Tunisia has withdrawn from cinemas a new film starring the Israeli actress Gal Gadot.
The decision was taken following protests by activists who say Gadot served in the Israeli army and supports Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, the Culture Ministry said.
The film, a new adaptation of the murder mystery Death on the Nile by the British author Agatha Christie, has already been banned in Kuwait and Lebanon.
Tunisia, which hosts some major festivals to celebrate Arab and international films, also banned the 2017 film Wonder Woman,which featured Gal Gadot in the lead role.
British director Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile,” already banned in Kuwait and Lebanon for the same reason, will no longer be shown in theaters across the North African country, the ministry’s press office said.
Movie theaters had been showing the film since February 9, but, following protests, the ministry and the visual arts authority had agreed to ban it, activists and Tunisian media said.
“The main actress in the film is Israeli, was trained in the [Israeli] army and supports the colonization of Palestinian territory,” said Kaouther Saida Chebbi, head of an anti-Zionist women’s movement.
Theaters in Tunis confirmed to AFP that they would no longer show the film.
Tunisia, which hosted the Palestinian Liberation Organization from 1982-1994, has a long history of backing the Palestinian cause. President Kais has described normalisation as “high treason”.
In 2017, it banned Patty Jenkins’ film “Wonder Woman,” also starring Gadot.
Gadot had in 2014 posted on Facebook in support of Israel’s offensive against Gaza.The war left 2,251 dead on the Palestinian side, the majority of them civilians and 74 on the Israeli side, most of them soldiers.
Gal Gadot-Varsano is an Israeli actress and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served two years in the Israel Defense Forces as a soldier, where after she began studying at the IDC Herzliya college, while building her modeling and acting careers.