Deadline reported on Wednesday that Lebanon banned Disney’s Snow White remake from being shown in theaters there because one of the movie’s stars, Gal Gadot, who plays the evil queen, is Israeli and is on Lebanon’s boycott list.
According to the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar, Lebanon’s interior minister, Ahmad Hajjar, suggested the ban, Deadline wrote.
Gadot, who became an international star with the release of Wonder Woman, has always been an outspoken supporter of Israel around the world.
At a speech at the Anti-Defamation League’s summit earlier this year, where she received a leadership award, she said: “I’m Israeli. And I’m Jewish. I’m going to say it again. My name is Gal, and I’m Jewish. Isn’t it crazy that just saying that — just expressing such a simple fact about who I am — feels like a controversial statement? But, sadly, this is where we’re at today.”
Gadot, who helped organize a screening in Los Angeles of footage of October 7 atrocities, also said in her speech, “Never did I imagine that on the streets of the United States, and different cities around the world, we would see people not condemning Hamas, but celebrating, justifying and cheering on a massacre of Jews.” On this and many other occasions, she called for the release of the 59 hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
There were reports of tension between Gadot and her Snow White co-star, Rachel Zegler, because of pro-Palestinian sentiments expressed by Zegler, but the two have appeared cordial in joint promotional appearances.
Previous films banned
Gadot’s previous films, including Wonder Woman and Death on the Nile, were also banned in Lebanon. The Arab news website reported in March that a number of Arab organizations were calling for a boycott of Snow White because of Gadot’s participation.
Despite the calls to boycott her, Gadot has had huge mainstream success in Hollywood, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in March. She isn’t the first Jewish movie star to be boycotted by an Arab country.
Egypt banned Elizabeth Taylor, a convert to Judaism, from shooting scenes for Cleopatra there in the early 1960s, because she had contributed to charities in Israel, and also banned her movies. The films of another convert, Marilyn Monroe, were also banned in Egypt.
