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Why is Lebanon Acting Schizophrenic About Gal Gadot?

By on December 11, 2017 in Movies

People at the censorship bureau don’t seem to be able to make up their mind about Gal Godot. Few years ago they had no problem with her appearing in movies like Fast & Furious, Batman v Superman, and Keeping up with the Joneses, until they suddenly decided to ban Wonder Woman back in May because she had the lead role in it.

Fast forward to nowadays, just as several magazines chose Godot to be on their cover for their December issues, the much anticipated “Justice League” also got banned two weeks ago because she was among its cast. I took the above photo for example at Librarie Antoine a few days ago and it’s obvious the authorities did not find anything wrong with a magazine having Gal Gadot as its main subject, so why not allow a movie starring her as well?

DVD rips of banned movies eventually end up flooding the market and it isn’t like superhero movie fans are going to miss seeing them, so it’s definitely about time the censorship bureau reconsider their role and the decisions they take.

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How Do Boycott Campaigns Work in Lebanon?

By on May 30, 2017 in Movies, Politics

I remember at least two artists who were subject to online and offline boycott campaigns in Lebanon over the past few years due to their alleged support to Israel, Gad Elmaleh in 2009 and Lara Fabian in 2012. Gad Elmaleh was accused of serving in the Israeli Defense Forces (which wasn’t true) while Lara Fabian faced so much criticism for performing at an event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel, and civil society groups of course tried to keep the two artists from performing in Lebanon.

Fast forward to the present, Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot is scheduled to start showing across Lebanese theaters on June 1st. However, Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress and model who first appeared as Wonder Woman in Batman VS Superman last year and her upcoming movie posters have been surprisingly all around the country for a while now! That’s not just any actress supporting Israel, that’s an Israeli actress who served as a combat trainer in the Israeli Defense Forces with her posters all around Lebanon.

I’m not writing this to call for the movie boycott. I personally love superhero movies and will definitely be watching Wonder woman. However, I’ve yet to hear about any call against screening it and in this case one can’t but wonder how do civil society activists choose which artists/projects to boycott or let pass. At one point you start doubting their campaigns could be sometimes fueled by business competition… International artists are all exposed to have a connection with Israel at some point during their career, which makes it easy for anyone to criticize them for the sole purpose of provoking those who are investing their money into getting such artists to perform in Lebanon.

Anyway, the movie is showing in two days so let’s see if any cyber activists will try to take a stance against it!

Update:

I just learned the Ministry of Economy and Trade demanded the General Security to withdraw the movie from Lebanese theaters. However, the questions I raised above still stand.

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Boycott Spinneys?

By on July 11, 2012 in Lebanon

Looks like there’s a campaign building up to boycott Spinneys because of treating their employees unfairly.

According to Abir Ghattas, Spinneys refused to abide by the government’s decision to increase wages, and went further by firing the employees who dared to voice their demands to the management by signing a petition.

Unfortunately, Spinneys is not the only firm who refused to give that increase to its employees, in fact many others also did the same, but luckily for them very few or even none of these cases made it to the media since these companies knew beforehand that their employees will prefer to keep their mouth shut than risking their job by making a trouble about the matter.

Anyway, now that the minister of labor is aware of the issue, let’s see if he will really have the guts to do something about it as promised!

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AUB students demonstrate against Donna Shalala during commencement

By on June 24, 2012 in Lebanon

Several dozen people disrupted the Master’s graduation ceremony at AUB Friday evening to protest against the awarding of an honorary degree to Donna Shalala due to her support for engagement with Israel.

Shalala, president of the University of Miami in Florida and a former U.S. secretary of health, has three honorary degrees from universities in Israel, and does not support a cultural boycott of the country.

Around 40 protesters heckled Shalala as she began her speech of thanks, shouting “boycott Israel.” Some held a large banner that read “Boycott Zionist Shalala.” Source

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Protest against Armin Van Buuren in Beirut

By on December 27, 2011 in Lebanon

Most of the international bands/singers/DJ’s who came to Lebanon for a performance have at some point performed in Israel as well, and because of that you see some activists calling for boycotting some concert every now and then. The way they choose which concert to boycott is beyond my understanding, but for some reason they decided to protest against Armin’s upcoming Concert NYE-1. knowing that he has performed several times in Beirut before.

The NNA reported that youth organizations and supporters of boycotting Israel staged a sit-in on Monday night, facing ‘MacDonald’s” in Ain Mreisseh, in protest against “DJ Armin Van Burren’s” visit to Beirut after partaking in concerts in Israel.

Van Burren is scheduled to perform in Beirut on December 30. Source

I might be wrong, but I feel like someone is just trying to irritate Mix FM (the organizers of this event) with this move, I mean If these people are serious about what they’re doing why don’t they protest against every single performer who has been to Israel, or better yet, why don’t they call for boycotting their albums as well?

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