Recently great strides have been made in scholarship that elaborates upon the ways in which Palestinian citizens of Israel were subjects of a "liberal settler" state, as well as in scholarship that recognizes the ways in which, globally, both colonial and anticolonial discourses have elided women’s voices. However, studies that bring these two lines of inquiry together are still in their early stages. This is especially true for the period between 1948 and 1966, when Palestinian women in Israel were largely absent from the public sphere due to Israeli military rule, sparse educational and employment opportunities, and rural cultural norms. In this paper, I trace the debates regarding Palestinian women in Israel during the period of military rule in order to interrogate this aspect of colonial and anticolonial discourses in Israel. I do so through a close reading and analysis of this topic in six major Arabic publications in Israel: three pro-government (al-Yawm, al-Mujtama‘ and Kalimat al-Mar’a) and three critical of the government (al-Ittihad, al-Jadid and al-Fajr). I argue that Israeli establishment figures, and their loyal Palestinian supporters, followed the classic colonial formula that portrayed an essentialized “Arab woman” as shackled by the conventions of Arab tradition and in need of the state’s modernizing projects in order to be liberated. In contrast, Palestinian nationalist and communist activists in Israel actively subverted such claims, not only by pointing out the ways in which Israeli policies disadvantaged Palestinian women, but also by printing news and views of women from around the region and around the world. They sought to have Palestinians in Israel look beyond the borders of the state for inspiration and for solidarity-building opportunities with Arab and third world women. While less patronizing than the pro-government writers, the nationalist and communist writers nonetheless paid little heed to the voices and perspectives of the very Palestinian women that they, too, sought to uplift. By shedding light on colonial and anticolonial discourses as they pertain to Palestinian women in Israel, this paper elucidates the strategies employed by Palestinian activists in Israel to undermine Israeli colonial narratives, while also shedding light on the shortcomings of these strategies. Tracing these debates also draws attention to the parallels between the political formations of Palestinians in Israel and of Arabs more broadly at a time when the Palestinian minority was still politically and geographically isolated from the region.