A member of the crew for Israeli Netflix show “Fauda” has been killed in action in Gaza. The show’s official X (formerly Twitter) account posted the news Saturday. The team wrote, “We are devastated to share that one of our Fauda family members, Matan Meir, was killed in action in Gaza. Matan was an integral crew member.”
“The cast and crew are heartbroken by this tragic loss. We extend our condolences to Matan’s family and friends. May his soul rest in peace,” the post continued.
Meir is one of five Israeli soldiers who died in northern Gaza on Friday.
“Fauda” is an Israeli television series created by former Israeli Defense Force soldiers Lior Raz and Avi Isaacharoff. The series was picked up by Netflix in December 2016 and is one of Israel’s most popular shows.
The show is filmed in Arabic and Hebrew — its name translates to “chaos” in the former. Its handling of the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has been met with mixed reactions by critics.
In 2018, The Guardian wrote that the second installment in the series doesn’t reflect the reality of the conflict entirely and noted that the “Israeli occupation is nowhere to be seen — there’s no wall, no settlements or settlers, no house demolitions, only a few small checkpoints and none of the everyday brutalities of life under occupation. Yes, it shows that Palestinians love their mothers, but it also renders them as violent fanatics without a political cause.”
In the same year, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement called on Netflix to drop the series from its streaming platform. In a letter to the company, BDS wrote, “Fauda [is] racist propaganda for the Israeli occupying army and displays aggression towards the Palestinian people, and the process it is leading for freedom and independence.”
That didn’t stop audiences from flocking to the series. Lior Raz, the show’s star, creator and writer, previously told TheWrap that the team was surprised by the positive reception. He said, “We were shocked it made such a splash. We thought, ‘Who in the U.S. would watch a show in Hebrew and Arabic?’”
“Fauda” sound editor Lior Waitzman was killed in October’s attacks on Israel. In early October, Raz joined an extraction mission in a bombarded Israeli town.
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