Hasbara with glitter: Israel’s politics of pleasure | Arts and Culture

Some 4,000 miles (6,000km) away from Gaza, in the mangrove-thick hills of Goa, young Israelis stamp the earth to trance music. Here, you will not hear mothers wailing over white shrouds. The genocide is elsewhere, and that is the point.

Across backpacker trails, from Andean valleys to Thai beaches, a similar scene plays out. Israelis call it “tarmila’ut”: a post-military “rite of passage” and a chance, as DJ Zirkin puts it, to “go insane peacefully”.

It is not just for hippies,…