The fictional landscape of Captain America: Brave New World feels too close to reality for pro-Palestinian demonstrators who turned out at the films premiere to object to the inclusion of an Israeli character named Ruth Bat-Seraph, aka Sabra, played by Shira Haas.

In the comics on which the film is based, Sabra is a mutant Mossad agent whose powers include superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, endurance, and stamina. In the film, she is a bit different: Brave New World producer Nate Moore specified in a recent interview that she is “Israeli, but she’s not Mossad” and that she now works for the U.S. government.

“What we thought was interesting was a lot of the characters in the film revolve around President Thaddeus Ross,” the character played by Harrison Ford, Moore told The National.

She comes into conflict with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the new Captain America.

“Ruth works within the government under Ross, so her perspective on that character and Sam’s perspective sort of put them on a collision course. She’s first-generation Israeli, but she works within the US government,” Moore added.

Marvel has also clarified in a statement that Sabra, who first appeared in the pages of The Incredible Hulk in 1980, is different in the film than in the comics.

“While our characters and stories are inspired by the comics,” the statement said, “they are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience, and the filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.”

The distinction was insufficient for several dozen demonstrators who gathered outside the film’s Hollywood premiere Tuesday waving Palestinian flags, accusing Marvel of glorifying Israel’s government.

They waved signs bearing messages including “Disney Supports Genocide,” “Boycott Captain America,” “Sabra Has Got to Go,” and “Pray 4 Princess Jasmine” — a reference to the heroine of the Disney film Aladdin.

Who could have predicted that the presence of an Israeli superhero in a Marvel movie would set off protests? Anyone.

Sabra and Captain America: Brave New World Arrive at a Grim Time in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The protest continued a campaign that began on social media in 2022, when the character’s inclusion in Captain America: Brave New World was first announced, and pro-Palestinians began spreading the hashtag “#CaptainApartheid.

That was before the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 started a brutal escalation in the long-running dispute between Israel and Palestinians. The attacks killed an estimated 1,139 people, the majority of whom were Israeli civilians, according to the news agency AFP.

Israel responded with intense bombing, and last month, an analysis led by epidemiologists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that as many as 64,300 people may have been killed by Israel’s aerial bombing and ground operations in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024, up from the 37,900 initially reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, according to The New York Times.

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Captain America: Brave New World arrives in the middle of another extremely tense moment in the conflict. Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire last month under which Hamas agreed to begin releasing some of the 251 people it took hostage in the Oct. 7 attack in exchange for the release of Palestinians. So far, Hamas has released 16 out of 33 people scheduled for release in the current phase of the agreement, and Israel has released 656 of a promised 2,000 people, according to CNN.

But Hamas accused Israel of violating the deal and said it would postpone a hostage release that had been scheduled for this Saturday “until further notice.” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, responded by threatening that if Hamas does not release the hostages by noon on Saturday, the cease-fire will end, and Israeli troops will resume “intense fighting.”

Adding to the uncertainty is a threat by President Trump to take Gaza for the United States.

It makes you want to check out and go indulge in the fantasy world of a comic-book movie. But the protests Tuesday suggest that even that may be impossible.

Speaking generally about any parallels between Brave New World and our actual world, Harrison Ford told AFP on the red carpet Tuesday: “I would not taint any movie with the reality of the world we’re living in right now… I prefer the reality of the Marvel universe to the morning’s news.”