Once again, a mini-series on real-life events that took place between the Palestinians and the Israelis in 2014 has sparked the conversation on whether Israeli officials are using the "antisemitism" smear to shut any criticism of Israeli policies or the Israeli society.
Netanyahu’s Dangerous Accusations of Anti-Semitism Against HBO Show ‘Our Boys’ https://t.co/cqt8HXL71q
— TIME Ideas (@TIMEIdeas) September 16, 2019
The latest example is the 2019 HBO production "Our Boys," which has been accused by the Israeli Prime Minister as an "anti-semitic" show that he had called on Israelis to boycott.
Winning 14 Israeli Academy Awards, the show narrates the events of the hot summer of 2014 in which three teenage Israelis were killed in the occupied territories of the West Bank before the Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and burned alive near East Jerusalem, igniting tensions that led to the 50-day Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Congratulations to Our Boys on 14 wins at the Israeli Academy Awards, the most awards of any show this year.
— HBO (@HBO) May 1, 2020
Catch up on the acclaimed series, now streaming. #OurBoysHBO pic.twitter.com/hSDcz2qyXH
However, the show was deemed by many Israelis as "biased to the Palestinians," as it tackles the difficulties faced by Abu Khdeir's family in their search for their 16-years old son before realizing his fate, especially as it highlights the difference in response they received "as Arabs in the Jewish state."
The events described in HBO's "Our Boys" turned out to be a watershed in shaping the identity of the Palestinians in Jerusalem https://t.co/9OZAXBy5bS
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 11, 2020
Netanyahu took false accusations of anti-Semitism to a new level when he condemned the HBO mini-series Our Boys, a co-production with Israel’s Channel 12 that tells the story of the revenge murder of a Palestinian teenager by Orthodox Jews in 2014.
— Heather M (@HMMinchew) July 19, 2020
The condemnation of the show by right-wing Israeli officials has sparked the conversation over their attempts to "rebrand" antisemitism, so it becomes an effective tool to stop any attempts to revisit, break down or criticize Israeli policies, in particular ones that are connected to the military occupation of the West Bank and the treatment of the Arab population as opposed to Jews in the country.
