“Fauda” (since 2015)

Work

The series was created by Lior Raz and the journalist Avi Issacharoff. It is produced by yes TV and L. Benasuly Productions, broadcast by the Israeli channel yes TV and shown outside Israel by Netflix. According to “Variety” (2025), four seasons had aired and a fifth was due to reach viewers in early 2026.¹

It premiered in Israel in February 2015. The series follows an Israeli undercover unit hunting a Palestinian militant.⁴

The reality behind it

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAccording to NPR, Lior Raz is a former undercover soldier in the Israeli army and drew on that experience and on his own life when writing. Raz himself said he had taken a great deal from his own experiences, including a father–son relationship, but that other elements were added for dramatic effect; he did not say which.^3,5

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesRaz told NPR that he wanted to avoid a simple division into good and bad: in the series the Palestinian militants have families and love lives, and the Israeli soldiers are not merely brutal. Filming of the first season began during the war in Gaza; the crew spent about two months working in the Arab-Israeli town of Kafr Qasim.³

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesAccording to NPR, the series has viewers in 190 countries, including Arab states; Raz credited it with thousands of Israelis starting to learn Arabic.³

What researchers say

Nahuel Ribke (“Media, Culture & Society”, 2019) analysed the series’ reception in the media in Israel and abroad. Supporters praised its seemingly realistic portrayal of the conflict, its empathy for both sides and its pace; critics objected that, in place of the everyday life of civilians under military rule, the series offers a “cat and mouse thriller”.⁴

The authors of an article in “Jewish Film & New Media” (2021) propose reading the series not as a clash of identities but as a picture of a place where physical violence meets advanced digital techniques and surveillance.²