In New Yorker, Diana Buttu Fabricates About ‘Fauda’

Diana Buttu, a lawyer and former legal advisor for the Palestine Liberation Organization who has infamously and repeatedly insisted that Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza “do not carry explosive heads,” and has repeatedly and falsely maintained that no Israelis died in suicide bombings from 1997 to 2000 inside Israel (in fact, 24 Israeli civilians were killed in six bombings during that time period), has now turned her fact-defying denials to fiction: the popular television series “Fauda.”

In a New Yorker review of “Fauda,” editor David Remnick writes (“How Do You Make a TV Show Set in the West Bank,” Sept. 4):

Diana Buttu, a lawyer who has worked as a legal adviser to the P.L.O., watched the series recently and told me that she found the experience disturbing. She did not share Shamni’s ambivalence, and when we spoke she made a compelling critique of “Fauda.” “In ‘Fauda,’ we do not see the occupation,” she said. “It is invisible, just as it is in the minds of Israelis. In fact, we never even hear the word. We don’t see a single checkpoint, settlement, settlers, or home demolitions. We don’t see any homes being taken over, or land being expropriated or anything of the sort. We see a nice brick wall, not the ugly eight-metre-high one, as the only sign that we are in the West Bank.

While Buttu’s critique may be “compelling,” it’s also false. Contrary to Buttu’s claim, the word “occupation” is heard in “Fauda” and checkpoints do appear. For instance, in the very first episode, during the key wedding scene in which undercover Israeli forces carry out a failed attempt to kill arch-terrorist Taufiq Hamed and end up killing the groom, the groom’s uncle gives a speech, stating before these dramatic events (23:06): “Despite all that the occupation has done to us, we still bear children. We’re successful, we raise families, have children and prosper.”

Likewise, in the very first episode (19:55), a checkpoint appears, not for the only time in the season.

A very dramatic scene takes place in episode 8, in which Nassrin Hamed (far right, first picture below), Taufiq’s wife, arrives at a checkpoint to cross into Israel to visit her daughter in the hospital, and is strip-searched in a small building at the checkpoint.

CAMERA has contacted The New Yorker to request clarification of Buttu’s false information about the show. Meanwhile, Haaretz has covered The New Yorker review of “Fauda,” likewise carrying Buttu’s quote without notifying readers that she fabricates. Stay tuned for an update.

Hat tip: Erika Dreifus. With research by CAMERA Fellow Natalie Segev and Lia Lands.