The American "Marvel" Studios revealed a new character called "Sabra", who will play a heroic role in the upcoming movie in the "Captain America" ​​series of films called "New World Order", embodied by the Israeli actress Shira Hass, which sparked responses. wide verb.

In her article on Al Jazeera English, journalist and editor Belen Fernandez wrote that the timing chosen by Disney Marvel Studios to announce its new movie "Captain America: New World Order" was completely inappropriate.

Beilin pointed out that Marvel's announcement came on the eve of the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which thousands of Palestinians, including pregnant women, were massacred over a two-day period in Lebanon in 1982.

"Sabra" is an unknown character, who first appeared in 1980 in "Marvel Comics" as the "superheroine of the State of Israel".

The media, Beilin, said that although the name of that "superhero" does not refer to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the whole matter represents a major problem.

She adds that in issue 256 of The Incredible Hulk, which was published in 1981, "Sabra" appears as a girl with supernatural powers, who grew up in the kibbutz (Zionist settlement gatherings), and works as a police officer, but her real job is that she works with The Israeli intelligence service (Mossad).

Sabra appeared on the cover of the magazine in a dress inspired by the Israeli flag, insisting on "preserving her homeland from the devastation caused by Hulk," as stated in the magazine's issue.

Turning 40: Sabra debuts in THE INCREDIBLE HULK #256;

cover dated February 1981.

By Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, Bob Sharen & Jim Novak;

cover by John Romita Jr.

& Al Milgrom.

@Marvel #marvelcomics #incrediblehulk pic.twitter.com/amXx1bDxId

— Comic Book History (@comicbookhist) November 20, 2020

Beilin spoke about Israel's involvement in sabotaging the lands of others, especially after its establishment in 1948, when it destroyed about 500 Palestinian villages, and killed more than 10,000 Palestinians, while thousands found themselves refugees inside their country.

The writer added that since the purification policy practiced by Israel has not receded over the past decades, such as the terrorism that is currently taking place against the residents of Gaza, it is completely wrong to revive “Sabra” the Israeli superhero and bring it to the silver screen with its “state brutality” features.

Promoting Israel

According to the writer, while not all the details of the plot of the movie "Captain America: The New International Order" were revealed, many see it as a "public relations blow" to the Israeli Mossad, which has a long record of extrajudicial assassinations and all kinds of other crimes.

She said that this device has received a lot of "polishing" on the screen recently, whether on "Netflix" or "Apple TV", and now with the movie "Captain America", where Marvel has upgraded the Mossad image to Complete superhero level.

Beilin stated that the American "CNN" (CNN) had previously quoted Avner Abraham - a former Israeli spy who currently defines himself as an expert in Mossad operations in addition to being an artistic coordinator and film producer - as confirming that the character of "Sabra" is the tool that will facilitate the arrival of Mossad to the new generations, and it is likely that this "propaganda" will help the Israeli apparatus in recruiting sources of information in other regions of the world.

The writer says that - unfortunately - the new film is a setback at a time when it was believed that "pop" culture had begun to move in a slightly more human direction, with works such as the series "MO" shown on the Netflix platform, embodied by an artist Palestinian-American, and the series "Ms. Marvel", which stars a Muslim teenage girl.

Admittedly, Israel's approach to the Palestinians is often "really cinematic" with scenes such as the bombing of apartment buildings in the Gaza Strip to air strikes against children playing soccer on the beach, while - on the other hand - it is expected to present Sabra is an image that helps give a semblance of “feminist progressiveness” to obscure Israeli crimes in the manner of actress Gal Gadot, the former Israeli soldier who starred in “Wonder Woman 1984” (Wonder Woman 1984).

"Sabra" name controversy

And in issue 256 of the Marvel comic series "The Incredible Hulk", a footnote explains that the word "Sabra" refers to an Israeli-born, and the name derives from the name of the cactus fruit, or the prickly pear with a beautiful interior and a spiny exterior. to protect her from her enemies.

Of course, the writer adds, the national myths of Israel are based on the idea that the Israelis are somehow “indigenous people” of the land, but as The Times of Israel identified in 2014, the Hebrew word for prickly pear “comes from the Arabic name (patience) that the immigrants learned The Poles when they first arrived in the area."

According to Oz Ulug's book Sabra: Creating the New Jew, the Sabras were "the first generation of Israelis, born in the 1930s and 1940s, who grew up in the Zionist settlement of Palestine."

The writer concludes that the superhero "Sabra" - in addition to all the military elements and the Mossad embodied in the upcoming film - also represents a multidimensional Israeli occupation of Palestine, regionally and linguistically at the same time.