The global anti-Israel movement led by BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions ) and other pro-Palestinian groups are calling for a boycott of the Disney and Marvel film Captain America: Brave New World, featuring Israeli comic-book superhero Sabra (Ruth Bat Seraph).
On July 12, Marvel dropped the first teaser for the film, set to release next February, which portrays Sabra as a “high-ranking US government official” instead of a Mossad agent, which she is in the comics.
The change has come in the context of critique that was showered upon Marvel after it announced that the character will be part of the new movie. The character of Sabra was first introduced in the 1980s Hulk comics but Marvel studios has said that it would be “taking a new approach to the character.”
While this change of approach is criticised by pro-Israel factions, it was also heavily lambasted by pro-Palestinian groups. In a social media post, BDS stated: “Palestinians call for intensifying pressure on Disney and Marvel to drop anti-Palestinian character.”
“We call for boycotting Disney+ subscriptions, Marvel merchandise and all screenings of Captain America: Brave New World,” the BDS National Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Movement for Black Lives collectively posted. “Disney’s superficial changes to the character cannot erase its decades-long complicity in Israeli propaganda,” the post added.
The slider, posted by BDS, emphasised that “By reviving this racist character in any form, Marvel is promoting Israel’s brutal oppression of Palestinians.”
The criticism is also deeply rooted in the casting of Shira Haas, who has previously volunteered for the genocidal Israeli military even though she was exempted due to “stunted growth” because she suffered from a form of cancer while she was a toddler. She voluntarily enlisted herself in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Military Band and theatre unit.
“The character has long glorified violence against Palestinians, working for the Israeli government and military, which are now annihilating Palestinians in Gaza,” the post elaborated.
A user on X shared that “(Marvel) has announced the character on the 40th anniversary of the event. BDS are calling for a boycott. Don’t watch.”
Another user shared her stance by writing, “Just a reminder now that a new Deadpool & Wolverine trailer was released that Marvel is being boycotted just like McDonald’s and Starbucks because the next Captain America movie is going to have an Israeli superhero, Sabra, played by a literal IDF soldier, Shira Haas.”
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), known for its support of Israeli war crimes, is yet again under fire for a misleading headline that portrayed the killing of a Palestinian man with Down’s Syndrome as a “lonely death”.” In contrast, he died after being attacked by a dog trained by the Israeli Defence Forces.
The details of the report outline Mohammed Bhar’s killing. His mother told BBC that he was left to die by Israeli soldiers after being brutally attacked by the IDF’s dog. His parents later found his decomposed body on the street.
However, the caption on X said, “The lonely death of Gaza man with Down’s Syndrome.”
Netizens lambasted the choice of words, morphing the whole incident into a mere lonely death instead of a murder.
A user quoted Middle East Eye for its appropriate headline, saying, “Gaza: Palestinian with Down syndrome ‘left to die ‘ by Israeli soldiers after combat dog attack.” The tweet read, “This is the headline a real news organisation would write. Why would you try to sanitise a brutal attack on a disabled man?”
Another user stressed that BBC is not a credible source anymore because it avoids at all cost to hold Israel accountable. “An embarrassment for a national broadcaster,” he asserted.
This is not a lonely death; it is a violent murder, another user emphasized.
“You mean he was separated from his family, deliberately mauled by an IDF attack dog within earshot of them and left to die. His parents found his decomposing body later. That’s called murder,” a user named Natalie Holme Elsberg tweeted.
In one of the responses, BBC was criticised for the choice of words. “Lonely? Strange adjective to describe the death of someone who was murdered by an armed gang.”
Israel launched air strikes on Gaza Thursday after warning Hezbollah, Hamas’s ally in Lebanon, to avoid a large-scale war that would send the neighbouring country “back to the Stone Age”.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant made the comment during a visit to Washington, where he discussed the Gaza war, long-running efforts toward a truce, and ways to avoid a wider regional conflagration.
As cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have risen, Gallant stressed that “we do not want war, but we are preparing for every scenario”.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during his visit to Washington this weekDrew ANGERER
“Hezbollah understands very well that we can inflict massive damage in Lebanon if a war is launched,” he said of the fighter group.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded near daily cross-border fire since October 7.
But tensions have surged since Israel said this month that its Lebanon war plans are ready, sparking threats from Hezbollah that, in the event of all-out war, none of Israel would be safe.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Gallant this week that a war with Hezbollah could have “terrible consequences for the Middle East” and urged a diplomatic solution.
A Palestinian boy sits on a war-damaged road at al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 26, 2024Eyad BABA
UN humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths warned that Lebanon was “the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints” and that a full war would be “potentially apocalyptic”.
Germany has joined Canada in advising its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country, reiterating warnings first issued shortly after October 7.
In the latest clashes on Wednesday, Lebanese media reported about 10 Israeli strikes near the border, while Hezbollah claimed six attacks against Israeli military positions.
A US official said Washington was engaged in “fairly intensive conversations” with Israel, Lebanon and other actors and believed that no side sought a “major escalation”.
Meanwhile, the Gaza war at the heart of regional tensions ground on, despite comments Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the “intense phase” of the assault on Gaza was nearing an end.
An Israeli Air Force F-16 Jet fighter aircraft flies over the border area between northern Israel and southern LebanonJACK GUEZ
Israeli air strikes overnight and early Thursday killed at least five people in Gaza City, said Gaza’s civil defence agency and Al-Mamdani hospital medics.
One person was killed when a warplane bombed a house in Beit Lahia, paramedics said.
Heavy fighting, artillery shelling and helicopter fire were reported Thursday around northern Gaza’s Shujayia market, as well as approaching Israeli ground vehicles.
Hamas’ press office in Gaza reported “a significant displacement of residents” there and said people “are fleeing to areas of refuge in Gaza City that are already overcrowded”.
An anonymous witness told AFP the situation was “very difficult and frightening in Shujayia after the arrival of occupation (Israeli) vehicles and air fire.”
“Residents are running through the streets in terror… a number of wounded and martyrs lie in the streets.”
A handout picture released by the Jordanian army shows humanitarian aid being airdropped from a military aircraft over southern Gaza on June 25, 2024-
Shelling also targeted Gaza City, sending plumes of smoke into the sky, and Israeli forces blew up several buildings in far-southern Rafah, witnesses said.
The Israeli military also said it had “attacked terrorists who were in a school complex in Khan Yunis” in the south, where the civil defence agency said it had recovered several bodies.
US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have voiced hope a Gaza ceasefire could also lead to a reduction in hostilities on the Lebanese border.
However, months of talks towards a truce and hostage release deal have so far failed as Israel has rejected Hamas’ demands for a permanent end to fighting and full troop withdrawal.
Israel has killed at least 37,765 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from Gaza’s health ministry.
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on June 25, 2024 shows an Israeli army tracked vehicle during operations in the Gaza Strip-
The war and siege have triggered a dire humanitarian crisis, with Gaza hospitals struggling to function and food, drinking water and other essentials hard to come by.
USAID officials said Wednesday that just 1,000 of the 7,000 tonnes of aid shipped from Cyprus to Gaza had been distributed, blaming looting and security problems.
Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is intense, said US doctors and nurses returning from the territory, who reported patients in the few remaining hospitals were dying in large numbers.
Israeli tanks seen in central Gaza, gunfire heard
One of the volunteer medics, former US army combat surgeon Adam Hamawy, said he had worked in many war-torn and natural disaster-hit countries in the past 30 years.
“But the level of civilian casualties that I experienced was beyond anything I’d seen before,” the 54-year-old told AFP.
“Most of our patients were children under the age of 14,” he said. “This has nothing to do with your political views.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that a deadly strike that hit a displacement camp in Gaza’s Rafah was a “tragic accident” that his government was investigating.
“In Rafah, we evacuated a million uninvolved residents and, despite our best efforts, a tragic accident happened yesterday,” Netanyahu told parliament.
He added that “we are investigating the case and will draw the conclusions” after Gaza’s health ministry reported 45 dead as the strike late Sunday sparked a fire that tore through a tent city for displaced Gazans.
The ministry in the Gaza Strip also said that 249 people were wounded.
Israel faced a wave of international condemnation on Monday over the Rafah strike, including from across the region as well from the European Union, France, and the United Nations.
The Israeli military said it had launched a probe into the strike which it said was carried out based on “precise intelligence information” about two Hamas militants who it said were killed.
It also said “the strike did not occur in the humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, to which the IDF (army) has encouraged civilians to evacuate” since the ground operation began in Rafah.
Netanyahu struck a defiant tone in his Knesset address while being heckled by relatives of hostages held in Gaza, and vowed to keep up the battle to destroy Hamas.
“There is no substitute for absolute victory” in Gaza, he told the chamber.
Netanyahu denounced pressure, both internal and external, that he said his government has faced since the war in Gaza began.
“They pressured us then,” said Netanyahu, before listing calls to refrain from military operations which Israel carried out anyway.
“Don’t enter Gaza. We entered! Do not enter Shifa! We entered! Do not enter Khan Yunis! We entered! Do not enter Rafah! We entered!” he said.
“I don’t give up and I won’t give up! I stand up to pressures from home and abroad.”
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has caused the death of 36,050 Palestinians.
Israel said Thursday that five of its troops were killed by friendly fire in Gaza, as a rift emerged inside the war cabinet on how the Palestinian territory should be ruled in future.
The army said that the five soldiers were killed when two Israeli tanks mistakenly fired shells at the building they were in during operations in the northern Jabalia refugee camp on Wednesday.
“Five soldiers of the 202nd Paratrooper Battalion were killed last night in a mass casualty incident as a result of fire by our forces,” the military said, adding that seven other troops were wounded.
AFP reporters, witnesses and medics said Thursday that Israeli warplanes again targeted areas across Gaza overnight, including in Gaza City and its southern Zeitun area, Jabalia and the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The military’s main focus has been Rafah near the Egyptian border, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered an offensive in defiance of US warnings that more than a million civilians sheltering there could be caught in the crossfire.
Netanyahu on Wednesday argued that “we have to do what we have to do” and insisted that mass evacuations there had averted a much-feared “humanitarian catastrophe”.
Washington — long Israel’s main political, diplomatic and military supporter — has repeatedly urged its ally to take greater steps to protect and aid civilians, and to make a post-war plan for Gaza to avoid being mired in a long counter-insurgency campaign.
CNN has published and aired a damning report with the help of Israeli whistleblowers working at the Sde Teiman detention camp in Israel. The exposé has revealed systemic abuses by the military, including prisoners being restrained, blindfolded, and forced to wear diapers.
Israel’s military base, which is now a detention center in the Negev desert, was photographed twice by an Israeli worker of a scene that he says continues to haunt him.
Picture showed rows of men in gray tracksuits sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. The detainees were blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the harsh glare of floodlights.
The whistleblower told CNN about the conditions these men were kept in, detailing that they are forbidden from speaking to each other, so they mumble to themselves.
“We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold.” Guards were instructed “to scream uskot” – shut up in Arabic – and told to “pick people out that were problematic and punish them,” the report laid out.
Where is Sde Teiman?
Sde Teiman is located some 18 miles from the Gaza frontier and is split into two parts: enclosures where around 70 Palestinian detainees from Gaza are placed under extreme physical restraint, and a field hospital where wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws. “They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who worked as a medic at the facility’s field hospital. “(The beatings) were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” said another whistleblower. “It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.”
Why is it a paradise for medical interns?
The whistleblowers give a peek into the very common practice of amputation of prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained by constant handcuffing. The detention centre is also called “a paradise for interns” because sometimes underqualified medics perform procedures here and learn through practice.
Accounts of Palestinians held in the Israeli detention centre
CNN interviewed Dr. Mohammed al-Ran who headed the surgical unit at Northern Gaza’s Indonesian hospital, one of the first to be shut down and raided as Israel carried out its aerial, ground and naval offensive.
He was arrested on December 18, he said, outside Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, where he had been working for three days after fleeing his hospital in the heavily bombarded north.
He was stripped down to his underwear, blindfolded and his wrists tied, then dumped in the back of a truck where, he said, the near-naked detainees were piled on top of one another as they were shuttled to a detention camp in the middle of the desert.
“We looked forward to the night so we could sleep. Then we looked forward to the morning in hopes that our situation might change,” said Dr. Mohammed al-Ran, recalled.
Al-Ran was held in a military detention center for 44 days, he told CNN. “Our days were filled with prayer, tears, and supplication. This eased our agony,” said al-Ran.
Punishment for speaking to each other
A prisoner who committed an offense such as speaking to another would be ordered to raise his arms above his head for up to an hour. The prisoner’s hands would sometimes be zip-tied to a fence to ensure that he did not come out of the stress position.
For those who repeatedly breached the prohibition on speaking and moving, the punishment became more severe. Israeli guards would sometimes take a prisoner to an area outside the enclosure and beat him aggressively, according to two whistleblowers and al-Ran.
Unleashing dogs as form of “the nightly torture”
That whistleblower and al-Ran also described a routine search when the guards would unleash large dogs on sleeping detainees, lobbing a sound grenade at the enclosure as troops barged in. Al-Ran called this “the nightly torture.”
“While we were cabled, they unleashed the dogs that would move between us, and trample over us,” said al-Ran. “You’d be lying on your belly, your face pressed against the ground. You can’t move, and they’re moving above you.”
The same whistleblower recounted the search in the same harrowing detail. “It was a special unit of the military police that did the so-called search,” said the source. “But really it was an excuse to hit them. It was a terrifying situation.”
“There was a lot of screaming and dogs barking.”
Strapped to beds in the hospital
“If you imagine yourself being unable to move, being unable to see what’s going on, and being completely naked, that leaves you completely exposed,” the whistleblower said. “I think that’s something that borders on, if not crosses to, psychological torture.”
Another whistleblower said he was ordered to perform medical procedures on the Palestinian detainees for which he was not qualified.
Response of IDF
The Israeli Defence Forces did not directly deny accounts of people being stripped of their clothing or held in diapers. Instead, the Israeli military said that the detainees are given back their clothing once the IDF has determined that they pose no security risk.
Two Palestinian prisoners associations said last week that 18 Palestinians – including leading Gaza surgeon Dr. Adnan al-Bursh – had died in Israeli custody over the course of the war.
Sde Teiman and other military detention camps have been shrouded in secrecy since their inception. Israel has repeatedly refused requests to disclose the number of detainees held at the facilities, or to reveal the whereabouts of Gazan prisoners.
In a huge setback to Israel, 24 of its soldiers were killed in the biggest single-day losses since the start of its ground war in Gaza.
The soldiers were killed on Monday, with the army saying 21 of them were reserve soldiers who got killed when rocket-propelled grenade fire hit a tank and two buildings they were trying to blow up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an investigation was launched into the “disaster” and that Israel “must learn the necessary lessons”. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the “Deaths of 24 of our fighters, our best sons…is a heavy blow”.
Israeli soldiers were planting explosives to blow up 10 civilian homes in the Maghazi Refugee Camp in Gaza “to purify the area”.
An RPG missile fired at them triggered all the explosives they planted & killed 21 IDF soldiers. pic.twitter.com/DnZYzxg8D4
On the ground, fighting raged in Khan Yunis, the biggest city in southern Gaza, which the army said it had “encircled”.
Witnesses said powerful explosions rocked Khan Yunis, as well as Deir al-Balah in north Gaza and Rafah in the south.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Nasser Hospital and El Amal City Hospital in Khan Younis, among the few partially functioning hospitals in the territory, were under “extreme danger” from Israeli bombardment.
“The buildings of the Nasser Medical Complex are exposed to shrapnel, endangering the lives of patients, staff and displaced people,” the ministry said on its Telegram channel on Tuesday.
“The Israeli occupation places Nasser Medical Complex and El Amal Hospital in Khan Younis in extreme danger,” it said, calling for “urgent intervention” to safeguard both facilities.
Moreover, Al-Jazeera just released a video compilation of Israeli soldiers filming themselves enjoying and being insensitive to the Palestinian properties.
Israeli soldiers have been filming themselves mocking Palestinians and posting it on social media as they continue their war on Gaza ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/xdZeAb4z6x
Surrounded by family and friends, clapping and cheering, Gaza woman Afnan Jibril beams a brilliant smile on her wedding day, determined to celebrate even as war rages.
“We are a people that love life, despite death, murders and destruction,” said her father, Mohamed Jibril.
Relatives were gathered on Friday for the wartime wedding in a tiny room at an abandoned school building in the besieged Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah, near the frontier with Egypt.
The city has suffered daily Israeli bombardment, and the families of both bride and groom are among hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have fled the fighting further north.
“The usual preparations for marriage are not possible, and traditional ceremonies are not feasible,” said the bride’s father. “However, clothes are available, although they are scarce and expensive.”
Afnan, 17, donning a crown of flowers and pristine white dress with stark red embroidery, and her partner Mustafa Shamlakh, 26, want to make the most of their rare chance to celebrate.
They dance and laugh as guests spray white mousse around the room.
But eventually they have to face reality.
Israel’s relentless military campaign, triggered by attacks by Palestinian militants, has killed at least 23,843 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
The war began when Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack on October 7, which resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The newlyweds make up part of another grim tally — those displaced by the violence, which UN estimates put at 1.9 million Palestinians out of a total population in Gaza of 2.4 million.
“The house where the groom was supposed to live was destroyed,” Ayman Shamlakh, the groom’s uncle, told AFP.
As the war went on, both families felt there was nothing to be gained from waiting and they agreed to the marriage.
After the school celebration, the couple head for a ceremony set to take place in a tent.
As they dive into a waiting black SUV, surrounded by a massive crowd of well-wishers, it almost looks like any other wedding day.
“We are all living through the same tragedy,” said Ayman Shamlakh. “However, we must continue to live, and life should go on.”
A video of an Israeli soldier blowing up a Gaza neighbourhood as a gift for his wife is being slammed on social media.
The soldier, who says his wife has been his strength, pays tribute to her. “My life, I wish you good luck, you are the best in the world and because of your strength, I am here.” He goes on to explain that as a gift he is dedicating the explosion to her. “This explosion is for you, as big as your heart,” he says.
This is not the first time Israeli soldiers are seen committing what experts call war crimes as tributes to their families. In another video, soldiers are seen celebrating the bombing.
IDF troops from unit 9219 of the Combat Engineering Corps Battalions were filmed in another video blowing up multiple residential buildings while smoking hooka to depict that they do not care about the consequences of their actions.
In a heartfelt initiative to make a difference in the lives of the children of Gaza, legendary musician Eric Clapton is set to deliver a powerful message through the broadcast of his intimate concert, which took place in London in December 2023.
Scheduled for airing on January 17th, the exclusive performance is not only a musical treat for fans but also a beacon of hope for a cause that has gone global.
Eric Clapton’s concert, performed in front of a small, intimate audience, showcased the artist’s iconic songs such as Tears In Heaven, Got To Get Better In A Little While, and a poignant rendition of George Harrison’s Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) featuring Dhani Harrison.
The carefully curated setlist not only resonates with Clapton’s musical prowess but also reflects the spirit of empathy and compassion that underscores the purpose of this unique broadcast.
By choosing Gaza as the beneficiary, Clapton not only spotlights the urgent need for support but also invites viewers to contribute to a cause that transcends borders, fostering a collective effort to bring hope and relief to the young lives affected.
