The co-creator of Israeli television drama Fauda has responded to criticism over its omission of Gaza’s suffering, saying that the world needed to hear the Israeli story of October 7.
Avi Issacharoff admitted that the series “skipped the suffering of the other side” in an discussion with Channel 4 News presenter Matt Frei about the fifth season, which focuses on the Hamas-led attacks and their aftermath.
Issacharoff said the series had a responsibility to ensure that Israeli experience of October 7 was not forgotten – including by Israelis themselves – in world in which the Palestinian narrative was increasingly dominant.
“We knew that we needed to tell that story. Not only to the world but to the Israelis,” he said.
“Some of the Israelis didn’t really remember what happened on October 7. Some people in Israel are trying to make us forget.”
He also described the psychological consequences of the attacks, saying: “I think that each and every Israeli that lived here on October 7 is suffering from some kind of post-traumatic syndrome.”
However, when Frei challenged him over the absence of Gaza from the new season, Issacharoff acknowledged that the decision was intentional.
“As a script writer who is trying to create a show which will deal with the Palestinian and Israeli conflict and you don’t know what is happening and what will happen in Gaza, you cannot really write a script about Gaza,” he said.
“So we pulled a kind of very old trick meaning we ignored Gaza completely.”
He explained that the programme had instead moved its focus to Europe, where the story follows Hamas’s alleged attempts to establish infrastructure.
“I know [that people are upset by it]. [But] we jumped into another front, meaning Europe, and we’re showing Hamas’ efforts over there to build some kind of infrastructure,” he said.
Frei then raised the issue of international journalists being prevented from independently entering Gaza to report on the war and its aftermath.
He asked whether Fauda was contributing to the marginalisation of Palestinian suffering by choosing not to portray it.
“I don’t doubt the fact that, yes, we ignored Gaza. We skipped Gaza. We skipped the suffering of the other side,” he said.
“But we had to focus in this case on the Israeli side. We thought that this was our story. We that this is the story that we need to bring out to the world.”
He argued that international attention had increasingly focused on Palestinian suffering, while he believed the Israeli experience remained insufficiently understood.
“I truly believe that most of the world today is suffering from lack of understanding of what happened to the Israeli side of this war,” he said.
Issacharoff went on to criticise claims made about Israel during the conflict, saying: “You hear more and more stories about things that never happened. You hear more and more accusations of genocide that didn’t take place.
“You hear more and more stories that are not true but is part of the narrative that some Palestinians are promoting, mainly Hamas and their supporters in Europe.”
Looking ahead, he said he hoped a future season might explore peace between Israelis, Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states, although he was pessimistic about the prospects.
“I still hope that we’ll do something about peace through Israeli and Arab states, Israeli and Palestinians, something around those lines,” he said.
“But let’s be realistic. I don’t think that’s what we’re going to see in the next few years.”
He said the events of the past three years had been difficult to imagine beforehand, pointing to what he described as political corruption in Israel.
Asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Issacharoff made clear that he was not a supporter.
“No I’m not [a fan of Prime minister Netanyahu]. No one suspects me in Israel of being a fan,” he said.
He referred to reports alleging links between staff in Netanyahu’s office and Qatar, which supports Hamas.
“When some people in his chamber and his office are collaborating with the Qatari government that supports Hamas… that was a kind of blow when I heard about that story, I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Despite the controversy surrounding the latest season, Issacharoff said he was struck by Fauda’s popularity in Middle Eastern countries, including Lebanon.
“The fact that it was so popular in Arab speaking countries, it’s a miracle for me that people on the other side can see what happened here – the suffering of the Israeli people, our story that we wanted to tell,” he said.
He suggested several factors might explain the programme’s appeal.
“Maybe part of it is because half of the language is Arabic. Maybe because they are huge fans of Fauda, not from that season but even from season three and season four. Maybe because some of the actors are considered to be very popular… maybe because some Lebanese affiliate with Israel more than they affiliate with Hezbollah.”
Fauda season five is now streaming on Netflix.
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