Wonder Woman, Xenophobia, and Zionism

As a huge comic fan, this summer I flocked to my local theatre to see the newest installment into the DC Extended Universe, Wonder Woman. Since Wonder Woman is my favourite character I was doubly excited for the film and walked away beyond satisfied with how Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot brought her to life on the big screen. It was the perfect combination of 1940s style Wonder Woman, mixed with 1980s Perez and a dash of New 52 Azzarello thrown in for good measure. The movie depiction of Diana matched so well with the Diana of the comics that Greg Rucka had been writing the year leading up to the film. In short, I thought the movie was wonderful and the best DC movie since the Dark Knight––scratch that, it was better than the Dark Knight (I rewatched it the day after seeing WW to compare the two).
However, as with all great things, along with high praise and a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, there is some controversy surrounding the movie. The main point of contention that has been persistent and refused to go away is the fact that the actress who played Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, is Israeli and served in the Israeli military. There are a few other concerns on the internet complaining about the film’s portrayal of feminism. To that I’ll defer to this YouTube video from ItzMoe, she does a good job dispelling those complaints.
Anyway, as far as the complaints about Gadot being Israeli and having served in the IDF, these complaints are petty, pathetic, and borderline xenophobic.
The fact that Gal Gadot is Israeli is an accident of birth. We as individuals have no control over where we’re born. Gadot is Israeli by nationality and Jewish. Equating those facts about her to the apartheid state of Israel and the government’s policies plays right into the neoconservative Zionist talking point, that every critique of Israel’s government is directly rooted in anti-semitism. The fact is that military service in Israel is mandatory. According to My Jewish Learning, “From the age of 18 every Israeli male and female is required to serve three and two years, respectively, of compulsory military service.”
The next part of this controversy comes from a social media post that Gadot made, showing solidarity for her fellow Israeli citizens.
I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens. 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!
This post in and of itself is completely harmless and does exactly what I just stated, shows solidarity for her fellow citizens. Again, conflating all Israelis with their government is xenophobic and plays right into the hands of people like Bill Kristol and other neocons who can’t wait to call everyone espousing such a view “anti-semtitic.” Think for a second how every day ordinary Israeli citizens must feel. While their government continues to wage acts of oppression on Palestinians, many of them get blamed for the actions of their government unjustly. When all they want to do is show support for their fellow Israeli citizens, they end up being demonised themselves. One can support Palestinian liberation while also seeing the conflict from the perspective of the average Israeli for whom Hamas is an organisation that has waged violence against Israelis. While I support, the BDS movement and believe Palestine should be free (from the river to the see) I can at least understand things from the Israeli perspective. This is hardly different from Americans travelling in Europe in the mid-2000s and being viewed negatively because of president Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq. Not all Americans participated in that invasion and even many members of the military disagreed with the decision. That does not make all Americans war criminals because president Bush started an illegal war.
Similarly, recent fervor over Russia has led to incredibly xenophobic sentiment toward Russians and Russian-Americans. Back in May, representative Ted Lieu insinuated that Russian people are “scary” and that we should fear Russian-American, tweeting out:
In March, DNC chairman, Tom corporate tool Perez tweeted about president Trump’s weekly address, joking that it was translated from the “original Russian.”
What about being Russian is “scary?” Sure Russia’s government has shown aggressiveness and attempted to interfere in foreign affairs, but that doesn’t mean that we should fear all Russians. There are 3 million Russian Americans here. Many of them speak Russian. We shouldn’t fear them because Putin is a leading agitator in world affairs.
So to bring it back, the fact that Gal Gadot is of Israeli nationality and is Jewish should have no bearing on how we view her in relation to the actions of her government. She was born in Israel by an accident of birth. She served two years in the IDF as she was required by law. She sent out a message of support to her fellow citizens back in Israel who are also under attack due to the backlash of their government’s rightwing policies.
Attacking Gadot because of her nationality is the height of xenophobia and again, feeds into the narrative of actual zionists and neocons who claim that every attack on the government of Israel is an attack on all Israelis, Jews, and is inherently anti-semitic.
These attacks largely stem from people who have never read a Wonder Woman comic in their life and have zero knowledge of the character. I would encourage those who berate her to take a trip to their local comic shop (always support your local shop) and pick up some of the material. I’ve read every single main title WW comic since the Perez relaunch after The Crisis in the late 80s (as well as a lot of pre-Crisis stuff), so I think I have some credibility when it comes to the character. Gal Gadot’s portrayal and Patty Jenkin’s depiction of Wonder Woman is spot on and any reader of the comics will love her. Even past writers from Phil Jimenez and Gail Simone as well as voice actor Susan Eisenberg from the Justice League cartoon have expressed their admiration and praise for Gadot’s Wonder Woman. If you read Greg Rucka’s Year One from the new Rebirth series and then watch the movie, you’ll see how well Jenkins and Gadot nailed it. Getting all riled up over her nationality and service is xenophobic and shameful. It’s hard to push back against neocon assertions that those who oppose the Israeli government’s (not Israelis or Jews, their government) oppressive actions are anti-semitic when you do stuff like this.
