Citizenship, Faith, and Feminism: Jewish and Muslim Women Reclaim Their Rights

4 Israel

n 4 Isræl divided jurisdiction Israeli women enjoy the same rights of citizenship as men. Gender equality, a norm of Israeli civil society, is imbedded in popular culture and history and accepted by the majority of the population. So why would Israeli women still claim to experience disabilities based on sex, when their position seems enviable? This chapter explores the relationship between civil law and family law in Israel and reflects on the implications of this bifurcated legal system for women’s equal citizenship and for democracy and the unitary state. Having discussed the structural legal context of women’s lives in Israel and the history of Israeli feminism, we will turn to the e√orts of Orthodox women who seek reforms within the parameters of halakha. Their two most significant initiatives rely on raising the halakhic literacy of women and pushing for solutions to the problem of the agunah (woman chained to a dead marriage). The agunah dramatizes the legal disabilities faced by Jewish women, Orthodox or not, under Jewish law. It also illustrates the dilemma faced by the state when there is a stark contrast between religious law and a woman’s rights as an Israeli citizen. When we apply the age-old rabbinical injunction about obedience to the law of the land, to which set of laws are we referring? Even in ancient Israel, the question of political authority, namely the role of kings, priests, scholars, and prophets was never resolved. Currently the law of the land is fractured into two spheres, civil and religious. According to Israeli law the civil government has ultimate authority when the two spheres conflict, but the state has shown reluctance to impose its will on, and thereby alienate, the religious authority. Israel, for practical purposes, represents a nonunitary state that tolerates overlapping jurisdiction and sub-national sovereigns acting in a quasi-governmental capacity. With respect to gender equality, the irony of the Israeli legal system is palpable and dramatic: it is among the most advanced with respect to secular laws and women-friendly public policies and programs. Israeli 110 n Citizenship, Faith, & Feminism women are visible in all areas of public life. But their equality in the public realm contrasts with their inequality under religious law, and in Israel, religious law is not restricted to the private sphere. Religious law is the basis of family law. The separation of religion and state is not a feature of Israeli political culture. ‘‘The Israeli legal system is marked by a deep dichotomy between traditionalist preservation of patriarchy in matters related to religion, on the one hand, and progressive and even radical legislative and judicial policy on matters of gender equality not related to religious norms, on the other.’’∞ This reflects an ambiguity at the very core of Israel’s identity. Its Declaration of Establishment defines Israel as a ‘‘Jewish’’ and ‘‘democratic’’ state. As a part of the Ottoman Empire and then as British Mandatory State from 1918–1948, Israel inherited the Ottoman legacy of a divided legal or millet system, which continues to complicate the status of its citizens. Israel is a democracy even though the odds may have been stacked against it. While Jewish voters in the United States outrank almost all other groups on scales of democratic values, immigrants to Israel overwhelmingly hearken from countries that lack democratic regimes or liberal values. Despite this, a vibrant democracy thrives. Israel is an anomaly among nations that Jews inhabit. Jews are not outsiders, the other, or even a minority. Yet being a Jew in a Jewish country raises its own complications. Is Israel a Jewish state or a state of Jews? Will Israel be a democracy? Can it be a democracy without sacrificing its Jewish nature? Can it be a Jewish state without sacrificing women’s equality? Will these issues be resolved in a formal and principled way or in the current ad hoc, ongoing, political bargaining among multiple political parties, many of which regard women ’s equality as peripheral to their immediate and more urgent interests (as has also been the case in twentieth-century Kuwait and in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America). If Israel is a Jewish state, what is the relationship between civil law and halakha? And if halakha provides guidance for civil law, which interpretation of halakha is o≈cial? Will Orthodoxy maintain its monopoly or will Israel recognize pluralistic forms of Judaism? Should traditions (minhagim) and cultural practices associated...