8.   Grr 17:06  |  Ron 19/05/08
  9.   Top hot Imam on Rabbi action!! 17:11  |  Carl 19/05/08
  10.   Where do I sign up? 17:11  |  EL LONGO 19/05/08
  11.   Love it. Unfortunately there are no gay clips there 17:20  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  12.   Dror, this is good, morality is a Muslim thing 17:20  |  Dan 19/05/08
  13.   Dan you live in 18th Century. Pornography is good for you 17:26  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  14.   BEN JABO, exactly right gay porn is missing 17:33  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  15.   Dror, if only Palestinian could watch porn instead of blowing up 17:37  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  16.   Given our precarious defense, Haaretz considers this newsworthy? 17:41  |  bat yam 19/05/08
  17.   Equal opportunity 17:45  |  utagawa 19/05/08
  18.   BEN JABO, take my words back. They have gay porno. Happy me 18:05  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  19.   When Peres talks about Israeli technology 18:08  |  Chris Linthwaite 19/05/08
  20.   If an arab is on top of a jew 18:11  |  Chris Linthwaite 19/05/08
  21.   I admire those 2 Jews for being very smart business people 18:11  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  22.   #7 Dan 18:14  |  Adam Bolton 19/05/08
  23.   Peres conference and Palestinian high tech 18:18  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  24.   Slow news day.......clearly 18:20  |  Gilles 19/05/08
  25.   #9 Or Cardinal having a religeous experience with 2 nuns.. 18:22  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  26.   Dan, I`m sorry, but you sound like a moron 18:24  |  Dror 19/05/08
  27.   Mr. Garrison and Mr. Hand, also Mr. Slave 18:28  |  Dror 19/05/08
  28.   Re. Gay Israeli Palestinian conference on peace in the ME 18:33  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  29.   #17 If we can make love to gether we can make peace together 18:35  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  30.   There is a secular argument against porn, too 18:46  |  Aphemia 19/05/08
  31.   What I always wanted to know about Israel, but was afraid....... 18:46  |  Swiss (Dino) 19/05/08
  32.   sick. i imagine it will be hacked and taken down like the last on 18:47  |  Avi 19/05/08
  33.   Parpar1.com 18:58  |  Larry54 19/05/08
  34.   A new taboo to these two smart jews! 19:10  |  A New Idea 19/05/08
  35.   PORNO IS NOT LOVE 19:39  |  Barf Bagg 19/05/08
  36.   Really Haaretz? 19:51  |  Adam 19/05/08
  37.   #32 Avi 20:00  |  Chris Linthwaite 19/05/08
  38.   #35 Barf Bagg 20:03  |  Chris Linthwaite 19/05/08
  39.   #38 My husband and I are considerin to join the peace effort 20:16  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  40.   If the fact of Arafat being gay is known, Palestinians will make 20:27  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  41.   In ancient Rome, Gladiators mudered/died for spectators` pleasure 20:29  |  commonn sense 19/05/08
  42.   Arafat should have come out of the closet long time ago 20:41  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  43.   Everybody is f..d in one way or another.. 20:48  |  ScotGuy 19/05/08
  44.   Barf Baggm - Porno may not be love but you can LOVE porno 20:50  |  Pepe 19/05/08
  45.   Disgusting 20:53  |  Isaiah 19/05/08
  46.   Little completion to my # 31...... 21:27  |  Swiss (Dino) 19/05/08
  47.   Too hairy and some too fat. More shaving.. 21:46  |  Dr. Moishe Pupik 19/05/08
  48.   Common sense 21:48  |  Dror 19/05/08
  49.   To Larry54 21:51  |  ILFESSO 19/05/08
  50.   #46 Swiss( Dino) Watch Arafat and political porn. Enjoy 21:59  |  Yaakov Sullivan 19/05/08
  51.   #45 Isaiah 22:28  |  Chris Linthwaite 19/05/08
  52.   a real disgrace 23:13  |  joe Smith 19/05/08
  53.   #51 Chris 23:17  |  Isaiah 19/05/08
  54.   Smut 23:48  |  Yanatan 19/05/08
  55.   Smut 23:48  |  Yanatan 19/05/08
  56.   There is no humanitarian gloss to this bad taste. 00:00  |  Fortuna Benmayor 20/05/08
  57.   sex is beautiful. make this available free of charge in arab wrld 00:11  |  frenz 20/05/08
  58.   Isaiah - disgusting? what kind of a god do you worship? 00:21  |  Israeli 20/05/08
  59.   joe Smith - 00:23  |  Isreali 20/05/08
  60.   #53 Isaiah 00:48  |  Chris Linthwaite 20/05/08
  61.   # 50 Yaakov Sullivan 00:48  |  Swiss (Dino) 20/05/08
  62.   Thank you Parpar1 01:41  |  Michal 20/05/08
  63.   Chris I agree there is nothing wrong with anal intercourse 02:02  |  Yaakov sullivan 20/05/08
  64.   ringers for parpar1 08:41  |  Dror 20/05/08
  65.   Re Israeli 22:55  |  Isaiah 20/05/08
  66.   IS IT NECESSARY 09:41  |  DOMNIC 15/06/08
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