{"id":34625,"date":"2022-11-10T11:39:25","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T17:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=34625"},"modified":"2022-11-10T11:39:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T17:39:25","slug":"marvel-faces-backlash-over-israeli-superhero-sabra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2022\/11\/10\/marvel-faces-backlash-over-israeli-superhero-sabra\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Faces Backlash over Israeli Superhero “Sabra”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marvel has announced that its next Captain America movie will feature a character who works for the Israeli intelligence agency. The character, Sabra<\/a>, first appeared in a 1980 comic before being featured in a 1981 issue of the Incredible Hulk. <\/i>A mutant with superhuman abilities, she wears an Israeli flag-inspired costume, with the Star of David emblazoned on her chest and headband. Her character will be played by Israeli actress Shira Haas<\/a> in Marvel\u2019s upcoming movie.<\/p>\n

Marvel has faced backlash for opting not to omit Sabra from the movie entirely, as each day brings new headlines about Israeli violence in the occupied Palestinian territories. Last week, for example, in the occupied West Bank, seven-year-old Rayan Sulaiman was chased by Israeli soldiers. Pursuing the boy, the soldiers called<\/a> him a \u201cstone thrower,\u201d and he \u201cdropped dead out of fear,\u201d likely a heart attack. In the occupied Palestinian territories, Israeli forces are not seen as heroes but objects of fear, so many have called for Marvel to leave Sabra out of their 2024 movie.<\/p>\n

The <\/b>Incredible Hulk<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

In the Incredible Hulk #250<\/i><\/a>, the Hulk stows away to Tel Aviv. Chaos at the docks is answered by policewoman Ruth Ben-Sera, who promptly transforms into Sabra, \u201csuper heroine of the state of Israel.\u201d \u201cSabra,\u201d as footnoted in the comic, \u201cdenotes a native-born Israeli, the name derived from an indigenous form of fruit\u2014a prickly pear possessed of a sweet interior, and a spiny outer surface to protect it from its enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cindigenous form of fruit<\/a>\u201d from which \u201csabra\u201d is derived<\/a> is the Hebrew \u201ctsabar,\u201d which in turn comes from the Arabic \u201csaber,\u201d or \u201ccactus fruit.\u201d Despite coming to denote a native-born Israeli, it was first one of Palestine\u2019s \u201cbest-known features<\/a>,\u201d with the fruit growing throughout the country and appearing in local art. More recently, to Palestinians, it has been a symbol of perseverance in the wake of the 1948 Nakba (\u201ccatastrophe\u201d). The Nakba marked the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, after which Zionist forces established the State of Israel, setting off the first Arab-Israeli war. During the Nakba, Zionist forces expelled 75,000+ Palestinians from their homes and captured 78% of historic Palestine.<\/p>\n

Though the character was created before the fact, the name \u201cSabra\u201d additionally evokes the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre<\/a>, during which an Israel-allied Lebanese Christian militia, the Phalangists, massacred Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps of Israeli Defense Force-occupied Lebanon. The number of people killed remains unknown. Marvel\u2019s announcement came just a week before September 16th, the date marking 40 years since the massacre.<\/p>\n

In the comic, a starving Arab boy called Sahad steals a watermelon from a street vendor. He befriends the Hulk and says to him, \u201cSometimes it is very hard to be an Arab in Israel. Both my people and the Israelis say that this land is theirs. They could share <\/i>it, but two very old books tell them they must kill each other over it. Me, I don\u2019t read books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sahad is walking into a cafe when he is struck by a bomb thrown by a group of Arab \u201cterrorists\u201d aiming to reclaim Israel \u201cin the name of Arab sovereignty over these lands.\u201d The Hulk carries him away from Tel Aviv, to the desert. Sabra, thinking he is in league with the bombers, follows him there, hoping to arrest him. \u201cBut she is also a woman, capable of feeling, capable of caring,\u201d so the Hulk, after much yelling, finally convinces her that he was not responsible for Sahad\u2019s death. The comic ends with: \u201cIt has taken the Hulk to make her see this dead Arab boy as a human being. It has taken a monster to awaken her own sense of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Backlash <\/b><\/h3>\n

The Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel<\/a> has tweeted that it is \u201coutraged that Marvel will glorify apartheid Israel\u2019s murder and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians with its Israeli agent character\u2026 The original comic\u2019s ugly racism and valorization of Mossad are sickening.\u201d<\/p>\n

American Muslims for Palestine, similarly, has begun a petition<\/a> for Marvel to leave Sabra out of the film. The group writes that it is \u201ctroubled by the distasteful announcement\u201d that the upcoming movie will feature<\/a> a \u201csuperheroine of the state of Israel,\u201d when Israel is \u201crecognized by the entire human rights community as an apartheid regime, guilty of ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of Marvel’s revelation that Sabra will feature in the film has sparked much outrage. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the timing or the name but also the fact that the massacre itself was led by a Mossad-linked [militia] in territory under Israeli control,\u201d Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian-American writer and analyst, told CNN<\/a>. \u201cGiven all of this, it is hard not to conclude that the people at Marvel are either abjectly ignorant about the region, its history, and the Palestinian experience, or that they deliberately aimed to kick a people living under apartheid while they were down.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an article for the Independent<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Ahmed Twaij notes that Marvel has previously been criticized for avoiding politics in its media. But, he continues, \u201cit looks very like they are getting political here. In the binary \u2018good versus evil\u2019 world of their action movies, Marvel surely knows how an Israeli government agent being styled as a superhero must look.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twaij notes that just last month, Israel launched another series of airstrikes<\/a> on the Gaza strip, killing at least 10 Palestinians, including a five-year-old and a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad<\/a>, wounding upwards of 75, and destroying infrastructure. \u201cFor millions of Palestinians, Israeli security forces and intelligence agencies are symbols of fear, oppression, and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Marvel wanted to be truly politically balanced,\u201d Twaij goes on, \u201cthey would tell the story of a Palestinian superhero protecting Arab children from Israeli rockets hitting a Palestinian school<\/a> or hospital<\/a> alongside the heroic narratives of Sabra.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palestinians have not been the only ones to voice concerns about Sabra\u2019s upcoming appearance. Israeli author, scriptwriter, and graphic novelist Etgar Keret told CNN<\/a> that Sabra\u2019s character was \u201ccreated before two Intifadas<\/a>, it was created before the falling of the Oslo Accords<\/a>\u2014it was created in a totally different reality and state of mind. And now\u2026 It\u2019s tough to keep this kind of icon of simplicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support & Other Responses<\/b><\/h3>\n

Marvel\u2019s decision to feature Sabra in its upcoming movie has not been wholly ill-received. Some pro-Israel advocacy groups have celebrated Haas\u2019 casting as Sabra, with the organization StandWithUs<\/a>, for example, tweeting<\/a>, \u201cFantastic news!…Mazel tov [good luck] Shira!\u201d following the announcement.<\/p>\n

Additionally, some are unhappy about Sabra\u2019s upcoming appearance but not because of the impact it would have on Palestinians. Uri Fink, an Israeli comic artist, created a character called Sabraman in 1978, two years before Sabra\u2019s first cameo in a 1980 Marvel comic. Now some fans are questioning whether he will sue: \u201cI\u2019m getting messages from people who know the character, asking what I\u2019m going to do about it, as if they\u2019re encouraging me to sue Marvel and make a killing off the whole thing,\u201d he told Ynet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fink himself has expressed concern as to how Marvel will portray Sabra. \u201cSabra went on to feature in some stories that weren\u2019t very pro-Israel. It was already weird back then. So I don\u2019t think this would augur well for how she\u2019d be depicted by Marvel now that they\u2019ve gone woke.\u201d Finally, while Mossad, Israel\u2019s state intelligence agency, has appeared on screen before, the Captain America movie will mark the first time it makes such a high-profile appearance. According to experts such as Avner Avraham, a former Mossad officer and founder of a consulting firm for TV shows featuring Israeli agents, it will give the agency a PR boost. Avraham told CNN<\/a>: \u201cThis is the \u2018TikTok\u2019 way, the cartoon way to talk to the new generation, and they will learn about the word Mossad.\u201d Further, \u201cit helps the branding. It will add a different audience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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