She's Quite the Gal!

I’ll begin with a story: last year I was the only white Jew in a job training program where everyone else was black and gentile. One of them, an activist proud of her African heritage, chewed me out one day for being “a white colonizer” of Israel. Not only was this person rude about it, even if for well-intended reasons, but she wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise. It wasn’t until the program facilitator intervened that she stopped. Still, it was nerve-wracking.

                                               

I think about this one-sided exchange regularly. I also don’t think it’s an isolated mindset amongst progressive-minded individuals. Jews have been routinely marginalized on the cultural identity front with issues of colonialism, and it’s led to lots of burnout. It also makes issues of casting in Hollywood, a place notorious for “getting it wrong” repeatedly, that much stickier. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the recent casting of Gal Gadot, an Israeli and Mediterranean native, as Queen Cleopatra, a Greek-Egyptian, for the remake of Cleopatra.

Let’s get some “takes” out of the way now. Firstly, Jews aren’t traditionally white. I know I’ve covered this before, so I’ll avoid retreading, but Jews are unique in the West when it comes to their cultural identity. Ignoring how the “white Jew” is only one type (Ashkenazi), even white Jews weren’t given white status until after The Holocaust. And even then, it was still conditional.

Secondly, Jews have lived in Israel for thousands of years. In the case of white Jews, many have lived there since The Crusades. The Jewish presence in Israel goes back to Biblical times. One need only look at ancient Israelite coins, or Shekels, as proof. Ignoring that is whitewashing. 

Thirdly, the Arab presence in The Middle East and North Africa, despite commonly-held beliefs, is a relatively-recent phenomenon. With the exception of The Arabian Peninsula, most Arab countries exist on-top of previously conquered lands. This is also a fact. I’m not trying to downplay the issues of foreign intervention that keep these places a mess, that’s a fact too, but it doesn’t change that.

And fourthly, Princess Cleopatra wasn’t black. (I’d argue she wasn’t as attractive as she’s been portrayed in Hollywood in the past, but that’s beside the point.) Cleopatra, being of Egyptian and Greek stock, had more in-common with modern-Israelis than most Africans. Gal Gadot, a native Mediterranean, fits the bill quite nicely as a result. You don’t have to like or approve of her, I take issue with facets of her past behaviour, but saying she’s “wrong for the role because of her background” is also whitewashing.

I’ve mentioned all of this because it’s important context for why those attacking Gadot have done so in bad faith. Again, you don’t have to like her, and I won’t convince you otherwise. But whitewashing her origins to build a case against her casting is a form of Antisemitism. And, as we all know by now, Antisemitism is no good! 

Unfortunately, whenever Gadot is announced for a role, there are people who bring up her days as an IDF soldier. Ignoring how the draft in Israel’s mandatory, hence she could’ve been arrested for dodging it, using that as a “trump card” forgets those actors and actresses who’ve served in The American Forces before Hollywood. Why don’t people, for example, jab Adam Driver, who enlisted after 9/11 by choice, too? Double-standards much?

Even regarding Gadot playing a gentile, I’ll use Driver again as counterpoint. So Gadot’s playing a non-Jewish queen? What about Driver, a Christian, playing a Jew in BlacKkKlansman? Don’t think that went by unnoticed by those Jews in Hollywood who could’ve fit the profile of Flip Zimmerman! Why is it okay for a non-Jew to take on a Jewish role, but not the reverse? Again, double-standards much?

There are many casting choices in films that still raise eyebrows. I get that, and I’ll continue to call them out when necessary. I’ll even do it when my own people are guilty of racist casting! But let’s not go looking for issues that aren’t there. Criticizing a casting that’s easily the most-accurate in the history of the character because it’s Gal Gadot, even if she’s a Jew, qualifies as an issue that’s not there. 

I’d also be more-forgiving if this weren’t a one-sided critique of Gadot. I won’t pretend Gadot doesn’t have blood on her hands. She was, after all, an IDF commander during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War, so she probably does. But as with Yitzhak Rabin, criticizing Israelis for casualties and not The Palestinian Authority for the massacres they’ve committed against Israelis and their own reeks, once again, of double-standards. It’s bad enough that Jews have The KKK and neo-Nazis murdering them in the open without progressives trivializing their history.

I guess my takeaway is to not be a jerk. Gal Gadot, to reiterate, is no saint. She’s a human being, and she’s said and done stuff that I don’t approve of. But she doesn’t deserve Antisemitism. Because, like I said, Antisemitism is no good! And you don’t want to be thought of as “no good”, do you?