Social Media Outrage Sparks Netflix Film Boycott Over Allegations of Promoting Anti-Arab Stereotypes and Justifying US Actions in the Middle East

Jessica Alba's comeback to the big screen in the Netflix production 'Trigger Warning' has stirred controversy among some viewers, who criticize the film for perpetuating anti-Arab and anti-Muslim stereotypes and normalizing violence against Arabs. 

Many users noted similarities between the film's opening scene and the Nuseirat massacre, referencing Israel's assault on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza in early June. 

During a rescue operation to free four Israeli captives, Israeli forces conducted over 250 airstrikes on the camp, resulting in the deaths of over 270 Palestinians and injuries to more than 600 others within three hours. 

Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in the West Bank and Gaza, condemned the Israeli forces for allegedly concealing themselves within an aid truck during the attack. She labeled this tactic as a deceptive form of "humanitarian disguise" taken to an extreme. 

The movie's beginning closely resembles this particular incident, showing men wearing scarves shooting at an aid truck labeled "American Relief Organization" in the Syrian desert. The driver remarks, "They've discovered we're not aid workers." 

Gunmen in military attire and brown keffiyeh scarves position themselves and target the individuals labeled as "terrorists" in the subtitles. They eliminate some and alert the others. 

Viewers contend that Trigger Warning does not explicitly endorse the American characters' actions, which amount to a war crime, but instead glosses over the issue. 

Social media erupted with reactions of disappointment and anger, with many users promoting the hashtag #BoycottNetflix. 

“Netflix just produced and released a new rubbish film where the opening scene is of Americans disguised as aid workers using aid trucks to attack and kill ‘Arab terrorists’ wearing Palestinian keffiyeh,” wrote one X user. 

"After all the bombing, killing, & terrorizing that the US inflicts on the Middle East, you still have the audacity to feature Arabs as terrorists?!" another user wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "Shame on your racism!" 

"Islamophobia and Orientalism is so baked into Hollywood and media productions, which is the oxygen that loads the bullets in guns and bombs to be dropped in real life on innocent Arabs and Muslims across the globe," wrote academic Hatem Bazian. 

Users noted that while Hollywood has used similar Arab tropes in the past, emphasizing them now is considered especially inappropriate. 

Inappropriate Use of the Keffiyeh: A Closer Look 

Some social media users observed that the scarves in the film are similar to the keffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by Arab men, particularly in desert areas. The black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, symbolic of the Palestinian liberation movement, is also used to express political messages. 

"I started to watch it yesterday and after the initial two minutes of Arabs in Keffiyehs, I changed the video…it is a movie starting with racism and Islamophobia," a user said on X. 

When the Palestinian flag was banned in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza from 1967 to 1993, the keffiyeh emerged as a symbol of the Palestinian struggle for statehood. 

Since the onset of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, online orders for the keffiyeh have skyrocketed on Hirbawi's website, the sole remaining keffiyeh factory in Palestinian territory. 

According to Nael Alqassis, the company's partner in Europe, despite a monthly production capacity of 5,000 keffiyehs, meeting the demand from 150,000 interested individuals will take years. 

In Berlin, Loai Hayatleh, a salesman at an oriental trinket store, reported a 200% surge in demand attributed to the Gaza conflict. "We've had to arrange two air shipments from Syria," Hayatleh mentioned, noting that the Palestinian flag displayed above his shop window had drawn police attention.