The game, titled: Fursan al-Aqsa: Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, follows the story of Ahmad al-Falastini, a recently liberated prisoner who was "unjustly tortured and jailed" by the IDF for five years as he follows the Fursan al-Aqsa to get retribution. The game is estimated to be released on Steam in December of this year, with the description reading: "You will play in missions across Palestine with many objectives to accomplish, epic battles, powerful guns, vehicles to drive, and more."
The game was developed by Nidal Nijm, a Brazilian of Palestinian descent whose father was a member of the Palestinian Fatah forces that immigrated to Brazil following the 1982 Israel-Lebanon war. He revealed, "My father is a former Fatah fighter. He immigrated to Brazil after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. I have no connection to any political or military party, group, or organization, I just lived with my father, his whole history of struggle, and the resistance of the Palestinian people."
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For Nijm, the game is about changing the perspective, saying, "Since I was little, I've always seen that here in the West, in movies and video games, Arabs were portrayed as terrorists, so I always wanted to change that image. And as I've always liked games since I was little, I decided to create this game of mine to show that Arabs are not terrorists, but they fight for the freedom of their people."
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A disclaimer on the website for the game reads, "The plot of this game is a fictional history inspired by real facts. Even the political and military groups depicted on the game are fictional." With Nijm stating, "In this game, the player does not shoot Israeli civilians, women, children, elderly – only soldiers." Even still, it seems like the game's hero is the terrorist, not the IDF soldier.
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Nijm claimed that the game is "not" anti-Semitic or discriminatory, but the political viewpoint of the game is obvious. Many times throughout the game, Palestinian-colored fists appear as well as proclamations of "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Upon dying in the game, the death screen features a Palestinian flag with a bloodied gun, knife, and hand lying upon it with the words: "YOU BECAME A MARTYR. Rejoice, O mother of the martyr, rejoice! Prepare your son for his marriage (in paradise). Tie the band on all your pain and spread his wedding handkerchief. Spread your anger against the oppressor; his injustice must be stopped," on the bottom of the screen.
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