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The Muslims may be primitive but they are not stupid. The film impact may resonants Exodus (1960) starring Paul Newman as Ari Ben Canaan. Exodus is still of interest, not for what it says about the creation of Israel, but for what it reveals about mid-twentieth-century America. The novel, published in 1958, popularized the story of Israel’s birth among millions of American readers. This fictionalized account of Israel’s founding was said to have been the biggest seller since Gone with the Wind.

"As a literary work it isn't much," sniffed David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding prime minister, still in power at the time "Exodus" was published. "But as a piece of propaganda, it's the best thing ever written about Israel." Some 40 years after the novel's publication, the prominent Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said would ruefully remark that "the main narrative model that dominates American thinking still seems to be Leon Uris' 1958 novel 'Exodus.'"

Perhaps the reason that "Exodus" worked so well as propaganda was the extent to which Uris' thoroughly American readers found themselves identifying with such ostensibly foreign heroes as Ari Ben Canaan, the wiry, wily, can-pass-for-Christian New Israeli Jew - exactly as the author's literary engineering had intended.





Jordan movie theater apologizes for screening ‘Wonder Woman’

Cinema City Amman joins Lebanon, Tunisia and a Palestinian theater in boycotting the superhero movie over its Israeli star

By Times of Israel staff
June 14, 2017, 6:39 pm
Gal Gadot in a scene from the movie 'Wonder Woman' (Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Entertainment via AP)
A popular movie theater in Jordan’s capital, Amman, apologized Wednesday for screening Wonder Woman and pulled additional showings of the superhero movie because it stars Israeli Gal Gadot.

Jordan had been considering banning the film outright, but a report in the Al Bawaba News on Sunday said the country’s Communications Commission ultimately decided not to, due to a lack of a legal precedent on the issue.

Last week, both Lebanon and Tunisia banned Wonder Woman over Gadot’s role. Lebanon is officially at war with Israel and bans Israeli products.

Though Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1994, a campaign against normalizing ties with Israel called for an official boycott of the American movie.

“We remind the Jordanians of their obligation to boycott the film, and we refuse to be partners to the crimes of the Zionists and to increase their profits from this film,” a statement from one of the campaigners said last week, according to the Ynet news website. “The Arab audience will not be involved in projects that represent Zionism and the Israeli army.”

On Sunday, a prominent Palestinian movie theater in Ramallah banned the movie, citing “political reasons related to the Israeli occupation and the Israeli actress starring in the film.”

Gadot, 32, does not shy away from touting her Israeli heritage. She praised the Israeli military in a widely shared Facebook post during the 2014 Gaza war.

The film has grossed an impressive $206.3 million in US ticket sales in two weeks, placing it in the top tier of movies that have managed to maintain such a lead at the box office. Internationally, Wonder Woman has grossed an additional $232.2 million in ticket sales.


http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 18366.html


Watching 'Wonder Woman' in Gaza

Is it possible to embrace a fanatical warrior in the cause of the Zionist theft of Palestine as a feminist hero?

Hamid Dabashi10 Jun 2017 15:21 GMT
10 June 2017

Gal Gadot did not just serve in the Israeli army as any other adult in Israel must but actually cheered on her comrades-in-arms when they were slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza, writes Dabashi [Getty]
Gal Gadot did not just serve in the Israeli army as any other adult in Israel must but actually cheered on her comrades-in-arms when they were slaughtering Palestinians in Gaza, writes Dabashi [Getty]

By

@HamidDabashi

Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.

The splendid news of a lovely new superhero film Wonder Woman (2017), based on the DC Comics character of the same name, hitting the screens first reached me through the inauspicious report that it had been banned in Lebanon. "What the hell?" I thought.

The film, I soon learned, was directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins, which is great, based on a story by Zack Snyder and others, which was terrible, for the world always associates the name of Zack Snyder with that horridly hateful movie "300" (2006) in which Persians and other "Orientals" appear as three-headed monsters feeding on their own children.

"Wonder Woman' banned in Lebanon," read the headline, "because lead actress is Israeli." There we go again. A film starring an Israeli settler-colonist written by a man who sees Iranians as subterranean monsters. Could not wait to see it.

READ MORE: Lebanon calls for ban of Wonder Woman 2017 movie

The "controversy", as Americans put it on such occasions, surrounded Gal Gadot, an Israeli military officer turned movie actress. Traumatised by repeated Israeli invasion of their homeland, Lebanese are very particular about anything "Israeli". To be sure, the same CNN report indicated not all Lebanese were happy with the ban and wanted to see the film, arguing "Gal Gadot may be an Israeli, but we want to watch a movie about the amazing character of Wonder Woman".


Gadot attended the ceremony alongside with Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the 70's when the UN declared the comic book character as its new Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Woman and Girls [Getty]
As a fanatical movie fan, especially of superheroes (they are beautiful symptoms of ugly diseases), I, of course, categorically oppose banning any film. In fact, like millions of others, I become more eager and curious to see it precisely because it is banned. Being banned is the best thing that can happen to a film. It instantly raises its mysterious cache. In my book, if you don't like a film for whatever reason you just write a bad review of it on your Facebook page. That's all. You don't ban it.

To be sure, in the United States, Wonder Woman was not only not banned, in fact, it is loudly loved and widely admired as a groundbreaking feminist film, opening to such record sale that would make a Hollywood executive summersault even higher than Wonder Woman herself.

Was Princess of Themyscira a settler colonialist, too?

When you finally sit down to watch the film, you recall how Wonder Woman (now portrayed by Officer Gal Gadot) is none other than Diana, the warrior princess of the Amazons, born and raised on a sheltered island paradise, just like Israel, or "a villa in the jungle" as one of their warlords once put it. She meets an American pilot (played by Chris Pine), just as they do in their regular joint military exercises, who lures her into the real world where war and misery abound and where the Themysciran princess saves the world and finds her true destiny.

Five minutes into the film, the metaphoric resemblance of the chief protagonist of the film to an Israeli warrior princess and an American fighter pilot who are coming romantically together to save the world with their militarised prowess gushes out of the screen, leaving you nowhere to hide.

READ MORE: Beirut's very own Cinema Paradiso

Before we get too carried away with that uncanny metaphor, however, we must, of course, remember that, as a fictional superhero, Wonder Woman predates the Zionist occupation and theft of Palestine. The character of Wonder Woman first appeared in October 1941, demigoddess, ambassador-at-large of the Amazonian people, and eventually became a founding member of the Justice League - with her official title being Diana, Princess of Themyscira. But in this particular rendition, this specific Wonder Woman might have as well been commissioned by the Hollywood mogul Haim Saban and the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson together, putting their differences over Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton aside for the good cause of bringing US and Israel romantically together for the salvation of the world.

An Israeli soldier saves the world


That cinematic allegory brings us back to the lead actress, Gal Gadot, a settler colonialist who did not just serve in the Israeli army, as any other adult in Israel must (except of course those brave souls who refuse to do so), but actually cheered on her comrades-in-arms when they were slaughtering Palestinian woman and children in Gaza.

This particular Wonder Woman, Ms Gal Gadot, is no ordinary Israeli soldier. She is a fanatical warrior in the cause of the Zionist theft of Palestine and the uninhibited slaughter of Palestinians. Last time, she and her comrades went on a rampage maiming and murdering Palestinian women and children in Gaza and destroying their homes over their heads she cheered her comrades on:

"I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens," she wrote. "Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas, who are hiding like cowards behind women and children...We shall overcome!!! Shabbat Shalom!

Now, "What does all of this have to do with the movie, Wonder Woman?" you might ask. Suppose you are a father or a mother living in Gaza, and like any other parent from Florida to Oregon you wish for your daughters to have a positive role model - then what? You hear there is this amazing Hollywood blockbuster championing the cause of a young female superhero. Could an Israeli soldier who learned her martial arts skills by helping drop bombs on your brothers and sisters, maiming and murdering them, be perceived as an Amazonian princess who is here to save the world?

The time that Hollywood could shove its superheroes down the world's throat and perpetuate delusion of truth in purposeful lies is over.
You may say, "Who cares if anyone sees the film in Gaza or not, or what they may think of it? - and you will be quite right. Certainly, no Hollywood producer in California or a film critic in New York could care less what a Palestinian child in Gaza or elsewhere might think of this particular Wonder Woman.

When reality thumbs its nose back at you

But Gaza is not just the largest open air prison in which Israelis have incarcerated some 1.8 million human beings. Gaza is also the moral measure of our humanity at large. If you are utterly enjoying this particular Wonder Woman as a role model for your daughters in a theatre near you and could not care less about a young Palestinian girl mourning her family in Gaza whom the woman portraying your superhero helped kill, then all the power to you. You need not bother to know that in this film Gal Gadot does not just personify Wonder Woman, but alas Wonder Woman disappears into Gal Gadot.

The time that Hollywood could shove its superheroes down the world's throat and perpetuate delusion of truth in purposeful lies is over. Today, the world talks, walks, defies, imagines, and stages back against Hollywood and its dysfunctional mythologies that try to normalise the colonial thieveries of reason and decency. It was a strategic blunder to cast a settler colonial officer as a superhero woman who cares about humanity.

For when you thumb your nose at reality, reality thumbs its nose back at you, and it does so not by political manifesto, but in entirely and gloriously cinematic terms. Here is how: The entire CGI-festooned spectacle of Wonder Woman pales and melts into watery creampuff in comparison to a single sequence of a joyous masterpiece by the Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman. Take a look and marvel: Now that's what I call a "Wonder Woman"!

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict Arts & Culture Middle East
Last edited by noir on 16 Jun 2017 01:03, edited 2 times in total.
#14814866
layman wrote:Gal gadot has the loveliest smile.


Many Muslims will see for the first time an Israeli person which they can identify. The BDS are fighting hard against the film. Israel should thank Zack Snyder, the Christian Zionist, who cast her against all advice.


The director, Patty Jenkins's heart sank when Gal Gadot was cast

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... -cast.html
#14814974
layman wrote:Conscription is a convenient way to justify "boycotting" and targeting all Israelis. Not that the same logic dare be applied to non Jew countries.


Nothing to do with "Conscription". The Arab League boycott started in 1945 long before Israel was created. It's part of their pro Nazi legacy. In the 30's and 40's the axis spent a lot on hate propaganda for the Arab and Islamic world. Boycott was one of their first tools. Even the accusation of "Apartheid" started before the "occupation".

In the OP, Hamid Dabashi a Professor of Iranian Studies and and Comparative Literature at Columbia University wrote


Was Princess of Themyscira a settler colonialist, too?

When you finally sit down to watch the film, you recall how Wonder Woman (now portrayed by Officer Gal Gadot) is none other than Diana, the warrior princess of the Amazons, born and raised on a sheltered island paradise, just like Israel, or "a villa in the jungle" as one of their warlords once put it. She meets an American pilot (played by Chris Pine), just as they do in their regular joint military exercises, who lures her into the real world where war and misery abound and where the Themysciran princess saves the world and finds her true destiny.

Five minutes into the film, the metaphoric resemblance of the chief protagonist of the film to an Israeli warrior princess and an American fighter pilot who are coming romantically together to save the world with their militarised prowess gushes out of the screen, leaving you nowhere to hide.

An Israeli soldier saves the world

That cinematic allegory brings us back to the lead actress, Gal Gadot, a settler colonialist.



It's sound reading. Zack Snyder who cast her is not naive. He knew that he's cashing on her heritage. She's very foreign looking actress. People see her as natural princess warrior.
Last edited by noir on 16 Jun 2017 17:55, edited 2 times in total.
#14814979
Calling the film a "metaphor" and "allegory" is not out of touch.

Australian critic also notices it

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/mov ... wgysp.html

What's best about the film can be summed up in two words: Gal Gadot. This much could have been predicted after Gadot's brief but attention-grabbing appearance as Diana in Batman V Superman, where she had no trouble stealing attention from the dour leads. All the same, I was initially in two minds about her soft voice and melting smile: was she forceful enough for the role?

That misses the point, which is that Diana is too secure in her identity for outward displays of aggression. Gadot's Israeli background may be the key to her manner, which is equable, warmly amused, and in the Hollywood context, distinctly foreign. Jenkins and her writers make the most of this, with touches of fish-out-of-water comedy – as when Diana tries ice-cream for the first time – that recall Greta Garbo's role as a Russian envoy in the 1939 Ernst Lubitsch classic Ninotchka.
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http://www.france24.com/en/20170617-won ... arab-world

“First and foremost, she is Israeli. We don’t distinguish between a good Israeli and a bad Israeli,” she said. She explained that the group aims to resist any move towards normalising relations between the two nations. Lebanon is officially at war with Israel and bans all Israeli products.

France 24 - International news 24/7
International News 24/7


Latest update : 2017-06-17
She may be 76 years old, but Wonder Woman is stirring passions like never before.

The controversy surrounding the Amazonian superhero began last October, when more than 1,000 UN staffers signed a petition protesting at her being named an Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls because they thought her image was “overtly sexualised".


One might think it would be the same scanty outfit and voluptuous curves that had North African and Arab countries banning the summer blockbuster “Wonder Woman” movie, but, no, the stated reason was that Gal Gadot, the actress playing the main character, is Israeli.

First the film was prohibited in Lebanon. Then it was pulled from the Nuits du Cinéma film festival in the Algerian capital, Algiers. Then Jordan banned it, then Tunisia suspended its release, and then Jordan unbanned it—reportedly sparking a backlash. The Times of Israel said that at least one theatre in the Jordanian capital of Amman apologised for showing the movie and cancelled further screenings. The film is currently scheduled to be released in theatres throughout Jordan in July.

There have been other Israeli actors in big movies, and many of those were screened in the Arab-speaking world without the same commotion—even some starring Gadot, including "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (although activists tried and failed to get it banned) and "The Fast and Furious" films. Natalie Portman has Israeli citizenship and her films haven’t raised similar ire in the region.

Much of the problem with Gadot traces back to public statements she made in support of the Israeli military action in Gaza in 2014 and of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), in which the former Miss Israel served for two years, in accordance with Israeli law.


Gadot isn’t the first Israeli actor to come under fire. In 1959, “Ben Hur” was banned by all of the countries in the Arab League because its leading lady Haya Harareet was Israeli. The 1960 version of “Exodus” was banned in Egypt and Syria and boycotted in much of the Arab world along with Paul Newman’s other films due to Newman’s “material support for Zionism and Israel", according to the book "Cinematic Terror: a Global History of Terrorism on Film" by Tony Shaw.

Beginning as early as 1948, Arab nations routinely banned movies starring actors deemed to be pro-Zionist, including Danny Kaye, Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor.

The movement to ban “Wonder Woman” in Lebanon was spearheaded by a social media campaign called the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon. Rania Masri, who is affiliated with the campaign, told the Associated Press why the group opposed the screening of Gadot’s film:

“First and foremost, she is Israeli. We don’t distinguish between a good Israeli and a bad Israeli,” she said. She explained that the group aims to resist any move towards normalising relations between the two nations. Lebanon is officially at war with Israel and bans all Israeli products.

In Tunisia the film’s premiere was suspended after the secular nationalist People's Movement Party and the Tunisian Young Lawyers Association filed a lawsuit seeking a ban of the film. The suit is currently under review.

It’s fitting that the powerful demigoddess is ruffling feathers. Her very conception was a study in cultural rebellion. When he conceived of the character in 1941, William Moulton Marston, who used the pen name Charles Moulton, was inspired both by his wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston and their live-in companion, Olive Byrne. The two women were powerful renegades in their own rights.

Elizabeth Marston was a psychologist and a lawyer who was one of only three women in her graduating class at law school. Byrne was William Marston’s researcher and had her own feminist pedigree: Her mother, Ethel Byrne, opened the first birth-control clinic in the US, along with her sister Margaret Sanger, the famed birth control activist.

Marston had children with both of the women, and his wife even named one of her children Olive Ann, after Byrne.

Unorthodoxy breeds controversy, but neither the character’s unusual genesis nor the current imbroglio seems to be hurting the film a whit. The film topped the box office in its opening weekend and has already earned more than $500,000 million worldwide.

Date created : 2017-06-17




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