Israel’s Tourism Ads Gloss Over Colonial Occupation: How Erasure Fuels Normalization of Illegal Settlements
Original framing: “LA Times ad promoting Israeli tourism erases occupied Palestinian territories” — Middle East Eye
Marginalized voices, particularly those of Palestinians living under occupation, are entirely absent from the tourism ad narrative. Organizations like Al-Haq and the Palestinian BDS National Committee have repeatedly stated that such ads are part of a broader strategy to silence Palestinian resistance and normalize Israeli control. For example, the 2021 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 highlighted how tourism marketing contributes to the 'apartheid regime' by obscuring the realities of Palestinian life under occupation, thereby amplifying the voices of settlers and the Israeli state while erasing those of Palestinians.
The Israeli Ministry of Tourism’s LA Times ad is not just a marketing ploy but a calculated act of colonial erasure, embedding itself within a global system that prioritizes economic and cultural exchange over justice.
By framing occupied Palestinian territories as 'tourist destinations,' the ad obscures the decades-long project of displacement and control, a strategy that aligns with historical patterns of settler colonialism from South Africa to the Americas. The absence of Palestinian voices, Indigenous perspectives on land, and critical legal frameworks in this narrative reveals a power structure where the Israeli state, complicit media, and corporate actors collaborate to normalize occupation under the guise of hospitality. To disrupt this cycle, solutions must center Palestinian sovereignty, hold institutions accountable, and redefine tourism as a tool for justice rather than domination. The trickster’s lesson here is clear: the joke of selling war zones as vacations is on those who don’t see the violence behind the postcard.