(Graduate research work at The John Hopkins University)
Just Another Action Flick?
Perhaps a more accurate name for the Netflix 3-season TV series Fauda (Arabic word meaning ‘chaos’) that portrays the age-old Middle Eastern tragedy may have been Tadarub (Arabic word roughly translated as ‘inconsistency/discrepancy’). In this paper, I will use sample situations from the various episodes, as well as bring in the critical commentary Fauda has received to demonstrate the inconsistencies of this thoroughly entertaining production on the political discourse. Through the discussion, we may notice the dependence of the show on a small but determined team to save the day that further moves us away from a sense of a long-term peaceful solution that will require ordinary people to reconcile versus devout followers of both religions continuing to wait for a charismatic messiah.
Putting it Together.
The show achieves some authenticity with compelling imagery of Israel and Palestine, given it was shot in outdoor settings in Israel and the West Bank. The captivating drone shots provide the viewers the tiny geographic scale of this giant historic catastrophe. Fauda revolves around a counter-terrorism unit of the Israel Defense Forces branch called Mista’arvim. What makes the unit stands out is its sophisticated infiltration capabilities requiring each operative to have a native command of Arabic and a strong understanding of the Islamic faith given the constant undercover assignments. The unit is a handful of specialists with the only female exception also often playing the dual role of the team’s conscience. Season 1 starts with a recently retired member of the team and the dominant character Doron, who unwillingly returns from retirement to join an unfinished operation to take out a Hamas leader known as “The Panther”. The first season is a traditional cat and mouse chase with plenty of close calls, a few laughs, and several unnecessary painful human casualties. Season 2 and 3 are similar in themes with an overarching terrorism plot that must be defused before the 12-episode season. The show is laced with parallel storylines of betrayal, love, revenge, economics, and one might add work-life balance or lack thereof given the unit members are regularly faced with choosing mission over their families.
Taking it Apart.
The show constant struggle is what the renowned psychologist Carl Rogers described as “Being empathetic is seeing the world through the eyes of the other, not seeing your world reflected in their eyes” (Rogers, 1974). It makes one failed attempt after another for the unit members to truly empathize with their targets. The reconciliation of feelings is often superficial and swiftly moves the focus on the unit members and away from the Palestinian subjects despite the circumstances.
Let us take a sequence of dramatizations depicted in the first series (Bernstein, 2015) and examine how such shows of empathy fell short. At the beginning (S1/E1), the unit has infiltrated the West Bank wedding ceremony of the younger brother of a Hamas operative. A shootout gone wrong ends up with the target escaping and the groom dead at the hands of Israelis. The brief romance of this young couple comes to an abrupt halt with the widow signing up to be a suicide bomber (S1/E2). The bombing takes place at a nightclub inside Israel (S1/E3) and serves as a horrific reminder of such unthinkable acts where one victim creates many more. Amongst several people killed is the girlfriend of unit member Boaz. Subsequently, Boaz, intent on exacting revenge is kidnapped (S1/E5) by Hamas with the unit now in a race against time to rescue their fellow team member. Out of options, the unit captures a frail neighborhood mosque prayer leader (imam) who although sympathetic to the Palestinian cause is not an active conspirator behind the kidnapping.
In a desperate move, the unit subjects the imam to torture with hammer blows (S1/E7). The haunting screams of the imam are drowned by a brief scene of the female unit member Nurit crying at the sight of the imam being tortured. The viewer is helpless but to feel sympathy for Nurit. Despite the fact that she is an active Israeli assassin, despite the fact the several innocent Israeli and Palestinian human sacrifices that led to this scene, despite the feeble imam who is unsuccessfully trying to keep peace in his small section of the West Bank — it all comes down to the emotional impact on Nurit. Everything else becomes a secondary observation and nothing else matters than a strong desire for the audience to pluck Nurit from the awful scene and bring her some comfort.
Such a lack of real empathy is on frequent display and in fact, it is not without a strong rationale. When Avi Issacharoff, the co-creator of the show was put the question on the mostly one-sided Israeli perspective of the production, he responded: “We started as an Israeli show that was meant to be seen by Israeli audiences. If a Palestinian would have written the show, it would have been written differently. But at the end of the day, we are not Palestinians” (Serhan, 2018). Speaking of inconsistencies, Lior Raz, the other show co-creator shared a different perspective with The New York Times: “I’m getting emails from Israelis who are saying for the first time in their life they feel empathy and compassion for the other side, and the same from Gaza and Kuwait and Lebanon and Turkey” (Halbfinger, 2018).
Implicit impressions that create a silent conclusion of Islam as the perpetrator behind the Palestinian violence by using images of mosques, the several times Nurit dawns a hijab to covertly blend but somehow the head covering paints a sorrowful facial expression, the sound of the daily prayers serving as a background soundtrack to climactic scenes — there is no shortage of placing the religion and the acts of violence neatly in the same basket. Contrast this to the seemingly ‘normal’ unit members, who crave drinks, love to workout, look forward to sex, have beautiful families live in modern houses with stainless steel appliances — if only the Palestinians would abandon their shenanigans, the unit members could lead their regular lives.
When the inconsistency of the unit members was highlighted to Mr. Raz, where the unit members can go from loving family members to killing machines, the co-creator eagerly provided an Israeli perspective reflected in the Palestinian eyes: “You don’t understand the mental price those people <<unit members>> are paying for their actions” (Halbfinger, 2018).
One glaring omission is the wall. The symbol of physical segregation, along with any of the 100+ officially recognized Israeli settlements (Katz, 2020) interwoven in the West Bank fabric would surely have provided a more complete landscape, as well as shed light on the struggles of the settlers.
Future Seasons.
The show so far has been another missed opportunity in the Middle East conflict genre that could have removed some misconceptions about both Judaism and Islam. Future production can perhaps celebrate the often rich and collaborative history both Jews and Muslims have enjoyed in the last 14 centuries. Instead of supporting the perception that Islam instructs its followers to wipe of Jews, the show can put a sharper focus on the political corruptions and economic imbalances that have plagued the region often driving ‘normal’ people to become instruments of terror.
The show can remind the viewers and especially the Muslim ones that their holy book Quran explicitly condemns the killing of innocent human beings as one of the greatest sins: “For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind” (Pickthall, 1930).
The show can insert multiple reminders of a history of Jews and Muslims living side by side and often fighting alongside to protect Jerusalem from invaders. It can reminisce the respect that Islam’s second caliph Umar showed to Judaism and Christians, when Jerusalem fell to the Muslim army in 638 A.D. as part of a broader war campaign between the Byzantines and the newly forming Islamic movement. At the time of the surrender, Umar refused to accept the invitation of Patriarch Sophronius to pray inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre exercising precaution to not set a precedent for other Muslims to follow (Krüger, 2000).
Fauda assumes the viewers are unable to make their individual conclusions and hence spells out the good and bad to ensure the post-show discussion at the family dinner table is civil. The best stories are the ones that challenge the human intellect and force a debate not just with fellow companions but most importantly an internal one. Fauda can do a lot better on this front including one small step of adding a Palestinian perspective to their writers room, which is not the case today (Halbfinger, 2018).
Lastly, even with tweaks to create a somewhat balance storyline, it would be appropriate to start and end each episode with a clear disclaimer the show’s real intent is to entertain a binge TV watching crowd and not to narrate an analysis that captures all sides of the human story. From the mother who lost her young son on her wedding day to the Israeli officials on security checkpoints who have to perform inhumane treatment towards civilians and also get subjected to ridicule by Palestinians, to the unit members and their families who unlike the show’s representation of ‘normal’, all lives are traumatized with the constant surrounding threat of violence. The show should allow the audience to deeply connect with characters so that we pause when any life is lost and can at some shallow level relate.
References
• Rogers, C. (1974). Empathic Listening, Carl Rogers. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dLsgpHw5x0.
• Benasuly, L (Producer), & Bernstein, A (Director). (2015). Fauda (TV Series). Israel: Yes Studios.
• Serhan, Y. (2018, June 8). Watching Israeli TV’s Fauda as a Palestinian. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/06/watching-israeli-tvs-fauda-as-a-palestinian/561917/
• Pickthall, M. (1930). The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. Chapter 5, Verse 32.
• Krüger, Jürgen (2000). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem: History, Form, Importance.
• Halbfinger, D. (2018, May 22). ‘Fauda,’ an Israeli TV Hit, Lets Viewers Escape — Into the Conflict. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/arts/television/fauda-an-israeli-tv-hit-lets-viewers-escape-into-the-conflict.html
• Katz, Y. (2020, January 1). West Bank Population Stats. Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/israeli-settlements-population-in-the-west-bank
• Joffe, J. (2018, June 11). What Critics Left and Right Get Wrong About ‘Fauda’. Tablet. Retrieved from https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/what-critics-left-and-right-get-wrong-about-fauda
