Fauda

Fauda is a Hebrew transliteration of an Arabic word meaning chaos. It is the title of an Israeli-produced thriller TV series streamed on Netflix. There are three seasons and I recently binge watched them. Written by Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff, who had been undercover operators in the Israel Defence Force, it chronicles the undercover counter-terrorist activities of a Mista'arvim unit, led by Doron, the lead character played by Raz. Season 1 focuses on actions against Hamas in the West Bank, season 2 portrays ISIS infiltration of Hamas and thus the IDF and Hamas having a common enemy and season 3 takes place in Gaza. It's gritty, hard and often violent.

I enjoyed the series very much but in my mind I questioned how authentic it is in portraying everyday life and in particular the relative depictions of Israelis and Palestinians. Obviously I have no first hand knowledge on which to draw.

When starting a new TV series or watching a movie for the first time I avoid reviews; not so much for spoilers but to make up my own mind about it. Once finished I will often read those reviews, to see how the thoughts and opinions of others chime with mine but sometimes to figure out what went on in a particular scene or perhaps the ending. (I watched a movie Captive State last night and after nearly two hours I genuinely had no idea what had happened or whether I had assessed the ending correctly. It's such a flawed, rambling film that I can't recommend it.)

Many of the reviews of Fauda focussed on whether, as an Israeli-made programme, it gave a biased, even racist, view of events. There was no consensus and, as you might expect, a huge gap in interpretations. As far as I could see, I (as a totally independent observer) could not detect any bias. It follows the activities of Israeli soldiers and therefore shows Palestinians (at least as represented by Hamas) as the enemy, but that's inevitable in an Israeli production. The reasons for Palestinian hatred of the Jews/Zionists [their terminology] are clearly portrayed. The show certainly doesn't shy away from disastrous mistakes by the soldiers. Luna Mansour, one of the leading Palestinian actors in the show said of criticism she had received for taking part "Marwa and Samir [her character’s husband, who is portrayed by Amir Khoury] are so unique. They don’t care about revenge, they don’t care about bombs, terrorism, Israelis, Palestinians. All they care about is having each other, having a chance to live their life, having the chance to raise their baby together.”

The only thing I'd say is that I am no nearer understanding the extent to which Hamas is representative of the views of "ordinary" Palestinians; if anything, I'd say the impression given is that it is. My overall impression is, as the title suggests, of chaos; of an interminable conflict that makes the everyday lives of Palestinians in particular depressing at best, almost unlivable at worst.

I'm satisfied that I haven't been co-opted by this Israeli series into taking a pro-Israeli view of conflict in the Middle East. It's a well produced and well acted show that grips the viewer. The English version has subtitles for the Arabic dialogue and dubbing for the Hebrew. As with most dubbing, it's not great but there's nothing to be done about that. There is a fourth season planned and I don't think it's reached its sell by date yet, so I look forward to that. I recommend it.

As it happens I recently watched the movie Oslo, a film version of a stage play in which a Norwegian diplomat and her husband, who works for a humanitarian organisation, bring together representatives of the Israeli government and Palestinian officials in secret, in an attempt to broker a peace deal. It is based on the real life story leading to the Oslo Accords of 1993. As someone who was aware of the process at the time, it evoked memories and so was an enjoyable revisit. If you didn't know it was originally a stage play, you would guess it early on, as the characters stand still and make speeches to each other in a rather stiff manner. Having said that, it's a worthwhile two hour watch with plenty of drama. And Ruth Wilson.