Gratuitous insult to Israel in @NYTimes story on Marvel changing Sabra's superhero origins

The New York Times reports:

When Marvel Studios announced two years ago that it had cast the Israeli actress Shira Haas to play Sabra, a superhero Mossad agent, in its next “Captain America” film, the news was cheered by Israelis and denounced by Palestinians.

The studio said at the time that the makers of the film, “Captain America: Brave New World,” would be “taking a new approach to the character,” but did not elaborate.

The contours of that reimagined character became clearer on Friday when Marvel released a trailer of the upcoming film. The accompanying announcement made no mention of Sabra as an agent of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, as she is depicted in comic books, but described her as “a high-ranking U.S. government official.” 

Remember how upset people get when actors are cast who don't fit the racial or genetic profile of their characters? This may be the first time that an actor was chosen to fit the role, and then they change the role so that the actor's national origin no longer matters.

Anyway, this part of the article is bizarre:

It was not clear whether Sabra — alter ego: Ruth Bat-Seraph — still has Israeli origins in the movie, as her superhero name suggests. “Sabra” is a Hebrew word for a local cactus bush that doubles as an affectionate term for native Israelis. It also the name of a refugee camp in Lebanon where Palestinians were massacred in 1982 by a Christian militia while Israeli troops stood by, though the superhero predated that event. 

"Sabra" is the name of a brand of condiments. It used to be the name of a Japanese men's magazine.  It is a name of a genus of moths. It is also the name of several towns as well as a church in Sweden.

Except for the hummus, none of them have any relationship with the word Sabra used in the comics. And neither does the refugee camp in Lebanon. 

The only reason that the Sabra refugee camp was mentioned is to gratuitously blame Israel for the massacre, which has nothing at all to do with the Sabra character. 

Many idiotic Israel haters claimed that the character was named after the massacre. The New York Times wanted to give the readers that same impression, before discounting it. 

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Palestinian artists call to boycott Captain America

Remember last September when Israel haters went crazy with the announcement that the upcoming Captain America movie would include an Israeli superhero?

Since then, the Israeli actress Shira Haas who plays the role of Sabra has apparently already done her scenes, so the campaign has now shifted from trying to pressure Marvel not to have the character to saying that the movie will be boycotted.

A bunch of Palestinian cultural and artistic institutions decided to sign a letter calling for the boycott, saying that Marvel was racist for including an Israeli character. 

We call for the broadest boycott of the upcoming Marvel movie, “Captain America: New World Order,” which is scheduled to be released in the market during the year 2024, until the company cancels the character “Sabra” or “Ruth” from the movie, as it embodies the Israeli apartheid regime. 

The backstory of the aforementioned character includes working for the Israeli government and the Israeli occupation forces. Marvel's revival of this racist character - in any way - means the company's promotion of the brutal Israeli oppression of Palestinians. 

We also call for creative and peaceful events and demonstrations to put pressure on Marvel Studios - owned by Disney - to end its complicity in anti-Palestinian racism and Israeli propaganda and the glorification of the settler-colonial regime's violence against the indigenous Palestinian people. 

No one knows the character's role, her new backstory, her part of the plot, or really anything. Unlike with Gal Gadot, they aren't calling for a boycott because the actress is Israeli, but because the character is Israeli.

Has there ever in history been such a demand from any studio or other medium that they should be forbidden from even including fictional characters from a specific country?

And the signatories are from Palestinian cultural centers, theater groups, circus groups and others. Normally artists are in the forefront of freedom of expression - but Palestinian artists are the leaders in being against those freedoms.

The crazed reactions, the lies that the character was named after a massacre in Lebanon, the support of censorship and boycotts by groups that would normally oppose such actions - it all adds up, as always, to proving that this opposition isn't political. 

It is old fashioned hatred of Jews dressed up to appear more respectable. 

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Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

 

Read More