Lebanon Officially Bans Wonder Woman After Group Complains of Israeli-Born Lead

Lebanon Officially Bans Wonder Woman After Group Complains of Israeli-Born Lead

Well, Lebanon has officially banned the movie Wonder Woman after a group called Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel (CBSI) urged the government to do so since Israeli-born Gal Gadot stars as the lead. From USA Today:

While no official reason was given for the ban, the Associated Press reports that the move follows a campaign in the country against Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, who served two years in the Israeli army. Lebanon is officially at war with Israel.

The ban is in accordance with a decades-old law that boycotts Israeli products and bars Lebanese citizens from traveling to Israel or having contacts with Israelis.

The group announced the ban on Facebook:

From The Guardian:

Wonder Woman has been promoted around Lebanon and was scheduled to premiere in the country until hours before the ban went into effect. Lebanon’s Grand Cinemas movie theater chain announced the ban on its Twitter feed.

Though Wonder Woman had passed the country’s normal screening procedures, the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel-Lebanon put pressure on the government to block the film, describing it as “the Israeli Soldier film”.

However, as The Los Angeles Times notes, three companies made the movie: one in America and two in China. So how is it an Israeli product?

But Lebanon does have “an official law on the books that encourages boycotts of products from its neighbor to the south.”

The group CBSI is not a usual BDS group since Lebanon already has a law that bans Israeli products. Instead it wants to reach out and destroy anything that dares supports Israel or, in this case, gives an Israeli a job:

From the outset, we were clear about our goals and principles: That our boycott is not aimed at certain nationalities or countries or religions; for that would reproduce the racist and discriminatory ideology of the Zionist project. Nor did we conceive of boycott as an end in itself, but rather as a means of protesting these companies and pressuring them to end their complicity in Zionist violations of International Law and human rights.

With the launch of BDS in 2005, we witnessed the birth of a new and much-welcome ally. We thus set out on a path of coordination and collaboration with BDS, and expanded our activities to include the cultural boycott of international artists who support the Zionist project.

Yeah, well, there’s no doubt that this stunt they have pulled will not work. From USA Today:

The ban’s box office impact for Wonder Woman will be negligible, says Paul Dergarabedian, senior box office analyst for comScore. The movie was set to open Friday in just 15 theaters in Lebanon.

“If anything, it’s more a commentary on the state of world affairs,” Dergarabedian says. “Any time there’s a controversy like this, it only raises awareness for the film. This is all noise. Wonder Woman will be a monster hit this weekend.”

Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, predicts “easily” a $100 million opening weekend for the movie in the USA.

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