Marvel’s Israeli superhero for forthcoming Captain America movie sparks fury among Arabs

Marvel has sparked fury in the Arab world by announcing an Israeli Mossad superhero will feature in its forthcoming Captain America film.

Sabra, who appeared in the original Marvel comics in the 1980s, will be played by Shira Haas, an Israeli actress whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors, in 2024’s Captain America: New World Order.

While the news has delighted Israelis, the move has provoked outrage among Palestinians and their supporters who are angered by the hero who has superpowers and flies around in a Star of David suit.

Sabra, who featured in the original Marvel comics in the 1980s, will be played by Shira Haas (pictured)

Many have accused Disney, which owns Marvel, of ‘Zionist propaganda’, adding that her name is associated with the Sabra and Chatila massacre in Beirut in 1982 where thousands of refugees were killed during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

In fact, her name is a slang term for a native-born Israeli Jew and also refers to the prickly pear cactus, which is tough on the outside but soft on the inside, and was coined before the brutal massacre.

Others have praised the inclusion of a Jewish hero played by an Israeli Jewish actress. 

It is not yet known how prominent Sabra will be in the film, having appeared in 50 comic book issues between 1980 and 2019, but she is set to be the first Israeli hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Mossad agent and police officer has superhuman speed and strength and her debut comic book appearance has been slammed as outdated and insensitive.

Many have accused Disney, which owns Marvel, of ‘Zionist propaganda’, adding that her name is associated with the Sabra and Chatila massacre

In the scene, the Incredible Hulk ends up in Tel Aviv and befriends a young Arab boy who ends up getting killed in an attack by Arab terrorists.

Sabra witnesses the attack and presumes the Hulk is one of the terrorists and attacks him with ‘energy quills’ until he explains the boy was his friend.

The Hulk says: ‘Boy died because boy’s people and yours want to own land! Boy died because you wouldn’t share. Boy died because of two old books that say his people and yours must fight and kill for land.’

Sabra replies: ‘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.’

Critics say the comics often portrayed Arab characters as terrorists, anti-Semitic or misogynist and fear they will be portrayed similarly in the film.

Others have praised the inclusion of a Jewish hero played by an Israeli Jewish actress

Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian-American writer and analyst, said the concept of a Mossad spy becoming a hero is ‘insensitive and disgraceful’.

He told CNN: ‘That comic doesn’t suggest anything positive about how this film will play out.

‘The glorification of violence against Palestinians specifically and Arabs and Muslims more broadly in mass media has a long and ugly history in the West and it has remarkable staying power.’

A Marvel Studios spokesman said: ‘Filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.’

Sabra’s real name in the comics is Ruth Bat-Seraph, an Israeli police officer who is also a mutant with supernatural powers.

She was sent to a government-run kibbutz where she was trained to serve in Mossad as Israel’s first superhero.

Haas, who will play Sabra, previously starred in Netflix’s Unorthodox for which she was nominated for an Emmy.