Your film reviewer skews Wonder Woman
Clearly, Louise Ferreira needs urgent instruction into the true meaning of Zionism (“The politics of Wonder Woman”, Friday, June 23). Zionism is the fulfilment of the aspiration of Jews to have a homeland of their own in the same way as every other nation on the planet.
Because AmericanPalestinian writer and antiIsrael activist Susan Abulhawa described Gal Gadot, the Israeli star of Wonder Woman, as an “avowed Zionist and cheerleader of war crimes”, does not validate Ferreira’s skewed observation. An examination of statements on Wikipedia by Abulhawa reveals a collection of lies, distortions and misinformation.
An example is Israel’s so-called massacre in the Palestinian city of Jenin, in which more than 500 civilians were claimed to have been killed by Israeli forces. A United Nations on-site investigation revealed that the total number of Palestinian deaths was 54, of which most were Hamas fighters. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat later admitted this.
Ferreira castigates Gadot for having served in the Israeli Defence Force during Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon. Israel engaged in this action (which cost it 200 killed and more than 4 000 injured) in response to the rocket bombardment by Hezbollah of northern Israeli border towns.
Israel’s response in Gaza in 2014 was for comparable reasons: the firing of more than 8000 rockets at Israeli civilian populations. The figure of 2000 deaths suffered by Gazans included many hundreds of Hamas militants and not, as claimed by Ferreira, only civilians behind whom they hid. —