While the controversial hit series claims to serve as a neutral voice to display human stories on both sides, it has been heavily criticised by Palestinians for glorifying Israeli war crimes.
A crew member on Netflix’s controversial series Fauda was killed while serving with Israeli occupying forces in Gaza, where human rights organisations and world leaders have warned of an alarming humanitarian catastrophe that amounts to genocide.
On November 11, the official Fauda account on X confirmed Matan Meir was killed in action after volunteering as a reservist, joining at least six other crew members including series co-creator Avi Issacharoff and producer Lior Raz as well as Yohanan Plesner, Tomer Capone, Yaakov Zada Daniel and Idan Amedi, according to Hollywood Reporter.
Fauda, which is Arabic for ‘chaos,’ premiered on Netflix in 2016 and follows Doron Kavillio – a fictional Israeli soldier who ends his retirement to covertly search for an elusive Hamas commander.
While the controversial hit series claims to serve as a neutral voice to display human stories on both sides, it has been heavily criticised by Palestinians for glorifying Israeli war crimes.
Following the show’s Netflix debut, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), which is also a branch of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, called for the streaming platform to discontinue Fauda.
“It is an anti-Arab, racist, Israeli propaganda tool that glorifies the Israeli military’s war crimes against the Palestinian people,” the Palestinian-led BDS movement said of the show. “By sanitising and normalising these crimes, Fauda is directly complicit in promoting and justifying these grave human rights violations,” it added.
Ironically, the shows’ crew members are now directly participating in similar human rights violations in Gaza.
Israel is currently waging the most brutal war on the besieged Strip in years, killing more than 11,500 Palestinians including 4,710 children – making up almost half of the death toll. Israeli occupation forces have been advancing into the Strip since last month amid Israel’s plans to “wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth.”
On Wednesday, Israel triggered global outrage after occupation forces raided the strip’s biggest hospital complex, Al-Shifa Hospital, where thousands of patients, medics and displaced civilians have been seeking treatment and shelter.
The hospital has been a refuge for thousands of Palestinians, and not just patients. For weeks, Gaza’s largest hospital has been a focal centre for journalists covering the humanitarian conditions on the ground.
It has also hosted press conferences by officials and doctors who have pleaded for global assistance. In one harrowing press conference, doctors delivered a statement while surrounded by corpses and holding a dead child.
The hospital has been among Israel’s central targets, which first alleged that tunnels are directly underneath the hospital and then alleging that the premises are actually a Hamas command post.
But the “evidence” that Israel has distributed to prove these claims have been repeatedly debunked by social media users and major organizations alike, including Human Rights Watch.
Israel said it also attempted to search for hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack at Al-Shifa, but that it ultimately found “no signs of Israeli hostages,”
Israel’s military radio confirmed there are “no signs of Israeli hostages at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza after the military entered the facility,” Anadolu Agency reported.
It later published videos and pictures of weapons lined up and bulletproof vests at Al-Shifa, claiming they belonged to Hamas. Social media users were quick to mobilise to debunk Israel’s apparent PR stunt.
Israel’s weeks-long genocidal crimes in the besieged Strip have prompted Palestinian victims filing complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The complaint was filed by a group of lawyers, led by veteran French lawyer Gilles Devers, representing the victims in the Dutch city of The Hague on Monday.
“It is clear for me that there are all the criteria for the crime of genocide,” Devers told Al Jazeera, adding that cases such as ex-Yugoslavia and Rwanda set the precedent against which the complaint had been submitted.
“So this is not my opinion, it’s the reality of law.”
The complaint points to Israel’s crippling siege on Gaza, in which it cut off 2.3 million people from essential water, food and electricity, as well as its targeting of civilian infrastructure and dehumanising anti-Palestinian rhetoric as hallmarks of genocide.
“Governments must choose which camp they are on, if they support human rights or genocide. They cannot give speeches about international law and human rights and then accept Israel’s attack without doing nothing,” he said.
Genocide in Gaza
In the same week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed during a press briefing in Qatar on Wednesday that his country has submitted a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.
“As South Africa we have accordingly, together with many other countries across the world, referred this whole Israeli government action to the International Criminal Court,” Ramaphosa said Wednesday during a state visit to Qatar.
“We have put through a referral because we believe that war crimes are being committed there. And of course, we do not condone the actions that were taken by Hamas earlier, but similarly, we condemn the actions that are currently underway and believe that they warrant an investigation by the ICC,” he added.
The African National Congress (ANC), under Ramaphosa’s leadership, announced it would endorse the motion proposed by the leftist opposition party, Economic Freedom Fighters. The motion calls for the closure of the Israeli Embassy in the country and the cessation of diplomatic relations with Israel.
Addressing the media in Qatar, Ramaphosa expressed deep concern over the ever-escalating war in Gaza, condemning the transformation of the enclave into what he described as a detention camp marred by an unfolding genocide.
“He highlighted the transformation of Gaza into a detention camp where genocide is taking place, saying that South Africa declared its position of opposing the ongoing operation, especially as it is now targeting hospitals, where children and women, adding that scores of the wounded are dying and that preserving life is no longer a reality, that it is being completely ignored and set aside,” Doha’s news agency reported.
“As South Africans, what the Palestinians are going through is something that we have lived through. We struggled for 82 years before attaining our freedom. The Palestinians have been under occupation for 75 years, and they’ve been struggling for many more years,” said Ramaphosa.
“We are going to continue supporting the Palestinians, and we are pleased to find that Qatar supports the cause of the Palestinians. That is why we applauded and commended his highness [Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani] for the stance that he has taken.”
“Because of the position that we’ve taken, we are also called upon to participate in finding a solution, and that is in our nature, as South Africa, that wherever there are conflicts we always call for peace,” he added.
