Key Points
- Marvel Studios has unveiled its new Israeli superhero, Sabra, and she's caused controversy
- Sabra has drawn the ire of many Marvel fans who have criticised Israel's human rights record against Palestinians.
From a comic book cameo to a major Hollywood blockbuster. Marvel Studios has unveiled its new Israeli superhero, Sabra - and she's causing controversy.
Sabra is an Israeli police officer who transforms into a "superheroine of the state of Israel", working as a Mossad spy agent whose aim is to protect her country from "terrorists" in Tel Aviv.
Now Sabra will have her time in the spotlight, featuring in the next 'Captain America: New World Order' movie franchise, with Israeli actor Shira Haas playing the mutant superhero in the movie.
While Disney and Marvel's announcement at the Disney "fan event" D23 Expo 2022 in the US this month has sent ripples of excitement through the Israeli community, it's left pro-Palestinian advocates furious. This is why.
Who is Sabra?
Sabra first fully appeared in a 1981 issue of the Incredible Hulk comic book, with an alias of an Israeli police officer named Ruth Ben-Sara.
The cover of the 1981 issue of the Incredible Hulk features Sabra, whose costume centres around the Israeli flag, shooting paralysing quills at Hulk with an Arab child dead in rubble. Credit: Marvel
"Sometimes it is very hard to be an Arab in Israel. Both my people and 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," Sahad tells Hulk.
Later, the boy gets killed in an attack by hooded men - inferred as Palestinian "terrorists" - and the Hulk grieves his friend's death.
Hulk is enraged at Sabra over her part to play in the Israel-Palestinian conflict that has left his "Arab" friend, Sahad, dead. Credit: Marvel
The comic ends on a climactic note after Hulk brings to her attention the deadly price of the conflict she has played a hand in as a Mossad agent and police officer.
"Boy died because boy's people and yours both want to own land! Boy died because you wouldn't share!" Hulk rages at Sabra.
The ending of the 1981 Incredible Hulk comic featuring Sabra. Credit: Marvel
Sabra, an Israeli "super-agent, a soldier, a weapon of war" is conflicted at the end. "It has taken the Hulk to make her [Sabra] see this dead Arab boy as a human being," the comic reads.
According to Aaron Humphrey, digital and media studies lecturer at the University of Adelaide, Sabra is neither a "villainous character" nor an "antihero", but rather an antagonist who must question the complexities of her nationalism.
She's appeared in more than two dozen times since 1981 in various iterations of different Marvel comics, but as Dr Humphrey observed, "there's not a great amount of continuity with her character".
'Sabra the Ethnic Cleanser'
Marvel has yet to reveal how major Sabra's role in the film will be, as well as how she will be portrayed. But elements of the comic in which she first appeared have many Palestinians furious.
Since the film's announcement, critics have highlighted their disappointment with Marvel elevating Sabra onto the big screen, particularly due to allegations of human rights violations perpetrated by Israel's Defence Force against Palestinians.
I think her character will ask questions [like]: is it possible to be a hero for a country that is not heroic?Dr Aaron Humphrey
Various human rights groups including and Amnesty International have previously - a claim the Israeli government denies.
"From now on, we call her Sabra the Ethnic Cleanser, that's her 'super power'," Palestinian-Australian lawyer and advocate Sara Saleh said on Twitter.
"We are outraged that @Marvel will glorify apartheid Israel's murder and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians with its Israeli agent character in the next Captain America film," the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel said on Twitter.
Social media users have flagged the 1981 comic references a conflict between Arabs and Israelis - not Palestinians and Israelis - adding to claims of erasure of Palestinian identity.
Concerns have also been raised about the exacerbation of tropes of Middle Eastern characters like Sahad, who are poor, "don't read" and steal food from merchants.
Dr Humphrey said Marvel had tried to use the Incredible Hulk conflict to explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a simple way but has "bitten off more than it could chew".
"I think that Marvel tried to depict the world as it is, rather than necessarily as it should be, so I think they were trying to depict the situation in Israel and Palestine as the writers and editors there understood it," he said.
While he described the original comic as "tone deaf", he believes the upcoming film by Marvel, slated for release in the US in May 2024, will be more nuanced.
"I think her character will ask questions [like]: is it possible to be a hero for a country that is not heroic? How can you be heroic while representing a compromised ideal?"
"That doesn't mean that Palestinians are going to feel okay about it. And that doesn't mean Israelis are going to feel okay about it either."
Sabra: symbolic or 'deeply offensive'?
Perhaps one of the "most egregious" issues to examine in the Sabra saga, according to Dr Humphrey, is the name of the superhero herself.
Sabra is the name of one of the refugee camps in Lebanon where it's estimated up to 3500 Palestinians and Lebanese Shiite Muslims were killed by a far-right Christian militia group while Israeli defence troops approved the entry and monitored the massacre.
Last week marked the 40-year anniversary of the tragedy, now dubbed the 'Sabra and Shatila massacre'. That's just days after the Israeli superhero, Sabra, was announced by Marvel and Disney.
Importantly, the superhero was introduced in 1981, a year before the Sabra and Shatila massacre occurred. In Hebrew, the term Sabra means a Jewish person born in Israel. It also refers to a native bush that bears prickly fruit and is soft on the inside.
Israeli graphic novelist and author Etgar Keret said the superhero was created prior to the massacre and represented a simpler story of the conflict that continues to ensue in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“This Sabra was created before two [Palestinian] Intifadas, it was created before the failing of the Oslo Accords. It was created in a totally different reality and state of mind,” he told CNN.
Despite Sabra the superhero having no association with the massacre, Dr Humphrey said the name has "conjured up painful associations" for those affected by the conflict.
"The combination of the character’s name and the timing of the announcement has been characterised, rightly in my view, as deeply offensive," Dr Humphrey said.
"In my opinion, Marvel should have changed Sabra’s name immediately after the massacre, and it has now had the opportunity to change her name for forty years. It should certainly consider renaming the character in advance of the film."
How has Marvel reacted?
In a statement to CNN and The New York Times, Marvel said it will take a "new approach" with Sabra's character.
"While our characters and stories are inspired by the comics, they are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience," the statement said.
"The filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.”
Dr Humphrey speculates Sabra won't be perceived as such as hero in the upcoming film, but will instead battle the conflicting ideals of being a nationalist hero in a military-industrial complex.
Similar to Captain America, who has thematic parallels of being a nationalist hero with ties to the military, Sabra faces the same scrutiny of acting as a hero representing a country with a controversial history.
"America has, at various points, been an apartheid state, as well. America has committed genocide and various atrocities. So Captain America is a conflicted figure," Dr Humphrey said.
"I can understand people expecting more from Marvel and wanting to see themselves represented within this kind of superhero pantheon, but also it's already conflicted, to begin with."
