Jewish and Jewish-Palestinian Feminist Organizations in Israel
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Jewish and Jewish-Palestinian Feminist Organizations in Israel Characteristics and Trends Research and Writing: Dorit Abramovitch Jewish and Jewish-Palestinian Feminist Organizations in Israel Characteristics and Trends November 2008 Research and Writing: Dorit Abramovitch Jewish and Jewish-Palestinian Feminist Organizations in Israel Characteristics and Trends November 2008 Research and Writing: Dorit Abramovitch Editing: Romy Shapira Translation: Sagit Porat Many thanks to the organizations’ representatives, who were willing to contribute their time and share information, opinions and thoughts: Roni Aloni-Sadovnik, Sarit Arbel, Idit Avidan, Tova Ben Dov, Roni Benda, Ifat Biton, Naomi Chazan, Yaara Chotzen, Hanna Cohen, Adi Dagan, Michal Dagan, Esther Eilam, Carmel Eitan, Ronit Erenfroind Cohen, Hedva Eyal, Inbal Freund, Tamar Gozanski, Debora Grinberg, Leah Gruenpeter-Gold, Shir Gur, Lena Gurary, Orna Hadar, Esther Hertzog, Ruth Hiller, Ayelet Ilani, Yasmin Inbar, Yael Itzhaki, Hava Keller, Atara Kenigsberg, Dorit Keren-Zvi, Shula Keshet, Sara Kliachko, Yana Knopoba, Ziona Koenig Yair, Tal Kramer-Vadai, Molly Malekar, Inna Michaeli, Kineret Milgrom, Liora Minka, Maki Neaman, Liat Or, Orna Ostfeld, Chana Pasternak, Tikva Rager, Yael Rockman, Irit Rosenblum, Chaya Rowen-Baker, Keren Shemesh-Perlmuter, Batsheva Sherman, Noga Shiloach, Moria Shlomot, Aisha Sidawy, Mirit Sidi, Ilana Sugbaker, Gila Svirsky, Tal Tamir, Tirtza Tauber, Nitzan Tenami, Lily Traubmann, Michal Yudin. Thanks to the representatives of the organization coalitions: Tamar Adelstein, Shulamit Sahalo, Valeria Seigelshifer, Robyn Shames, and Shatil representative Carlos Sztyglic. Production and design: Jordan Dotan, Moshe Meyron Photo and illustration on cover: Dorit Jordan Dotan © Heinrich Boell Stiftung All rights reserved 24 Nahalat Binyamin St. Tel Aviv 65162, Israel Tel: +972-3-5167734/5 Fax: +972-3-5167689 [email protected] www.boell.org.il Printed in Israel, 2009 Preface The Heinrich Boell Stiftung is the foundation that is affiliated with the Green party in Germany. Heinrich Boell, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1972 and who died in 1985, was one of the most famous writers of post-war Germany. Heinrich Boell criticized German society when it was not willing to account for its crimes against humanity during the Nazi period. He sympathized with the student movement in the 60s and 70s, rejecting however attitudes negating the existence of the State of Israel, which became common in the movement after 1967. His name personifies the values the foundation stands for: defense of freedom, civic courage, tolerance and open debate. The Heinrich Boell Stiftung works in more than 60 countries worldwide with altogether 28 offices abroad. Along with the office in Tel Aviv, the foundation has additional Middle East offices in Ramallah and Beirut that operate throughout the region. The work of the Heinrich Boell Stiftung in Israel takes place in the complex context of German-Jewish relations, German-Israeli relations and the Israeli- Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflict. The foundation works with non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and other stakeholders in Israel to strengthen civil society and democratic participation and to enhance environmental justice and action combating climate change. It promotes efforts to deepen relations between Germany and Israel and the EU and Israel, and it collaborates with groups working for women’s rights and gender democracy. Women’s rights and gender democracy have always been core issues for the foundation in its work in Germany and abroad. In Israel, our aim is to strengthen the social, legal and political position of women, and to improve their opportunities to participate in political decision making. Partnering with various organizations in the feminist field over the years made it clear that feminist activism in Israel, encompassing different population groups and relevant to virtually every realm of life, has become one of Israel’s leading social change forces. The growing number of feminist organizations along with expanded activity and their strong influence on the Israeli public discourse and government policy have become evident. Despite the range of activities, agendas and strategies of the feminist field, there seemed to be a need for an additional framework for the collection and documentation of its many components, trends, and collaborations. It should be noted, that an important report on the Palestinian feminist organizations in Israel was published in 2006 in Arabic by the Al-Tufula Center, and yet research covering additional organizations was still in need. This is why, when Dorit Abramovitch approached the foundation with the idea of thoroughly mapping and analyzing the field of Jewish and Jewish-Palestinian feminist non-governmental organizations in Israel, the Heinrich Boell Office in Tel Aviv immediately recognized the potential of such a report. Dorit Abramovitch, an esteemed feminist writer, lecturer, and long time campaign coordinator, planted the seeds of her idea in fertile ground. Program coordinators Ulrike Goldenblatt and Ayana Segal-Cohen developed and accompanied the project together with Dorit Abramovitch in its early stages. After they left the foundation, the new program coordinator for the Women’s Rights and Gender Democracy component, Romy Shapira, became involved. Dorit and Romy came to realize that the scope of the work needed to be expanded from the initial concept. The report developed into a multidimensional and comprehensive project that took considerable more time, effort and resources to process and finalize than was originally thought. Romy Shapira, who has been active in numerous social change initiatives in Israel for many years, became the editor of the report. The effort made it possible to present what we consider not only a significant source of documentation, but hopefully a resource guide for the many people and organizations that were awaiting its publication. We hope very much that this report, with the information that it shares and its sensitive and sensible perspective, will play a role in promoting the achievement of women’s rights and gender democracy in Israel. Joern Boehme Director Heinrich Boell Stiftung, Israel Table of Contents Introduction: . 7 Chapter 1: On the Creation of the Report and its Main Features . 11 Chapter 2: Historical Review . 17 Times of Establishment of Feminist Organizations in Israel . 28 Chapter 3: Activity Areas of Feminist Organizations in Israel . 31 Where are the Lesbian Organizations? . 38 Chapter 4: Between Individual Services and Public Activism . 43 Increased Professionalization . 52 Chapter 5: Long Term Coalitions . 63 The Challenges . 74 Recommendations . 78 Chapter 6: Short Term Coalitions . 81 Public Campaign for the Election of a Woman President of Israel. 81 Public Campaign for the Removal of Sex Offenders from Government . 85 Chapter 7: Coalitions Between Organizations – Between Competition and Partnership . 89 Recommendations . 95 Summary: . 99 List of References . 105 On the Creation of the Report and its Main Features Introduction Analyzing the field of feminist organizations in Israel is a complex and challenging undertaking, especially at this time of substantial increase in the number of organizations, the extent of their activity, the means of cooperation between them and the variety of issues they address. The task of mapping and analyzing this field becomes necessary also considering the rise in visibility and centrality of the activities and perceptions of feminist organizations in the socio-political agenda in Israel. The growth in number of organizations and the expanding partnership between them bore the need to document, analyze and examine the field, so that its importance and increasing impact on the public sphere in Israel could be further recognized. Interviews and the collection of materials for this report began in October 2007. The writing of the chapter mapping the organizations and documenting the activity of each organization by fixed categories, ended early in 2008*. Nonetheless, this section, addressing the analysis of the feminist field in Israel, refers to trends and characteristics that occurred in this field also during 2008. All organizations reviewed in the mapping identify themselves as feminist organizations. This report scarcely reviews non-institutionalized feminist organizations, but that should not detract from the importance of feminist activity not confined in the form ofAmutot (non-profit associations), nor from the significance of feminist activity by women who do not belong to one organization or another. Furthermore, the report as a whole documents and analyzes the field of feminist organizations, and by doing so it does not distinguish between these and women’s organizations. Although, as mentioned, all reviewed organizations identify themselves as feminist organizations, there are some who claim that their decisive commonality is that most are organizations established, led and operated by women. Among the organizations there are some in which men are involved, but even in these cases men are a numeric minority. This issue raises the need for additional research to discuss the commonalities and differentiating features between the two * The mapping chapter of this report is available in Hebrew only and is published in electronic format on the attached CD. 7 classifications – women’s organizations and feminist organizations. The feminist organizations