Female Israeli Superhero “Sabra” Returns

By Sophia Spigler ‘25
Israeli female superhero “Sabra” will debut in the Marvel film “Captain America: New World Order,” currently slated for 2024. 

Marvel, in coordination with Disney+, has recently announced Sabra, who was first introduced in a 1980 Hulk comic book and later featured alongside Iron Man, the X-Men and more, will make her return. 
Sabra is a mutant working for the Israeli Intelligence Services. In Hebrew, the word sabra is a prickly cactus fruit and is  commonly used as an expression for native Israelis. The term also relates to an Arabic word that means patience and perseverance. 
“There was a superhero in Israeli comics who was very similar to this character,” said senior Shayna Goldwasser, “and I feel like Marvel may have created Sabra as a copy from that character.”
“It’s a pretty significant inclusion,” said GOA language arts teacher and self-professed comics nerd Mr. Hefetz.  “Jews like Jerry Siegel, Bob Kane, and Stan Lee were responsible for the majority of major superheroes and it’s so clear to anyone paying attention that these characters are influenced by their creators’ Judaism and Jewish experiences; however, the characters need to be more shall we say acceptable to mainstream audiences so their Judaism isn’t pronounced. This hopefully opens the door a bit for more overtly – and more notable – Jewish Marvel characters like The Thing and Kitty Pryde, and maybe even the reintroduction of Magneto.”
Even though the Israeli and Jewish communities may be excited and drawn to this new character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it represents them on screen, other ethnicities and communities feel differently. 
Sabra has often been linked with Arab or Palestinian characters in the comics, with many of her storylines being set in the Middle East. In these comics, Middle-Eastern cultures were usually portrayed as misogynistic, antisemitic and hateful, with Israelis in particular portrayed as extremely violent towards Arabs.
In one story, the Hulk is required to teach Sabra that a “dead Arab boy [is] a human being,” with the comic elaborating that “it has taken a monster [the Hulk] to awaken her [Sabra’s] own sense of humanity.”
Additionally, some feel that the overall portrayal of turning an Israeli Spy into a hero is “insensitive and disgraceful [to Palestinians]” said Palestinian-American writer Yosef Manayyer. 
“I do understand the criticism. Rather than simply pretending Sabra doesn’t exist, perhaps Marvel should or would consider updating some other characters to more positively portray Arabs. Marvel already has a history of altering established characters, most recently with Wakanda Forever’s Namor the Sub-Mariner being influenced by Mesoamerican cultures. They also recently gave Ms. Marvel, a Pakistani Muslim teenage girl, her own Disney+ show and a part in the upcoming team-up The Marvels,” Hefetz said.