TEL AVIV – Two new Saudi TV shows sparked outrage among Arab nations and others, including the Hamas terror group, for featuring characters speaking Hebrew and calling for better ties between the Gulf kingdom and Israel.
The opening monologue of the first episode of “Umm Haroun” (The Mother of Aaron) was spoken in Hebrew. “Before our footsteps go missing and our lives fall into memory, we will be lost to time,” a Jewish woman says in the opening scene. “We are the Gulf Jews who were born in the Gulf lands.”
The show, which premiered during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, portrays relations between Muslims and Jews in 1940s Kuwait and features a slew of well-known Saudi and Kuwaiti actors including Hayat al-Fahd, who plays the eponymous heroine.
It also features the character of a rabbi.
Meanwhile a second TV show broadcast in Saudi Arabia, “Exit 7,” includes a character calling for improved relations with Israel. The character also accuses the Palestinians of vilifying Saudi Arabia.
Many critics took to social media to express their outrage.
تبيّن هدف مسلسل #أم_هارون من أولى
حلقاته، حيث قالت بالعبرية إحدى ممثلات
هذا العمل: "قبل أن يختفي أثرنا كله، وتتحول
حياتنا إلى ذكرى ونضيع في زحمة الحياة، قبل
أن نطوى في دفاتر السنين، قررت أن أكتب عنا
وعن ما يخصنا كله، وأوثق كل شيء عنا: نحن
يهود الخليج" pic.twitter.com/V7j85KtJFs— عامر يحيى (@Aameryah3) April 25, 2020
“We have many successful and heroic women in the Persian Gulf. Why do we need to turn a Jewish woman into a hero in our dramas?” Hana al-Qahtan said.
“Would Israel ever produce a series about a Muslim woman in its prisons?” Ahmed Madani asked. “What about the injustices done to the Palestinians? Why not produce a documentary about the suffering of Palestinians?”
The controversial scene shown during Ramadan on Saudi TV in which one Saudi actor advocates for normalization with Israel against Palestinians, saying Palestinians attack Saudi Arabia despite everything it did for them over the decades: pic.twitter.com/s2VzwQza7X
— Hassan Hassan (@hxhassan) April 27, 2020
The Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group said “Umm Haroun” was a “political and cultural attempt to introduce the Zionist project to Persian Gulf society.”
“The character of Umm Haroun reminds me of [Israeli prime minister] Golda Meir, the head of the occupation, who was a murderous criminal. This is the goal of normalization: hatred, slow killing and internal destruction,” Hamas official Ra’fat Murra said.
Some voices from the Arab world however, expressed their support for the show.
“Arab Jews are part of our history, whether in Egypt or in the Arab Peninsula, and this does not contradict our assertion that they were not expelled from the Gulf,” Yousef al-Mutairi, professor of modern and contemporary history at Kuwait University, told Al-Jazeera.net.
“The expulsion took place for individuals who were engaged in activities that the society was not satisfied with, such as trading in alcohol. We must differentiate between Zionism and Judaism. Israel and those living in it are Zionists. But there’s no problem with Judaism.”
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