Israeli army weekly Bamahane will be required to send its articles to the chief education officer for approval before publication, after senior officers were outraged by an article in the Purim issue about soldiers dressing up as women and performing as drag queens when off duty.The officers were particularly infuriated by a photo of an Armored Corps officer wearing a gas mask and red boots with heels. The article interviewed two soldiers in drag, who claimed that the phenomenon could be found in many Israel Defense Forces units, including elite intelligence Unit 8200.
Bamahane has written liberally about homosexuals in the army. Some articles have drawn fire, while others have been published without controversy.
In 2001, for example, then Chief Education Officer Elazar Stern blocked publication of an edition with a cover story that featured a picture of a colonel holding the rainbow flag under the headline, "This is how I came out of the closet."
Stern shut down the paper for a week. He said, "I closed Bamahane because publishing a cover story like that in the paper coming out before Memorial Day was tasteless."
Similarly, a story for Family Day in 2010 on a lesbian couple drew fire over the type of family the newspaper chose to portray. By contrast, a lengthy article on five homosexual soldiers serving in combat units that came out for Gay Pride Week in 2011 generated no criticism at all.