The Rainbow Flag as Part of the ‘Apartheid Wall’ Assemblage: Materiality, (In)Visibility and Resistance

This paper explores the case of a mural, Through the Spectrum, painted with the colors of the rainbow flag in 2015 by the Palestinian visual artist Khaled Jarrar on a section of the 'Apartheid Wall' separating Israel from the Palestinian territories. Through attending to the materiality of the assemblage of the Wall, with the mural of the rainbow flag as one element, the paper investigates the production of resistance. The paper demonstrates how the resistance against the visual politics of Israeli occupation also involves and becomes intertwined with the politics of visibility practiced by the globalized LGBTIQ community. Moreover, it also focuses on how this resistance, through its materiality, in some ways challenges the visual field of occupation. It is argued that the materiality of the Wall, in conjunction with the mural, human actors, and discourses, makes possible and contributes to producing one expression of the Palestinian resistance of sumūd, steadfastness.