- there is no jewish race (nazis believed that, sionists still believe that, but this is bullshit), so Watto can’t be a jewish racial stereotype ;
Being a non-proselytising faith being Jewish is an ethnic descriptor. They are semitic people and a few rare examples aside share signifying genetic markers with other semitic people like Arabs (this is true of even Jewish people of African origin).
- Israel is a country with jewish people, muslims people, North African immigrants of jewish religion and of semitic ancestry, and European immigrants of jewish religion but not of semitic ancestry; so I don’t quite see the point of talking about Israel here since this is not a “full” jewish country nor a “full” semitic country, and which does not represent any race or stereotype that could be found in TPM ;
The mix in Israel and the occupied Palestinian states are practically semitic in background.
- so Watto is, AT MOST, a semitic racial stereotype. Watto is a slaver and a bad guy, and he looks like a bad guy you could find in North Africa/Middle East (or in the Steptoe/Sanford reference provided by yotsuya). It’s not subtle (Jabba is a bad guy who looks like a bad guy) but I fail to see why this would be racist/antisemite.
The performance is essentially a cartoon of Alec Guiness doing Fagin. Anakin is Oliver already.