Gal Gadot's casting as Cleopatra starts Twitter debate over Israeli actress playing Egyptian queen

It has been only a day after actor Gal Gadot announced that she will be reuniting with her Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins for a period drama based on the life of the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.In a social media post, the actor made it clear that the story will portray the last ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemaic Kingdom in a new light as the story will be told “through women's eyes, both behind and in front of the camera”.See the postHowever, Twitter users were fixated on something else. Many took objection to an Israeli woman playing an Egyptian queen. Twitterati posed a simple question as to why the makers could not cast an Arab or Black woman for the role. Many pointed out how it was “not right” to cast someone who has been a former Israeli Defense Force soldier. Gadot, like other Israeli men and women, had served in the country’s army and even participated in the 34-day conflict between Lebanon and northern Israel in 2006. This Twitter brigade was however soon brought down by another set of Twitterati who pointed out that although Cleopatra was the ruler of Egypt, she was not Egyptian. In fact, she was Macedonian Greek. Many opined that people actually had reservations about a Jew playing the role. Before the 35-year-old star, actors Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor have portrayed Cleopatra on screen.