Hisham Suleiman now hears calls of “Abu Ahmad” when walking down the street — a sign of the popularity of a television drama that dares to present a complex view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The show “Fauda,” or chaos in Arabic, sees Arab Israeli actor Suleiman portray Abu Ahmad, a Hamas terrorist being pursued by an Israeli undercover unit.
Its first season captivated viewers by showing the more human aspects of characters often portrayed in black and white, while at the same time keeping them on edge with tense storylines.
It is the first Israeli television show in both Hebrew and Arabic.
A second season is now in preparation, and Netflix has also picked it up, with the first season available with English subtitles and dubbing.
“We tried to show both sides of the story,” says The Times of Israel’s Avi Issacharoff, who has covered the Palestinian territories as a journalist for nearly two decades, and is co-creator of the show.
“We wanted to show that even the bad guys are very different from what the average Israeli thinks.”
The series follows Doron, a retired member of an undercover Israeli unit who breaks with the peaceful family life he had transitioned into and rejoins the fight at the request of his former chief.
Suleiman’s character — a member of a Palestinian Islamist terror group — is behind a series of suicide attacks that killed more than 100 Israelis.
Doron thought he had killed him, but it turns out he is still alive, so the former agent returns to finish the job.
The 12 episodes of the first season depict the pursuit that follows, with the story portrayed in meticulously constructed scenes reflective of the daily lives of Israelis and Palestinians.
That includes pervasive security constraints, attacks and nighttime raids by the Israeli army in Palestinian territory.
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