Israel’s Foreign Ministry invited me on a fully funded LGBTQ+ delegation this November. I said no. Here’s how these campaigns work, because you’re the people they’re really trying to win over.
An email landed in my inbox this week from the Embassy of Israel to the United States. Attached was an official invitation from the Minister for Public Diplomacy. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted me on a “fully funded delegation” of LGBTQ+ activists, creators, and leaders. November 7 to 13. Flights, hotels, meals. All covered.
I know why I got it. I founded EveryQueer, a queer travel outlet that reaches 5 million people a month. I’ve spent 20 years as an LGBTQ+ activist. They don’t want my perspective. They want my reach. They want access to you, dear reader.
My answer is no.
I’m writing about it because you deserve to know how this works. If it landed in my inbox, it’s landing in others.
Read the Invite Closely
It isn’t from a tourism board. It’s from the Public Diplomacy Division of a foreign ministry. Public diplomacy is government image management. The embassy’s own website says its digital diplomacy office runs campaigns to promote Israel’s interests and values across U.S. audiences, and works to counter anti-Israel sentiment. That’s the office that emailed me.
The itinerary promises meetings with “senior officials and ministers” and curated “LGBTQ+ civil society leaders.” Every stop is chosen for you. It promises relationships that “extend well beyond the trip.” They aren’t planning a vacation. They’re building a network of influential queer people.
Notice what’s missing. Gaza. The West Bank. Queer Palestinians. Not one word.
A 20-Year Playbook
This invite isn’t a one-off. It’s the latest move in a long, global strategy.
In 2005, the Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister’s Office and Finance Ministry launched Brand Israel after working with American marketing executives to make the country look modern instead of militaristic and religious. An early effort was a Maxim spread of female soldiers. First they sold the women.
Then they sold the gays. In 2010, Tel Aviv launched Tel Aviv Gay Vibe, targeting gay travelers in France and Germany. The wider push to brand the city as a gay vacation destination reportedly ran around $90 million, with support from the Tourism Ministry and Israel’s consulates abroad.
Even Israelis saw it. In 2012, the head of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel criticized the Foreign Ministry’s strategy of pitching Israel as a “gay promised land” to pull attention from human rights violations.
In 2016, the Tourism Ministry put $3.5 million into promoting Tel Aviv Pride, including flying contest winners in on a rainbow-painted plane. In 2023, Israel’s official accounts shared a photo of a smiling soldier holding a Pride flag amid Gaza’s rubble. And in 2024, the prime minister dropped the act entirely. Netanyahu told Congress that protesters with “Gays for Gaza” signs “might as well hold up signs saying ‘Chickens for KFC.’”
Twenty years. Same strategy. Different faces.
The Message Underneath
Strip away the rainbow and the message is simple. “Look how modern we are. Look how we treat women and gay people. We’re not the aggressors.”
Scholars call this homonationalism. Jasbir Puar coined the term in 2007, and academics argue it casts Israel as a beacon of LGBTQ+ inclusion while painting Palestinian, Arab and Muslim societies as inherently homophobic.
In this playbook, queer people serve two purposes. We’re the proof of virtue. And queer Palestinians become the justification for violence. Neither role lets queer Palestinians speak for themselves.
The same state that markets itself as a queer haven has been accused by its own soldiers of weaponizing queerness. In 2014, 43 veterans of Unit 8200, Israel’s elite intelligence unit, wrote to the prime minister saying Palestinians were surveilled to collect material for blackmail, including sexual orientation, used to coerce people into becoming informants. Palestinian queer group alQaws pointed out that Israel also exploits other vulnerabilities, like medical needs, and asked media not to single out sexuality. Their point stands. Queer Palestinian lives aren’t a talking point for anyone.
How These Campaigns Work
The free trip creates goodwill and a quiet sense of obligation. The curated access means those invited on the trip only meet who the government picks. The content pipeline does the rest, posing with Pride flags, beaches, nightlife, smiling officials. Creators post. Audiences absorb it as organic.
What’s really being bought is trust. Queer content creators and media outlets have followers that trust them. Israel is buying that, not the individual opinion of any particular creator or media outlet.
This isn’t speculation. It’s policy. The Foreign Ministry announced roughly 400 delegations and more than 5,000 participants, backed by about 135 million NIS, after studies showed visitors go home and spread Israel’s narrative on social media. In 2025, it said it expected six delegations of LGBTQ+ influencers from around the world.
Sometimes the trip goes sideways and the content keeps flowing anyway. That June, three Brazilian influencers flown in by Israel’s consulate for Tel Aviv Pride got stranded by the conflict with Iran, with all costs covered by the Israeli government.
Why Now Matters
The timing tells you everything. As of early October 2026, three years of Israeli attacks have killed at least 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 21,000 children, and wounded more than 175,000. Those are Gaza Health Ministry figures. Israel spent two years calling them inflated. Then the IDF itself accepted the ministry’s count. And the “ceasefire” hasn’t stopped the killing. The UN reports 1,431 Palestinians killed and 5,026 injured since it was announced in October 2025, with daily airstrikes still hitting crowded areas and disease spreading through packed displacement sites. Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been forced from their homes. This is the moment Israel chose to fly queer creators in for beaches, Pride flags and photo ops. Queer Palestinians exist. They’re living in tents and rubble. Their safety and voices aren’t on this itinerary.
My Answer
EveryQueer exists to help queer people see the world safely and honestly. That mission doesn’t come with a sponsor’s script. Queer travel should open the world. Not cover for what’s happening in it.
They wanted my reach. They got my answer.
