New Article: Wolfson, Animal Protection under Israeli Law

Wolfson, Yossi. “Animal Protection Under Israeli Law.” In Animal Law and Welfare. International Perspectives (ed. Deborah Cao and Steven White; Cham: Springer, 2016): 157-79.

 

 

URL: dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26818-7_8

 

Abstract

Israeli law, in some aspects, is rather progressive as to the protection of non-human animals. While “animal abuse” is interpreted as causing animals “unnecessary suffering”, the content given to this phrase defeats some characteristics attributed by Gary Francione to “legal welfarism”. In some instances the interests of nonhuman animals override substantive human interests, anchored in institutionalized forms of exploitation. An example is the ban on force-feeding of geese and ducks. Animal protection organizations were granted a broad mandate by the Israeli legislature and courts to represent the interests of animals in civil, administrative and criminal procedures. This solves the problem of standing which undermines animal protection in other jurisdictions. While Israeli law protects the interests of animals for the sake of the animals and gives them some weight, social power relations are still based on the cruel exploitation of nonhumans by humans. This chapter describes the principles of animal protection in Israeli law, discusses aspects that may inspire animal protection in other countries, and goes into some detail regarding the specific provisions of Israeli laws that are difficult to access without the knowledge of Hebrew.

 

 

New Article: Haber, Social Regulation in Utilities in Israel

Haber, Hanan. “Rise of the Regulatory Welfare State? Social Regulation in Utilities in Israel.” Social Policy & Administration (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/spol.12194

 

Abstract

This article explores the relation between economic liberalization, regulation and welfare. It asks how the state regulates, delays or prevents service disconnection due to debt and arrears, and what this kind of policy implies regarding the use of regulation as a form of social policy. This is done through a comparative study of the electricity and water sectors in Israel after liberalization. It finds that after initial economic reform, both sectors saw a growth in regulation intended to compensate for the social effects of reform, in what may be termed the ‘regulatory welfare state’. However, this form of social protection has been residual and incoherent. The article argues that trying to separate economic reform from its social consequences is unrealistic and may lead to adverse social and economic results. Second, findings raise concerns regarding the potential of the regulatory welfare state to deliver effective and fair social policy.

 

 

 

New Article: Strier & Werner, Stigma in Long Term Care Insurance in Israel

Strier, Roni, and Perla Werner. “Tracing Stigma in Long Term Care Insurance in Israel: Stakeholders’ Views of Policy Implementation.” Journal of Aging & Social Policy (early view; online first).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2016.1111726
 
Abstract

Almost all developed countries provide some answers for long term care, but only a few countries in the world such as Japan, Austria, Netherlands, Germany, and Israel have implemented Long Term Care Insurance (LTCI) based on legislation and entitlement principles. In Israel, community-based LTCI social program has achieved multiple goals and considerably improved the life of frail older people. However, some studies show that despite the rising costs of home care and the mandatory and almost universal nature of LTCI there are still cases where people with AD and other types of dementia or their relatives vacillate or even decline to make use of their rights. We examined the question of whether these patterns may reflect the presence of welfare stigma, i.e., stigmatized views of LTCI, either related to identity stigma of persons with AD or to treatment stigma, usually associated to welfare bureaucracy. Based on a qualitative design, this article uses a methodology of personal in depth and focus group triangulation, by which the views of three groups of stakeholders are explored and compared: persons with AD, relatives and professionals. Findings showed the presence of stigmatic self images among persons with AD or other types of dementia, the absence of such images in relatives’ and professionals’ views of them, and of LTCI. However treatment stigma was found to be primarily associated with eligibility determination procedures. The study concludes that LTCI, even when mandated and almost universal may also generate welfare stigma due to the ways in which it is implemented.

 

 

 

New Article: Isralowitz et al, Quality of Life among Former Soviet Union and Israeli Origin Methadone Users

Isralowitz, Richard, Alexander Reznik, and Itay Pruginin. “Quality of Life among Former Soviet Union and Israeli Origin Methadone Users.” Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse (early view; online first)
 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15332640.2015.1046009
 
Abstract

A common treatment intervention for heroin addiction is methadone maintenance. In recent years a wider perspective has been adapted to understand and evaluate addiction through quality of life. This article examines quality of life conditions of 170 male former Soviet Union and Israeli origin drug users in methadone maintenance and provides an understanding of conditions linked to the World Health Organization Quality of Life project’s best available techniques reference document. Having a partner or spouse and less chronic illness are positive factors affecting quality of life regardless of country of origin. Israeli born drug users reported better quality of life based on their psychological health and environment domain responses; no difference was found for the physical health and social relationship domains of the Israeli and former Soviet Union origin males. Because heroin addiction is a chronic and relapsing illness, one of the goals of methadone maintenance is to address patients’ health status from a broad perspective. Based on clinical observations, the treatment of special populations may be enhanced if their particular needs are considered and met. Quality of life factors are relevant for assessing high risk groups, including those from different ethnic origins, in poor physical and psychological health, their treatment and personal adjustment, and their service personnel training needs.

 

 

ToC: Israel Affairs 22.1 (2016)

Israel Affairs, Volume 22, Issue 1, January 2016 is now available online on Taylor & Francis Online. This new issue contains the following articles: Articles Sixty-two years of national insurance in Israel Abraham Doron Pages: 1-19 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111632 Rethinking reverence for Stalinism in the kibbutz movement Reuven Shapira Pages: 20-44 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111640 Making war, thinking history: David Ben-Gurion, analogical reasoning and the Suez Crisis Ilai Z. Saltzman Pages: 45-68 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111638   Military power and foreign policy inaction: Israel, 1967‒1973 Moshe Gat Pages: 69-95 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111636 Arab army vs. a Jewish kibbutz: the battle for Mishmar Ha’emek, April 1948 Amiram Ezov Pages: 96-125 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111633 Lip-service to service: the Knesset debates over civic national service in Israel, 1977–2007 Etta Bick Pages: 126-149 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111630 State‒diaspora relations and bureaucratic politics: the Lavon and Pollard affairs Yitzhak Mualem Pages: 150-171 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111637 Developing Jaffa’s port, 1920‒1936 Tamir Goren Pages: 172-188 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111634 University, community, identity: Ben-Gurion University and the city of Beersheba – a political cultural analysis Yitzhak Dahan Pages: 189-210 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111631 The Palestinian/Arab Strategy to Take Over Campuses in the West – Preliminary Findings Ron Schleifer Pages: 211-235 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111639 Identity of immigrants – between majority perceptions and self-definition Sibylle Heilbrunn, Anastasia Gorodzeisky & Anya Glikman Pages: 236-247 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2015.1111635 Book Reviews Jabotinsky: a life David Rodman Pages: 248-249 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.112095 Ethos clash in Israeli society David Rodman Pages: 250-251 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120967 Nazis, Islamists and the making of the modern Middle East David Rodman Pages: 252-254 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120968 The new American Zionism David Rodman Pages: 255-257 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120969 Rise and decline of civilizations: lessons for the Jewish people David Rodman Pages: 258-259 | DOI: 10.1080/13537121.2016.1120970

Research Paper: Sayag and Zussman, Distribution of Rental Assistance Between Tenants and Landlords: The Case of Students in Central Jerusalem

Sayag, Doron, and Noam Zussman. “The Distribution of Rental Assistance Between Tenants and Landlords: The Case of Students in Central Jerusalem.” Discussion Paper No. 2015.1 (February 2015), Bank of Israel Research Department(41 pp).

 

URL: http://www.boi.org.il/he/Research/DocLib/dp201501e.pdf (PDF)

Abstract

Students living in rental apartments in central Jerusalem were provided grants in 2006–11, in order to encourage urban renewal. This led to a marked increase in the number of students in the area. This study examined the distribution of the benefit between the tenants and the landlords. It relied predominantly on rental advertisements as well as actual rents from 2000–2012, and on administrative data of the rent paid by grant recipients. The research method was based on hedonic estimations of the rent using a difference-in-differences method—the rent in the center of the city during the grants period compared with the periods before and after, vis-à-vis that difference in similar neighborhoods (including adjacent to the city center) during those periods. The research indicates—subject to the assumption that actual rents and prices quoted in rental notices moved together—that in the periods around the start of the grant program and around its cancellation, the share of the grants reaching the recipients’ landlords ranged from one-fifth to two-fifths. The grants led to an increase in rents in the center of the city for nonrecipients as well, so that the overall additional rent is equivalent to four-fifths of the grant amounts. These rates are within the broad range of findings worldwide.

 

 

ToC: Israel Economic Review 12.2 (2015)

Israel Economic Review 12.2 (2015):

Table of Contents

• Government Support for Young Families in Israel

Adi Brender and Michel Strawczynski

• The Origins of Income Inequality in Israel – Trends and Policy

Ofer Cornfeld and Oren Danieli

• Tax Cuts and Economic Activity: Israel in the 2000s

Zvi Hercowitz and Avihai Lifschitz

• The Response of the Weighted Average Time to Maturity of Government Bond Issues to Changes in the Financial/Economic Environment

Yehuda Porath

***

• Review of “Understanding Global Crises” by Assaf Razin

Francesco Bianchi

New Article: Lim, Transnational Migration of Filipino Caregivers to Israel

Lim, Anna. “Networked Mobility in the ‘Migration Industry’: Transnational Migration of Filipino Caregivers to Israel.” Asian Women 31.2 (2015): 85-118.

 

URL: http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Journal/ArticleDetail/NODE06362705

 

Abstract

This article examines how labor migration is facilitated and shaped within the neoliberal economy system, focusing on the case of Filipino migration to Israel. For Filipino women who seek to find economic opportunities abroad but lack skills, Israel has emerged as one of the most popular destinations since the mid-1990s, since it is a destination in which they are allowed to work as paid caregivers. In Israel, the caregiver sector occupies the greatest part of the overseas labor market, while providing local senior citizens with live-in caregivers at a cheap cost. In investigating the migration flow of Filipino caregivers to Israel, I draw a special attention to the informal operations of intermediary networks and their roles in initiating and sustaining Filipino migrant flow to Israel. In this article, the intermediary networks involve all those who engage in the migration process such as agents/sub-agents, family, friends, and the friends of their friends. In the context of Israel, where a relatively higher wage is assured for foreign caregivers yet where entry conditions require an exorbitant placement fee, the migration is operated through the complementary roles of a wide range of formal and informal intermediaries. Significantly, such privatization of overseas labor recruitment, characterized by a binding system and an overseas recruitment scheme, contributes to producing power to private agencies, enabling them to impose excessive placement fees on the migrants and control the employment. It is within this context that Filipino women are channeled into the Israel labor market, shaping the current migration flow.

New Article: Gross-Manos, Material Deprivation and Social Exclusion of Children

Gross-Manos, Daphna. “Material Deprivation and Social Exclusion of Children: Lessons from Measurement Attempts among Children in Israel.” Journal of Social Policy 44.1 (2015): 105-25.

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0047279414000646

 

Abstract
Measuring child poverty using a ‘poverty threshold’ has many drawbacks. Thus, this study sought to develop two alternative measures, a material deprivation index and a social exclusion measure. These new measures were developed and tested using data from the first wave of the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being in Israel among twelve-year-olds. The results show it is possible to develop child-centered material deprivation and social exclusion measures that are valid and reliable. The measures can help policy makers decide on priorities and create policies that better meet the needs of children.

 
 

 

 

New Article: Moran et al, Why Do Mental Health Consumers Who Receive Rehabilitation Services, Are Not Using Them?

Moran, Galia S., Yael Baruch, Faissal Azaiza, and Max Lachman. “Why Do Mental Health Consumers Who Receive Rehabilitation Services, Are Not Using Them? A Qualitative Investigation of Users’ Perspectives in Israel.” Community Mental Health Journal (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10597-015-9905-1

 

Abstract

A recovery-oriented approach to mental health involves creating person centered services and enhancing engagement in psychiatric rehabilitation. Israel’s Rehabilitation in the Community of Persons with Mental Disabilities Law is a progressive initiative that shifted the locus of psychiatric care to community care supporting individualized rehabilitation and recovery-oriented processes. Yet over a quarter of applicants do not implement their assigned rehabilitation plans and services. This qualitative study investigated reasons and experiences related to lack of utilization from applicants’ perspectives. Fifteen service users were interviewed face to face in semi-structured interviews analyzed using Grounded theory approach. Seven categories emerged: (1) Lack of knowledge and orientation; (2) Negative perceptions about rehabilitation services (3) Lack of active participation/shared decision-making; (4) Not feeling heard by the committee; (5) Lack of congruence between participants’ goals and committee’s final decisions; (6) Lack of escorting professionals’ competencies; and (7) Family members’ influence. The results are interpreted at the structural and human process levels. Suggestions are provided for augmenting systemic procedures and human interactions processes.

New Article: Barak et al, Where to Die? A Study of Cancer Patients in Israel

Barak, Frida, Sofia Livshits, Haana Kaufer, Ruth Netanel, Nava Siegelmann-Danieli, Yasmin Alkalay, and Shulamith Kreitler. “Where to Die? That Is the Question: A Study of Cancer Patients in Israel.” Palliative and Supportive Care 13.2 (2015): 165-70.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1478951513000904

 

Abstract

Objective: Most patients prefer to die at home, but barely 30% do so. This study examines the variables contributing to dying at home.

Methods: The participants were 326 cancer patients, of both genders, with a mean age of 63.25 years, who died from 2000 to 2008 and were treated by the palliative care unit of the Barzilai Hospital. Some 65.7% died at home and 33.4% in a hospital. The data were extracted from patient files. The examined variables were demographic (e.g., age, gender, marital status, ethnic background, number of years in Israel until death), medical (e.g., age at diagnosis, diagnosis, nature of last treatment, patient received nursing care, patient given the care of a social worker, patient had care of a psychologist, family received care of a social worker, patient had a special caregiver), and sociological (e.g., having insurance, having worked in Israel, living alone or with family, living with one’s children, living in self-owned or rented house, family members working).

Results: The findings indicate that the chances of dying at home are higher if the patient is non-Ashkenazi, the family got social worker care, the patient lived in a self-owned house, the patient lived with his family, the family members worked, and the patient’s stay in Israel since immigration was longer. Logistic regression showed that all the predictors together yielded a significant model accounting for 10.9–12.3% of the variance.

Significance of results: The findings suggest that dying at home requires maintaining continued care for the patient and family in a community context.

New Article: Zisberg et al, Adaptation to Life in Continuing Care Communities among Older Adults

Zisberg, Anna, Waheed Kaabiya, and Elena O. Siegel. “Trait of Routinization and Adaptation to Life in Continuing Care Communities among Older Adults in Israel.” Geriatrics & Gerontology International 15.4 (2015): 501-507.

 

URL: http://dx.do.org/10.1111/ggi.12289

 

Abstract

Aim

To examine the relationship between levels of adaptation to independent living in continuing care communities and the personality trait, routinization.

Methods

Using a correlative design, structured face-to-face interviews were carried out with 120 older adults residing in independent housing units across six continuing care facilities in Israel, using the Index of Relocation Adjustment and the Variety Assessment Scale questionnaires.

Results

In a mixed model, one of the two routinization subscales (disliking disruption) was moderately associated with adaptation, controlling for decision to enter the facility, satisfaction with the facility, family relationship, functional status, education, family status and type of setting. Residents who expressed high levels of disliking disruption, higher functional status and less involvement in the decision to enter the facility reported poorer adaptation to their living conditions.

Conclusion

Our findings point out the complexity and intricacy of personal attributes as factors associated with adaptation to transitions in older age, and highlight the potential contribution of the trait of routinization to adaptation. Further research is required to identify ways to best support older adult transitions to institutional environments, considering different personality traits and environments.

New Article: Doron, The Israeli Experience of Regulating Residential Care for Older Persons

Doron, Israel. “The Israeli Experience of Regulating Residential Care for Older Persons.” In Towards Human Rights in Residential Care for Older Persons. International Perspectives (ed. Helen Meenan, Nicola Rees, Israel Doron; New York: Routledge, 2016), 126ff.

New Article: Shmueli, Calculation of the Israeli Risk Adjustment Rates

Shmueli, Amir. “On the Calculation of the Israeli Risk Adjustment Rates.” European Journal of Health Economics 16.3 (2015): 271-277.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10198-014-0572-x

 

Abstract

Objective

The Israeli risk adjustment formula, introduced in 1995 and which serves for the allocation of the health budget to the sickness funds, is unique compared to countries with a similar national health insurance system in that it is not calculated on the basis of actual cost data of the sickness funds but on the basis of quantities retrieved from surveys. The current article aims to analyze the implications of the Israeli methodology.

Methods

The article examines the validity of the Israeli methodology used to set the 2004 risk adjustment rates and compare these rates with the “correct” ones, which are derived from the 2004 internal relative cost scales of the sickness funds.

Results

The Israeli methodology ignores services provided by the sickness funds and assumes constant unit cost across the sickness funds, an assumption which is implausible. Comparing the actual and the “correct” rates, it turns out that the actual rates over-compensate all the sickness funds for members in age 0–14, and under-compensate them for insurees aged 55+. In age 0–4, the over-compensation per capita is about NIS 1,500 while the under-compensation in age group 75+ reaches NIS 1,600.

Conclusions

The current risk adjustment formula distorts the intended competition on good quality care among the sickness funds, and turns it into a competition on profitable members. After 18 years of using incorrect rates, the Israeli risk adjustment rates should be calculated, as is common in other systems, based on individual cost data from the sickness funds.

 

Dissertation: Doron, The Impact of Social Housing on the Empowerment of the Poor in Israel

Doron, Guy. Is Empowerment of Disadvantaged Populations Achievable through Housing Policies? A Study of the Impact of Social Housing on the Empowerment of the Poor in Israel, PhD Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2015.

 
URL: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.647167

 

Abstract
This research project investigates whether the empowerment of Israel’s population — and in particular those who suffer multiple disadvantages — is achievable through housing policies and whether successive Israeli administrations have helped or hindered this process. The research focuses on communities in publicly-subsidised areas during social housing programmes. The housing programmes analysed in this research were: The Demolish and Rebuild Programme, which represents a top-down process, implemented with little residents’ involvement. Neighbourhood Renewal, which was a programme that formally offered partnership, giving residents partial share in decision-making. Finally, Right to Buy represented a resident-led partnership, in which residents felt empowered to overcome their own disadvantaged conditions by taking a leading role in transforming housing policy. The database complementing this research was compiled, in part, from 91 in-depth interviews with residents, policy makers and officials representing these three programmes. It is a unique aspect of this research, as it draws on perspectives about participation from those who have not necessarily had an opportunity to express an opinion before, and communicates a variety of views regarding the projects and residents’ participation in them. This study focuses on how it actually affects people and can even create behavioural change among those who are normally considered dependent. Another exceptional and distinctive factor provided by this research is its analysis of empowerment in the social and political context of Israel. By analysing the Israeli case, this research will contribute both to international knowledge and academic scholarship, highlight the conditions of an individual state and generate an original and provocative narrative. The issue of participation and empowerment in a society so riven with political, social, religious and ethnic tensions is particularly important. Learning from the Israeli experience has the potential to promote understanding of empowerment under pressure. Empowerment related to social housing policy is distinctive in Israel because housing is synonymous with security. Housing is more than a cultural issue, since in Israel owning a property is a matter of security. Another key feature is the focal role of central government which determines almost every aspect in the shaping of social and housing policy. Also critical is the influence of national politics on local decision-making. In Israel the political agenda is based upon bilateralism and the demographic dispersal of population across the state’s formal and informal borders. Empowerment is a complex term. This research, however, explores examined and evidenced empowerment using just two main features: examination of residents’ participation; and evaluation of public policy towards resident participation. This research offers a unique view on empowerment within social housing policies that are subject to multiple pressures, and offers interpretations that could be usefully applied to issues of empowerment in other pressure scenarios.

 

 

 

Report: A Picture of the Nation, 2015; Taub Center for Social Policy

The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel Presents:

A Picture of the Nation: Israel’s Society and Economy in Figures, one of the Center’s most popular publications, provides concise and thought-provoking information on Israel’s long-run economic and social trajectories.  Each page of this booklet contains a single graph and short, accompanying text that, when combined, provide the reader with a broad and comprehensive understanding of key socioeconomic issues in Israel today.  Policy makers, the media, the general public, and the global Jewish community look to the Picture of the Nation as an invaluable and highly accessible resource on topics ranging from the labor market to education, poverty and much more.

For the English page, including PDF and PPT versions of the report, as well as previous reports (2002-2014), click here.

For the Hebrew page, click here.

PDF version in English: Picture of the Nation, 2015.

PDF version in Hebrew: תמונת מצב המדינה, 2015.

New Article: Regev-Messalem, Collective Struggle through Welfare Fraud in Israel

Regev-Messalem, Shiri. “Trapped in Resistance: Collective Struggle through Welfare Fraud in Israel.” Law & Society Review 48.4 (2014): 741-72.

 

URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lasr.12110/abstract

 

Abstract

This paper offers a qualitative empirical examination of the noncompliance of Israeli female welfare recipients with welfare laws and authorities. The paper demonstrates that their behavior, defined as “welfare fraud” by the law, is a limited form of collective resistance to the Israeli welfare state. Although the acts of welfare fraud that the women in my study engaged in entail a political claim against the state, the relationship between these acts and notions of collectivity is very constricted in form. The women’s collectivity is shown to be constrained by the welfare authorities’ invasive and pervasive investigation practices and methods. Due to fear of disclosure to the authorities, the women emerged as deliberately isolating themselves from their immediate environment and potential members of their like-situated collective. This weakens the connection between the women’s acts of resistance and their collectivity, and prevents their acts of resistance from driving social change, trapping them in their harsh conditions and existence.

 

ToC: Israel Studies Review 28,2 (2013)

Guest Editors’ Introduction: Rethinking the Family in Israel

pp. vii-xii(6)
Authors: Fogiel-Bijaoui, Sylvie; Rutlinger-Reiner, Reina

Articles: The Transformation of Intimacies

Religious Zionist Singles and Late-Modern Youth Culture

pp. 1-17(17)
Author: Engelberg, Ari

Israeli-Palestinian Women and Their Reasons for Divorce: A Comparative Perspective

pp. 18-40(23)
Author: Meler, Tal

Midlife Women in Second Partnerships Choosing Living Apart Together: An Israeli Case Study

pp. 41-60(20)
Author: Or, Ofra

Articles: Families in Transition

‘The Art of the Deal’: Preferences in Spouse Selection among Parents in a Hasidic Community

pp. 61-82(22)
Author: Block, Sima Zalcberg

Crises in Orthodox Israeli Family Life Onstage

pp. 83-101(19)
Author: Rutlinger-Reiner, Reina

Aging, Family, and Preferences for Care among Older Jews and Arabs

pp. 102-121(20)
Author: Halperin, Dafna

Articles: The Boundaries of Family Life

Hybridization and Purification: The Experiences of Mizrachi Middle-Class Adolescents in Israel

pp. 122-139(18)
Author: Selinger, Guy Abutbul

Conceiving Judaism: The Challenges of Same-Sex Parenthood

pp. 140-156(17)
Author: Lustenberger, Sibylle

Israeli ‘Mixed Families’ with Members of Ethiopian Origin: Encounters in the Public Space

pp. 157-173(17)
Author: Benezer, Gadi

“I Earn, Therefore I Exist”: Impoverished Bedouin Mothers Who Become Entrepreneurs

pp. 174-191(18)
Author: Alhuzail, Nuzha Allassad

Migrant Care Workers in Israel: Between Family, Market, and State

pp. 192-209(18)
Author: Shamir, Hila

Articles: Legal Discourse, Private Life

The Spousal Covenant (Brit Hazugiut), or the Covenant with the Status Quo

pp. 210-227(18)
Author: Fogiel-Bijaoui, Sylvie

Articles: Articles: Legal Discourse, Private Life

The Legitimacy of Single Mothers in Israel Examined through Five Circles of Discourse

pp. 228-246(19)
Author: Herbst, Anat

The Anomaly of Custody in Israeli Family Law

pp. 247-263(17)
Author: Mazeh, Yoav

The Child’s Worst Interests: Socio-legal Taboos on Same-Sex Parenting and Their Impact on Children’s Well-Being

pp. 264-281(18)
Author: Triger, Zvi

Children’s Rights in Israeli Case Law: A Spiral Progression

pp. 282-299(18)
Author: Morag, Tamar

Succession Law in Israel: Individualism and the Family

pp. 300-313(14)
Author: Kreiczer-Levy, Shelly

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

pp. 314-324(11)

Cite: Lavie, Writing against Identity Politics: An Essay on Gender, Race, and Bureaucratic Pain

Lavie, Smadar. “Writing against Identity Politics: An Essay on Gender, Race, and Bureaucratic Pain.” American Ethnologist 39.4 (2012): 779-803.

URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01395.x/abstract

Abstract

Equating bureaucratic entanglements with pain—or what, arguably, can be seen as torture—might seem strange. But for single Mizrahi welfare mothers in Israel, somatization of bureaucratic logic as physical pain precludes the agency of identity politics. This essay elaborates on Don Handelman’s scholarship on bureaucratic logic as divine cosmology and posits that Israel’s bureaucracy is based on a theological essence that amalgamates gender and race. The essay employs a world anthropologies’ theoretical toolkit to represent bureaucratic torture in multiple narrative modes, including anger, irony, and humor, as a counterexample to dominant U.S.–U.K. formulae for writing and theorizing culture.

Reviews: Rivlin, Israeli Economy from the Foundation of the State through the 21st Century

Rivlin, Paul. The Israeli Economy from the Foundation of the State through the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

 

 

Reviews

• Halevi, Nadav. “Review.” EH.net, June 2011.
• Plaut, Steven. “Review.” Middle East Quarterly 18.3 (2011).
• Press, Eyal. “Rising Up in Israel.” New York Review of Books. November 24, 2011.
• Sauer, Robert M. “Review.” Middle East Journal 66.1 (2012): 179-180.