The announcement that Israeli Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot will be playing the ancient Queen of Egypt Cleopatra in a film she is co-producing has people's hackles up, with claims of cultural appropriation flying.
Journalist Sameera Khan tweeted that Gadot should be "ashamed."
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Still another outraged user of social media wrote, "The level of disrespect if unbelievable. You [Gadot] are ISRAELI. Portraying and ARAB figure. This is not going to end well."
Cleopatra − the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt − was not, in fact, Arab, as Egypt was not an Arab country in the 1st century BCE, when she ruled. Egypt was not conquered by the Arabs until the 7th century CE.
Yet another Twitter user said he "couldn't wait to boycott this bullsh***."
One woman tweeted that Gadot's color was less of interest than the "problem" of "letting Israeli be involved in telling stories about Middle Eastern history."
A user named Johanna M. did not mince words and called Gadot a "genocidal Zionist" and a "basic bit*h."
On Monday, Gadot tweeted after announcing the project that she hoped that women and girls all over the world "who aspire to tell stories will never give up on their dreams and will make their voices heard, by and for other women."
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