Women in Israel provides a fresh, gendered analysis of citizenship in Israel. Working from a framework of Israel as a settler-colonial regime, this important, insightful book presents historical and contemporary comparative approaches to the lives and experiences of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi and Palestinian Arab women citizens. Nahla Abdo shows that no solution to the problems of the region can be found without changing existing racial and gender boundaries to citizenship.

A critical look at the history and culture of women of the Yishuv and a call for a new national discourse

A National Jewish Book Award-winning biography: A look at the early years of Israel's statehood, experienced through the life of a pioneering nurse. During her extraordinary career, nurse Raquela Prywes was a witness to history. She delivered babies in a Holocaust refugee camp and on the Israeli frontier. She crossed minefields to aid injured soldiers in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and organized hospitals to save the lives of those fighting the 1967 Six-Day War. Along the way, her own life was a series of triumphs and tragedies mirroring those of the newly formed Jewish state. Raquela is a moving tribute to a remarkable woman, and an unforgettable chronicle of the birth of Israel through the eyes of those who lived it.

THIS EYE-OPENING LOOK AT THE RISING OPPRESSION OF ISRAELI WOMEN OFFERS A RALLYING CRY FOR HOW WOMEN EVERYWHERE CAN FIGHT BACK. ACROSS ISRAEL—one of the world's most democratic countries—women are being threatened and abused as ultra-Orthodox Jewish factions seek to suppress them. In this stunning exposé, award-winning author and leading Jewish women's activist Elana Sztokman reveals the struggles of Israeli women against this increasing oppression, from segregation on public buses—in a move Hillary Clinton called "reminiscent of Rosa Parks"—to being silenced in schools and erased from newspapers and ads. This alarming patriarchal backlash isn't limited to Israel either: its repercussions endanger the rights and freedoms of women from Afghanistan to America. But there's hope as well: courageous feminist activists within the Orthodox world are starting to demand systemic change on these fronts, and, with some support from non-Orthodox advocates, they're creating positive reforms that could help women everywhere. Blending interviews with original investigative research and historical context, Sztokman traces the evolution of this struggle against oppression and proposes solutions for creating a different, more egalitarian vision of religious culture and opportunity in Israeli society and around the world. Fearless and inspiring, The War on Women in Israel brings to light a major social and international issue and offers a rousing call to action to stop the repression of women in Israel and worldwide.

A synthetic reconstruction of women’s religious engagement and experiences in preexilic Israel “This monumental book examines a wealth of data from the Bible, archaeology, and ancient Near Eastern texts and iconography to provide a clear, comprehensive, and compelling analysis of women’s religious lives in preexilic times.”—Carol Meyers, Duke University Throughout the biblical narrative, ancient Israelite religious life is dominated by male actors. When women appear, they are often seen only on the periphery: as tangential, accidental, or passive participants. However, despite their absence from the written record, they were often deeply involved in religious practice and ritual observance. In this new volume, Susan Ackerman presents a comprehensive account of ancient Israelite women’s religious lives and experiences. She examines the various sites of their practice, including household shrines, regional sanctuaries, and national temples; the calendar of religious rituals that women observed on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis; and their special roles in religious settings. Drawing on texts, archaeology, and material culture, and documenting the distinctions between Israelite women’s experiences and those of their male counterparts, Ackerman reconstructs an essential picture of women’s lived religion in ancient Israelite culture.

Simona Sharoni’s innovative approach to the conflict in the Middle East stresses the relationship between gender and politics by illuminating the daily experiences of women in Israel and in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Among the issues explored are the connections between the violence of the conflict and the escalation of violence against women; the link between militarism and sexism; and the role of nationalism in building individual and collective identities. Sharoni also shows the impact of Intifada (the Palestinian uprising in December, 1987) on the Palestinian and Israeli women’s movements. While women’s coalitions such as these are critical subjects in and of themselves, the actions of marginalized women are rarely, if ever, given serious treatment in the study of international relations. With this book, Sharoni creates an aperture for the emergence of new perspectives and alternative methods in the development of a new vision in global politics and gender equality. The interdisciplinary scope of the book will make it valuable to scholars of political science, women’s studies, conflict resolution, and Middle East studies.

In this rich, evocative study, Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh examines the changing notions of sexuality, family, and reproduction among Palestinians living in Israel. Distinguishing itself amid the media maelstrom that has homogenized Palestinians as "terrorists," this important new work offers a complex, nuanced, and humanized depiction of a group rendered invisible despite its substantial size, now accounting for nearly twenty percent of Israel's population. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, Birthing the Nation contextualizes the politics of reproduction within contemporary issues affecting Palestinians, and places these issues against the backdrop of a dominant Israeli society.