sign in sign up
<<
Home , Henriette Dahan Kalev, Mizrahi feminism

‰È‰˜· Èχ¯˘È‰ ÈÓ„˜‡‰ Êίӯ اﳌﺮﻛﺰ اﻻﻛﺎدﳝﻲ اﻻﺳﺮاﺋﻴﻠﻲ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻘﺎﻫﺮة BULLETIN the israeli academic center in cairo

Henriette Dahan Kalev

THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY OF

Dr. , a political scientist, is Director of Studies at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva, Israel. Her publications cover a broad range of areas, including democratic thought, postcolonialism, and . She divides her time between academic research and teaching, on the one hand, and the struggle for social justice and human rights, on the other. She has been among the initiators of several social movements and is involved with the advancement of institutions concerned with the struggle against discrimination, racism, and . Until recently, she was the Chairperson of “B’tselem,” the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

Preface in a series of annual feminist and slowly being pushed to the conferences included women from margins of the movement. Their Feminist ideas were imported into most sectors of Israeli society. voices were being silenced. As one Israel in the 1970s, in the wake of the There were Israeli Palestinian of them put it: Six-Day War. The military victory in women, American Jewish migrants, What do they [the Ashkenazi 1967 elicited feelings of solidarity religious and secular women. The women] know about what it among Jews all over the world, overwhelming majority could be means to be a Mizrahi ? drawing many new immigrants defined either as Ashkenazi women A woman with many children, to Israel, especially from affluent (of European Jewish background) religious? They close their ears western countries. Among the or as Mizrahi women (of Arab- to us. They are patronizing. young migrants from the Anglo- Jewish background).2 The feminist What can one say! How can American countries were women movement was not large, but those you even talk with them about who had been exposed to . who participated were enthusiastic our regular harassment – an Bringing with them ideas about and devoted. They felt confident unrequited love. ... They gave women’s equality and liberation that women’s liberation was nigh. you all the reasons in the world that had developed during the It was not long before some of to make you feel a stranger ... late 1960s in the “Women’s Lib” the women who thought they were No opportunity to open your movement in the U.S., they struggling “shoulder to shoulder” mouth. There is nobody to talk initiated grassroots activity among for the same cause, on an equal to anyway. A club ... of feminist Israeli women. That is how second- level with their sisters, realized that Neturei Karta [an exclusive sect wave Israeli feminism took its first there were those in the movement of Ultra-Orthodox Jews] – most important steps in the domain of the who enjoyed privileges that others of the time even the language is struggle for women’s rights.1 were denied. These feelings of different. A club for immigrants A movement was founded, deprivation were shared especially where the domain and language and slogans such as “liberation,” by the Mizrahi and Palestinian is English.3 “sisterhood,” and “women’s women. They discovered that there rights” were voiced in speeches were events and meetings to which The Mizrahi women tried to bring and written on the signs held up at not everyone was invited, that they up the issue of ethnic exclusion, but demonstrations. The participants were receiving selective information it was dismissed as irrelevant to the

22 23 BULLETIN feminist struggle.4 Many women the course of a number of years, in solidarity, and equality by refus- began to drop out. the struggle for women’s equal ac- ing to sacrifice their upper-class In the early 1980s, after the first cess to the pilots’ course of the Israel privileges and abusing “feminist decade of second-wave feminist Air Force. They argued that success solidarity” to promote their own struggle in Israel, the movement would open the door to elite roles interests. The Ashkenazi feminists was almost exclusively based on in the – and, rejected these accusations and Ashkenazi women activists and consequently, to advancement in refused to take responsibility for focused largely on issues of concern civilian society – for all women the Mizrahi women’s grievances. A to the upper classes. The relation- equally. In fact, that struggle pro- deadlock ensued, and many of the ship between the small Mizrahi and moted upper-class women’s inter- participants, Ashkenazi as well as Palestinian groups that remained in ests, because such roles were not Mizrahi, left the conference.8 Bitter the movement and the larger group a realistic option for women who, feelings were expressed on both of Ashkenazi and American-born5 like so many Mizrahi women, had sides, and the movement split. women seemed to replicate the eth- lower educational qualifications. In the following year, this debate nic conflict that had existed between Moreover, it was not an option at continued to preoccupy feminists Mizrahim and Ashkenazim in the all for Palestinian Israeli women and was extensively discussed in larger society since the early years or for most religiously observant feminist circles in many forums: of the state, and even before.6 The women, who are exempted from academic, grassroots, political, Ashkenazi activists determined the compulsory service in Israel’s and the media.9 The outcome of objects of the movement’s struggles armed forces. the conference impacted harshly and the subjects of its conferences, On a practical level, Mizrahi and on relations among Israeli femi- and ran them; they gave priority Palestinian feminist activists often nists, and the movement never to issues such as the demand for found themselves assigned to tasks recovered from the ailments of representation of women on the like mailing or distributing flyers sectarianism, feeble solidarity, and boards of national corporations and preparing the signs for demon- an upper-class image. However, the and political parties, higher educa- strations, rather then representing split clarified ideological outlines, tion, and the celebration of sexual the movement abroad or speaking showing that Israeli women’s preference. for it in the media – tasks that were causes are not monolithic and that This set of priorities subordi- monopolized by Ashkenazi wom- women are divided by social factors nated issues of concern to poorer en. The movement’s elitist priorities such as race, class, nationality, and women, many of whom were and the patronizing attitude of its religion. Sectorial interests proved Mizrahi (or Palestinian). The Miz- Ashkenazi members towards their to be stronger then feminist senti- rahi activists in the movement itself Mizrahi and Palestinian colleagues ments of sisterhood. The debate at were middle class and often had ac- fostered tensions between them. Givat Haviva is now recognized as quired higher education, but they The conflict simmered for several a significant milestone in the devel- came from poor families and were years before it boiled over. opment of feminist consciousness sensitive to lower-class issues. They in Israel. supported the movement’s agenda, Mizrahi feminists began to meet but their priorities were different. Shaping a Mizrahi Feminist and very soon organized the First They were interested in issues Agenda Mizrahi Feminist Annual Confer- such as completion of elementary ence, held in Netanya in May 1995. education and the improvement In 1994, at the Tenth Annual Femi- It provided a public forum where of labor conditions in low-paying nist Conference in Givat Haviva, Mizrahi feminists could talk explicit- jobs that demanded long hours of a small group of Mizrahi women ly about complex experiences of manual work.7 That the differences made a first successful attempt at ethnic and gender oppression. They between upper-class and lower- raising a distinct feminist voice. experienced the feeling of being able class women’s interests were not Disrupting the proceedings, they to talk about these issues, without always clear enabled the Ashkenazi claimed that the Ashkenazi wom- being required to provide excuses women to blur their elitist agenda. en did not represent their special or justifications, as empowering For example, many feminists in- concerns and had betrayed the and liberating.10 The women spoke vested a great deal of energy, over feminist principles of sisterhood, of historical wounds that were

24 25 ‰È‰˜· Èχ¯˘È‰ ÈÓ„˜‡‰ Êίӯ اﳌﺮﻛﺰ اﻻﻛﺎدﳝﻲ اﻻﺳﺮاﺋﻴﻠﻲ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻘﺎﻫﺮة BULLETIN the israeli academic center in cairo

discovered to have very personal taken a significant step in the direc- theoretical analysis of the conflict as well as collective aspects, which tion of exposing hidden links that between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi they compared with the public make it more difficult for marginal- feminists. and formal elements of the Zionist ized women to break their silence. ethos that they had been taught. The This process of feminist social for- resemblance of so many of their in- mation did not occur in a void. The Theoretical Perspective of dividual experiences, as reflected in poverty and deprivation of Mizrahi Marginalized Feminists the talks at the conference, began to women were part of a broad social form a Mizrahi women’s collective disparity that had existed in Israel The pattern of women’s hege- narrative that fostered solidarity. A since the establishment of the state. monic-subordinate relationships with distinctive However, the intersection between in feminist movements, and its outlines was shaping itself around the gender and ethnic experiences consequences, are not unique to that narrative. of deprivation is not to be under- Israel. They have been discussed The topics chosen for discussion stood merely as a combination of extensively in , at the conference reflected two- ma two sorts of deprivation; the social particularly in connection with the jor concerns. First, the participants forces involved are inseparable but in the U.S. since highlighted the gap between of- different in substance, and so they the 1980s.13 ficial Zionist history, as taught in thicken and complicate the enclave The explanation of the split be- Israeli schools, and the personal that the deprived must escape if tween agents that attempt to gen- biographies and histories that they they are to enjoy equal access to erate social change is to be found had learned from their parents. civil and social rights. in earlier ideological analysis of Second, they felt a need to expose But this kind of feminist break- the question of solidarity in social and publicize the hurtful experi- through comes only after breaking revolution. Jaggar, for example, ences that they and their parents the silence. As has been found discusses this issue from a Marxist had undergone as Mizrahim in elsewhere with regard to women feminist perspective, in relation to Israeli society. There was an ur- of color, women feel safer breaking women’s collaboration with men in gency about obtaining recognition the silence in forums of women like the class struggle against the capi- for this history on the part of the rest themselves, and that is what the talists. The women workers who of Israeli society.11 These Mizrahi Mizrahi women experienced at the joined Marxist movements did so women thus were practicing femi- conference. What they were now for the promise of liberation in the nism not only by discussing such able to put into words was that for “post-revolutionary era.” In this “feminist issues” as equal pay and most Mizrahi women, equal oppor- context, the notions of “liberation” other forms of equality with men tunities of the sort that Ashkenazi and “oppression” were monolithic; in society, but also by translating women were already enjoying were they were not deconstructed into the personal into the political, as still a fantasy. Mizrahi women, as form and practices, or into com- the 1970s feminist ethos proposes. opposed both to Mizrahi men and pounded elements of oppression. Their great thirst to discuss issues of to Ashkenazi women, labored For example, oppression resulting identity politics, Israeli history, and under compounded conditions of from discrimination against people gender and race discrimination was deprivation, and so the struggle of color was not distinguished from now incorporated into their agenda, they faced was harder. By the that resulting from discrimination which became strongly oriented same token, the forces upon which on the basis of gender. Capitalism towards exploring the history of they could draw were weaker than was perceived as the root of all their marginalization and dealing those at the disposal of the other evils, and so to be liberated from with the identity crisis and eco- two groups, because of their low capitalist exploitation was to be nomic deprivation experienced by socio-economic status. liberated from all the other forms Mizrahim in Israel.12 Notwithstanding this feminist of oppression. Within the broader context of emancipating experience, the Miz- Feminists from the margins Israeli feminist discourse, Mizrahi rahi women were soon to discover believed, naively, that it was feminism now represented the that their achievement in breaking worthwhile to remain in the pro- interests of women who were at the silence was not worth much in letarian movement and cooperate the bottom of Israeli society. It had the public sphere. I now turn to a with male revolutionaries for the

24 25 BULLETIN goal of the liberation of all work- world that construes male–female feminist theory. According to ers, without entering into the dif- relations. These patterns are prac- McNay,18 the autonomous feminine ferences between gender, racial, ticed by women who might be subject is instituted through con- and ethnic oppression.14 Women supposed to be sensitive to the straint of the relationship between were expected to collaborate and “other,” since they themselves two dimensions, the social and the show solidarity under terms of have experienced oppression as psyche, which are kept separated. exclusion and silencing; calls for the “other” of the male.17 However, The social is compounded with the protest by women activists were the situation in Israel, as in the U.S., materialistic dimension and the met with responses similar to those demonstrates that women’s shared psyche with the genderial, creat- given to the Mizrahi women when experience of oppression as women ing a dichotomy between these they made their initial attempt to does not necessarily make them two dimensions, which are rarely break the silence.15 The issue of the refrain from being oppressive to- analyzed in the same context. The subordination of women members wards women who are not of their forces that keep women silenced of the proletariat to men, by virtue own class or ; it is not are concealed in the gap that con- of a domestic division of labor that sufficient for the production of strues this dichotomy. We should places a disproportionate burden solidarity amongst the oppressed. therefore look there, in what lies “in and responsibility on women, re- Furthermore, our case shows that between” these dimensions, for an mained tacitly suppressed. that there is no difference between explanation of the phenomenon In the feminist case, tensions men and women where it comes to of women remaining silenced for emerged between members of their functioning in subordinating- so long under harsh conditions of different class and ethnic groups subordinated relationships; women oppression. rather than between the , as who are better off tend to subordi- It is my contention that women in the Marxist case. The oppression nate women who are worse off. In break the silence when the so- suffered by the subordinate groups other words, class bonds are often cial-materialistic and the gende- in each of these types of social cat- stronger then gender bonds, and rial-psyche dimensions intersect, egory is qualitatively different. In the materialistic interests they serve yielding political consciousness. my opinion, the discussions in the may well secure women’s support For feminist theorists in Israel and feminist literature of women’s op- of males from their own class rather elsewhere, this poses the challenge pression by other women on the than of women of lower classes or a of uncovering the hidden forces basis of race, religion, and ethnic different race. If women have to de- that combine to entrap women. It origin bear strongly on the case of cide whom to join, so it would seem, is in the nature of feminist theory the Mizrahi-Ashkenazi conflict. Af- the utilitarian factor will dominate to develop in relation to political rican-American women in the late ethical and solidarity motivations of activism and social processes. In 1970s accused their white sisters of supporting the weak, and they will this respect, Mizrahi feminism has running a feminist movement for tend to join the winning rather then pointed the way for feminist schol- women who had it all and wanted the weaker side. For upper-class ars and activists in Israel. more. “’s feminism,” women, privileges are still more they called it – feminism that be- attractive, and retaining them will lieved that what is good for white be preferable to struggling against women in America is good for other women’s inequality. women in the rest of the world.16 For both feminists and feminist Eventually, these African-American scholars, the message emerging scholars developed the concept of from the historical process de- ”” as an alternative to scribed above is that the struggle ”feminism,” a term they regarded against women’s oppression, if it as racializing them when used by is to encompass all of a society’s white women. women, demands critique not only When both the subordinator of gender barriers, but also of class, and the subordinated groups are race, and ethnic privilege across the women, patterns of oppression genders. This last point is related to are replicated from the patriarchal a more complicated problem in

26 27 ‰È‰˜· Èχ¯˘È‰ ÈÓ„˜‡‰ Êίӯ اﳌﺮﻛﺰ اﻻﻛﺎدﳝﻲ اﻻﺳﺮاﺋﻴﻠﻲ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻘﺎﻫﺮة BULLETIN the israeli academic center in cairo

1 For a detailed account see my article, 1), p. 678; idem, “On the Logic of Femi- 18 Lois McNay, “Gender, Habitus and the “Tensions in Israeli Feminism: The nism and the Implications of African Field: Pierre Bourdieu and the Limits Mizrahi Ashkenazi Rift,” Women’s American Feminist Thought for Israeli of Reflexivity,” Theory, Culture and Studies International Forum, 24 (2001), Mizrahi Feminism,” The American Society, 16/1 (1999), pp. 95–117. pp. 669–683. Philosophical Association Newsletter 2 Since 1960, Mizrahi women have on Feminism and Philosophy, 2 (2003), numbered at least half of the popula- pp. 111–117; and idem, “The Gender tion of women in Israel and at times Blindness of Good Theorists: An Is- have been the majority. However, since raeli Case Study,” Journal of Interna- the 1970s, when the intermarriage rate tional Women’s Studies, 4 (2003), pp. between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim 126–147. rose to 22%, the Central Bureau of 11 Dahan-Kalev, “Tensions” (above, Statistics has been unable to provide note 1), p. 678. The workshop topics precise figures; the national census at the Mizrahi Feminist Conference registers only the males of the second reflected these two concerns. Here generation. I discussed the problem of are a few of them: “The Children of data gathering and its social implica- Yemen – The Unbelievable Thought”; tions extensively in “Self Organizing “The Unreachable Past – The Miz- Systems: Wadi Salib and The Black rahi Experience as an Influence on Panthers – Implications for Israeli So- Our Identity”; “Where Has Mizrahi ciety” (Ph.D. Dissertation, The Hebrew Medicine Gone?”; “Mizrahi Women University of , 1991). On the in the Media – The Marginality ... of Mizrahi-Ashkenazi rift see my article, the Freikhah” (freikhah, derived from “Adatiyut in Israel – A Postmodern a Moroccan name meaning “joy,” is Perspective,” in I. Gur-Zeev (ed.), a derogatory appellation for a lower- Education and Society, 1999, class young woman); “The Place of pp.197–232 (Hebrew). Mizrahi Culture in the Curriculum”; 3 Bracha Serri, “An Outsider Guest,” Kol “The 1950s Aliyah (Immigration) Ha’ishah Newsletter, no. 19 (1983), p. 4 from Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Points (Hebrew). of View: The Hope and the Reality”; 4 Dahan-Kalev, “Tensions” (above, note “The Pursuit of Identity”; “The History 1), p. 672. of Belly Dancing”; “The Literary Es- 5 American-born women had a much tablishment’s Attitude toward Mizrahi larger representation in the move- Women Artists”; “Mizrahi Women in ment than their proportion in the Protest Movements”; “Single Israeli population. and the Welfare System.” 6 Henriette Dahan-Kalev, “African- 12 Ibid., p. 679. American Feminism and Its Implica- 13 Alison Jaggar, Feminist Politics and tions for Mizrahi Feminist Thought,” Human Nature, Totowa, NJ, 1988, pp. American Philosophical Association 77–78 ; bell hooks, Feminist Theory Newsletter on Feminism and Philoso- From Margin to Center, Boston, MA, phy, no. 113 (2002). 1984, Introduction. 7 Dahan-Kalev, “Tensions” (above, note 14 Jaggar, Feminist Politics (above, note 1), loc.cit. 13), loc. cit. 8 Ibid., p. 676. 15 Similarly, the conflict with the Palestin- 9 Ibid.; and idem, “Mizrahi Feminism,” ians is often invoked when social issues in Dafna Izraeli, Ariella Friedman, are brought up in Israeli public forums, Henriette Dahan-Kalev, Sylvie Fo- a response characterized by the expres- giel-Bijaoui, Hannah Herzog, Manar sion “Sheket – yorim” (Shut up; they’re Hasan, and Hannah Naveh (eds.), shooting out there). This has become a Sex Gender Politics, Tel Aviv 1999 mechanism for dismissing “unpleas- (Hebrew), pp. 217–266; Vicky Shiran, ant” issues from the public agenda. “The Ninth Feminist Conference,” 16 Hooks, Feminist Theory (above, note Noga, no. 26 (1993), p. 26 (Hebrew); 13), Introduction. and Mira Eliezer “We Have Come 17 As described extensively by Simone de Quite a Distance,” Mitzad sheni, no. 4 Beauvoir in (English (July–August 1996), p. 25 (Hebrew). transl. by H.M. Parshley), New York 10 Dahan-Kalev, “Tensions” (above, note 1989.

26 27