Jerusalem – it was the latest addition Entering a fantasy world populated by a growing cast of superheroes and villains: Marvel Studios last week cast Israeli actress Shira Haas to play Sabra, an Israeli police officer-turned-Mossad agent, in an upcoming installment. announced. of the “Captain America” franchise.
On the other hand, Jewish Israelis believe that Israeli-born actresses have appeared in major Hollywood productions (“Israeli Pride,” Declared Hebrew news site Maariv.), the backlash among Palestinians and their supporters was swift, and #CaptainApartheid soon appeared on social media.
Many critics accused Marvel of supporting Zionist propaganda and expressed anger about Sabra’s character and her identity as an Israeli intelligence agent. Ignoring or supporting the occupation of Israeli territories occupied in 1967. And to dehumanize the Palestinian people.
“By glorifying the Israeli army and police, Marvel fosters Israeli violence against Palestinians, allowing it to continue to oppress the millions of Palestinians living under Israel’s authoritarian military rule. increase.” Wrote Middle East Understanding Institutea US-based pro-Palestinian organization, Twitter.
Compounding the anger was the name of Sabra, a superhero with different meanings for Israelis and Palestinians. For Israeli Jews, Sabra could simply be someone born in Israel. But Sabra is also the name of a refugee camp in Lebanon, where Christian militias slaughtered hundreds of Palestinians while Israeli forces were stuck 40 years ago.
“The bottom line is that for Palestinians, Marvel with its Israeli superheroes cheats on the profession,” said Sani Meo, publisher of Palestinian This Week magazine about the Palestinian issue.
Palestinians and their supporters around the world have been posting tons of posts about “Captain Apartheid,” he said. “Some are humorous, but the topics are not humorous,” he added.
Marvel Studios declined to answer further questions about the matter or its intentions to bring Sabra to the big screen.
“Our characters and stories are comic-inspired,” the studio said in a statement. A cartoon from over 40 years ago.
Explore the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Popular franchises of superhero movies and TV series continue to expand.
Whatever its motives, Marvel finds itself embroiled in a 100-year-old unruly Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel is It has been vilified by international human rights groups, boycott activists and divestment activists because of its policies towards the Palestinian people. Some of these organizations equate Israeli policy with apartheid. But the country is also widely accepted by some Arab governments, such as the United Arab Emirates, who are tired of waiting for long disputes to be resolved.
This is because bitter disputes over history, territory, and national identity still rage frequently between Israel and the occupied territories.
Last year, the tension involving another Israeli actress, Gal Gadot, She appears as Wonder Woman in another superhero franchise when she denounces the continuing cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. nevertheless attacked her with comments defending Israel’s right to exist.
Much of the anger over Marvel’s decision to include Sabra in a new film called “Captain America: New World Order” centers around the name of the character itself.
To Israeli Jews, Sabra is the Hebrew name for the cactus bush and its fruit, spiny on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside, which the country’s founder adopted as a nickname for Israeli-born Israelites. .
But for Palestinians, the sabra bush, traditionally used to mark land boundaries in villages, is a symbol of loss and steadfastness (“sable” is also the Arabic word for “patience”). During the war that accompanied the founding of Israel in 1948, Zionists and Israeli forces destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians became refugees after fleeing or being forced from their homes. But even after most traces of the village had been erased, the hardy sabra bushes remained an indelible part of the landscape.
Critics have also accused Marvel of being indifferent to the connection between the names of Israeli superheroes and the names of Lebanese refugee camps. Named for two Palestinian camps in Lebanon, Christian militias massacred hundreds of inhabitants. The Israeli army had allowed the militia to enter the camp, and the Israeli commander did not issue orders to stop the killing.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA tweeted: “Social media activists are lashing out at Marvel over Israel’s new Mossad superhero Sabra.
The character of Sabra first appeared in the 1980 comic The Incredible Hulk, wearing a blue cloak and white bodysuit with a Star of David on it. Its debut came about two years before the genocide in Lebanon.
Yossi Klein Halevi, an American-Israeli author and senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a Jerusalem-based center for research and education, said that when filmmakers decided to use the character, I believe I didn’t mean to mention refugee camps.
Over the course of long conflicts, such as between Israel and Palestine, “a kind of cultural paranoia sets in,” he said.
“Sometimes a Marvel movie is just a Marvel movie,” he added.
Still, critics criticized Sabra for the death of a Palestinian boy in an explosion until the Hulk enlightened her on basic human beings in the 1981 Hulk issue entitled Power and Danger in the Promised Land. initially showed little emotion. value.
Nothing is known yet about the story of the upcoming Captain America, due out in 2024, or Sabra’s debut film.
But Joseph Cedar, the New York-born Israeli director of films like “Norman” and “Footnote,” applauded Marvel’s casting of the 27-year-old Haas.
A diminutive actress who gained international recognition for her roles in the Netflix series Unorthodox and Shtisel, Haas survived cancer as a child.
“I love the idea that Israeli superheroes are not tall supermodels, not inhuman perfections, but great actresses who can empathize with beautiful human flaws,” says Cedar. said.
Einat Wilf, a former Israeli lawmaker and author of “We Should All Be Sionists,” said Israel “enjoys a certain cultural moment,” with many local TV shows being broadcast on international streaming platforms. He said it was a success. “Marvel wants to make money,” she noted, adding that studios seemed to see the box office appeal of Israeli superheroes.
Wilf said he would withhold judgment on Sabra until the film was released, noting that superheroes have become more complex characters in recent years with “good, bad and traumatic histories.” .
“I’m not sure that Israeli superheroes necessarily mean a positive depiction of Israel,” she added.
Khiva Yazbek contributed to the report.