Last Updated: January 2025

Marvel

Marvel Entertainment is an American media and entertainment company, now a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Through its various partnerships, content decisions, and corporate stances, Marvel has demonstrated active support for Israeli military actions and occupation, making it a target for boycotts.

Disney-Marvel Stance

As part of Disney, Marvel operates under a corporate structure that has demonstrated clear one-sided support for Israel only. In October 2023, Disney donated $2 million to Israeli causes following the October 7th events, while remaining silent about Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza, begging the question of whether they even consider people on the other side within the same conflict they donated for as humans as well.

Casting Pro-Israeli Gal Gadot

Marvel and its parent company, Disney, have casted Gal Gadot a former Israeli Occupational Forces (IDF) soldier, who has publicly supported Israeli military actions, including during the 2014 Gaza conflict in various roles, including Wonder Women and Snow White. Her statements often align with Israeli government propaganda, while she remains silent on Palestinian civilian casualties. She has also promoted Israeli propaganda, such as endorsing the film Bearing Witness, a film that justifies Israeli military operations.

Gadot has repeatedly expressed support for Israel, including during the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where over 47,000 Palestinians have been killed. She still spread through her social media, the debunked claims about mass rapes on October 7, which have been used to justify Israel’s military campaign. As a cultural ambassador for Israel, her prominence in Hollywood, and her pro-Israeli stance are legitimizing Israeli policies and actions that violate international law.

Gadot high-profile roles are used to whitewash Israeli apartheid and genocide. By featuring her, these companies are profiting from and normalizing Israel’s oppressive policies. Furthermore, Gadot has dismissed boycott efforts against Israeli actions, equating civil resistance with "darkness" and "hate,".

Racism and Apartheid Propaganda

The latest Marvel Studios movie for the newest "Captain America" movie titled "Captain America: New World Order", includes the character Sabra/Ruth Bat-Seraph which personifies apartheid Israel.

Marvel claims they will be reinventing the character however a character whose very nationality and backstory is deeply rooted in pro-Israel & pro-Zionist propaganda is irredeemable especially due to her constant anti-Palestinian/anti-Arab stance in almost every appearance. Throughout the years in which Sabra was depicted, her story is always connected to her Israeli nationality, her need to protect Israel, and her work with the Mossad and the IDF. These elements make it impossible to separate the character from the political and ideological framework she represents.

Sabra's Backstory

Sabra is an Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Arab, Islamophobic, racist, pro-Israeli, pro-Zionist, and pro-IDF propagandist character. its background was told in the original 1981 comic "Power and Peril in the Promised Land," involves her superpowers being discovered as a child, who then sent her to an Israeli government-run settlement where she was trained to serve in the Mossad. In the Marvel issue, they try to justify the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as merely a religious conflict and tries to equate a colonizer with its victim. They completely glance over how Zionists weaponize Judaism for their own purposes, and try to present the idea as Jews hate Muslims and Muslims always want to kill Jews.

Both my people [Palestinians] 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

The climax of the entire comics is that Sabra at the end is able to perceive Palestinian children as human too finally. The final scene says as Sabra kneels next to the body of the dead Palestinian child.

But she 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.

Throughout the comic, it depicts Arabs and Palestinians as criminals terrorists and rapists.

Marvel Comic Sabra from 1981 scene depicting so called "Arab fighters" as mere terrorists

Marvel's Continuous Zionist Messaging

In Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions (1982) #1-3 Sabra is supposed to team up with The Arabian Knight/Abdul Qamar (A Saudi Bedouin with mystic powers). The comic utilize the anti-Arab racist stereotype of Arab men being misogynistic. Sabra expresses her hatred to all Arabs in the comic despite the character being Saudi and not Palestinian , where even after he saves her life she states:

I [Sabra] would rather be dead than allied with you [Arabian Knight]!

Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions (1982) Sabra racist comics towards The Arabian Knight

In Marvel Super-Heroes (1990) #6 Sabra kills another Israeli character whom she had previously saved with her powers. This character refuses to use their newly gained abilities to protect the state of Israel, instead intending to use them to challenge or overthrow the current Israeli government. This raises the question of whether Sabra is committed to protecting Israel as a whole or merely preserving the status quo.

Arguably, Marvel is trying to portrays Israelis critical of the current state of affairs poorly and in the worst light possible, seemingly in support of the current apartheid state and suppress any change.

Marvel Super Heroes 1990 scene showing Sabra fighting against an Israeli character who is aiming to change the Israeli Government

In The New Warriors (1990) #58-59 Sabra openly urges the New Warriors to kill a Syrian Super-Agent named Batal solely because he is Syrian/Arab.

Marvel comic page saying to kill the superhero Batal because he is Syrian

She later explains that "Arabs" killed her son, but Batal challenges her racist statement by stating that it was supposedly the "PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization)."

Marvel The New Warriors comic showing Sabra blaming "Arabs" for the death of her kid

Later in the same comic, the following exchange takes place:

Batal: Well Sabra? There’s a Palestinian over there – aren’t you going to push him out of his seat and claim it as your own? Sabra: I don’t respond to child-killers

Marvel The New Warriors comic Sabra calling a Syrian child killer

Despite Batal (The Syrian Super-Agent) being merely a security detail, Sabra's racist remarks target him solely because he is Syrian/Arab.

In Marvel Union Jack (2006) #1-4 Sabra is shown to have a problem working with the Arabian Knight and not so subtly calling him a terrorist.

Note: in Marvel universe the Arabian Knight in his 2nd incarnation changes from being a Saudi called Abdul Qamar to a Palestinian called Navid Hashim.

The new Arabian Knight is again portrayed through Marvel’s typical racist writing; a stereotype of a misogynistic Arab man. He tells Sabra that she should embrace her role as a mother rather than a hero. In response, Sabra snaps and chokes Navid while declaring that "Palestinians" killed her son.

Marvel Union Jack 2006 depicts the Arabian Knight as a misogynistic Arab man, and Sabra calls him a terrorist

Later, Sabra is turned against the superheroes she is working with and once again calls The Arabian Knight a terrorist. The climax of the entire comic boils down to Sabra and The Arabian Knight reluctantly exchanging respectful nods.

In Marvel Atlas (2008) #2 page on Israel refers to the PLO as a terrorist organization and says that:

The Arabian Knight (Navid Hashim) is a Palestinian who left Israel to enter the service of the Saudi Arabian government.

Marvel Astonishing Tales (2009) #6 is just a piece of Israeli IDF propaganda. The comic introduces Sabra (Ruth) in Jerusalem with emphasis on her role as a soldier and a Mossad agent over a "Superhero". Even brags to its connection to the Israeli Air Force, known for mostly killing innocent children and civilians.

Sabra flying next to jets from the Israeli occupational forces

Mother: “Your dad would be so proud of you, Ruth. To see his daughter in uniform protecting the Nation.” Ruth: “I just hate being put on display at these receptions. I am a Mossad Agent after all.”

A friend of Sabra’s arrives with her teenage daughter, Yael, Sabra then mentions to Yael that she must be getting close to her mandatory military service. Yael mentions she is nervous because her friend was in the military and was paralyzed in Gaza.

Sabra then spends the next part of the comic reassuring Yael that it’s ok to be nervous and that when Yael goes into the Israeli military she will learn a lot.

Sabra: “You’ll learn a lot when you enter the Military. But the biggest thing you’ll discover is that you have two families; your military family, and your personal family. Both will always be there for you, and perhaps even sacrifice themselves for you. A hard truth I learned the day my dad died rescuing me.”

Marvel Astonishing Tales 2009 Sabra promoting the IDF

Sabra goes on to mention all the good that will come by joining the Israeli military to the teenager and her duty towards her father's land.

In Marvel Avengers (2018) #11 Sabra and the Arabian Knight are at a meeting and another character makes fun of the situation:

Haaa, look at Sabra and the Arabian Knight! Even the Jew and the Muslim are agreeing! How touching!

Once again, much like the original appearance of Sabra, Marvel appears to perpetuate Zionist propaganda by framing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a religious struggle between Arabs and Jews. Presenting the idea of Jews and Muslims coexisting harmoniously as something astonishing is not only reductive but also rooted in racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism.

Marvel’s decision to revive a character whose entire identity is steeped in anti-Arab racism and the defense of Israel’s occupation sends a deeply troubling message, suggesting an implicit endorsement of anti-Palestinian sentiment. Even if the character’s racist undertones were intentionally crafted, reintroducing her at this moment is not only tone-deaf but also deeply insulting.

At the time of Marvel’s announcement, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) condemned the decision, criticizing the original comic for its "ugly racism and glorification of the Mossad," calling it "sickening." This backlash underscores the problematic nature of the character and the broader implications of her resurgence.