Palestinian Women in Israel: Legal Debates and the Struggle for Equality

The paper examines the situation of the Palestinian minority in Israel, with a specific focus on Muslim women, who represent an indigenous minority within the country. It explores the legal debates surrounding the demands of Palestinian feminists for gender equality, particularly in the context of family law. The paper highlights the complex struggles these women face as they advocate for legal reforms aimed at achieving parity in a context marked by significant social, political, and ethnic divides. Through an analysis of court records and interviews with feminist activists, the paper sheds light on the challenges faced by Palestinian women in a patriarchal legal system that both reflects and exacerbates broader structural inequalities, and their strategies to reclaim spaces of agency. Central to the paper is the adoption of an intersectional analytical framework. By framing Palestinian women’s struggles within this broader lens, the paper emphasizes the multiple and intersecting layers of discrimination that shape their experiences, especially crossing gender and their status as members of an ethnic and national indigenous minority. This intersectional approach allows for a deeper understanding of how the legal debates are not just about women's rights, but rather cross debates about broader forms of socio-political marginalization. As such, the paper situates the legal struggles of Palestinian feminists within the larger context of historically rooted power dynamics in Israel, arguing that the pursuit for equality in family law is emblematic of a wider quest for recognition, rights, and justice, with Palestinian women re-claiming agency on multiple levels.