Hi, I understand if you don’t reblog this (@thefairfleming) because you don’t want a political shit storm in your inbox – and I understand if you don’t answer, but I have respected and followed you for a long time and I could not bear to be silent about this. I tried.
About the Gal Gadot post; I understand the pressure of being demanded to answer for something that has nothing to do with you, as a muslim I GET IT. Jews should not be expected to keep answering for Israel. However as in conversations about Israel there has been a tactic utilized that has veritably become a misunderstanding used to silence opposition, Anti-zionism has taken on anti-semitic tones often, but there has also been a push from Israel that will conflate anti-zionism with anti-semitism to silence any and all opposition.
People who oppose Israel are accused of racializing a situation if they aren’t Jewish, and likewise when it is Jewish people who oppose Israel, then hardliners give even worse treatment by accusing those who criticize of being ‘fake’ jews or self-hating jews, essentially disowning you for not agreeing with Israeli policy 100%. This puts Jewish people in a very difficult and painful place, I am sorry for that.
But understand the following;
Gal Gadot was part of the IDF during the bombings across Lebanon, fact.
Gal Gadot has been praised for her part in the IDF while the IDF has been utilized in the systematic oppression of Palestinians, fact.
Gal Gadot has boasted that her army training gave her an edge in preparing for wonder woman.
Gal Gadot prayed for Israeli soldiers safety while they were bombing the hell out of people.
Gal Gadot called people resisting conquering cowards and essentially painted them all with the same ‘Hamas’ brush because of course, the resisting of Israeli occupation is an evil, terrorist problem alone.
Gal Gadot is the arm and the face of an apartheid regime, criticism of her and her as a choice to play Wonder woman, is to point out that this is essentially an ironic and cruel choice. What she has done and glorified with her comments make her the anti-thesis of who Wonder Woman actually is.
I may be Arab and Muslim but please don’t silence and dismiss the legitimate and painful concern and hurt that people are feeling over Gal Gadot as a choice here. Anyone else could have been chosen for this role, literaly anyone else, do not marvel at us for taking issue with this.
Israel is an apartheid state, while it is not right to expect you to answer for it, I also don’t think it’s realistic for you to ignore its realities and to justify its behaviour. Because when you tell me I shouldn’t find this ‘problematic’ you are justifying the need for my silence. Israel was founded in an illegal and brutal way, there are ongoing illegal settlements, there have been horrible, horrible atrocities and no repercussions for them.
You are not responsible for Israel, you do not have to answer for Israel. That is not your battle, just as I refuse to accept the racist expectation that I am somehow part of a Mozlem Hive Mind and therefore responsible for terrorism and that it is my duty as a savage nefarious brown person to whatsapp ISIS daily to tell them to ‘plz stop’, that is not your burden to carry and be demanded explanation from.
Israel’s establishment has nothing to do with religion, just as other acts of terror do not have anything to do with God, and criticism of Israel – when it is voiced free of racism, carefully and correctly – must then – and only then – be considered and not immediately dismissed. You should not be held ransom by it, you should not have to face interrogation, there are valid conversations to be had about Israel and you will be conflicted just as we are all conflicted about our identities and how others react to them, wrongfully react to them. Israel is an apartheid state, fact.
Gal Gadot’s involvement in this movie is unfortunately going to be a political issue for us, as it should be for anyone concerned – and it is disheartening and injurious to us and to those who have suffered under what she fully and unapologetically represents to see her lauded as this bastion of feminism and amazingness because it ignores and paints over the harm that Gal Gadot does and others like her do.
Instead of discussions that should be had about Gal Gadot’s problematic history, media and other ‘intersectional’ feminists have been hung up on armpit hair and lauding her to the ends of the earth about how much she’s such a hero.
Gal Gadot killed my people. Gal Gadot was an active part of the forces killing my people. Gal Gadot is actively part of the PR problem that erases the oppressed’s right to oppose oppression. I understand you are frustrated and that is not without reason, but please respect people’s problem with this movie as rightful and just as valid. I’m sorry, Gal Gadot being a fitness instructor or just in general maybe even a nice person doesn’t matter to me??? Because Gal Gadot as a personality and a person in not a problem, Gal Gadot is a proud part of a machine.
Gal Gadot isn’t just any Israeli, she isn’t a critical Israeli keen on unpacking and analysing her country’s history and seeking to better, she isn’t an Israeli looking for solutions or trying to understand them. Forced conscription or not, she is an IDF soldier, proudly an IDF soldier, she’s not come out of her military service with any qualms about how they run things, or with the intention to improve their running, ethicaly. She has made no cognitive dissonance noises or any that provide evidence that she maybe even cares about looking at this conflict in any flexible way, in all of its complexities. Instead of silence, in its neutrality (shameful as it is), Gal Gadot serves the exact opposite. She is the Anti-thesis of Wonder Woman.
Just as people boycott movies because such and such actor had a criminal record or was sexually abusive or was in general a horrible human being (Johnny Depp), I will boycott this movie because I have legitimate concerns, it is mind-boggling to me that we are expected to shut up about it and sit on our hands. Wonder Woman seems like a politicised issue (that I’m really not seeing as much coverage of in the media as an angle for some reason, handle well i mean) because it is a wildly politicised issue, we say ‘politicised’ to avoid saying ‘humanitarian’ because the fact of the matter is that you don’t want to (metaphorically, I guess) see the blood on our killer’s hands even when we point it out, we are pointing it out, it is going to be pointed out. Wonder Woman is the huge, distracting house party telling you to pretend there isn’t a burning tenement down the street. We’re gonna let you party if you want, just don’t sugarcoat the reality, do not bury it.
I’m not going to waste your time with ‘killing babies’ rhetoric, I am so tired of that rhetoric and the greeting rhetoric that also just as uniformly tone-polices actual critical, politically correct criticism. It is possible to criticize Israel without being a racist asshole, it has been done before and when it is done it is still conflated with anti-semitism. What I say about Israel has been automatically invalidated by my racial and religious identity. Just as how some Jews feel silenced in any landscape if they’re not pulling all the stops to prove themselves as ‘trustworthy’ to often misguided SJWs who are really in no place to criticize as well.
We criticise Wonder Woman because when Lebanon which has suffered under its attacks sought to ban the movie from being released in its country, the media greeted this with headlines like ‘Lebanon bans Wonder Woman because Gal Gadot is Israeli’ like they’re all just some petty, butt-hurt, Israeli-hating freaks.
Instead of ‘Labanon bans Wonder Woman over Gal Gadot’s IDF history’ (thank you Al Jazeera for being the closest headline)
The former headline is such a generalization of the situation and real problem between the two countries, and as usual, not a generalization in the favour of the actual hurt parties. That is insensitive, to pretend that we are really so shallow.
Do not give this lie to us and then expect us to rejoice when you call her a ‘true hero’. Stop. Please stop. This is so harmful. Do you not understand why???
We shouldn’t boycott Gal Gadot because of her ethnic identity, or her religious identity – that’s foolhardy, there are many Israeli film makers in the world that move through the industry without this much outcry – we boycott Wonder Woman because of the militant apartheid she represents and embodies, because keeping quiet about it is harmful, it is letting everyone ignore it. Because Gal Gadot has made Wonder Woman a tone deaf, self-congratulatory soap opera that wants to wallpaper over the reality that is Gal Gadot’s ‘problematic’ history and Israel’s reality. Gal Gadot has gone beyond problematic fave, please do know that – problematic fave does not even cover Gal Gadot and her political and military ties. Because Israel illegally occupies land and continues to do so. Because Zionism is not Jewish, it is political, it is colonialist.
We take issue because Gal Gadot is not Wonder Woman, she only portrays her.
It is frankly insulting that you think we’re not allowed to make the distinction and be vocal about it.
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