Lebanon bans Death on the Nile due to Gal Gadot’s past IOF involvement

Beirut (QNN)- Following the footsteps of Kuwait, Lebanon has banned the screening of the newly-released American movie, Death on the Nile, citing the starring of Israeli actress, Gal Gadot’s, as a reason.

According to the Deadline, Death on the Nile movie will not be released in Lebanon, as a protest against Gadot’s past support of the Israeli Occupation Forces.

Death on the Nile was released globally on Friday (11 January).

Last week, Kuwait also announced the banning of the screening of the movie, citing the same reasons given by Lebanon.

The spokeswoman for the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information, Anouar Mourad, told the AFP last Sunday that cinema-goers in Kuwait will not be able to watch the film, directed by Kenneth Branagh and adapted from a namesake novel by Agatha Christie, just days before the movie was set to be released in the country.

The spokeswoman added that the decision was made due to Gadot’s status as a “former soldier in the Israeli occupation army.”

An online campaign, led by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, called on cinemas to ban the film, including Kuwait, Lebanon and Bahrain.

According to Kuwait’s Al-Qabas newspaper, the decision was taken following demands on social media for the film to be banned.

Social media users pointed to Gadot’s praise of the Israeli occupation forces during the 2014 war in Gaza.

The promotional advertisements also sparked widespread controversy in Egypt, given that it is set in Cairo, based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name.

Gadot served two years of mandatory military service in the Israeli occupation army and her time there has stirred up controversy in the past.

She once shared a message of support for the Israeli occupation forces on her Facebook page during Israel’s aggression on the Gaza Strip in 2014, which saw at least 2,200 Palestinians killed, 20,000 homes destroyed and up to 500,000 Gaza residents displaced.

In 2017, Lebanon, Qatar and Tunisia banned the Wonder Woman film from cinemas, because it was also played by the Israeli actress.