TEL AVIV, ISRAEL Violence begets more violence.
An Israeli learned that at a young age Avi Issacharoff while serving in the elite forces of the Israeli security service. Issacharoff is the creator of the hit Netflix series, in which bombs explode, bullets fly and bodies emerge in the never-ending cycle of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.
The series Fauda, created by Issacharoff, is about an elite unit of the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet. The unit carries out anti-terrorist covert operations in the Palestinian territories. The main character of the series is Doron, an experienced soldier. He and his group are chasing Palestinian Hamas terrorists in the Palestinian-inhabited West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in neighboring Lebanon.
The fourth season premiered in January and with it a record number of viewers. The series is now shown on Netflix in 190 countries. The series also has viewers in Finland, but it is particularly popular in the Arab world (you switch to another service).
How exactly did a series about a complex conflict in Hebrew and Arabic achieve global popularity?
The plot twists stem from true events
The Arabic name of the series Fauda means chaos. That’s what the main characters of the series manage to create around themselves while chasing terrorists. Lives are destroyed and innocents die in operations.
Issacharoff conceived the series after serving in the same elite unit Lior Razin with. Issacharoff became the screenwriter of the series, Raz became the actor of the main character Doron.
Many of the scenes, plot twists and characters in the series are based on real events, Issacharoff tells .
In the first season of the series, an elite gang attacks a Palestinian wedding. The new groom is killed as a bystander, and after various twists and turns, the widowed bride sets off a suicide bomb in a nightclub in Tel Aviv.
– The plot twist is loosely based on the suicide bombing in Haifa in 2003, Issacharoff says.
Issacharoff emphasizes that Fauda is a fictional drama series, not a documentary. Its characters and events are fictitious. Still, it was important to the creators of Fauda that the series feels authentic to the viewer.
At the same time, according to Issacharoff, the series’ message about the 75-year-long conflict is far from the setting of Hollywood films, where good fights against evil and eventually wins.
– There is no catharsis at the end of the production seasons. There are no winners in the conflict, or at least every victory also includes losses, says Issacharoff.
The popularity in the Arab world was surprising
Fauda’s popularity has grown worldwide from season to season. In Israel’s neighboring country Lebanon, its fourth season became the most watched for several weeks.
You wouldn’t think that a series about an Israeli military unit would be Arabs’ favorite entertainment. Issacharoff says he was surprised by the popularity of the series already in Israel, not to mention Arab countries.
– The reason may be that the Palestinians appearing in the series are interesting characters and not unambiguous villains. In addition, half of the series is spoken in Arabic. But it is also the case that a good story sells, says Issacharoff.
It is not yet known if the series will continue. However, the fifth season would be in the wishes of the creators of the series, says Issacharoff.
Fauda fans praise the series for being seen as showing both sides of the conflict. In its plot twists, for example, several Palestinians who strive for good face injustice and arbitrarily become part of the games between Israel and Hamas.
However, the series has also been criticized for being written from an Israeli perspective. Even though it splashes when plastering, the protagonists of the series heroically protect their homeland, Israel, in the endgame. The series does not question Israel’s occupation of the West Bank or show much of, for example, Israeli settlements, whose Israeli residents are often responsible for attacks on Palestinians.
Issacharoff says directly that the story of the series is meant to be told from an Israeli point of view.
– The series focuses specifically on Israeli soldiers, and its antagonists are Palestinian terrorists. If the series had been written from the perspective of the Palestinians, it would have looked very different. But we still strive to show that the conflict is not black and white, says Issacharoff.
The military experience changed the world of thought
There is great turmoil going on in Israel. A hard-line right-wing government has come to power, which includes extreme religious and extreme right-wing ministers. Ministers known to be hostile to Palestinians are demanding even tougher security measures.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated against the government’s reform of the legal system. They fear that the reform will endanger Israeli democracy. Issacharoff has also spoken publicly against the reform.
– Israel is on a very dangerous path, Issacharoff estimated.
Issacharoff has followed the conflict since his military service as a journalist. He estimates that Israel has been led to its current situation by the fact that a large number of Israelis and Palestinians no longer believe in the peace process.
Issacharoff says that his experiences in the elite forces changed his own political thinking to be more leftist. He says that he understood that political problems cannot be solved with military operations.
– In the end games, killing, arrests and destroying homes lead nowhere. They only cause more anger, more angry people and possibly more terrorists.