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Ariana Baio
Sep 14, 2022
Anger over Marvel’s Israeli ‘superhero’ Sabra in new film
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Marvel's newest superhero joining the Cinematic Universe is causing a lot of controversy online.
The company announced Sabra, an Israeli superhero who posses superhuman strength, speed, agility would be joining the new Captain America movie, played by Shira Haas.
Although the announcement of her arrival was met with backlash due to the character's day job.
By night Sabra is a superhero, but by day she's a Mossad agent and Israeli police officer.
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People familiar with the Israel and Palestine conflict criticized Marvel for including an Israeli police officer in their films given the polarizing conflict.
In an opinion piece on The Independent titled 'Marvel’s new Israeli forces superhero Sabra is beyond problematic', Ahmed Twaij wrote: "A Jewish superhero is a wonderful idea. I can imagine a world in which a proud Jewish hero joins forces with Ms Marvel, the first Marvel Muslim superhero. That’s co-existence. That’s progress. A superhero directly affiliated with Israeli forces who spends her time fighting Arabs isn’t."
"Marvel announcing Sabra as a new character when she’s a Mossad and Isr**l propaganda character just one week before the 40th commemoration of the Sabra and Shatila massacre is just… sickening," Aya wrote on Twitter.
\u201cIsrael\u2019s Marvel superhero Sabra has many powers, including demolishing Palestinian homes with her mind and assassinating Palestinian children with her laser beam eyes\u201d— Matthew (@Matthew) 1662853341
\u201cnever asking for anything again because how did jewish people asking for better representation become sabra, who was created to be israeli propaganda being in the mcu and the villain of a movie that has the same name as an antisemitic conspiracy being played by a jewish actor\u201d— zi \u2721\ufe0e (@zi \u2721\ufe0e) 1662840009
Sabra was created by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema. She first made a cameo in the comic book Incredible Hulk #250 published in 1980. Her first full appearance was in Incredible Hulk #256 published in 1981.
Her name comes from the slang word for a Jewish person born in Israel.
The word "Sabra" has been tied to the Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1982 when 460 and 3,500 Palestinians and Lebanese civilians were murdered by a Lebanese Christian militia.
\u201cplease read this. sabra as a character cannot be separated from her origins which are as a character created for a specific country that is israel. her existence within the mcu shows that marvel studios supports the colonization of palestine.\u201d— zi \u2721\ufe0e (@zi \u2721\ufe0e) 1663092013
Marvel has not made it clear if they intend to include Sabra's past in her MCU character.
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