Re/visioning the women's movement in Israel

Abstract

Current literature on the women's movement argues that in recent decades, a schism based on the politics of identity has divided women and led to the weakening of the movement. This process, intersecting with the escalation of neoliberal trends and the ‘NGOization’ of civil society, has resulted in the depoliticization of the women's movement and the waning of its influence as a political force. The present paper seeks to examine whether this argument is consistent with the situation in the Israeli women's movement of the early twenty-first century. Based on the history of the women's movement in Israel, the paper posits a twofold argument: (a) the women's movement in Israel has not disappeared but has been restructured as a result of its NGOization; (b) despite criticism of the movement in the literature and on the part of activists as the result of its NGOization, the movement's political messages have remained intact and even expanded to embrace questions of social justice, including novel thinking on matters of peace and security.

Keywords:

• women's movement, NGOization
• women's politics
• women's movement history
• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
• Israel

Acknowledgments

I thank Nitza Berkovitch for her comments on a previous article I published on women in Israeli politics, which led me to develop the present paper. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers of this paper for their constructive and supportive comments.

Notes

 1. Women On Line – WOL [online], 7 June 1997 (in Hebrew). Available from: http://www.wol.co.il/msn/magazine/press.asp?categoryCode = 36&id = 322 [Accessed August 2007].

 2. Ha-Ayal ha-Koreh, 15 August (in Hebrew) [online]. Available from: http://www.haayal.co.il/thread?rep = 32252 [Accessed 1 August 2007].

 3. See Nitza Berkovitch's (2002) extended discussion on the contradictory influences of globalization on women.

 4. These organizations have identified themselves as having a feminist agenda since the 1990s.

 5. Similarly, the Israeli Black Panthers' protest against anti-Mizrahi discrimination erupted only in 1971, and was cut short by the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

 6. It is worth noting that Israel's formal representative was Leah Rabin, wife of the then-Prime Minister, who had no connection with the feminist struggle, rather than Marcia Freedman, who was an active feminist Knesset member.

 7. The resolution was annulled on 16 December 1991.

 8. For example, although the post of Advisor on the Status of Women was inaugurated as part of the Office of the Prime Minister, it lacked authority and resources. Likewise, the law establishing the Government Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women was passed during the 13th Knesset in 1992, but was only implemented in 1998, two years after the 14th Knesset entered office.

 9. Jews of European or American (as opposed to North African) descent.

10. This, despite the fact that Alice Shalvi is a religious feminist.

11. Jews of North African extraction or those hailing from Arab countries.

12. This important issue is worthy of separate discussion. Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this paper.

13. The Adva Center is a non-partisan, action-oriented Israeli policy analysis center. It was founded in 1991 by activists from three social movements: the movement for equality for Mizrahi Jews, the feminist movement, and the movement for equal rights for Arab citizens.