Tunisia blocks film starring Gal Gadot over Israel row

Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s new film has been withdrawn by Tunisia over protests claiming that Gadot served in the Israeli army and is a supporter of Palestinian territories being occupied by Israel. Tunisia withdraw Gadot’s film, which is an adaptation of the British author, Agatha Christie’s murder mystery “Death on the Nile”

The film directed by the British director Kenneth Branagh has also been banned in Lebanon and Kuwait. Tunisia hosts major film festivals to celebrate international and Arab films. It also banned Gal Gadot’s last movie Wonder Woman in 2017 over the same concern. 

Following the same concern, the movie would not be shown in any of the theatres in North Africa, as reported by the culture ministry. While the movie theatres have been running Death of the Nile since February 9^th but had to withdraw it following rising protests. The culture ministry reported that the authority of the visual art had reported banning the film, as Gadot supports the colonization of Palestinian territory. 

Tunisia has been hosting the Palestinian Liberation Organization since 1982 till 1994, has a history of supporting the Palestinian cause. 

In 2014, Gal Gadot uploaded a Facebook post supporting Israel’s offensive act against Palestine, during the war that left 2251 Palestinian people dead, most of them being civilians. Gal Gadot, who is an Israeli actress, was crowned Miss Israel in 2004. After that, she served as a soldier in the Israel Defence Forces. She then later studied at the IDC Herzliya college, while simultaneously building a modelling and acting career.