A number of Palestinian film and arts organizations are calling for a boycott of Marvel Studio’s forthcoming Captain America movie over its inclusion of an Israeli superhero.
In Captain America: New World Order, which is set to hit theaters in May 2024, the actress Shira Haas plays Sabra, the alter-ego of Ruth Bat-Seraph. The character was created for Marvel Comics by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema back in 1980. Bat-Seraph’s backstory has her growing up on a kibbutz run by the Israeli government. During the day she’s a police officer, and after turning into Sabra, she becomes an agent of the Mossad.
“We encourage creative, peaceful protests to challenge Marvel Studios’ – and its owner Disney’s – complicity in anti-Palestinian racism, Israeli propaganda, and the glorification of settler-colonial violence against Indigenous people,” reads a letter signed by groups like the Palestine Film Institute and the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. “Principled filmgoers would have boycotted a movie featuring a superhero that represented the South African apartheid regime. Likewise, we urge conscientious audiences worldwide to join us in boycotting Captain America: New World Orderand standing up for freedom, justice and equality.”
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“Sabra, also known as Ruth Bat-Seraph, is a Marvel superhero who represents the Israeli apartheid state, with a long history in the comics of working for Israeli intelligence, contributing to its crimes, and dehumanizing Palestinian people,” US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) Executive Director Ahmad Abuznaid told breaking news. “That history cannot be erased. Featuring this character in any form will glorify her racism and perpetuate real world harm to Palestinians.”
The History of Sabra
Sabra first starred in issue #256 of The Incredible Hulk“Power and Peril in the Promised Land.” In the comic book, Hulk befriends a Palestinian boy (although the word “Palestinian” is never used) who explains the conflict to him.
The title pushes a narrative that omits any mention of land theft, oppression, or apartheid and embraces the dubious idea that religion motivates both sides. “It’s very hard to be an Arab in Israel,” says the boy. “Both my people and the Israelis say that this land is theirs. They could share it, but two very old books tell them they must kill each other over it.”
When the boy dies a short time later, it’s not at the hands of the IDF but the result of Palestinian terrorists. Sabra comes upon the scene and attacks Hulk because she believes he’s responsible. “Boy died because boy’s people and yours both want to own land. Boy died because you wouldn’t share!,” Hulk tells her.
Sabra kneels to the boy’s dead body. The final sentence of the issue notes that, despite being a superhero, Sabra is “also a woman, capable of feeling, capable of caring. It 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.”
Cultural boycott
Other Palestine advocacy groups, including USCPR and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), have echoed the call for a boycott of the film.
“Disney halted its distribution and broadcasting in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. Instead of taking similar steps against Israel’s decades-old occupation and colonization against Palestinians, Disney is deepening its complicity in apartheid,” pointed out the PACBI’s Alia Malak in a statement.
“Israel’s government is the most far-right, racist, homophobic, sexist and fundamentalist in its history, with a senior minister describing himself as a ‘fascist homophobe,’” she continued. “Marvel’s Israeli character is inherently associated with this apartheid government, including its influential fascist element.”
The Marvel campaign is not the only cultural boycott story to make headlines in recent weeks. This month a Frankfurt Administrative Court rolled back a decision to bar BDS-supporter Roger Waters from playing a May concert in the city. In February, magistrates acting on behalf of the city ordered the venue to cancel the event, criticizing Waters’ “persistent anti-Israel behavior” and dubbing him “one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world.”
The Is the Justice Project is also circulating a petition calling on Sam Smith to cancel an upcoming concert in Tel Aviv. “As you may be aware, the Palestinian people have been subjected to decades of military occupation, displacement, and discrimination at the hands of the Israeli government,” it reads. “The ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine, including the blockade of Gaza and the unequal laws for Palestinian citizens of Israel, has resulted in the denial of basic freedoms for millions of people. The situation has been recognized as apartheid for decades by Palestinians and more recently by numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.”
“Many artists and musicians, including Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Lauryn Hill, and most recently Big Thief (a band that includes the child of a well-known Israeli musician), have decided to respect the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel,” it explains.
Over 10,000 people have signed the petition so far.