Cancel Israel & Disney: STOP THE STEAL

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Earlier this month, Disney’s Marvel Studios released Captain America: Brave New World, amidst widespread calls to boycott the movie due the inclusion of a racist Israeli-spy superhero from the 1980s: Ruth Bat-Seraph, a.k.a. Sabra.  But Disney didn’t stop there. In a few weeks, they are releasing Snow White, starring Gal Gadot - a former Israeli solider who recently organized screenings in Los Angeles of Bearing Witness, a propaganda film created by the Israeli military to justify their genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

In response, our friends at Filmworkers for Palestine and PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel) have put out a call to cancel Disney+ subscriptions to send a message to Marvel and their parent company, Disney. Here’s what we’re asking you to do:

1) Cancel your Disney+ subscription

2) Use the tool below to send an email directly to Disney executives telling them why you canceled your subscription.

In the comic books, Ruth was both an Israeli police woman and an agent of Mossad. Her character arcs included things like, a big epiphany where she finally saw that a murdered Palestinian boy was “a human being,” and consistent anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism and violence. When Marvel first announced that they were bringing this character to the big screen with Captain America, people responded with confusion, pushback and concern.

After extensive engagement and pressure from AJP and a wide coalition of Palestinian and anti-racist organizations, Marvel changed some details about the character - for instance, she is now an Israeli working for the U.S. government instead of Mossad. However, Marvel still refused to remove her character from the film or change the character’s original name.

With so much real-life violence to contend with every day, it can seem silly to focus on fictional superheros. But culture matters. It teaches the next generation who we see as heroes and villains; it defines what is acceptable in mainstream culture at a particular moment in time; and it shapes who we identify with. At its most insidious, it tells us who our culture counts as human and who it sees as disposable. And as we’ve all become painfully aware over the last 15 months, dehumanization can have catastrophic effects.

We need your help to tell Disney that their choices to platform both real and fictional agents of Israeli propaganda are unacceptable.

Together, we can impact Disney's bottom line, start an internal conversation in the company, and make Disney think twice before they embrace anti-Palestinian racism & Israeli propaganda again. 

Use this tool to send direct messages to Disney executives.

Even if you don't have a Disney+ subscription, you can still send a version of our letter to tell them you won't be subscribing to Disney+.

A report released by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Negotiations Affairs Department revealed that 44.5% of the West Bank is now under Israeli control due to settlement expansion and land annexation, the Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday.

And more shitfuckery to digest!!!  

Israel’s Hebron District Coordination and Liaison Office has informed the administration of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron (Al-Khalil), that management of the mosque is being transferred from the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments to Israeli authorities. 

This unilateral decision, which has sparked widespread rejection from Palestinian officials, marks a significant shift in control over one of Islam’s holiest sites in the region.

As part of this controversial decision, work will resume on roofing the area of the mosque known as the “courtyard.” 

For the past two decades, illegal Israeli Jewish settlers have established a presence in this space, setting up a tent and designating the area as a place of worship. 

Their demand for the roofing of the courtyard is part of an ongoing Israeli effort to expand its control over the site, a move that Palestinian authorities strongly oppose.

Since the Gaza ceasefire was announced, the Israeli government has escalated its violence against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.   Taking a page from the Gaza playbook, these attacks are intended to clear the way for the permanent theft of Palestinian land — further accelerating the ongoing process of illegal Israeli annexation of the West Bank. More than a month of raids and attacks by the Israeli military and settlers alike have already displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians. 

This past weekend, the Israeli military brought in tanks and bulldozers to Jenin, destroying roads and demolishing large areas of the camp. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed that Palestinians displaced from these camps would not be permitted to return home — and that he had instructed Israeli forces to occupy the camps “for the next year...”

And now for some good news:

9 countries formed the “Hague Group” to coordinate legal, diplomatic and economic measures against Israel’s violations of international law.

Brussels parliament approved a resolution calling for sanctions against Israel. 

Alameda County in California, US, divested from Caterpillar and voted to adopt an ethical investment policy. 

Svenska hamnarbetarförbundet (the Swedish dockworkers’ union), voted in favour of a “blockade against handling war material to and from Israel’s apartheid and genocidal regime.”

Norway Central Bank excluded Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Corp Ltd citing "the risk of contributing to rights violations in war and conflict". 

Nelson City, Aotearoa (New Zealand) became the 4th city in the country to end its ties with illegal Israeli settlements. 

Ireland has filed a “declaration of intervention” at the ICJ in the case of South Africa vs. Israel on the crime of Genocide, to take part in the proceedings.