Gal Gadot is the new ‘Wonder Woman’. Gal Gadot is also a proud Israeli. Gal’s nationality, religion and political opinion are hers to hold. BDS once again shows that it is little more than a Jew hating lynch mob, that everyone with a conscience should refuse to engage with.
It isn’t surprising that Lebanon wanted to boycott the Wonder Woman movie. The Arab boycott against Israel existed decades before the Arab Palestinians were even recognised as a separate people. Arab nations have always had a problem with advertising successful Israelis and Gal Gadot is a very successful Israeli. When you want to spread the propaganda that your enemy is the devil incarnate, it doesn’t help when Israeli citizens are successful scientists, sports people, academics and movie stars. Boycott makes the intended distortion easier.
Jordan’s suggested boycott of the movie is less understandable. After all, is there any point in Israel signing peace treaties with these nations? Perhaps for some of the Arab nations, the boycott is an excuse. After all, having Gal Gadot as a champion on screens in a deeply misogynistic society presents its own internal difficulties. Boycott is perhaps a back-door method of rejecting female-positive messages within the movie.
BDS and Gal Gadot
I always argue that the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement is hypocritical and deeply antisemitic. I compare it to a lynch mob, ruled by the evil intent of those at the front. It does not matter if you are a social justice warrior, fooled into believing BDS is some meaningful humanitarian escapade. All you are doing is empowering the mobsters. After all, as a movement gains momentum, it doesn’t constantly need your permission to act.
We have to be thankful that as a mob that is driven by uncontrollable hate, BDS activists often show us exactly how hypocritical, discriminatory and antisemitic they are. Which brings us to the boycott of Gal Gadot. This an image from the Palestine Project:
To avoid claims of unacceptable (and illegal) discrimination BDS consistently states it runs an institutional boycott. This from the website:
“In its 2005 BDS Call, Palestinian civil society has called for a boycott of Israel, its complicit institutions, international corporations that sustain its occupation, colonization and apartheid, and official representatives of the state of Israel and its complicit institutions. BDS does not call for a boycott of individuals because she or he happens to be Israeli or because they express certain views.” (BDS website)”
From the section on the cultural boycott:
“Anchored in precepts of international law and universal human rights, the BDS movement, including PACBI, rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, or religion) or opinion.“
‘Rejects boycotts of individuals’. This an image that was promoted on various BDS Facebook pages globally:
As experts in PR, BDS are well aware of the negative and illegal discriminatory side-effects of switching to boycotting individuals. So they don’t publicly promote it. But it doesn’t matter, because they know that those at the front of lynch mob will do it for them.
Even when media picked up on the boycott, and tied it back into BDS, they failed in their duty to report that the attack on Gal Gadot is discriminatory. They failed to highlight that it contains evidence of the hypocrisy of the entire BDS movement. Put the Gal Gadot boycott in your memories. The next time someone tells you BDS doesn’t discriminate, the next time someone spreads the lie that BDS isn’t about picking on Jews, ask them why Wonder Woman was ever chosen as a target for boycott.
Gal Gadot is being discriminated against because she was born an Israeli Jew. If you cannot recognise that, you are already part of the problem.
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Thanks for ur usual.brilliant insight and amazing way with words and for continuing to fight such a holy cause in a world of darkness blinded by old fashioned jew hatred
Wonder Woman opened with over 100 million in sales and has in 2 weeks earned over 400 million worldwide. BDS isn’t winning. And while they are trying to hurt this movie, and Gal Gadot personally, people really don’t care. They see a great movie, with a great female lead, that is empowering to little girls and women. The sequel is already in the works. Huge #BDSFAIL
For sure. It was a great movie. And BDS isn’t winning. It cannot be allowed to. And we need to continue to expose the vile movement for exactly what it is.
The BDS website totally contradicts itself in this part. https://bdsmovement.net/pacbi/cultural-boycott-guidelines
“While an individual’s freedom of expression should be fully and consistently respected in the context of cultural boycotts, an individual artist/writer, Israeli or otherwise, cannot be exempt from being subject to “common sense” boycotts (beyond the scope of the PACBI institutional boycott criteria) that conscientious citizens around the world may call for in response to what they widely perceive as egregious individual complicity in, responsibility for, or advocacy of violations of international law (such as war crimes or other grave human rights violations), racial violence, or racial slurs. At this level, Israeli cultural workers should not be exempted from due criticism or any lawful form of protest, including boycott; they should be treated like all other offenders in the same category, not better or worse. This is in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on which the BDS movement’s principles are based, and which states:”
So in essence we can summarise: “we must never boycott an individual unless we think we should boycott an individual” Easy!
In part but the statement is still conditional. It would be possible for them to say an individual is ‘egregious’ if their behaviour sets them apart. But Gadot is nothing of the sort. She served as all Israelis served, she is a Zionist, like almost all Israeli Jews and she waves the flag, as almost all Israelis do. What sets Gal apart is the level of her success. If it were a minor movie, they would have left it alone. As a success, Gadot has done nothing, except be born an Israeli Jew, to set her up as a target. It is clearly discriminatory and antisemitic.
I agree, but since I would suspect that BDS is ultimately a racist endeavor why would they not interpret Gadot as a egregious supporter of the “regime” since it is convenient to do so.
The point is that the section that states “rejects on principle boycotts of individuals based on their identity (such as citizenship, race, gender, or religion) or opinion.” is trumped by “common sense” which renders the original check meaningless, and the Gadot case is a prime example.
Thanks for calling out the hypocritical BDS movement. Its a tricky situation for those who want to see Israel succeed and have peace because some of the misled BDS supporters should be potential allies.
Whilst both your reading David, or Monkey Reader’s (MR) interpretation of the events are thoroughly despicable; on this occasion I think that MR’s analysis trumps yours, revealing a loophole that enables BDS to go after an individual without the accusations of hypocrisy that you have raised. This is particularly noteworthy because it is not often that a contributor provides a better argument to your own (H/T MR).
David have you ever considered finding yourself something useful to do . I mean who with any semblance of a life freaking cares about freaking super woman