“Israeli” and “superhero” is a paradox which simply cannot coexist in the same sentence.
It’s similar to saying “diet” and “coke.” It technically exists, but the concept is redundant.
So I guess you can sense my confusion when I heard about Marvel’s new Israeli “superhero” Sabra.
Her character will appear in the fourth “Captain America” movie “Captain America: New World Order” and will be played by Israeli actress Shira Haas, according to a Sept. 16 Variety article.
For those who may not be as familiar with the controversy, allow me to explain.
There is no such thing as a conflict between Israel and Palestine. The Israeli “Defense” Forces are backed and supported by the U.S.
Almost all current U.S. aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance, according to a Feb. 18 Congressional Research Service report.
Meanwhile, the people of Palestine are starving to death because of the Trump adminstration’s decision to cut off assistance to Palestinian refugees, particularly ones residing in Gaza, according to a 2021 article by ReliefWeb, a humanitarian information outlet.
It’s as if your local high school bully picks on the tiny freshman for his lunch money, it’s not a fair fight. It’s a targeted attack.
In 1948, Palestinians experienced Nakba, or the “ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society,” according to a May 23, 2017 Al Jazeera article.
Nakba resulted in the permanent displacement of Palestinians, and contributed to their constant neglect, torture, abuse and death.
Palestinians were forced to relocate to refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1982, Palestinian refugees and some Lebanese civilians were attacked and murdered by the Israeli military and right-wing Lebanese militia, according to a Sept. 16 Al Jazeera article.
That tragedy is known as the Sabra and Shatila massacre, named after the areas where the attack took place.
Sabra is also the name they used for the Israeli Marvel superhero.
I mean, who could predict such a tone-deaf move from a film named after Hitler’s “New World Order” plan to murder innocent Jews? I guess normalizing mass genocide is a subtle theme throughout the movie.
Tanya Abushaban, the president of the San Jose State branch of the Students for Justice in Palestine, said her initial reaction was of utter shock and disgust.
“I'm reading stories about the people who actually survived [the massacre] and it's hard to not get chills and not just read that and be like, ‘How was this allowed?’ ” she said. “It was actually considered a genocide by the [United Nations].”
Palestinian voices all around have expressed their frustration and disappointment.
“Just using certain words or names like Sabra is very dehumanizing. Just to minimize our pain and our suffering, [and essentially] glorifying it,” Abushaban said.
Anat Balint, a former Israeli studies professor at SJSU, described her class as an opportunity for “understanding the Zionist idea about a national home for the Jewish People,” in an email.
Additionally, being anti-Zionist is not the same thing as being anti-Semitic. Zionists tend to casually throw that term around, in hopes of leeching off of Jewish struggles.
Zionism is essentially defined as a movement for Jewish people to create a space for themselves.
No one has an issue with that, until it starts to violate basic human rights. The issue is not against Jewish people or their cultural identity, but against the violent and hypocritical movement rooted in racism and xenophobia.
The hypocrisy lies within claims of national self-determination being a universal right, yet fail to uphold the same philosophy when it’s applicable to the people of Palestine, according to a May 2019 article by The Guardian.
Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are not the same, and claiming so uses Jewish suffering to erase the Palestinian experience, according to the Guardian article.
Additionally, a lesser known fact that people know about is the Neturei Karta.
Neturei Karta, or “Guardians of the City,” is an international ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist group who claims to essentially pray for Israel to be dismantled peacefully, according to a March 2019 article by the Anti Defamation League, a Jewish organization that focuses on battling antisemitism.
Does that mean the Neturei Karta, an anti-Zionist Jewish group is anti-Semitic as well?
According to that logic (or lack thereof), why isn’t anyone claiming that murdering innocent Palestinians and Muslims for existing in their countries is blatantly Islamophobic?
I took her class in the Spring of 2022 and according to her lectures, the roots of Zionism originated when Eastern European Jews were sent into exile.
It sounds like any other immigration story and it’s a sad story, truly.
From there, Austro-Hungarian political activist Theodor Herzl, also known as the “father of modern Zionism” brilliantly decided to “settle” in Palestine.
Until you realize they’re not resettling, but claiming a fully inhabited piece of land and using that excuse to justify committing atrocious war crimes and mass genocide.
In other words, we’re supposed to feel bad for Eastern European Jews for being sent into exile and then committing the same exact crime on another innocent group of people for their ethnic and religious backgrounds.
The justification of it all? It’s their birthright.
Mind you, the land of Palestine is now predominantly populated by Muslims, Christians, and Jews. All three religions are Abrahamic, meaning each respective holy book believes in Genesis, the prophets and Palestine as the holy land.
So whose birthright is this?
Balint said there is a dual narrative when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian “conflict.” She claims that Nakba, known as the Palestinian day of Disaster, is also known as the Israeli Independence day.
Shira Haas, the actress playing Sabra, is a former Israeli Offensive Force soldier and plays a “superhero” who is a secret agent of Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency.
“The character’s disturbing origin story centers on the death of a Palestinian child, employing a slew of racist, anti-Muslim stereotypes and dehumanizing depictions of Palestinians— all while glorifying Israeli military violence,” according to the Institute for Middle East Understanding in a Sept. 13 Palestine Chronicle article.
Rami Annan, an SJSU Palestinian student, said he’s shocked that Marvel would enable such a false portrayal of the Israel Defense Forces.
“There are countless international laws broken by their military force, as well as hundreds of hundreds of innocent women and children who have been killed,” he said. “Now I'm not really into comics or anything, but I do know that heroes aren’t supposed to be committing international war crimes or taking the lives of innocent people.”
The movie is set to release in May 2024, starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford alongside Haas.
So far, audience responses to the film have been justifiably critical.
Amal Omar, another SJSU Palestinian student said he hopes that people who intend to watch the new Marvel movie will stop being ignorant and do some research on what they’re supporting.
“The Palestinian people, including myself, are begging the world to wake up and take a look at the real side of the Israeli army and let us know if they still think they are ‘superheroes,’ ” Omar said.
