Women and the Politics of Military Confrontation: Palestinian and Israeli Gendered Narratives of Dislocation

by Nahla Abdo (Editor), Ronit Lentin (Editor)

As the crisis in Israel does not show any signs of abating, this remarkable collection, edited by an Israeli and a Palestinian scholar and with contributions by Palestinian and Israeli women, offers a vivid and harrowing picture of the conflict and of its impact on daily life, especially as it affects women's experiences that differ significantly from those of men. The (auto)biographical narratives in this volume focus on some of the most disturbing effects of the Israeli-Palestinian a sense of dislocation that goes well beyond the geographical meaning of the word; it involves social, cultural, national and gender dislocation, including alienation from one's own home, family, community, and society. The accounts become even more poignant if seen against the backdrop of the roots of the conflict, the real or imaginary construct of a state to save and shelter particularly European Jews from the horrors of Nazism in parallel to the other side of the Israel as a settler-colonial state responsible for the displacement of the Palestinian nation.

Genres: Feminism

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Nahla Abdo (Ph.D.) is an Arab feminist activist, Professor of Sociology at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. She has extensive publications on women, racism, nationalism, and the State in the Middle East, with special focus on Palestinian women.

Reviews

[Holly]

Bringing together Palestinian and Israeli women writing on their various experiences of exile and home, violence and diasporacity, this book constructs a complex narrative of women's lives taking place within this political conflict--lives which are often overlooked in mainstream political coverage. The essays explore the personal struggles of living between hostile cultures, family histories, theories of dislocation, political activism, and gendered social constructions. With the contributors ranging from Palestinian daughters of exiles, to Arab Jews living in Israel, to the children of Holocaust survivors, this collection unfolds the political and social realities of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict from the many points of view of the women who live it. Emphasizing cooperative solidarity, dialogue and a plurality of subject positions, the editors, Abdo and Lenit, present a many-voiced critical feminist analysis of militarism, racism, institutional and cultural sexism, tradition, the Israeli state, experiences of diaspora, nationalism, and exile. The contributors as a collective consider the problems of organizing peace activism between Palestinians and Israelis, patriarchy in Arab and Jewish cultures, social constructions of 'otherness', conflicts between feminism and nationalism, as well as racism within the feminist movement in Israel and the West.

"Whether it is the Israeli government placing militarisation for the sake of 'national security' above all other interests, or conservative forces in Palestinian society placing the struggle for national liberation above women's rights, both of these approaches reflect the same patriarchal interests."
From the essay 'Nightmare' by Nablia Espanioly

"Recognizing our complicity in what goes on around us, perhaps inescapable despite the awareness, is unending morally charged work."
From the essay 'In tow: A Mother's and Daughter's Gendered Departures and Returns' by Rela Mazali