Sabra: The Israeli Superhero in Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World

When Disney and Marvel Studios announced at the D23 Expo in 2022 that Emmy-nominated Shira Haas (from Netflix’s hit series, Unorthodox) was joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Israeli superhero Sabra in Captain America: Brave New World, pro-Palestinian protestors have called for a massive boycott of the new movie.

In the original 1980’s comics, Sabra is the mutant alter ego of Israeli intelligence agent and police officer Ruth Bat-Seraph. Wearing a costume that is modeled on the Israeli flag, with blue and white colors and a Star of David pin, her fiery presence became a source of fierce debate.

While Jewish people were thrilled that an Israeli actress was cast in an epic Hollywood movie, the backlash among Palestinians came quickly. Soon the hashtag, #CaptainApartheid started appearing on social media, bringing Marvel directly into the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

Sabra from Marvel comics

Right after that, Marvel put out a statement, announcing the character had been revised.

“While our characters and stories are inspired by the comics,” the studio said in a statement to Variety, “they are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience, and the filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.

In a recent interview with The National, producer Nate Moore stated that Haas’ character has maintained her Israeli nationality.

“She’s Israeli, but she’s not Mossad. Now she works in the US government. What we thought was interesting was a lot of the characters in the film revolve around President Thaddeus Ross. Ruth works within the government under Ross, so her perspective on that character and Sam’s perspective sort of put them on a collision course. She’s first-generation Israeli, but she works within the US government.”

Deborah Camiel, Director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Media & Entertainment Institute told The Wrap that they were glad that Marvel recognized how essential Sabra’s Israeli identity is to her character.

“Superheroes have enough things to worry about. Identity politics shouldn’t be one of them. We’re pleased to learn that Sabra will be retaining her Israeli identity in Captain America, Brave New World, and is still being portrayed by the wonderful Israeli actress Shira Haas. Marvel Studios should be commended for not capitulating to the anti-Israel forces who wanted this character’s identity quashed, along with her backstory. We welcome the portrayal of a strong Jewish and Israeli woman on screen, and look forward to seeing how this character is developed in the film.”

Moore also said the changes to the character were not because of the Israeli-Palestinian issues.

“The changes were no different from the changes that all MCU characters go through when adapted from comics to film and television, where they often rework characters to fit their filmic storytelling which operates independently from the decades of comic book lore.”

In addition to her former Mossad backstory being eliminated from the script, Haas’ Ruth is no longer a mutant with super powers.

“She’s a part of the Red Room (from Black Widow),” Moore noted. “You want to make the best version of a character – be honest to the roots of the character without not necessarily doing what publishing did. We weren’t about to put her in a feather boa and have her throw diamond earrings at people [like she does in the comic books] but we did like the attitude of the character. And to be quite honest, we’d been wanting to work with Shira Haas for a while. She’s so talented, she’s so unique, both in her look and her performance style. We thought this was the perfect marriage.”

At a recent press conference, Haas said her approach to the character came with “a recognition to her past” and where she comes from.

“One of the many reasons that I love Ruth, and I think she is very special, is that I think she is a true badass, who has no problem standing her ground amidst all these alpha-male characters,” Haas noted.

“While Ruth is very different than me, which is what’s so fun about this character, I really do understand the inner psychological emotional aspect of her.”

Haas also talked about the intense physicality of the role.

“There were really long months of training beforehand. Five times a week. You know, I love working out and sport, but this is definitely something else, and a whole new level.

It was a pleasure, and got to get into the character and into the world, and also something very different from me, from things that I’ve done before. Which

I think it’s truly a gift for an actress to do something different and also as exciting to be part of the MC world, and specifically in this really incredible film.”

Despite the dozens of protesters gathered outside the Hollywood premiere of Brave New World last week, holding signs reading “Boycott Captain America,” “Sabra has got to go,” and “Disney supports genocide,” the film is now the number one film at the global box office over the weekend, and is expected to sell more than $100 million in tickets in the United States and Canada, and $95 million overseas.

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