MESA Banner
War of the Wombs: The History and Politics of Reproduction in Israel, 1948-2008
Abstract
This paper will draw on the findings of my larger doctoral research project, which examines the motivations behind Israel's various fertility policies from the state's establishment in 1948 up until 2008. The paper will pay particularly close attention to the extent to which the archival (and various other primary) sources substantiate the claim that Israel has constructed and maintained an ethnically selective pro-natalist policy that seeks to simultaneously encourage a higher Jewish birthrate and a lower non-Jewish, specifically Palestinian-Arab, one. In other words, this paper will seek to answer the question of whether Israel's demographic need, or desire, to maintain a Jewish majority has extended into the formulation of its reproductive policies - as well as its immigration and land policies. Moreover, in parallel, the paper will look into the various other key factors that may have influenced the construction of the state's policies vis contraception, abortion, advanced reproductive technologies, and so on. As such, this paper will contribute further to our understanding of the specific ways in which bodies, and the most seemingly intimate decisions connected to them, have become the sites of larger state projects, including national and colonial.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Israel
Sub Area
Gender/Women's Studies