Table Of ContentWomen 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.
