With Israel putting all it has into the response to the Palestinian terror attack last weekend, the country’s entertainment industry has understandably come to a halt. Especially as many of the actors, writers, directors and other TV and film industry employees have set aside playing soldiers and are now filling the role in real life.
Actor Lior Raz, for instance, the star of the Netflix series Fauda, plays Israeli officer Doron Kavillio in the action series, set aside acting to go back to fighting for his country. Raz and Fauda co-creator Avi Issacharov dropped everything to join the group Brothers In Arms to volunteer, according to IndieWire.
Raz took to social media to let fans know what he was doing after he traveled to Sderot, which is a few miles from the Gaza strip.
“I headed down south to join hundreds of brave ‘Brothers in Arms’ volunteers who worked tirelessly to assist the population in the south of Israel. We were sent to the bombarded town of Sderot to extract two families. No fear!” he wrote.
Other members of the Fauda cast have also volunteered to fight, including Tomer Capone, Yaakov Zada Daniel, Tzachi Halevi, and Idan Amedi.
Isaac Herzog / Facebook
The entire Israeli film industry has been shut down and many of the films that were set to debut in the coming months have been put on hold, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Actor Guy Shalom said he is now working to support his countrymen.
“I have cried and I will surely cry for a long time,” Shalom said. “However, our spirit will not break, I am moved by the unity of Israelis who help each other in any way they can, by donating blood, money and supplies.”
Several members of the industry have been killed in the terror attacks.
Israeli director Yahav Winner, for one, was found dead in the south Israel kibbutz Kfar Aza on Wednesday after he tried to fight back against the terrorists, his wife revealed. “He didn’t run away. He tried to save us. That was my husband,” she said on social media.
Director Adar Shafran also reported that one of his team members was also killed.
“The whole industry is shut down,” added Shafran, an Israeli director and producer and president of the Israeli Television and Film Producers Association (IPAC). “We are still in shock. After this war, nothing will be the same as before, for now we must just focus on survival.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston