In praise of Gal Gadot

As Israelis around the world face cultural boycotts, it was uplifting to see Gal Gadot, an eighth-generation Israeli on one side and the granddaughter of an Auschwitz survivor on the other, honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday. “I think it’s going to take me time before I even realize that it’s real,” she told Variety.

What won’t take time to realize – because by now we know the drill all too well – is that her ceremony was disrupted by pro-Palestinian activists wielding signs ranging from the pathetic to the downright chilling. “Heroes Fight Like Palestinians,” “Viva Viva Palestina,” “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation” and “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crime.”

Gadot plays the Evil Queen in Disney’s new live-action Snow White, alongside pro-Palestinian advocate Rachel Zegler in the title role. Tension between the two has been widely noted and gossiped about – some say it’s their age gap (Zegler is 23, Gadot is 39), some say it’s a matter of life stage (Gadot has four daughters). But those who point to their stark differences on Israel and Palestine are likely closest to the truth.

That protesters targeted Gadot’s Walk of Fame ceremony is hardly surprising. Not only is she Israeli – therefore, in their view, a representative of the “oppressor” – but she’s an outspoken Zionist. She served in the IDF, stands by Israel’s right to defend itself and proudly supports her country. She has openly advocated for the hostages to be returned to Israel and has been clear in her belief that military force is necessary to achieve that.

Gadot has also said she doesn’t think celebrities should get involved in politics.

And she’s right – it’s exhausting. “I don’t talk politics,” she recently said. “Because who cares about the celebrity talking about politics? I’m an artist. I want to entertain people.”

The public agrees: A survey of 2,000 Americans found that 64 percent don’t want to know their favorite celebrities’ political views. “People like to feel that their favorite celebrity lives in a world of their own – a special place free of mundane issues like going to the grocery store or figuring out who they want to vote for or support,” said Dr Carole Lieberman, a psychiatrist who consults for reality TV. Fans also fear that their favorite celebrity might hold opposing views, which could either disappoint them or make them question their own beliefs. Taylor Swift only hurt Kamala Harris – and lost fans – when she endorsed her. No amount of posturing and preaching by Leonardo DiCaprio about the environment is convincing. And so on.

But October 7 changed the equation for Gadot – as it did for the world. She could no longer stay silent in the face of the relentless anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic distortions that followed Hamas’s attack, just as pro-Palestinian activists can’t seem to resist protesting any Israeli in the spotlight.

“There is a challenge for people to speak on social media because there is so much hate going on and so many bots and so many angry people looking for a cause,” Gadot told Variety. “On October 7, when people were abducted from their homes, from their beds – men, women, children, elderly, Holocaust survivors – were going through the horrors of what happened that day, I could not be silent. I was shocked by the amount of hate, by how much people think they know when they actually have no idea, and also by how unfair the media is so many times. So I had to speak up. I am all about humanity, and I felt like I had to advocate for the hostages.”

There’s a difference between exhausting everyone with trendy political grandstanding and feeling compelled to speak out on life-and-death matters of good versus evil – questions that threaten your family, your people, and the historical record of the Jewish people itself. In doing the latter, Gadot is indeed “all about humanity.” Zegler and the protesters, on the other hand, are engaging in a very different kind of performance – one far more troubling.