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Mutiny, appeasement and repression from 1900 to
Khomeini, New York 1981.Nima NaghibiIsraelThe lives of Israeli women, a nationally, ethnically,
and religiously diverse category, reflect a complex
of opportunities and barriers. Of 6,439,000 citi-
zens in 2001, there were 77 percent Jews, 15 per-
cent Muslims, 2 percent Christians, and 1.6 percent
Druzes (Israel 2002, table 2.1). Nominally, women
of all groups enjoy basic liberal civil rights, includ-
ing the right to vote and be elected to political
office, and the right to free, universal education,
health services, and legal defense. However, the
application of these to the lives of women varies
considerably. The lack of separation between state
and religion produces discrimination against
women, since family matters fall under the jurisdic-
tion of the religious courts. During the 1990s,
women’s struggles registered some significant gains
in this regard, with the establishment of a civil
court for family affairs, which decides property and
child custody settlements, although it cannot grant
the divorce itself. A second locus of discrimination
is the exclusion of women from formal politics. In
2003 women comprised only 14 percent of mem-
bers of parliament. All of them were Jewish, and
only two women, also Jewish, were heads of local
municipalities. In the work arena, women’s earn-
ings fall far below those of men. The rate of labor-
force participation among Jewish women (53
percent) is similar to that of women in many indus-
trial countries, while that of Arab women (15 percent)
is lower than in some neighboring Arab countries,
which bears direct implications for poverty. For
Arab women, particularly, gender discrimination
is amplified through articulation with national ex-590 political-social movements: feminist
clusion, and often also with class marginalization.
Organized feminism in the region, in both
national communities, dates to the early decades of
the twentieth century. In Israel impressive achieve-
ments were registered at the stage of state forma-
tion in establishing extensive state-provided services
for working women, especially those relating to
maternity and childcare. The oldest women’s
organizations, most identified with these achieve-
ments, have become well-established. Funded by
state or party agencies, with branches spread
throughout the country, they provide mostly legal
and social support services. On the grassroots level,
feminist activism resumed in the 1970s and has
remained lively, with some significant changes. The
1970s wave was led by upper-middle-class Jewish
women of European and American descents (Ash-
kenazi). Their major focuses were consciousness-
raising groups on the one hand and fighting male
domestic violence on the other. Achievements in-
cluded the establishment of rape-crisis centers, hot
lines, and shelters for battered women, and break-
ing the silence that surrounded the problem.
Parallel to that, feminists continued to lobby for
women’s work, domestic wages, and civil rights.
Many of these activities have increasingly come to
rely on state support.
From the 1980s, and more so through the 1990s,
many feminists became involved in peace activism,
calling for a two-state solution to the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. This development politicized
local feminism, creating complex effects. From the
perspective of Jewish women from marginalized
groups, mostly Mizrahi (Jews of North African and
Middle Eastern origin) and lower-class, it marked
Israeli feminism as elitist, as it oriented itself out-
wardly, toward Palestinians, instead of addressing
the class and ethnic cleavages within the Jewish
society. This led to a second wave of politicization,
mostly throughout the 1990s, in which mainstream
Jewish feminists were challenged from within. It
culminated in institutionalizing the quarters policy,
a declared commitment to equal self-representation
of Ashkenazis, Mizrahis, Palestinians, and lesbians
in shared feminist activities.
In separate settings, Mizrahi feminists have con-
centrated their efforts in the educational system,
empowering mothers to fight the tracking system
that discriminated against their children. Later they
also engaged in fighting for the labor rights of
working-class and poor women. Arab feminists
concentrated their efforts on education, creating
progressive curricula and empowering teachers, on
anti-violence measures, and on creating a discourse
of sexual liberation. Religious Jewish and Muslim