Constructing ethno-national differentiation on the set of the TV series, Fauda

Cultural industries, television among them, are industries that exemplify harsh working conditions and precariousness. Recently, there has been greater attention paid to the specific experiences of ethnic and racial minorities in the creative industries in general and on television specifically. However, the study of minorities in television has generally focused on content analysis and not on the daily experiences of workers in the precarious television labor market itself. This paper offers an in-depth examination of the work process and conditions of ethnic–national minority (Israeli–Palestinians) versus majority creative workers (Jewish Israelis) in a television production, using observations conducted on the set of the Israeli TV series, Fauda (“Chaos” in Arabic) as a case study. Our study’s conclusions emphasize the way groups’ experiences reproduce social hierarchies based on ethnicity, nationality, and gender.