Ziva David - Personality

Personality

Ziva is an Israeli Jew, and was always seen wearing a Star of David pendant until her capture in Somalia, where her captor ripped it off her neck. In "Good Cop, Bad Cop", shortly before her captivity, she said that she "would sooner die than take this necklace off". In "Faith", a gold chain appears on her neck and in "Flesh and Blood" she is shown wearing a silver Star of David pendant; it's unclear who gave it to her or whether she bought it herself.

In "Tribes", she states that she is Jewish during an investigation of a Marine's death. She does not appear to follow Orthodox Jewish strictures, dating men who are not Jewish, though she does mention celebrating Jewish holidays. She has made references to keeping kosher; however, in her second episode on the show, she is seen eating a slice of pepperoni pizza, which goes against kosher dietary laws.

Despite having lost friends and family to radical Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas, she does not appear to resent Muslims in general. She commented in "Tribes" that her childhood best friend was a Muslim, but he was killed in a retaliatory Israeli air-strike when she was twelve. In "Suspicion", she briefly speaks with an Iraqi immigrant who becomes suspicious of her immediately after realizing that she is Israeli. When he asks her if animosity will always exist between Muslims and Jews, she replies, "At least in our lifetime." Soon afterwards she physically confronts a deputy sheriff who makes disparaging remarks to the immigrant about Islam, telling the deputy, "When you insult his religion, you insult mine and your own," and insisting that he apologize.

After she has to shoot her half-brother, Ari, to keep him from killing Gibbs, Ziva quietly sings in Hebrew "El Malei Rachamim", a Jewish mourning song, over Ari's body.

De Pablo describes the character as someone who is "completely different from anyone else on the show" and that because "she's been around men all her life; she's used to men in authority. She's not afraid of men." Ziva is often portrayed as calmly aggressive and does not shy away from physical altercations with suspects. She is not easily intimidated or rattled. She approaches her job with zeal, appearing to truly believe in what she does. She is very committed to the ideals of the U.S., in particular the bounds that law places on all citizens including the government.

In "Faith", Ziva said that she speaks ten languages (including the "language of love"). The languages are: English, Hebrew, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, French, Pashto, German, Italian, and Russian.

A running gag in the series, referred to by fans as "Zivaisms", is Ziva frequently misusing, misunderstanding or just completely mangling American slang, cultural references, colloquialisms and idioms. For example: In "Silver War", she said she felt like a "donkey's butt" when she meant "horse's ass". In "Friends and Lovers", she said during an interview with a junkie that it was "like shooting fish in a pond". When the D.C. Metro detective corrected her, she remarked, "Why would there be fish in a barrel?"

The episode "Dagger" showed Ziva's empathetic side towards children. When Agent Lee's sister was left an orphan at the end of the episode, she and Tony looked after her in the NCIS building. Ziva was shown taking care of Amanda at her desk, watching over as she drew pictures. As Gibbs explained to Amanda that her sister would not be coming back, Ziva was shown to be emotionally affected by it. This side was further seen in the season 7 episode "Outlaws and In-Laws" when she immediately reached out to play with Gibbs' two-year-old goddaughter while on security detail.

Ziva is an extremely skilled assassin and is able to take life without hesitation or remorse when the situation requires, something that has not changed with her new affiliation with NCIS; despite this, Ziva is capable of displaying playfulness, nearly childishness at times, such as in "Heartland" when she gleefully races McGee to be the first to tell Tony and Abby about meeting Gibbs' father.