Last November, Israel’s official social media accounts shared a photo of a smiling Israeli soldier proudly holding a rainbow flag amid the rubble in Gaza, where over 10,000 Palestinians – mostly women and children – had been killed in the weeks following October 7.
Written upon the multi-coloured flag – an iconic, decades-old symbol of LGBTQ+ pride – in English, Arabic and Hebrew, were the words “In The Name Of Love.”
The image quickly went viral. The soldier, a 31-year-old gay man, explained to the media that the Israeli military was “the only army in the Middle East that protects democratic values… it is the only army that allows LGBT people the freedom to be who they are, and therefore I fully believe in our goal.”
Meanwhile, on Instagram, Israel’s account described the image as an “attempt to raise the first pride flag in Gaza as a call for peace and freedom.”
But for many LGBTQ+ activists, and those struggling for Palestinian liberation, the incident represented an almost perfect example of “pinkwashing” – a term that refers to a state or organization’s attempts to use LGBTQ+ rights and symbols to distract or deflect attention from its harmful practices.
Like I implied, obviously not everything is well in Israel. But generally, the term “pink washing” is not useful. Also the war in gaza is not a genocide, but that’s a different topic, I guess.
Edit: Andrei S. Markovits https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Markovits
Edit 2: This is no appeal to authority, the argument is good.
If we’re at genocide denial I don’t know what else to talk about.
Edit: I can look the guy up, my point is just because someone said something it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily relevant let alone true.
Words are cheap nowadays. Read the Israeli answer to the South African claim in The Hague. The intent, which is important in the definition of genocide, is completly lacking. There are some war crimes, but not genocide, at least not at the moment.
Just one more thing: The IDF warns civilians before bombing. Which other army in the world does that? (To be fair: according to the BBC there are some mistakes in the information.)
Of course Israel denies that it intends to commit genocide. If you’re looking for genocidal intent, just look at the words of Smotrich, Ben Gvir, and Netanyahu. Or the words of thousands of rabid Israelis on Jerusalem Day as they publically call for ethnic cleansing.
The IDF stopped the knocking-before-bombing system very early on in this conflict. And when you’re bombing refugee tent cities, no warning is possible.
Your genocide denial is disgusting.
