Israeli actress Gal Gadot has been making headlines over the past week for her apparently bold stance against sexual harassment. But one anonymous woman, claiming to be a former associate of the Wonder Woman star, has come out with some strong accusations painting a very different picture.
According to the anonymous accuser, going by the pseudonym Ima Survivor, Gadot shamed and rejected her after a male friend of the actress raped the accuser 13 years ago.
The accuser also says that Gadot referred to another 15-year-old friend as "stupid", after the young girl got raped, saying the teenager should have known not to go to the "wrong club" and should not have trusted the guy.
The accusations were first published in a blog post on Medium on Nov. 14. However, the online platform quickly removed the post, saying it violated its policy as the post named specific individuals. A cached version of the original post is still available here.
Following the post's removal, a website – imasurvivor.xyz – was created, apparently by the accuser, hosting the original narrative.
In the woman's post, she says that she lived with Gadot in Milan, Italy over a decade ago, when they were both young models. She was quickly introduced to Gadot's Israeli friends, one who would later rape her, according to her accusation.
Shortly after she arrived in Milan, Gadot's young 15-year-old friend left after she was raped. Gadot allegedly blamed the teen victim for misjudging a situation, suggesting she should have known better.
The accuser's friendship with Gadot continued after that, and a close bond appeared to form. However, after a drunken night when Gadot was not present, the accuser was also raped by a male friend of the Israeli actress, who allegedly later bragged to a friend about hooking up with an 18-year-old.
"To this day, I have never been inebriated in that particular way, especially after only drinking wine. I was in and out of consciousness, and my body felt limp. I kept falling over," Ima Survivor writes about the night.
"I couldn’t walk. I was dead weight. I remember odd pieces, like him repeatedly asking me in a sick, almost playfully malicious tone of voice if I thought I was smart," she continues.
"I remember thinking that we were going home so that I would sleep on the couch, as Gal and I had before. I woke up in Yaniv’s bed, naked. He had removed my clothes when I was unconscious. I remember him climbing on top of me. I could just barely say 'no', and 'this isn’t right'. Then I blacked out," she alleges.
The next morning, the alleged rapist told her: "You told me no but your body told me yes."
When Gadot found out about the incident, she was enraged, as the male friend was in a relationship with another close female friend of the actress. She allegedly blamed the victim for allowing the situation to happen, and further insisted repeatedly that she must confess what had happened.
"Gal pointed her finger in my face like a weapon. She asked me how I could do this, and that I needed to make this up to Ayala. She made me feel ashamed, that the whole event had been my fault, and that I had brought it upon myself by being so naïve," the accuser writes.
The accusations have not been confirmed, and fans have been quick to jump to the support of the actress. But as many Hollywood stars have recently come under fire due to similar accusations – both public and anonymous – many of which have proven to be true, Ima Survivor's words should not be discounted without serious consideration.
"We don’t know if this account is any more true than the countless people who have recently stepped forward to speak up about the abuse and sexual misconduct they have suffered at the hands of Hollywood elites, some of whom are our faves," Donyae Coles writes on the intersectional feminist blog We Are Your Voice.
"What Survivor wrote mirrors a tale so that many women could tell. Many of us, after being brutalized and hurt by men turn to our fellow women only to be blamed and bullied for the things that happened to us," Coles continues.
"If these events did not happen then it is very easy for Gadot or a member of her team to come forward and discredit them by providing history for her whereabouts or an account of what actually took place during that time. Instead there is radio silence, as if these allegations do not matter," she writes.
While Gadot has become a feminist icon for many in the West, largely due to her portrayal of the comic book heroine Wonder Woman, throughout the Arab world, she is often criticized.
A former Israeli soldier, Gadot publicly supported Israel's bombing of Gaza in 2014, which left more than 1,400 Palestinian civilians dead – including hundreds of women and children. During the conflict, the Zionist actress actually posted a photo of herself and her child praying in support of the Israeli troops.
Wonder Woman was banned in several Arab countries due to Gadot's Israeli citizenship, her service in the Israeli military and her pro-Zionist views.
Some in Lebanon, which was the first country to ban the film, criticized the decision. But others were quick to point out that Gadot would have actually been serving in the military during the country's 2006 war with Israel, which left at least 900 Lebanese civilians dead.
Whether Gadot actually shamed her friends for being raped remains unconfirmed. It is however, very clear that the actress has no qualms about supporting the slaughter of innocent women and children.