The BDS-holes are now setting their sights on Israeli TV show Fauda, an international hit being shown on Netflix.
The international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement has called for Netflix to remove the hit Israeli show “Fauda” or face legal action due to what they claimed was the show’s complicity in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians.
The Israeli series “Fauda” has enjoyed a success both domestically and internationally, and Netflix has announced the release of its widely anticipated second season this May 24.
Purporting to show how Israeli special units and secret services operate in the Palestinian territories, the popular series has attracted criticism by anti-occupation activists and critics who see the display of violence against Palestinians as distasteful.
Until Wednesday, however, no public challenge like the one potentially posed by the BDS movement has challenged the series’ success. Calling “Fauda” a medium for “racist propaganda for the Israeli occupation” and an “ostentation of aggression” against the Palestinians and their struggle for liberation, the BDS movment accused Netflix of being a partner in crime of the occupation.
The letter sent to the video streaming site also mentions the series’ creators – Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff – and their former roles in Israel’s army elite units, such as the “Duvdevan” unit which served as one of the inspirations for the show. According to the BDS statement, Raz and Issacharoff “support the machinery of the occupation, Israeli colonialism and apartheid.”
If Netflix failed to comply with its demands, BDS would consider legal action against a series it calls “racist against Arabs, supportive of violations of international laws and of human rights.”
I have to admit I still have not seen it (don’t judge; I do not watch much TV at all these days, because I prefer to spend my non-work time with my family and keeping Israellycool ticking), but from what I understand, it is a rather “even-handed” show in many ways. As I have posted previously:
The show is reported to have broken barriers in Israel by giving its Arab characters equal screen time and equally complex backstories as its Jewish characters. The protagonists from both sides are as much fathers and brothers as they are combatants, and are drawn with equal complexity.
—
“When we talk about the Arab population we try to show them as real people, not the flat way that is so many times used. We wanted to give them rights too. We wanted to give them wishes, just like everybody out there. We really wanted to show people and not just characters.”
This is the theme of many other reviews, like this one:
It’s in its portrayal of Palestinians that Fauda is particularly unique. We don’t get a token “good Arab” to sympathize with. We get actual Palestinian men and women: some of them lonely, some of them horny, some of them homicidal, some of them confused. On another, lesser version of this show, we would not get to see Abu Ahmad — a dreaded Hamas operative nicknamed “The Panther,” and the ostensible villain of the show — at home with his doting wife. On another, lesser version of this show, we would not get to see Walid, Abu Ahmad’s top lieutenant, stricken with unrequited love
If the BDS-holes were truly all about promoting peace and dialogue, they would not be targeting a show like Fauda. This is just the latest example of how they are all about destroying anything to come out of Israel.
(hat tip: Yoel)
