Tunisia has withdrawn from cinemas a new movie starring Israeli actor Gal Gadot from the Cinemas following protests over “normalisation” with the Jewish state.
A ministry’s press statement said 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 cinemas across the North African country.
Movie theatres had been showing the film since 9 February, but, following protests, the ministry and the visual arts authority had agreed to ban it.
The head of an anti-Zionist woman’s movement, Kaouther Saida Chebbi said the main actor in the film is Israeli, was trained in the (Israeli) army and supports the colonisation of Palestinian territory.”
Cinemas in Tunis also confirmed that they would no longer show the film.
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.
Tunisia, which hosted the Palestinian Liberation Organisation from 1982-1994, has a long history of backing the Palestinian cause.
