Gal Gadot’s newest film, “Death on the Nile,” earned $12.8 million in domestic box office sales over the weekend, but it won’t be bringing in any money in two Middle Eastern countries.
Lebanon and Kuwait will not be playing the follow-up to 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” another film based on an Agatha Christie novel by the same name, according to Deadline. Lebanon previously blocked Gadot’s “Wonder Woman” from debuting in 2017.
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“Wonder Woman” was also banned in Qatar and the sequel, “Wonder Woman 1984,” was banned in Lebanon once again.
The reason for the blacklisting of “Death on the Nile” appears to be the 36-year-old Gadot’s two years of service in the Israeli Armed Forces, as is mandated by her native country.
The Daily Mail reported last week that, per the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas, the decision to ban the film was sparked by protests on social media. The outlet also referenced an unnamed government official who said Kuwait would not allow a movie starring “a former soldier in the Zionist occupying army” to air in the country.
Gadot, for her part, faced leftist internet scorn in May of last year after she posted a tweet in support of Israel as citizens of the Jewish state sheltered themselves while terrorist groups along the Gaza Strip launched a nonstop barrage of rockets in the country.
“My heart breaks,” tweeted the celebrity, who disabled comments on her post. “My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people.”
For defending her country, Gadot was condemned by those on the left as a “war criminal,” “a disgrace to everything ‘Wonder Woman’ is supposed to stand for,” and deserving of losing “all her roles” in current and future projects.
This is hardly the first time Gadot has faced backlash for her allegiance to Israel.
In October 2020, she was the target of intense anti-Semitic attacks after she announced she is teaming up with “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins to remake the 1963 epic “Cleopatra,” originally portrayed by the late Elizabeth Taylor.
She was ridiculed by one social media user as “a boring, untalented, white, Zionist woman.” Another critic, journalist Sameera Khan, wrote, “Shame on you, Gal Gadot. Your country steals Arab land [and] you’re stealing their movie roles.” She later called the actor “a genocidal Zionist.”
That project is nevertheless moving forward.
During an interview last month with InStyle, Gadot said she and Jenkins will be “telling the story the world needs to hear now,” referring to “Cleopatra.”
“I can’t reveal a lot, but I can tell you that we’re going to celebrate the Cleopatra story,” she told the magazine. “We’re going to show not just how sexy and appealing she was, but how strategic and smart, and how much impact she had and still has on the world we’re living in today.”
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