Colonial desire meets TikTok in Israel’s ‘lingerie genre’
Israeli soldiers photographed with lingerie of Palestinian women in Gaza.
Heidi Matthews writes in The New Arab on 31 January 2025 (last update 2 February 2025:
Since Israel began its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip in October 2023, Israeli soldiers have circulated countless photos and videos on social media depicting themselves playacting sexualised scenes among the ruins of Palestinian life.
Much of this content has gone viral, attracting millions of viewers. Soldiers picture themselves inside damaged or destroyed Palestinian homes posing with women’s lingerie, the owners either dead or wounded, missing or displaced.
They are seen displaying lingerie in the street, on mounds of rubble, or strapped to a tank; playing with semi-nude dolls and mannequins; wearing lingerie and simulating sex acts.
Israeli soldiers in Gaza photographed with the underwear of a Palestinian woman
In the early days after the ceasefire in Gaza, images are also emerging amidst “Operation Iron Wall” in the West Bank.
In one video reminiscent of scenes from 9 ½ Weeks, a soldier performs a lap dance while wearing a Palestinian woman’s lingerie, complete with stuffed bra, to the tune of Joe Cocker’s “Leave Your Hat On.”
These images have become so ubiquitous that it is fair to say a distinct genre of wartime imagery has emerged from the Israeli military, wherein soldiers take pride in creating and posting images that connect virtually unrestrained Israeli violence to eroticism, wartime humour and social media notoriety. I call this the ‘lingerie genre’ of wartime imagery.