Our Boys (Miniseries)

The central character in Our Boys is Simon, a fictional Shin Bet investigator played by Shlomi Elkabetz, whose investigation into Abu Khdeir’s murder takes the story toward the perpetrators’ trial.[1][4] The narrative also follows Abu Khdeir’s family, the killers, and people in their surroundings, presenting the crime through the investigation and its effects on those directly involved.[2]

Released in Hebrew under the title הנערים, the series dramatizes events in Israel during summer 2014.[1] Its opening deals with the abduction of Israeli teenagers Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach, public prayers for their return, and the discovery of their bodies; the subsequent narrative turns to Abu Khdeir’s revenge murder, the response in Palestinian communities, the investigation, and the trial.[2] These events form the series’ account of the violence preceding the 2014 Gaza war.[3]

The production combines a scripted crime investigation with real news reports and footage of public events.[4] Its documentary material includes prayers, demonstrations, speeches, and statements by the Israeli teenagers’ parents, interwoven with dramatized street scenes and activity in the Shin Bet operations room.[4]

Development began after HBO’s Michael Lombardo approached Keshet chief Avi Nir, leading Hagai Levi to write a pilot with Noah Stollman.[2] The project initially took the form of a more fictional drama, but shifted toward true crime after Joseph Cedar joined and the team examined legal materials.[2] Keshet executives Nir and Karni Ziv accompanied the work over four years.[2]

Levi and Cedar sought Tawfik Abu-Wael’s participation because the story required a substantial Palestinian perspective that they did not claim to understand deeply.[2] Abu-Wael faced pressure from people in Palestinian society not to take part and nearly withdrew shortly before filming, but continued after discussing his concerns with Abu Khdeir’s father, Hussein.[2] The completed series brought together the three creators in an HBO–Keshet International co-production, produced by Movie Plus and filmed on location in Israel.[7][1]

The historical events behind the drama began with the kidnapping of Frenkel, Shaar, and Yifrach on June 12, 2014, from a hitchhiking post in Gush Etzion.[8] The three were civilian yeshiva students, not soldiers.[9] Frenkel and Shaar were 16, and Yifrach was 19; their families and others hoped they would be recovered alive before their bodies were found on June 30.[10] Hamas operatives carried out the kidnapping and murders, and the search took place during Operation Brother’s Keeper, an IDF and Shin Bet operation.[4][8]

On July 2, 16-year-old Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and murdered in a revenge attack by three Israelis, including Yosef Chaim Ben-David and two relatives who were minors.[2] Autopsy results suggested that Abu Khdeir had been burned alive.[2] During the shiva for her son, Rachel Frenkel condemned his killing: “There is no difference between blood and blood. Murder is murder. There is no justification and no atonement for murder.”[10]

The criminal cases resulted in lengthy prison sentences.[2][10] Hussam Qawasmeh, identified as the mastermind of the Israeli teenagers’ murders, received three life terms in January 2015.[10] Ben-David received life imprisonment plus 20 years, while his two minor accomplices received sentences of life and 21 years.[2] Ben-David was also ordered to pay Abu Khdeir’s family 150,000 shekels, and the two minors 30,000 shekels each.[8]

The wider escalation included rocket and mortar fire from Gaza and Israeli air attacks, culminating in the seven-week war that the IDF called Operation Protective Edge.[8] This sequence supplies the historical setting for the miniseries, whose principal dramatic subject remains Abu Khdeir’s murder and the effort to investigate and prosecute it.[1][3]

Simon is presented as a senior officer in the Shin Bet’s Jewish division, placing an investigator of Jewish extremism at the center of the drama.[1][4] Although he is fictional, the surrounding story draws on the actual investigation, the victim’s family, police and Shin Bet investigators, and the perpetrators’ social environments.[2] The creators used legal materials and reconstructions in developing the series.[2] Cedar said that seeing the younger suspects’ reconstructions surprised the team and helped reveal a larger story behind the central crime.[2]

The narrative emphasis was deliberate: Levi wanted to examine the perpetrators of Abu Khdeir’s murder rather than concentrate on “the victimhood of our side.”[5] He argued that attention to victimhood could produce further revenge, whereas examining aggression offered a way to try to stop it.[8] Cedar similarly saw the story as an opportunity to explore the transformation of pain into revenge.[2]

Archival footage supplies part of the series’ depiction of public emotion and the unfolding events.[4] News coverage, public prayers, and statements from the bereaved Israeli families appear alongside the scripted investigation rather than as a separate documentary account.[4] The series carries a disclaimer that some events, characters, and dialogue were fictionalized for dramatic purposes.[5] Its mixture of documentary material and dramatization does not always make the distinction between the two readily apparent to viewers.[5]

Hebrew and Arabic are both used throughout the production.[2][1] It was HBO’s first series made in those two languages and its second series made entirely in a foreign language, following My Brilliant Friend.[2][1] The creators’ collaboration also involved intense political and artistic disagreements: Abu-Wael rejected Cedar’s comparison between Israeli and Palestinian violence, arguing that Palestinians live under occupation, while Cedar and Levi described their purpose as examining their own society and the movement from pain toward revenge.[2]

Our Boys premiered on HBO in the United States on August 12, 2019, with two one-hour episodes broadcast consecutively; the remaining episodes were scheduled for Mondays.[7] At its launch, it was also available through HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand, and partner streaming platforms.[7] Israeli viewers could watch the series from August 13 through HOT, YES, Cellcom, and PartnerTV.[2]

International distribution continued after the original broadcast.[3] By April 2021, the series had been sold to Mola TV in Indonesia and to platforms in Hong Kong and Australia, following showings in Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Israel.[3]

The production brought a Hebrew- and Arabic-language drama filmed in Israel to HBO’s American primetime audience.[1] Its joint authorship by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers accompanied a narrative that moved between Israeli investigators, Jewish perpetrators, and a Palestinian victim’s family.[2][1]

Our Boys received Israeli Television Academy recognition in 2019, including awards for Best Drama, directing, and script.[3] Acting awards went to Johnny Arbid and Ruba Blal, while Levi, Cedar, and Abu-Wael received directing and writing honors.[1] The series was also announced as a Peabody Award nominee in May 2020.[1]

About 120 Israeli families who had lost relatives in terrorist attacks wrote to HBO objecting to the series’ framing, arguing that it equated two events they regarded as significantly different.[5][8] Rachel Frenkel and the Shaar and Yifrach families also spoke against the series, while the Choosing Life Forum, a project of Im Tirtzu, demanded acknowledgment of what it considered a narrative imbalance.[10] Critics objected that the Israeli teenagers and their families received too little attention, appearing only briefly in archival news footage rather than forming the principal subject of the drama.[3][6] HBO defended the production.[10]

In August 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the series antisemitic and urged a boycott of Channel 12 and Keshet.[3][6] President Reuven Rivlin and former Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner were among those who criticized his post.[11] Cedar rejected Netanyahu’s accusation as “cynical, and harmful,” arguing that it should be understood in the context of Netanyahu’s election campaign.[12]

The dispute also concerned the relationship between historical events and dramatic reconstruction.[5] The series’ disclaimer acknowledges fictionalized events, characters, and dialogue, while its use of authentic footage alongside scripted scenes complicated viewers’ ability to distinguish documentary evidence from dramatization.[5]