Women in Israel: Race, Gender and Citizenship PDF
Preview Women in Israel: Race, Gender and Citizenship
Women in Israel About the Author Nahla Abdo (Ph.D.) is an Arab feminist activist and Professor of Sociology at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She has published extensively on women, racism, nationalism and the state in the Middle East, with special focus on Palestinian women. Among her recent publications are Gender, Citizenship and the State: The Israeli Case (in Arabic, 2009); Women and Poverty in the OPT: Some Conceptual and Methodological Notes (2007); Women and the Politics of Military Confrontation: Palestinian and Israeli Gendered Narratives of Dislocation (co-edited, 2002); and Violence in the Name of Honour: Theoretical and Political Challenges (co-edited, 2004). In addition, Professor Abdo has published numerous articles in academic journals. She has recently returned from a six-month research trip to Palestine/Israel where she worked with various civil society organizations and conducted research on Palestinian women political detainees. Women in Israel Race, Gender and Citizenship nahla abdo Zed Books london & new york Women in Israel: Race, Gender and Citizenship was first published in 2011 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London n1 9jf, uk and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa www.zedbooks.co.uk Copyright © Nahla Abdo 2011 The right of Nahla Abdo to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 Designed and typeset in Monotype Joanna by illuminati, Grosmont Index by John Barker Cover designed by www.alice-marwick.co.uk Distributed in the USA exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St Martin’s Press, llc, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, usa All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available isbn 978 1 84813 956 5 eb Contents preface vii Introduction 1 one Women, State and Citizenship: The Israeli Context 8 two Women in Palestine: The Relevance of History 54 three Women and Economic Citizenship 100 four Women’s Citizenship, Education and Human Capital 145 Conclusion 185 notes 191 references 203 index 219 Preface This book is the culmination of many years of academic work and feminist political involvement. The impetus for writing it, while timely in terms of its contribution to existing debates on citizenship, is also important personally. In the book I carve a space in which I situate my personal experiences theoretically and locate myself politically. The book represents the embodiment of my gendered, racialized and marginalized citizenship in the State of Israel. Before choosing the diaspora as my living and working place over my birthplace and country, historically known as Palestine, I spent my childhood and the better part of my adult life in an exclusively Arab/Palestinian town. Sheltered in my culture and language, attend- ing Arabic schools, leading my everyday life in my town, little did I know that my Arab or Palestinian presence was anything but normal. At that time, the only struggle for me was to ensure that no one in my society or family took advantage of me, as a female. As a child, in the summer of 1967 and for six days, I remember watching the men in my family gathered around the radio listening to the news, with great anxiety showing in their grim faces. This was the time referred to in Arabic as the Naksa (the Six Day War) and the defeat of Arab armies by the Israeli army. But my wider political consciousness was to develop only in my late teens as a high-school student, listening vii viii women in israel daily to teachers preaching to us about the risks of being ‘political’ or critical of Israel, and silencing any student who dared to criticize the state publicly. It was only then that I began to find some answers to my growing questions about the larger world around me. This world began to show itself to me in equally significant terms as a university student who had to use her second language (Hebrew) as the primary language of instruction and communication. It was at Haifa University that I began to comprehend fully what, as Palestinian citizens, we meant to the state which insisted – and continues to insist – on calling itself the Jewish state. Working in the academy and belonging to several feminist and political anti-racist groups in the diaspora have reaffirmed the importance of my identity and the need to retain that part of the world as mine too. For the last thirty years or so I have turned Palestine/Israel, and its social, economic, gender and racial complexity, into the core of my academic research and political activism. My knowledge of and concern for marginalized Palestinian women have been the driving force for this book. I have learned a great deal from being directly involved in vari- ous groups, especially women’s groups and civil society activism in Palestine/Israel. Of these, I would like specifically to mention three: Women Against Violence in Nazareth, al-Tufula and Mada al-Carmel. In many ways this book would not have been possible had it not been for them. My thanks go to them all. Many thanks are due to the staff of the Centre for Women Against Violence in Nazareth, and especially to Aida Touma and Naela Awwad, who gave me the op- portunity to facilitate several workshops around the issues of gender, citizenship and the state. The amazing enthusiasm of the participants, who came from all walks of life (academics, social workers, teach- ers, activists), broke down traditional taboos. With open minds and hearts these women have shared with me their personal, work and life experiences. At Mada al-Carmel (the Arab Center for Applied Social Research – Haifa), I gave several public talks and facilitated a number of workshops on Palestinian women and the political economy in Israel. While the participants were largely academics, they were all keen preface ix to translate theories into their experiential lives. For this, I would also like to thank the staff, especially Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Himmat Zubi and Areej Sabbagh. At al-Tufula Centre (Pedagogical and Multipurpose Women Centre – Nazareth) I also had the chance to present my research publically and gain important feedback from participants. My thanks here go to Nabila Espanioly and the staff at the Centre, who, like the other two organizations, shared with me their data and publications. MADAR (the Palestinian Centre for Israeli Studies) has published an earlier version of this book in Arabic. Many thanks go to Mufeed Qassoum and Hunaida Ghanem for their enthusiasm and dedication to publish and distribute this edition of the book. Finally, I would like to thank my children, Beisan and Hadaf Zubi, who, while still trying to figure out the meaning of their Israeli citizenship, enthusiastically volunteered to read the first draft and shared with me their concerns as well as their unending support and love. It goes without saying that writing this book meant spending a good deal of time away from family duties. I am deeply grateful to my partner Sami Zubi, who gave me all the time and space I needed, with love and admiration. While all these people helped shape this book, sole responsibility for it is mine.
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