Women in Israel: Race, Gender and Citizenship

by Nahla Abdo

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.

Genres: Feminism, Gender

227 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

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

[Emmanuel Magdalene · Rating 4 out of 5]

couldn't give it five sadly because abdo needs to fire her editor and find someone who can actually do her amazing work justice

[Claire_n_h · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is really great and I highly recommend it to those who want to learn about the situation of women in Israel, but also for those who want a greater understanding of how the system of Israeli apartheid systematically discriminates against Arab citizens both male and female, and privileges those of Ashkenazi Jewish background.

Offering insightful critiques of previous work in the field, Abdo assesses the experiences of three groups of women in Israel - Ashkenazi Jewish women, Mizrahi Jewish women, and Palestinian women - including Christian, Muslim, Druze, and Bedouin women - by situating their lives in the context of Israel as a racist, settler-colonial state.

She analyzes these women's experiences in a political economy framework, focusing specifically on the impact of the loss of land and the lack of access to education and employment on Palestinian women, and the second-class status of Mizrahi women since the foundation of Israel in 1948.

Abdo's book is accessible, engaging and highly recommended!