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Articles
Zvi Triger and Yael Hashiloni-Dolev
Abstract. This article asks what enabled the sociolegal consensus around posthumous reproduction (PR) in Israel and the establishment of a new family model in Israel, which we called “The Extended Family of Choice.” This model was created either when a young man died without a surviving partner, or when the surviving parted did not want to become pregnant using his sperm. In the second scenario, the parents seek to have a grandchild with a woman who did not know their deceased son. Our argument is based on analysis of the official discourse around PR, including caselaw published between 1997-2022, the Attorney General’s directive, recommendations of a public committee, 5 bills, and parliamentary protocols. Our exploration of the legal rules’ evolution shows that while the early bills focused on soldiers’ sperm, the latest bill (from September 2022) applies to all Israeli citizens, with a unique framework for soldiers embedded within the inclusive language of the bill. The article argues that the Israeli covenant between familism, pronatalism, bereavement, militarism and patriarchy opened a wide gate to the revolutionary family model, and to a certain extent has also made this model mandatory in the context of soldier’s deaths.
Keywords: posthumous reproduction, family, patriarchy, bereavement, militarism
Indecisiveness about Motherhood: A Sociology of Deliberation
Orna Donath, Nitza Berkowitz and Dorit Segal-Engelchin
Abstract. This article explores women in a state of indecision about motherhood, based on a study focusing on a group specifically designated for women who are deliberating about motherhood. It illustrates how they navigate between conflicting cultural principles advocating for decision-making: linear time and individualism, versus pro-natalism and familial values. Data was collected through pre-meeting questionnaires, transcripts of the ten group meetings, and reports on participants’ deliberative state four years later. The findings reveal diverse selfdefinitions regarding women’s decisions on motherhood, surpassing those found in literature. Additionally, they indicate that while deliberation on motherhood draws on neo-liberal rhetoric, it simultaneously rejects it. It opposes the pronatalist rhetoric of the “natural transition” to motherhood, the temporal linear discourse on the biological clock; and the post-feminist ideal of the “woman who chooses”. While some women sought liberation from indecision, others perceived it as an expansion of autonomy within a constraining society.
Keywords: neoliberalism, pronatalism, indecisiveness in the realm of reproduction, motherhood
Abstract. The adoption of children in Israel has been drawing a lot of public, political and academic attention. This research is innovative in its analysis of the organizational normative world-view in the Israeli Child Welfare Services (ICWS), as it offers a comprehensive interpretation of the various biases in the ICWS. This essay addresses the question of how the processes of matching in Israeli adoption are designed while using in the conventional approach to content analysis and focusing on three classification tools in relation to the processes of matching in adoption: the willingness form, the special needs category, and priority queues. Among the research findings an interpretation that presupposes a demand for the adoption of certain children and prioritizes the normative family structure. This research points to the deep connections between regulation and commodification in the field of child adoption in Israel.
Keywords: child adoption, normativity, commodification, child’s best interests
Yael Shmaryahu-Yeshurun and Daniel Monterescu
Abstract. In 2007, the Urban Religious Settlements project in Jaffa was established. Against the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, which was experienced as a deep crisis in the national-religious settlement movement, we point to new sites of political, social and spatial action. The paradigm change from settling in the Occupied Territories to “Settling in the Hearts” seeks to expand the Judaization project to mixed cities in the heart of the country. This article is based on a series of interviews and observations conducted in the winter of 2020, about five months before the outbreak of the violence events of May 2021. The analysis details the sociological and geographical context in which the Garin Torani operates in Jaffa and shows that these active actors represent a new social type, distinguished from both the liberal gentrifiers and the settler movement beyond the Green Line. The Garin Torani members adopt from the repertoire of urban renewal the neoliberal vision that sees the marginalized city as a space of opportunity for social engagement and self-fulfillment but fill it with the illiberal content of exclusionary Jewish sovereignty. This sociological hybrid configuration reflects both processes of privatization and commodification of space as well as trends of nationalist radicalization prevalent in the Jewish society in Israel.
Keywords: Jewish settlements, mixed cities, ethno-gentrification, nationalism
Between a Woman’s Choice to Augment her Breasts and her Choice to Surgically Remove the Implants
Tammar Friedman, Smadar Noy and Orly Benjamin
Abstract. Our paper follows a timeline that begins with women’s choice to undergo breast augmentation surgery with silicone implants until they decide to remove the implants surgically. The latter is taken alongside joining a Facebook group dedicated to sharing, supporting, and transferring information between women undergoing similar processes. Our findings, based on digital ethnography of the group discourse and interviews with group members, show that the group discourse encourages women to become knowledge agents for themselves and others. It also helped them to understand the risks entailed in augmentation surgery. As the research participants went ahead to remove the implants from their bodies, they expanded their set of considerations in choosing the surgeon, adopting a stance that prioritized their well-being. Further findings pertain to developing a sense of empowerment alongside emotional ambivalence anchored in their separation from a culturally appreciated appearance.
Keywords: breast augmentation surgery, explant surgery, emotional ambivalence, appearance, empowerment