“Disney Supports Genocide”: Pro-Palestinian Protesters Rally at ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Premiere Starring Israeli Actress

QNN TeamFebruary 14, 2025Last Updated: February 14, 2025

Los Angeles (Quds News Network)- Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the Hollywood premiere of Captain America: Brave New World on Tuesday, calling for a boycott of the film because it features an Israeli superhero portrayed by an Israeli actress.

Protesters held signs reading “Sabra has got to go,” “Disney supports genocide,” and “Boycott Captain America,” while chanting “Free Palestine.”

The film features Israeli actress Shira Haas as Israeli superhero Ruth Bat-Seraph, also known as Sabra.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement is also calling on people to boycott Marvel and Disney for their inclusion of Sabra in the film.

“Marvel and Disney are reviving the racist character of Ruth Bat-Seraph, whose decades-old backstory includes working for Mossad,” it writes on its website.

“Disney+ is therefore clearly implicated in enabling Israel’s genocide by dehumanizing Palestinians.”

Created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema, Ruth Bat Seraph made her first brief appearance in the 1980’s “Incredible Hulk #250” before making her official debut in 1981’s “Incredible Hulk #256.”

Having bulletproof skin, Sabra has several superhuman powers and is the first superhuman agent to serve Mossad, the Israeli Security Agency.

According to the Marvel lore, she was born outside Israeli-occupied Palestine and, once her powers manifested, was relocated to a state-run kibbutz to “nurture” her abilities under Israeli occupation government observation. She describes herself in cartoons as a “superheroine of the state of Israel!”

Throughout her appearances in various comics, she typically appears dressed in a design based on the Israeli flag and has the weaponry typically given to members of the Israeli occupation forces.

The film’s producer, Nate Moore, said that Sabra is “not a Mossad agent” in the movie but rather an Israeli who “works for the U.S. government.”

Moreover, the actor, Haas, reportedly volunteered to serve in the Israeli army even after being medically exempt from her mandatory service as an Israeli citizen.

Following the controversial introduction in 2022, several Palestinians and pro-Palestine advocates on social media have argued that the character is an example of Israeli military propaganda.

The social media users noted that the term “Sabra” was “offensive” due to the massacre of Palestinians in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila camps in 1982.

Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Israeli occupation committed the massacre against the camps’ residents, lasting for three days, 16-17-18 September 1982, during which a large number of martyrs, including men, children, women and elderly unarmed civilians, mostly Palestinians, were savagely killed. Several Lebanese citizens also fell during the massacre, and the number of martyrs was estimated at between 3,500 and 5,000 of the 20,000 people who were living in Sabra and Shatila at the time of the massacre.

Others even lamented Marvel’s involvement of an Israeli superhero, regardless of the character’s name and its origin.

Critics also called out the insensitive portrayal of Palestinians in comics where Sabra appeared.

For example, in her first appearance in 1980’s “Incredible Hulk” No. 256 “Power in the Promised Land,” she mistakenly believes that the Hulk is working with “terrorists” and the two fight. In their final confrontation, the Hulk cradles the body of Sahad, an “Arab” boy he befriended who was killed in an explosion by “terrorists”. The Hulk explains to her that the boy was his friend.

“Boy died because boy’s people and yours want to own land!” the Hulk tells Sabra, in reference to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. “Boy died because you wouldn’t share. Boy died because of two old books [the Quran and Bible] that say his people and yours must fight and kill for land!”

Others were also angered that Sabra was kept in the film but not Eli Bradley – a Black character introduced in the last Captain America film, and who, in the comics, becomes a part of the Young Avengers.

QNN TeamFebruary 14, 2025Last Updated: February 14, 2025

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