Zionist lesbianism and transsexual transgression: Two representations of queer Israel

Middle East Report

Volumn 28, Issue 206, 1998, Pages

  Ben zvi, Yael ^a  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 27844588677     PISSN: 08992851     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3012477     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Despite its geographic location, Israel regularly participates in the Eurovision competition and has won it twice and hosted it once.
2. Klaf is the only lesbian-feminist and the only official lesbian organization in Israel. Klaf's quarterly, Klaf Hazak, is the only Israeli lesbian magazine.
3. Mizrahim are Jews of non-European, mostly Middle Eastern and North African descent. See Ella Shohat's "Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims," in Social Text 19/20 (Fall 1988), pp. 1-35, for a history and analysis of Ashkenazi Zionist oppression of Mizrahim. Ashkenazim are Jews of European descent who control, as a group, much of Israel's cultural and political resources.
4. Since 1992, discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation is illegal. Similarly, around the same time the IDF changed its official attitude toward gay and lesbian soldiers. Appeals to the Supreme Court by gays and lesbians on issues related to rights in employment, in the army, in state sperm banks, and to censorship-free public media (in relation to gay issues) were all successful and created precedents that changed gays' and lesbians' legal status in practical ways.
5. Michal Eden, "Lehitga'ot Be'Israel, Tartey Mashma," ("To Be Proud In and Of Israel"), HaZman Havarod 11 (August 1997), p. 2.
6. Mizrahim, and even more so Ethiopian Jews, are systematically discriminated against in various sectors, especially in education. HILA (The Public Committee for Equal Education in Poor Neighborhoods, Development Towns and Arab Villages) has made numerous appeals to the Supreme Court regarding the massive and illegal transfer of Mizrahi and Ethiopian elementary school students from regular to special education. The Supreme Court has dealt with specific cases but has not provided a sufficient legal solution or precedent to the problem. My knowledge of the subject is derived mostly from personal communications with Mira Eliezer from HILA. See also HILA News 2 (Summer 1996),
7. and Dafha Baram, "Lo LeAshirim Bilvad" ("Not Only for the Rich"), Mitsad Sheni 10 (September 1997), pp. 8-10.
8. Benedict Anderson discusses nationalism in terms of imaginary constructs in his Imagined Communities (London and New York: Verso, 1991).
9. When asked about his attitude toward homosexuals, Weizman said, "I am against ... everybody's coming out of the closets. ... I like a man who wants to be a man rather than a man who wants to be a woman, or a woman who wants to be a man. This is a complicated issue ... I personally see it as negative. The treatment of homosexuals should be determined by law" (Yediot Aharonot, December 22, 1996, translations are mine).
10. Gal Ohovsky, "Kvod HaNasi" ("Your Honor the President"), HaZman HaVarod 4 (January 1997), p. 7.
11. HaZman HaVarod 4 (January 1997), p. 1.
12. Ruth Frankenberg defines "color-blindness" as an attitude "assert[ing] that we are all the same under the skin; that ... we have the same chances ... and that any failure to achieve is ... the fault of people of color themselves" in White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993), pp. 14-15. The color awareness to which I refer constitutes another form of racist "blindness," where racial differences and oppression are explicitly acknowledged by Ashkenazim, yet no responsible action is taken.
13. See interview with Haya Shalom in Tracy Moore, ed., Lesbiot: Israeli Lesbians Talk about Sexuality, Feminism, Judaism and their Lives (New York and London: Cassell, 1995), pp. 313-14.
14. Smadar Lavie discusses Israeli feminism and its relation to Ashkenazi hegemony in "Silenced from All Directions:Third World Israeli Women Writing in the Race/Gender Border Zones of Zionism," talk given at the Center for Asian Studies, Amsterdam School for Social Research, conference on "Colonial Ethnographies," June 14-16, 1993.
15. Orna Osheri, "Nim'as Lanu Leha'amid Panim" ("We've had Enough of Pretending"), Ma'ariw, December 18, 1995.
16. Eden's column, "HaMo'omedet" ("The Candidate"), HaZman HaVarod 16 (January 1998), p. 3.
17. "Ha'Isha Shelanu Lamo'atsa" ("Our Woman to the City Board"), Klaf Hazak 20 (Fall-Winter 1997), pp. 23-27.
18. I equate "de-racialized" with Ashkenazi identity and, with Frankenberg's (op. cit.) definition of whiteness in mind, as a "cultural void" (122), but a "void" charged with power.
19. Eden's column, "HaMo'omedet" ("The Candidate"), HaZaman HaVarod 15 (December 1997) p. 13.
20. I conducted the interview, which was published in full as "Arviya, Amerika'it, Feministit, Streitit" ("Arab, American, Feminist, Straight"), Klaf Hazak 17 (Fall 1996), pp. 10-12.
21. Under her maiden name, Michal Levi Nahum, with her partner, Ira Rader (now Ira Eden), "Inyanim Mediniyim - Lo BeKlaf Hazak Bevakasha"("No Political Matters in Klaf Hazak, Please"), Klaf Hazak 17 (Fall 1996), p. 12.
22. It is only recently, nine years after Klaf Hazak was founded, that a token Palestinian lesbian was finally published in its pages. See Mansiya (pseudonym), "Sipur Nishkah"("A Forgotten Story"), Klaf Hazak 18-19 (Spring-Summer 1997), p. 14.
23. See Klaf Hazak 18-19 (Spring-Summer 1997), pp. 19-22.
24. Words by Yoav Ginai, music by Zvika Pik.
25. On Umpatampa (IMP Dance, 1994). Words by Dudu Barak, music by Dana International.
26. Michal Eden, "Lehitga'ot BeIsrael, Tartey Mashma," op. cit., p. 2.
27. "Ha'Isha Shelanu LaMo'atsa," HaZman HaVarod 16 (January 1998), p. 26.
28. Yair Kedar; "Thank You for the Music," HaZman HaVarod 12 (September 1997), pp. 5-7.
29. Words by Dana International and Ofer Nissim, music by Ofer Nissim. On Ofer Nissim Featuring Dana International (IMP Dance, 1993).
30. "Miz miz" is probably derived from the Hebrew slang "mizmooz," meaning physical flirting. In Egyptian slang, it means snacking.
31. Words by Yoav Ginai, music by Ofer Nissim. On Umpatampa (IMP Dance, 1994).
32. The song was banned for a time by Israeli radio lest it encourage young men to cross the border and die outside the conventional framework of heroic death - military service.
33. Words by Yoav Ginai, music by Zvika Pik. On Umpatampa (IMP Dance, 1994).
34. Words by Dana International, music by Ofer Nissim. On Maganona (Helicon 1996).