‘East Side’: New popular Israeli series tell a story of Shin Bet agent
The main character played by Yehuda Levi convinces Arabs in east Jerusalem to sell their houses to support his autistic daughter
Broadcasted for the first time on the Israeli channel Kan 11, "East Side" instantly gained popularity. The TV series tells a story of Momi (Yehuda Levi), a former agent of the Israeli domestic security service, Shin Bet, in charge of taking control of a neighborhood in east Jerusalem.
He pays Arab residents and induces them to leave their apartment and the country, after selling their property to a Jewish real estate agent. However, Momi does not do it for political reasons, but to support his teenage daughter who has autism, Maya (played by Geffen Kaminer, autistic herself in real life) and whom he is raising alone.
Momi needs one last sale to secure Maya's future. The challenge is to take possession of a large hotel that dominates the entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. Whoever controls the entrance controls the city, he is told. But the owner, the new Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, is not ready to sell his property.
The series, created by Yael Rubinstein Nitzan, in collaboration with Yossi Madmoni and Dikla Barkai, is based on real facts: some Jews have indeed bought Arab houses in east Jerusalem at high prices. Then the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank condemned the Palestinians who had engaged in these sales to heavy penalties, which could go as far as life imprisonment. The Fremantle company has acquired the international distribution rights for this series produced by the creator of "Shtisel", Abot Hameiri.