On social media, the conversation about pinkwashing and Palestine is amplified

As the war in the Middle East continues, people are taking to social media to call out the tactic of "pinkwashing" and the harm it can cause.

In November 2023, a month after Hamas launched an attack on Israel and war was subsequently unleashed on the people of Palestine, the state of Israel took to Instagram with a widely-shared post. The first picture displays Israeli soldier Yoav Atzmoni posing in front of a tank, holding a rainbow-bordered Israel flag; the second shows the soldier standing amongst the ruins of war, holding a different rainbow flag emblazoned with the handwritten words "in the name of love."

"The first ever pride flag raised in Gaza 🏳️‍🌈," the post was captioned.

These words, and their sentiment, were condemned online for blatant "pinkwashing": a propaganda strategy that "cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel's occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians", according to Palestinian-led movement Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS).

This Pride Month, the subject of pinkwashing is being further centered for a reason. Amid the war on Gaza and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, pinkwashing has been spotlighted as a harmful tactic weaponized against LGBTQ Palestinians — and something for allies to recognize and resist.

The history of pinkwashing and Palestine

In this context, pinkwashing was arguably brought to widespread attention in 2011, when writer and activist Sarah Schulman wrote of its significance in a New York Times editorial that criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's framing of the Middle East as "a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted." Schulman condemned the Israeli government's ongoing campaign that purports Israel as a haven for the queer community, while also "ignor[ing] the existence of Palestinian gay-rights organizations" and queer Palestinians.

Israel, which has played host to several Pride events, has been dubbed on a tourism site for the country as a "welcoming hub that starkly contrasts some of the more religious and restrictive areas in Israel and the surrounding region". Same-sex marriage cannot be legally performed in Israel, but civil unions and marriages performed outside the state are recognized. In Gaza, homosexuality has been outlawed since 1936, and conversations concerning the rights of Palestinian queer community and the need to create lasting social change have staunchly grown over decades.

Efforts to resist pinkwashing seemed to take flight in the 2000s, for several reasons including the launch of Israel's lengthy PR campaign "Brand Israel", which some one scholar described as a way to "portray Israel as a safe-haven for gays and lesbians and Palestine as a regressive, violent and homophobic place." Several op-eds, books, and academic papers have detailed the dangers of this narrative; campaigns to resist have launched over the years, including a prominent call to boycott European song contest Eurovision in 2019, which was based in Tel-Aviv.

Elias Jahshan, journalist, writer, and editor of This Arab Is Queer, describes pinkwashing as "reductive and racist."

"What it does is erase Palestinians stories and agency," Jahshan tells Mashable in an interview. "In its essence, pinkwashing is a hidden form of violence against queer Palestinians. It employs orientalist tropes to show Palestinians as uncivilised, backwards, and homophobic, and it also portrays us as victims of a patriarchal culture. It's dangerous."

Pro-Palestine advocates and organizations have long denounced pinkwashing not only for its underlying, PR-laden rhetoric, but its ability to distract and deflect from atrocities — including the ongoing war. For example, No Pride in Genocide, a coalition of activists, urges action against pinkwashing for its use "by a state or organization to deflect from or legitimize their violence imposed on other countries or communities." Groups like alQaws, BDS, and Jewish Voice for Peace have advocated for resisting the rhetoric that Palestinian and Arab societies are oppressive and archaic when it comes to LGBTQ rights in comparison to Western societies.

In the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack and the escalation of the war on Gaza, pinkwashing has once again been steadily employed by Israel and its supporters as means of justification. Jahsan points to the aforementioned post showing Israeli soldier Atzmoni "holding the rainbow flag amongst the rubble" as a prime example of pinkwashing: "It was really awful. Since when was having a rainbow flag the litmus test for the queer community to be validated?" There are other prominent examples. One social media post by comedian Daniel-Ryan Spaulding went viral for comparing queer solidarity with Palestine to "chickens for KFC"; an Israeli comedy skit show called Eretz Nehederet posted a YouTube video satirizing pro-Palestine activists at Columbia University, waving rainbow-colored flags and supporting "LGBTQH" (in which the "H" stands for Hamas).

Resistance and recognition

This June, social media users, activists, and groups have amplified the subject of pinkwashing as the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 37,000.

On Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), several posts have raised the issue. Amongst these is Slow Factory, a digital nonprofit organization, which detailed examples of pinkwashing amid Pride Month and condemned the weaponization of this tactic. "We refuse this blatant exploitation of identity politics," one caption reads.

Most of these posts push for advocacy and awareness, challenging the purported notion of liberating queer Palestinians and marginalized people with war. As Sarah O’Neal wrote in The Nation, "People are being decapitated in Gaza, not for being queer but for being Palestinian." Many posts on X have denoted the same: that the narrative of pinkwashing should hold no legitimacy, and certainly none during war.

This digital movement, which Jahshan says is "ramping up this year", particularly on Instagram, is both educational and activating. People and organizations posting have asked to recognize the existence of queer love in Palestine, shared resources for resisting propaganda, and raised awareness of Pride events and rallies for a cause.

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"This amount of solidarity this year is very heartening," he says. "Queer Palestinians and allies are spreading the word on pinkwashing and how harmful it is, and how it erases us. People forget that queer Palestinians exist. There is a queer Palestinian community in Gaza – there always has been. They live their lives their own way."