On 26 October 2023 Business Insider (BI) reported on Yoav Atzmoni, a self-identified gay Israeli soldier engaged in the genocide in Gaza. Atzmoni’s story is demonstrative of the power of narratives. To best analyze this story, multiple sources prove useful. Edward Said’s Orientalism can be applied to determine how both BI and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) produce and reinforce the notion of the “other” through their words and actions. Moreover, Joseph Massad’s work on the Gay International highlights how Western queer categories are absurdly applied to some contexts in the Middle East. Lastly, Walaa Alqaisiya’s work on Decolonial Queering challenges many of the assumptions and erasures that BI puts forth. What is more, is that Atzmoni’s story exemplifies how the IDF has employed pink-washing to reproduce old narratives of cultural hegemony. Through studying the words of BI and the IDF, the genocide in Gaza has illustrated that Orientalism, Western queer categories, and pink-washing can be discursive tools and weapons in waging wars.
In a discussion with BI, Yoav Atzmoni made it clear that he plans to display his flag (picture above) on his tank.(1) The language that BI uses to describe Atzmoni’s story is highly flattering. The article praises Atzmoni’s bravery, saying that the rainbow-coloured Israeli flag makes him even more of a target, but he dons it because “I [Atzmoni] won’t let them [assumed to be Palestinians or Hamas] bring me back into the closet”.(2 )The implications of this quote, and its support by BI, will be dealt with over the course of this paper. The first implication is that it effectively “others” Palestinians. As Edward Said elucidates, Orientalism is the process through which Western discourse deals with, authorizes views on, teaches about, settles, rules, and restructures the “Orient” (that is, anywhere not associated or deemed equivalent to the West).(3) Atzmoni’s quote falsely depicts a Palestinian society set on reversing Israel’s LGBTQ+ culture. The narrative then becomes one of a “progressive” and “just” Israel versus a “backwards” and “oppressive” other. Additionally, the article describes how his boyfriend started to cry upon hearing that Atzmoni had been called to the front lines.(4) The mention of this occurrence and the accompanying pictures of the couple can be observed as pathos-charged attempts to humanize them. Where this becomes Orientalist is the refusal to mention or humanize Palestinians, while grouping them under the umbrella labels of “Hamas” or “militants”. In this sense, the article reinforces the act of “othering” Palestinians by refusing to grant them the same consideration and sympathy as Israelis, thus alienating them. Altogether, the article is an Orientalist attempt to assert Israeli cultural authority and moral superiority over Palestinians.
The further obfuscation of identities, discourses, and genocide has been largely aided by what Joseph Massad calls the Gay International. The Gay International can be described as an institution composed of Western advocates, queer rights organizations, and individuals. The language of these agents is apparent in the BI article and Atzmoni’s accounts. Under the subsection “LGBTQ+ rights at risk”, Atzmoni recounts that in his travels to other Middle Eastern regions, the rights of LGBTQ+ persons are “limited”.(5) The article then goes on to explain that “… in Jordan, public opinion is overwhelmingly opposed to LGBTQ+ rights”.(6) Firstly, this quote is exceptionally problematic because it achieves what Massad describes as a function of the Gay International by applying Western-originated LGBTQ+ categories to regions where such
categories may not be formally recognized.(7) Those who have adopted these Western categories are a minority among many in the region who engage in same-sex relations but do not adhere to LGBTQ+ labels. Massad explains that outside of small metropolitan groups of men, the “gay” category scarcely exists.(8) Furthermore, it was due to the effort of the Western Gay International that these identities found themselves at the forefront of international politics, where they were recognized and limited.(9) Secondly, this quote is inherently a method for silencing and erasing the existence of queer organizations in the Middle East by assuming that Jordan, Palestine, and other Middle Eastern states are devoid of support for queer and gender minorities. In reality, queer organizations operate in these states by engaging in queering language and advocacy against queer-related violence.(10) An effort to impose Western categories and ignore queer advocacy is both an attempt at colonizing identities and erasing existences.
In revisiting an earlier quote by Atzmoni, in which he expresses his concern that losing the war would “put him back in the closet”, Walaa Alqaisiya’s work on Decolonial Queering proves useful. When discussing alQaws, a Palestinian queer rights group, Alqaisiya notes that fundamental questions facing the organization were about its local context. While Israel and many Western societies champion “progress,” “pride,” and “visibility,” the relevance of such values to Gaza, where Palestinians are made to be more concerned with their human security, is questionable.(11) While BI and Atzmoni’s assertion that Palestinians will “closet” Israelis is fundamentally absurd, the assumption that the same Western values not existing in the Palestinian context precludes the existence of a queer-intolerant Palestine is grossly unintelligent and negligent. In this sense, the genocide of Palestinians is pink-washed. This occurs as BI and Atzmoni frame Israel’s illegal and catastrophic occupation of Gaza as a fight against “oppression”, reminiscent of the Western fight to “unveil” women.
Through this analysis, it becomes clear how narratives hold destructive power. When viewed in the context of Edward Said’s work, the BI article highlights how Orientalism persists to this day. In addition, Joseph Massad’s work demonstrates that absurdly employing Western categories in international contexts and refusing to acknowledge other identities can be a form of discursive colonialism and erasure. Lastly, Walaa Alqaisiya’s work illustrates that the values of “progress,” “pride,” and “visibility” are not universal, especially in contexts where human security priorities are more prevalent. Together, these works exhibit that Orientalism, Western queer categories, and pink-washing can be viciously weaponized to justify and moralize genocide.
About the image: "Atzmoni holding a picture of the flag he wishes to fly." Thibault Spirlet, “A Gay Israeli Soldier Says He’s Going to Fly the LGBTQ+ Flag on His Tank While Fighting Hamas,” Business Insider, October 26, 2023,
https://www.businessinsider.com/gay-israeli-soldier-says-he-will-to-fly-lgbtq-flag-on-tank-to-fight-hamas-2 023-10.
1-2 Spirlet, “A Gay Israeli Soldier Says He’s Going to Fly the LGBTQ+ Flag on His Tank While Fighting Hamas,” Business Insider, October 26, 2023,
3 Edward W. Said, “Introduction,” essay, in Orientalism (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2003), 3.
4 Spirlet, “A Gay Israeli Soldier Says He’s Going to Fly the LGBTQ+ Flag on His Tank While Fighting Hamas”.
5 Spirlet, “A Gay Israeli Soldier Says He’s Going to Fly the LGBTQ+ Flag on His Tank While Fighting Hamas”.
6 Spirlet, “A Gay Israeli Soldier Says He’s Going to Fly the LGBTQ+ Flag on His Tank While Fighting Hamas”.
7 Joseph Massad, “Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World,” Public Culture 14, no. 2 (May 1, 2002): 373–374, https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-14-2-361.
8 Massad, “Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World,” 373-374.
9 Massad, “Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World,” 384.
10 Walaa Alqaisiya, “Middle East Queer Affairs,” Routledge Handbook on Women in the Middle East, December 14, 2022, 631, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315165219-52.
11 Walaa Alqaisiya, “Decolonial Queering: The Politics of Being Queer in Palestine,” Journal of Palestine Studies 47, no. 3 (May 1, 2018): 29–44, https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2018.47.3.29. 34.
12 Spirlet, “A Gay Israeli Soldier Says He’s Going to Fly the LGBTQ+ Flag on His Tank While Fighting Hamas”. Picture submitted to Business Insider by Yoav Atzmoni.
Works Cited
Alqaisiya, Walaa. “Decolonial Queering: The Politics of Being Queer in Palestine.” Journal of Palestine Studies 47, no. 3 (May 1, 2018): 29–44.
Alqaisiya, Walaa. “Middle East Queer Affairs.” Routledge Handbook on Women in the Middle East, December 14, 2022, 623–35. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315165219-52.
Massad, Joseph. “Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World.” Public Culture 14, no. 2 (May 1, 2002): 361–86. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-14-2-361.
Said, Edward W. “Introduction.” Essay. In Orientalism, 1–28. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2003.
Spirlet, Thibault. “A Gay Israeli Soldier Says He’s Going to Fly the LGBTQ+ Flag on His Tank While Fighting Hamas.” Business Insider, October 26, 2023.
https://www.businessinsider.com/gay-israeli-soldier-says-he-will-to-fly-lgbtq-flag-on-tan k-to-fight-hamas-2023-10.
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