Fauda might be an international television hit, but some Israelis don’t care for its ad campaign featuring giant billboards with Arabic writing across the country.
As season two of the hit show approaches, a major billboard ad campaign has gone up in various local cities. The signs, featuring Arabic text on a black background, read: “Get ready, we are coming for you.”
The slogan, which is supposed to be replaced ahead of the season premiere on Sunday with details of the broadcast time, apparently scared some residents in cities where the signs went up, though it’s not clear if it was the wording or the mere fact that the sign was in Arabic.
In the cities of Nesher and Kiryat Gat, residents wrote to their mayors requesting that the signs be removed, according to a report on Israeli news site Walla. In Nesher, residents even attempted to cover the sign using bed sheets.
“I am all in favor of coexistence and I tip my cap to the people behind the campaign, but let’s not play innocent,” Nesher Council member Shlomi Zino told Walla.
“The ad agency wanted to shock and [it] succeeded. A sign like that, in Arabic, white text on black background, without any logo or explanation in Hebrew and at this sensitive time feels like a message by a terror group.”
The popular show deals with an IDF unit of intelligence agents, some undercover, who try and prevent chaos from spreading across the West Bank.
Zino said he wrote to the mayor and was told the sign would be removed.
Fauda’s second season premiere aired locally on Yes TV on Sunday night. It is scheduled to arrive on Netflix in the beginning of this year.