Almost eight years after the outbreak of the Intifada in 1987, and
myriad publications down the road, themes about the relationship
between gender issues, women's activism and the history and
politics of the Israeli-¬Palestinian conflict might seem
hackneyed and deja-vu. But that does not discourage Simona Sharoni
whose book, Gender and the Israeli-¬Palestinian Conflict, has
been "inspired by the urgency and excitement surrounding
Palestinian and Israeli-Jewish activists' efforts to document and
analyze their struggles from the inside out" (p. 3). An Israeli
activist in both the women's and peace movements, and an assistant
professor in peace and conflict resolution in the United States,
Sharoni claims in her introduction that this gives her an added
advantage, writing as an "insid¬er" and an "outsider." Sharoni
is, indeed, well-qualified to deal with her topic from this dual
perspective - but only on the Israeli side.
A simultaneous focus on both Israeli and Palestinian women can be
problematic, conceptually and structurally. Such an approach posits
the existence of commonalities and shared experiences between women
of both societies across the political divide. Yet certain
questions inevitably surface: Is shared womanhood enough
justification for such an approach? Where do Palestinian and
Israeli women converge and where do they diverge? Well aware of
this incongruity, Sharoni is careful to premise her book on the
recognition of the disparity in power and privilege between Israeli
and Palestinian women. In fact, throughout the book, she never
loses sight of this asymmetry, which to her is that between
occupier¬-occupied, oppressor-oppressed. From a Palestinian
perspective, this is imperative for the understanding of the
dynamics of any relationship, dia¬logue or joint activity
between Israeli and Palestinian women.
Not a Place for Textbook Feminism
Sharoni starts her discussion with a historical and conceptual
context for the issues of gender and politics involved in the
struggles of Israeli and Palestinian women. Throughout the ages
women all over the world have been involved in struggles against
various forms of oppression, and in that sense the experience of
both Israeli and Palestinian women is not unique. On the other
hand, the conflict is pivotal to these women's lives much more so
than in any ether instance and it defines the parameters of the
gender issues in the region. Thus, Sharoni contends, quite rightly,
that women's struggles for gender equality in the Occupied
Territories and Israel have to be contextualized and explored not
only in relation to feminist theorizing worldwide, but also "in
relation to the politics of the Middle East and to women's
political activism throughout the region" (p. 26).
The Palestinian conflict is not the place to apply ready-made
frameworks of "textbook feminism." In this context, "the role of
gender extends beyond what it means to be a man or a woman, it
plays an important role in shap¬ing the collective and
individual identities of the two societies"(p. 22).
In both these societies, men are socialized to be fighters and
protectors; women reproduce the nation and must therefore be
protected. In both con¬texts women were encouraged to
participate in nationalist projects as women i.e., women had to
accept primary responsibility for reproduction and cultural
transmission of their respective communities (p. 35).
In Israel, for example, Ben-Gurion went as far as to militarize
mother¬hood by drawing an analogy between a woman who brings
children into the world with a soldier fighting for his country. (A
woman who had 10 children was a "heroine mother.") Demographic
victory over the Palestinians was so vital for Israelis that the
importance of women's fertil¬ity became a national priority
(p. 34).
The same assumptions are evident in Palestinian society. Women are
the "mothers of the nations" and thus the "construction of
motherhood equals nationhood" (p. 35).
Such assumptions about masculinity and femininity emerge implicitly
or explicitly in the respective national discourses of the Israelis
and Palestinians. Sharoni illustrates her argument from the speech
Rabin gave upon signing of the agreement with the Palestinians in
September 1993. In that speech, the term "soldiers/fighters" comes
up 20 times; women are mothers who cry for their sons or husbands.
The Israeli-Jewish collectivity has obviously been described in
militaristic and masculine images. Unfortunately, Sharoni fails to
produce a parallel Palestinian discourse, which by no means negates
their existence.
In spite of these gendered assumptions on both the Israeli and
Palestinian side, women's "national consciousness" induced them to
get involved in political activities and to link their struggle for
gender equali¬ty with the struggle for national issues,
blurring the boundaries between the personal and the public, the
private and the political.
The next four chapters Sharoni devotes to a parallel historical
overview of Palestinian women's movements and activism (4 & 5)
and Israeli women's activism and movements (6 & 7) emphasizing
all along the different ways the conflict has impacted on the women
on each side. Although the book basically focuses on the Intifada
years, Sharoni traces these moments as far back as the turn of the
century. She, thus, pays trib¬ute to women's achievements and
contributions that have gone undocu¬mented for a long time,
and she also traces the development of women's movements which have
laid the ground for women's activities and activism during the
years of the Intifada.
It is an understatement to say that such historical overviews have
been done and overdone in other publications. But Sharoni is able
to transcend mere cataloguing of movements by bringing into her
account analytical insight and a cause-effect relationship between
the individual movement and events on the ground.
On the Palestinian side, Sharoni's account is based largely on
second¬hand information, from interviews and private
conversations with Palestinian women - mainly activists and
scholars. Hers is an enthusias¬tic appraisal of Palestinian
activist women's achievements. However, she fails to address the
question in writing about Palestinian women: Is femi¬nist
activism a precondition for the national struggle for liberation
emerges from the text, this is a forgone conclusion for Sharoni.
Unfortunately, it overlooks the massive, spontaneous involvement
and contribution of thousands of Palestinian women on the grass
roots level, women who are not necessarily engaged feminists, but
for whom, too, the political has become personal.
The equation gender struggle=political struggle is more readily
valid on the Israeli side, informed as it is by Western feminism
(the genesis of the movement is attributed to the activism of two
North American women in the 1970s). By fighting for the end to
political oppression - the Occupation - Israeli women found a
vehicle to fight against other forms of ethnic or socioeconomic
oppression.
These two chapters (6 & 7) are the most vivid, confident and
cogently¬argued chapters in the book, a proof that, here at
least, Sharoni is writing as an "insider." Among some of the
thought-provoking issues is her dis¬cussion of Israeli women's
attempt to "articulate a feminist politics of peace," which
establishes a connection between violence on the fronts and its
spillover into the family, with women as the main victims. A
definite link is also established between sexism and militarism
leading to the mili¬tarization of Israeli society. Sharoni
further argues that assumptions about masculinity and femininity
have also been used for political ends, as, for example, has the
myth of gender equality in Israeli society.
The first myth was fueled by the image of the "sexy," "exotic"
woman soldier. These in turn were contrasted with the images of
veiled women of Arab countries - the veil being an obsession of the
West - to emphasize how backward and undemocratic those countries
were and that Israel was fighting for its existence to the point of
conscripting women into the army.
The second image, of course, is the "tough," "powerful,"
exceedingly "unfeminine" Golda Meir, labeled as the "ablest man in
the Israeli cabi¬net." Ironically, Golda Meir did nothing to
further the cause of women. In fact, she hated feminists to whom
she referred as "those crazy women who bum their bras and go around
all dishevelled and hate men" (p. 99). Which again begs the
question about the connection between feminism and paci¬fism.
Golda Meir, a woman, was certainly not known for her pacifist
stances, so should women who want peace and the end to oppression
be feminists? Here again, Sharoni fails to address that
question.
Myth and Dialogue
In the final part of her book, Palestinian and Jewish-Israeli women
are again brought together for an overview of attempts, on both
sides, to "build bridges of trust, understanding and
collaboration." Such efforts, Sharoni notes, have a lot of
potential but are also fraught with pitfalls.
Dialogues between Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian women, for
example, are facing a crisis now because they have been based on
the wrong format. While Jewish-Israeli women were more interested
in social and political encounters based on recognizable
similarities between themselves and Palestinian women, the latter
had something different on their minds: to transform the political
views of Israeli-Jewish women and to "mobilize support against the
occupation in Israeli society." Shared commonalities such as
motherhood were not enough to transcend the structured
inequal¬ities in power and privilege. The Jewish-Israeli
women, Ashkenazi for the most part, and from cushy backgrounds,
tried to downplay or ignore the dis¬parities so as not to
impede dialogue, but this was resisted by their Palestinian
counterparts. Unfortunately, like her compatriots, Sharoni eschews
the thorny issues which risk "impeding" the dialogue, issues which
can be the acid test for a solid basis for dialogue or any other
form of cooperation.
As Sharoni's account ended in 1993, women's movements on both sides
had gone into a crisis, internally and between themselves. The
crisis goes back to the Gulf War when Israeli women, for fear of
being labeled traitors by contacting the "enemy," failed to come
through for their Palestinian counterparts, and to the Madrid peace
talks (1991). The struggle for peace had drawn the women of both
societies together; ironically, peace has sep¬arated
them.
But as Sharoni concludes, the potential is there for dialogue and a
joint contribution to the peaceful resolution of the conflict.
"They [women] could make a real difference in the implementation of
a just and lasting peace in the Middle East."
Gender and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the place to
look for startling revelations about gender or political issues in
the region. It is, however, an informative, (almost too)
well-documented, objective book. From a Palestinian vantage point,
however, this objectivity strikes a jarring note. Paradoxically,
inherent in objectivity is the comfortable, patronizing attitude of
one strong enough to simultaneously excuse the "other" and
celebrate his/her achievements, and at the same time indulge in
self-criti¬cism. By writing her book from this simultaneous
viewpoint, Sharoni leaves herself open to such criticism.