X users up in arms against Netflix over ‘racist’ Jessica Alba film depicting Arabs as terrorists clad in keffiyehs

Last week, Jessica Alba made her onscreen comeback with the Netflix Original film, Trigger Warning. People, however, wish she hadn’t with one X user suggesting she go back to making baby food — or whatever it is she was doing — instead of returning to star in a “racist” film about Arabs at a time when Israel is massacring Palestinians.

Many are calling for a boycott of both Alba and Netflix for showing Arab ‘terrorists’ clad in keffiyeh in the opening scene of the film.

The scene in question sees Arab characters attacking American characters in an aid truck in the Syrian desert. After the American characters overpower the ‘terrorists’ holding them hostage, one soldier begins firing at them, angering Alba’s character, who stops him from “murdering assets” — not human beings, assets.

Viewers have drawn parallels between this scene and the Nusseirat Massacre, which allegedly involved Israeli forces using humanitarian aid trucks as a guise to infiltrate the camp, a tactic referred to as “humanitarian camouflage”. The attack resulted in over 270 Palestinians being killed and more than 600 injured.

“Did the writers have prior knowledge of what went down in Rafah or are government assassins pretending to be aid workers like a thing?” a user asked. The controversial scene in Alba’s film also reminds one of the vaccination drive that the CIA organised in Pakistan 2012 to obtain the DNA of Osama bin Laden’s family.

We want to clarify that aside from the opening scene, we have not watched the film. Trigger Warning’s trailer doesn’t overtly show any significant Muslim presence. It centres on Alba’s character, Parker, a special forces commando who returns to her hometown after her father’s death. As she investigates his death, she encounters a violent gang, prompting her to go rogue.

Social media, however, has been ablaze with reactions expressing disappointment and anger, with many sharing the hashtag #BoycottNetflix. Comments range from general condemnation of the film’s portrayal of Arabs to specific critiques of Alba’s participation in the project. The majority of criticism is limited to that one opening scene of the film.

An X post liked over 65,000 times, reads, “Boycott this racist a** movie that normalises Americans hiding in aid trucks to shoot and murder Arabs. Does this sound familiar to anyone?”

“Decades of dehumanising Arabs,” another noted.

“Shame on Jessica Alba for being part of a movie that promotes Zionist ideology,” one user lamented.

Several similar reactions made their way online, calling the film a piece of “propaganda,” “zionist” and “racist”. Users also pointed out that similar Arab tropes have been used in Hollywood movies in the past but now is probably the worst time to be reinforcing them. Calls for a boycott of Netflix were a common theme.

After October 7, Alba shared a post expressing her sorrow for the “unimaginable horror” faced by the Israeli and Jewish community at the hands of “terrorists”.

She capped this off with a diplomatic remark, expressing her ache for the families, women and children — Israeli and Palestinian — “experiencing pure devastation and horror.”

Alba and Netflix have yet to comment on the controversy surrounding Trigger Warning.