Sumud´s Helsinki Pride Statement: No Pride in Genocide – Against Pinkwashing, for Collective Liberation

Photo: Hannu Häkkinen

“Pinkwashing is the symptom, settler-colonialism is the root sickness. Recognizing pinkwashing as colonial violence can help us understand how Israel divides, oppresses, and erases Palestinians on the basis of gender and sexuality.” – alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society

As Pride Month is celebrated across the globe, we at Sumud – The Finnish Palestine Network reaffirm our commitment to intersectional solidarity and the liberation of all oppressed peoples, including queer and trans Palestinians living under Israeli apartheid and occupation.

We reject the cynical use of pinkwashing – the Israeli state’s strategy of promoting itself as a haven for LGBTQ+ rights to distract from its ongoing colonial violence, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against Palestinians. As alQaws powerfully reminds us, pinkwashing is not just propaganda – it is a form of colonial violence that alienates queer Palestinians from their communities and weaponizes their identities to justify oppression.

Pinkwashing is rooted in a racist, Orientalist view that portrays Palestinians and Arabs as inherently “backward” in their stance on gender and sexuality. It relies on the false binary of a “liberal” Israel versus a “homophobic” Palestine, reinforcing anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia. This narrative echoes classic colonial tropes and is deeply entangled with the logics of the War on Terror, as described by Edward Said and others. It serves to justify occupation and apartheid while appropriating the language of queer rights to sanitize state violence and expand geopolitical control.

As scholars and activists have noted, pinkwashing is part of a broader strategy to capitalize on conflicts in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) and to appropriate the region’s resources (Khalidi, 2020). It is not about protecting queer lives – it is about protecting empire and those who are sustaining a universal apartheid.

Today, more than ever, Pride must prioritize ending the genocide. We must reject any liberalizing of the narrative designed to appease politicians who were late to respond to genocide, and who now weaponize and whitewash queer rights to serve their capitalist and right-wing agendas. Queer rights are not a tool for political gain – they are rooted in intersectional justice and collective resistance.

As articulated in the Internationalist Queer Pride for Palestine (IQPP) political paper, queer liberation cannot be separated from the broader struggle against imperialism, capitalism, and colonialism. Our queerness is not a brand to be co-opted by states or corporations – it is a radical refusal of all systems of domination.

We echo the global BDS movement in calling for an end to all forms of complicity in Israeli apartheid, including the pinkwashing of Pride events. Pride was born from resistance – not as a platform for settler colonial states and other liberal or right-wing politicians to sanitize their crimes.

We are strong together because we know:
There can be no compromise in times of genocide.
We must all center an anti-genocide, anti-colonial, and decolonial narrative – one that does not selectively choose one agenda over another, but instead embraces the full spectrum of justice.

Join Us in Action!

We invite everyone – every queer person, every ally, and every Pride participant – to learn and unlearn, to reflect on the intersections of oppression, and to take action.

Join us in the streets of Helsinki to demand an end to the genocide.
Make your messages clear: Free Palestine.
Stand with us in the Palestine Decolonial Internationalist Block.
Together, we reclaim Pride as a space of resistance, solidarity, and uncompromising justice.